I haven’t tried every photo frame out there, but the few that I have tried (CEIVA, Pacific Digital, PanDigital) miss something simple: I don’t ever want my frame to display anything without filling the frame.
Simple example: If I place my frame horizontally (ie landscape orientation), I don’t want it to display any portrait photographs — or at least not without cropping the photograph to landscape proportions first. No one would ever place a real photo frame horizontally and display a vertical photograph in it. Never.
If a digital photo frame is displayed horizontally, it should either exclude portrait photographs or provide some simple controls for a user to crop/zoom portrait photos to the appropriate proportions.
I wonder when a tech company will come along and do a digital photo frame the right way?
Rakesh,
I’ve used a digital photo frame that I made by converting an old laptop into the frame. The screen is 15 inches (I think) so this isn’t as much of a problem as it would be for a smaller frame. One thing you can do here when going the DIY route is choose your own slideshow software and customize it. Mine actually sits landscape and does show all photos including landscape and portrait orientation, but it also zooms in or out as it displays. This makes viewing those photos that aren’t landscape a bit better and looks pretty professional if I do say so myself 🙂
Here’s the link to the project if your interested:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2007/05/converting-old-laptop-into-digital.html
I’ll have to go back and see what software I’m using on the frame since I switched from Slickr a few months ago. Anyway, I imagine the DPF makers will eventually make an interface that does what you are asking. I just like the diy route as I can make it my way for less money – for now at least.
I’ve started a blog that highlights other peoples DIY Digital Picture Frame Projects if you ever get the urge to make one – it’s actually a lot of fun.
http://diydigitalframes.blogspot.com
Brent
Rakesh,
I’ve used a digital photo frame that I made by converting an old laptop into the frame. The screen is 15 inches (I think) so this isn’t as much of a problem as it would be for a smaller frame. One thing you can do here when going the DIY route is choose your own slideshow software and customize it. Mine actually sits landscape and does show all photos including landscape and portrait orientation, but it also zooms in or out as it displays. This makes viewing those photos that aren’t landscape a bit better and looks pretty professional if I do say so myself 🙂
Here’s the link to the project if your interested:
http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2007/05/converting-old-laptop-into-digital.html
I’ll have to go back and see what software I’m using on the frame since I switched from Slickr a few months ago. Anyway, I imagine the DPF makers will eventually make an interface that does what you are asking. I just like the diy route as I can make it my way for less money – for now at least.
I’ve started a blog that highlights other peoples DIY Digital Picture Frame Projects if you ever get the urge to make one – it’s actually a lot of fun.
http://diydigitalframes.blogspot.com
I completely agree. This is something I worked on with Momento (now owned by iMate) in their DPF – to support multiple aspect ratios and do smart cropping when necessary. Overall I think it does a good job. http://www.amazon.com/i-mate-Momento-Wireless-Digital-Picture/dp/B000J6FVC2