This is my first digital photo frame. I just received it today and was playing around with it. Let me talk about the good parts first. The screen measures 12" diagonally so it is nice and big. The lightup side touch buttons are good looking and gets activated with a light touch. The motion sensor is an added bonus feature. Its brightness and contrast are adjustable. Here're what's great about this frame:The quality of the photos displayed directly from the SD card / USB drive are fantastic. The color of the photos are quite accurate as well.
The borders do not take up too much space like other photo frames do. This is one of the reasons I purchased it. It is a full 12" diagonal frame.
Stylish glossy finish will look great in your room/office.
There's a clock and a calendar. I don't think they are mentioned in the product description. These are definitely bonuses.
Motion sensor great feature so you don't have to leave it running all night.
The credit card sized remote control will help you navigate the menu faster and give you access to the most common features quickly. You do not want to lose it.
The frame itself is well-built, definitely not cheap material. (The stand is a different matter, however, read below).
Here're some major annoyances that need to be fixed:
The frame does not remember the last photo viewed after it's been turned off. So the next time you turn the frame on, it will start all over again with the first photo in the queue. Because I have shuffle OFF, I have to dig through all the folders to find that last photo viewed. I have dozens of folders created and thousands of photos on the SD card. As you can imagine, this is a big hassle. The frame should remember the last file viewed. If it doesn't exist, then the frame should pick up from the last folder viewed. And if that doesn't exist, then we start from the very first folder, alphabetically. To me, this is a major annoyance. I want to view the photos chronologically. It's impossible with this frame. This should be the most basic functionality.
The folders I so painstakingly sorted and created on the SD card get scrambled when viewed in the unit. For example, I have folders set up like /2001.01.02 LA, /2003.04.01-12 Europe Trip, /2007.01.01 Canada, etc. When I first turn it on, it will start from the folder "2007.0.01 Canada". It should look at the folders by name in ascending order and start from "/2001.01.02 LA". This frame seems to have a mind of its own and decides to sort the folders its own way. Not good.
Images less than 800x600 in resolution gets magnified to fit the whole screen. The image becomes very pixelated. If the image is smaller than the resolution of the screen, the original size should be displayed. This is a bug.
I tried to delete multiple folders from the unit, but I cannot select multiple folders for deletion using the frame's UI. Also, I can only delete the files within a folder. The folder stays undeleted. You have to hook the frame up to the computer via the mini-USB cable in order to delete the folders.
If you decide to copy the photos directly to the frame's memory, your 4:3 photos will be resized to 800x600. They will look pixelated, I can see the quality difference when compared with the same photos displayed on the frame using a plugged-in SD card. Maybe it's a good idea to add an option to the frame's firmware that will allow the user to set a resize resolution. This will give the user better control of how the final images will look.
The resize process takes a very long time, especially if you have JPG files of large sizes (> 2 MB). Also, it should give you a progress bar of the percentage completed for all files chosen, but it does not. It shows the % converted for each photo instead, it's meaningless. It's better to just buy a SD card and plug it into the frame instead of copying the files to the internal memory. I bought a 32 GB SDHC card and avoided this headache.
The rear stand and the lock seem fragile and loose. It should be tightly attached to the frame itself when it's locked, but it is not. I am afraid these pieces would break if I drop the frame by accident. Perhaps they should build them out of metal parts.
I cannot comment on the video and music features, I won't be using them.
OVERALL: This frame is stylish and the display quality is excellent. It does a good job of displaying the photos. But they absolutely need to fix the firmware/user interface in this frame. It is such a pity because the display quality is superb... I might consider returning this frame. Hopefully the company will address and correct the issues above.
Update: March 2nd, 2011
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I received a detailed response from NIX support, there will be no firmware to correct the annoyances mentioned above because it's "more down to re-designing the chip-set" as they put it. Therefore, I have to return it. If you are perfectly okay with the flaws above, get the frame. Otherwise, get something else.
Update: March 23rd, 2011
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I got a Samsung frame instead which addressed almost all the issues I had above, for a bit more money. Not trying to promote any other products, but you get what you pay for.
The pictures are bright and vibrant and appear to "jump out at you". The ON/OFF feature works well although we do not use it on a regular basis. Setting up the time and calendar features were easy but you should read the manual before doing so. You can adjust brightness and contrast using the remote. The remote works okay but sometimes "chokes" if you push the buttons too quickly. We are using 2 GB SD memory cards with no problem. A full card does not seem to slow down the speed of the frame.
The one problem that I have not solved as yet is showing pictures in a specified order. THe NIX web site (under FAQ section) says this can be solved by numbering your files, 1001, 1002, etc. I will try this in the next few days.
All in all an excellent product and a good value. THe NIX customer service is excellent and of course the Amazon return policy is good!
Buy NIX Pro Series 12" Digital Frame with Motion Detection Sensor Now
OverviewI'm happy to say my reviews and judgments of this frame started as soon as I got it out of the box. The frame came covered in nice velvet slip case and was very security boxed. All the components were individually wrapped and secured in their own compartment. This is an attention to detail you seldom see in consumer electronics.
Taking it out I removed second protective film from the face of the frame and pulled out the rear support. The design was a little unconventional, you have to line some tabs up with a slot on the back and push and turn. It required a little force, which with plastic parts is always a little scary but it soon clicked into place. The back support rotates 90 degrees and can be ratcheted to be long or short to support that frame. This allows landscape or portrait orientation at various angles with one part. Again innovative design.
Inspecting the rear of the frame there are a few plugs and ports. On the right had side we have the power switch and the card reader (SD/Multi-memory/Memory Stick). The power switch is a bit difficult to flick when reaching around from the front but that's no big deal.
The right hand side has a power indicator, the power plug, mini-USB port, Audio Out and full size USB port (to plug in a USB memory drive).
On the business end up front it s a very clean frame, no ridges or texturing. The manual controls are small white touch points along the right hand side of the frame. They are electrostatic so there is no tactile feed back or disruption of the clean lines of the frame. The only thing that breaks the surface up is the motion sensor in the lower left corner.
The unit also comes with a remote which has 32 bubble style buttons. Its messy and confusing but it is the best way to access the settings and controls. If you happen to loose the remote all functions can be access from the touchpoints on the frame without too much difficulty.
Turning the unit on gives you a NIX boot screen for a few seconds and then it will pull up your first picture. It always pulls up the same first picture (so make it good). After that it goes by file order unless you have it on random slideshow. Random seems to vary day by day. Some pictures are more "random" than others.
The unit has a image resolution of 800x600 pixels. Loading larger files doesn't help or hurt the image quality in a noticeable way or speed it up or slow it down. If you happen to copy a file into its internal memory it will automatically resize it.
Image
The image quality is pleasing. There is a minimum distance you'll want to be from it, any closer and you begin to see the pixels in long straight lines if you examine the picture closely. For me the distance is about 36 inches. You can adjust for brightness and saturation but its important to remember that this is a consumer grade photo appliance, not a professional processing tool. For the discerning viewer you will have all the issues you have with cheap, glossy oversaturated monitors. Color shifts, excess saturation by default, lack of dynamic range and other visual sins. These are not at all unique to this device, they exist in every photo frame I've ever seen. For the uncritical eye it looks sharp and colorful, better than most I've seen.
Controls
One thing that makes this unit a cut above other unit's I've used is the controls. While inadequately documented (anywhere, even on the website) they are easy enough to figure out. For best results use the remote, though the buttons on the frame are adequate for the job.
When you bring up the settings menu you have scrolling access to all the items. Video, Music, Photo, Settings, File, Clock and Calendar.
Video, Music and Photo are settings that let you select if you want to read off internal or external (card). Calendar gives you different options for displaying the calendar with or without a picture. Settings cover most of the other controls and settings including the motion detector.
Key Features
This frame has all the standard features as well as a few bonus ones.
Orientation sensor The frame knows if it is in landscape or portrait mode and automatically rotates your pictures. You have the option of shrink to fit or expand and crop for pictures that are not the 4:3 aspect ratio.
Good on frame controlsSeven touch points down the right hand side of the frame give you easy access to the menu system
Auto On/Off You can set the unit to automatically turn on/off every day.
Motion SensorThis units claim to fame. It has a motion sensor on it and you can set a timeout period. If it goes that period with no motion it shuts itself off. As soon as it detects motion it boots back up. Takes about 8 seconds and comes up with the base picture, then off to the slideshow. This feature was what made it stand out compared to others. The Lamps on LCD displays have a finite life and dim with use. This combined with Auto On/Off will extend the life of the unit (thus reducing E-waste) as well as saving electricity. I have it set up to be "On" only during working hours and if I'm away from my desk for more than a few minutes it turns itself off.
Other Features
MP3 It plays MP3's fine, just understand your talking alarm clock speaker quality. But you can set it up to play cheesy music for your slideshow. In this respect you use it as a presentation device.
Video It plays some MP4 video, just not very well. I loaded up a video formatted for an Ipod/Iphone (800pixels wide and 1 gig for a feature move). It played it, at about 1 frame every 2 seconds. It might do better with lower resolution/more highly compressed file. But playing movies is not its strong point.
2 Gigs of internal memoryThat's a lot by today's standards (2011), I'm sure in 5 years it won't be enough to blow your nose with. I keep all my photos on SD card so internal memory is no big deal.
The Cons
As much as I love the unit it's not perfect. Two annoyances I find are
VERY glossy finish. The screen has a super high glossy finish. It reflects light and other objects annoyingly well. It is also super sensitive to fingerprints. If you touch the thing it's going to leave a print. If you use the on frame controls you'll need to wipe it down afterward. Keep a cleaning rag handy.
The power transformer is attached to the plug prongs (which is common) so it fights with your cheap speakers, battery charger and other devices that want to suck up 3 slots on your power strip.
Service
I had the misfortune to find out how well their customer service worked. The first unit I took delivery off had a couple of glitches, the motion sensor didn't work properly and sometimes some of the controls would only show the green channel. I contacted NIX about the issue and their initial response was very fast (about 4 hours) and they recommended some good troubleshooting steps but it was ultimately a flawed unit (they said they'd check with the engineers and never got back to me). I returned it for another and the second works fine.
I think it's important to understand that with cheap consumer electronics stuff like this is the rule not the exception. As long as low price is the primary criteria consumers use to make their purchases quality is going to suffer. But few of us are willing to pay 50-100% more for the same thing to get a quality unit that will stand the test of time when something newer/faster/better and cheaper will be out next year. This is the reality of the current market, failures will happen so be sure to purchase from a place that has a good return policy. You may pay a few bucks more but it's worth the time/stress and frustration if you get the lemon (and eventually you will).
Conclusion-
I love it, it does almost everything I want it to do and does it well. It lets you enjoy your photos in a whole new way with increased value and reduced operating costs that are unique in this type of product. I highly recommend it.
Read Best Reviews of NIX Pro Series 12" Digital Frame with Motion Detection Sensor Here
Just received the latest greatest version of the Nix 12" HU-Motion digital picture frame. All works well and pretty decent images except the function where you can play your images with background music. Checked and double checked to make sure I did everything correctly and still no music WITH images. You can get music without images though, why you would want to I dont know. Anyway I have put in an email request for technical support and am waiting to hear back. At their website they brag about 24 hour return support. So I will wait and see and update this review as soon as I hear back. Over and out. UPDATE: KUDOS TO NIX FOR RESPONDING IN UNDER 24 HOURS WITH A DOWNLOADABLE FILE TO CORRECT THE BACKGROUND MUSIC ISSUE. NOT SURE IF YOU WILL NEED TO GET THE DOWNLOAD ON NEW UNITS BEING SHIPPED OR IF THEY WILL BE FIXED BEFORE LEAVING THE FACTORY BUT CUSTOMER SERVICE DOES HAVE A DOWNLOAD TO CORRECT IT, SO I WOULDN'T HESITATE TO BUY THIS FRAME AGAIN, ALL ELSE WORKED WELL ON THIS UNIT.Want NIX Pro Series 12" Digital Frame with Motion Detection Sensor Discount?
This is a nice frame but as of today 1/31/11 NIX has *confirmed* (after numerous e-mails back and forth to me) that there is bug that prevents the timer from turning the unit on by itself each day. It will turn on by itself exactly once the next day and never do it again.If you use a different method of activating it then you don't need to read further but I am used to my frames actually turning on each day otherwise they get little use. The motion detector worked but in a home setting was problematic. Either turned on every time someone went by or it had to be in an area that made you approach it and that's not much better than just clicking a remote.
Everything else worked fine. The colors don't "pop" like my Viewsonic 10 inch and the resolution isn't particularly sharp as 1068 is spread over 12 inches (the Viewsonic is also 1068 but in a 10" frame so of course it's sharper). The whites are more yellow or tan... think very "warm" video setting. No way to adjust color temp or hue either.
Still after a while I realized this isn't automatically a bad thing as it made skin tones more natural. Some of your pics will look more drab but others look very natural. Not as over-saturated and harsh as some frames.
But it won't turn itself on everyday like virtually every other brand does. I suspected it was a software glitch as everything else was fine.
I was frankly amazed when dealing with their support. They didn't say mine was defective or know *anything* about the issue. Turns out every unit they have sold has this issue as they never bothered to actually set up a few at the office and see if they performed correctly... I told them (politely) that I expected BETTER testing from a British firm... not worse (or non-existent in this case).
Blew my mind when they verified the bug and that they never tested it.
They claim they will make a firmware fix "in the next 3 weeks"... because their guys "are working on other projects". I felt like telling them maybe they should concentrate on fixing the products they have already sold... but what the heck.
Anyways with this track record of non-testing I am returning mine. Amazon makes it easy and if they ever DO fix it so it turns on (like *every* other frame out there) then I may pick up one again.
Hope this helps somebody.
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