- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 15 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
0.5 stars
"Worthless rubbish, with poor support"
Pros: Nice picture quality
Cons: But it doesn't work
Summary: This is for the UK 7FF1M4/05
I wanted this frame to display several thousand pictures stored on a CF memory card. The specs say that with the latest firmware, you can display more than 10,000 photos from a CF card.
1. I tried installing the PC software. This would not allow any browsing of my C: drive, just responding with an "Access Violation Error". It also does not allow browsing of network drives. Re-installed 3 times to no avail, so had to use the card reader in my monitor.
2. When a CF card is in the frame and you turn it on, it will copy photos from the root directory of the card into the internal memory of the frame (about 80 photos). You can't stop this, and it takes ages. And it keeps going until the frame is full. Not clever at all.
3. When the frame is full, it crashes and reboots. On reboot, it tries to copy, crashes, and reboots. This is an endless loop, leaving you with a broken device.
4. I tried putting the photos in a folder \DCIM\100FRAME but the frame responds with "No photos".
So I contact Philips support. This is an expensive premium rate number, and expect to be put on hold for at least 10 minutes before you get to speak to someone. I had 3 calls:
1. Went though the problems and was told to upgrade the firmware. This call took a pricey 11 minutes.
2. Called back to explain that this didn't change anything, except that the frame would not now connect to the PC at all. I was told that the official line from Philips is now that external memory cards are NOT SUPPORTED and so the maximum number of photos that can be displayed is 80 or so. I asked to speak to a manager, and was told that the problem could be escalated and a manager would call me back. IN TWO WEEKS! I gave in after a crippling 23 minutes of premium rate charges.
3. Called the next day, different man, new attitude. He could not help with the broken PC software, but told me that JPG files are not supported! Only JPEG files in DCF format. So I converted a few to JPEG, and of course it made no difference. I asked what to do next, and he suggested a return to the supplier for a refund. 20 more minutes of premium rate cost to me.
Trouble is, because this was a Christmas present, it is now 30 days old, and so am not entitled to a refund, just a repair. I shall see what happens.
I would advise that you can save a lot of stress, time and money by not buying this frame. And yes, the UI is slow and difficult to use. It spends a lot of time doing it's own thing, not responding to any button presses. But you won't be using it for long - because it's so rubbish!
Avoid at all costs!
- 1 reply to this review
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Had my frame for about 18 months but it doesn't get much use; the battery only lasts 1 hour & Idon't want long power cables trailing around. So, I thought I'd use it for previewing pics from my camera card. However, like the last reviewer, I found that plugging ina card started the frame loading all the pictures to its own memory and then won't delete them.
I'm not going to bother with the expensive phone calls. The frame is now in the "Useless Christmas presents" drawer!
