Digital Spectrum MF-8104 Wireless Photo frame

[Bwired]

<b>Digital Spectrum MF-8104 Premium 10.4" LCD Wireless Digital Picture Frame, Vista Ready, Model: U-40101</b>

Tip from Maurice, he ordered this Wireless Photoframe to put it in use in his home automation setup. It's should be possible to send certain own created images to the frame. In these images for example you can show the weather, traffic, camera images you name it!
perhaps with some hacks other things are possible.



Digital Frames are quickly becoming a standard part of the home, displaying digital photos and other content as an "electronic scrapbook". The MemoryFrame MF-8104 Premium can use the features of Microsoft Windows Vista to further integrate digital picture frames into the home experience.

The frame is IP addressable, and connects wirelessly to an internal home network and/or through a wireless router for internet to photo sharing sites.

Features:
-Patented changeable standard 8x10" frame to suit your decor*
-Generous internal memory
-Built-in multi format card reader
-Embedded 802.11b/g wireless connectivity
-Share pictures with Windows VistaTM or XP
-Web enabled for photo sharing
-Plays MP3, WMA audio files
-Plays WMV video files
-Automatic slideshow
-Audio slideshow
-Built-in stereo speakers
-USB to PC
-USB to thumb drive, camera, etc.
-Onscreen menu system; customize to your style
-Remote control for convenient use
-Landscape or portrait orientation
-Desk top or wall mount
-Removable desktop stand

Specifications: Screen: 10.4" TFT LCD. Screen Resolution: 800x600. Card Reader: CF/SD/MMC (MS, XD and MSP with USB card reader supplied). Internal Storage: 256MB. Photo File Format: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP. Audio File Format: MP3, WMA, WAV. Video File Format: WMV. PC Interface: USB 2. Peripheral Interface: USB 2. Communication Interface: 802.11, USB Host, USB Device. Audio Out: Stereo audio 3.5 mm. AC Adapter: 120 VAC, 60 Hz, 12VDC 2.0A. Dimensions: 10 x 11.75 x 2 in (254 x 298 x 51 mm)(w/h/d). Environment: 32 85 0F, 0-30 OC.

Pieter Knuvers
www.bwired.nl Online House in the netherlands. Domotica, Home Automation.

[Snelvuur]

Nice..

But i would go for the eStarling 2.0 Wi-Fi Photo Frame then..


http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras/94aa/

One-Time Setup
To get things rolling you need to configure the eStarling Frame by connecting it to your PC via the included USB cable. Once configured, the frame can be disconnected from the PC and operates in a completely stand-alone mode. Use the eStarling software select the wireless network to connect to. The eStarling supports WEP or WPA encryption and has a full-featured TCP/IP setup supporting DHCP and Manual IP.

E-Mail Configuration
Once your eStarling is on the net, you get assigned a free dedicated e-mail adress to send photos to it. Optionally you can thwart possible spam by allowing only e-mails from a certain e-mail address to be received.

Flickr RSS Photo Feed Configuration
Simply do a search on Flickr for your favorite photos. Cut and paste the URL from the "RSS 2.0" link at the bottom of the page into the eStarling web-based software. You can even do multiple feeds at once. Once a feed is set-up Flickr photos matching your search criteria go into rotation on the frame. As new photos are posted to Flickr, they show up on the frame.

Displaying Photos
Simply e-mail any JPEG photo to the eStarling frame. It polls for new e-mail every few minutes and puts any photos it receives into rotation on the frame in a slideshow format. The frame functions similarly when receiving photos via the Flickr photo feed. You can also delete or add photos directly via the web-based control panel at any time.

If you install a CF or SD card with photos into the eStarling frame these will go into rotation on the frame along with any photos received via e-mail or Flickr photo feeds.


Product Features

* Connects to Wireless 802.11 b/g Network. WEP or WPA Encryption Supported.
* Displays Photos E-Mailed to the Picture Frame
* Displays Photos from Flickr RSS Feeds
* Displays Photos on a MMC/SD/MS/CF card

Specifications

* Second Generation eStarling Model WPF-187
* 7" color widescreen LCD Display
* Widscreen Aspect Ratio (480 x 270 resolution)
* Screen preserves correct aspect ratio of photo displayed
* Black Piano Finish
* Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with Support for WEP encryption
* MMC/SD/MS/CF 4in1 card slot
* Views JPEG files
* External 120V/240V AC Adapter

Requirements

* Internet access via wireless 802.11 b/g Network
* Frame Setup requires you to run the included software on a Windows 2000/ME/XP compatible PC. After the frame is setup it operates in a stand-alone mode with no PC needed.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

[domotica-fan]

Hi Pieter,

Thanks for starting this post.

First questions were, before it arrived:
how much power does it consume ? How easy is it to put your own pictures on it ?
When TNT knocked on my front door with the frames more important topics came up:

Cost:
When the frames arrived i had to pay 120 Euro tax (for 2 frames) So including the 90 Euro shipment cost and 299 Dollar cost per frame i think the total cost is way out of line.

Where to put it ?
Finding a spot in the home near to a 230 Volts socket (by the way i was lucky, the frame has a powersupply 100-240 Volts so i only had to change the jack for the European/Dutch 230 Volts) is harder than i thought. The spot should not be visible for people passing by because that can attract burglars)

After solving the location and jack issue i started putting pictures on the frame:

WiFi works nice, WEP WPA2, good connection even far from AccessPoint.
Select AP via menu on frame (remote control or at the top of te frame)

You can choose 2 ways of doing it:
Via websites like Flickr, Webshots or via the network Windows Media 11 (yes the frame runs windows ce

Here's the big disadvantage: flickr has a non public area, but the frame cannot show the pictures located in the private area of flickr.
Webshots can do it, but is has no email functionality. My dream would be sending pictures to an e-mail address of the frame. I managed to do that, but everybody in the world can see my private pictures, si i had to delete the pictures and look for other options.

I would like to have ftp, sftp, http, https but this is not supported.

Having another PC running all the time with Windows media 11 is not an option.

Power consumption:
The power consumption (i only care about the costs which is directly related to the kWh to be hounest) is about 15 Euro per year (24/7 on). Be careful, this varies with content on the screen ! A lot of black screen is a little bit less power consumption. Because i have a lot of 230 Volt sockets (switchable by my domotica system) i turn it on and off when i am at home automatically. So the real consumption/cost for me is about 4 Euro per year.

Light output is very good and bright.

This concludes my first testing of this (very expensive) frame.

Maurice.

[domotica-fan]

Hi Eric

Starling looks nice, this week-end i did put my frame next to a running Starling frame.
This frame has 3 disadvantages:

1 screen size is not a standard picture size, it is wide screen.
2 Light output is 60% compared with the Digital Spectrum.
3 When using a compact flash card, you can see it because it visible outside the frame on the left-top-side. This sounds like a detail but it should look like a frame and in this way the experience is partly gone.

[Bwired]

If it is possible to connect to an RSS feed I think you have all the flexibility you need. For example it's easy to make an RSS feed on your own website. The you can then easily put images wherever they come form in the feed. Are you flexible in putting in an URL (like the Starling).
like I do on Bwired, I make images with my Cell phone and send them directly to webserver where the appear directly on this page http://www.bwired.nl/Weblog.asp ,all is logged in my database, let the RSS feed look in that table and this image also appears directly on the photo frame.
I have a UMPC coming soon and will implement all these thing too.

[domotica-fan]

When you buy a frame you can search if this option is available.
Alas, the digital spectrum frame has no option to fill in any url, other than fixed URLs like flickr and webshots at the moment....

The frame is capable to do on-line updates/upgrades so who knows, maybe in the future.

[Bwired]

Ok Maurice,
On that part the eStarling has a head start, send this to the product manager of Digital Spectrum, below is what we want and the possibility to connect to every RSS feed.

<b>Flickr RSS Photo Feed Configuration</b>
Simply do a search on Flickr for your favorite photos. Cut and paste the URL from the "RSS 2.0" link at the bottom of the page into the eStarling web-based software. You can even do multiple feeds at once. Once a feed is set-up Flickr photos matching your search criteria go into rotation on the frame. As new photos are posted to Flickr, they show up on the frame.