Digital Spectrum USB Digital Photo Frame (8x10)

I'm conflicted about this product being good value for money, though; on the one hand, the screen is clearly NOT top of the notch and leaves quite a bit of room for improvement.
On the other hand, I looked around for similar products and found that they are substantially more expensive(Digi-Frame DF-560) or are clunky(Ceiva Picture Frame requires subscription and phone line connection). I guess the technology isn't mature enough for these types of products to be affordable and great quality (they are currently expensive and so-so quality).

I bought this to place on my office desk, and I'm pretty sure it will do its job. If you want a great looking frame, I would hold out a little more. If you can afford it, the Digi-Frame products look pretty good. ....

All in all, I find this product fun because it does what it says it does quite well, but the display is its achilles' heel. I have a feeling this category will pick up in popularity and technology soon so wait some more and you'll begin to see truly great products by around 2005. As a relatively early adoptor, I am content with it.


A unique product that almost delivers   February 21, 2004
Robert S. Wright (Township of Washington, NJ USA)
64 out of 65 found this review helpful

This review is for the 8x10 frame. First it should be noted that the Frame is 8x10 not the screen. The screen is actually 6.5 x 8.5. The product is solid and feels sturdy. It has the ability to be used as either a stand alone frame or hung on a wall. Pictures are entered into the frame via a USB port that connects to either a computer or a card reader. The display is nice but you need to stand back a few feet to appreciate it as it looks washed out up close. The image definitely leans towards the darker side but nothing that would be considered distracting. It also has a nice side angle viewpoint. The product ships with a program called Digital Pixmaster which is where you can create slideshows with text, WAV files and transitions. Pictures can be displayed for various time lengths from 5 seconds to 8 hours. You can also rotate the image orientation picture by pictrue. The real disappointment is in the way the program handles text and .WAV files. First, there is no control over font, size or position of text. It appears as a black bar with white text at the bottom of the picture. Secondly, the WAV files attach to the individual picture and not to the slideshow thus making it impractical to play background music throughout a slideshow. Furthermore, the program only works with available internal memory. This pretty much rules out the ability to load a music track saved in WAV format becasue its just too big to fit in memory. You are relagated to playing sound bytes which do work quite well. Overall the software is easy to use and accomplishes the task of creating slideshows quite nicely. The manual is short, sweet and to the point. You really will be up and running in minutes. Connecting to a PC was easy and painless. So why only three stars? Because it promises things it really can't deliver. The screen is smaller then advertised, the software is very basic and the much hyped stero sound is wasted on small sound byte files because the memory in the frame cannot hold even a 2 minute song. There is promise of the ability to run a slideshow from a USB attached device but no word yet. These are all acceptable items if you do not pay anwhere near the asking price of $499. Overall, if you have the cash to burn and want the best picture frame in this size then this is the unit for you.


Possibly My Worst Electronics Purchase Ever   June 25, 2005
M. Noonan (Boston, MA USA)
57 out of 63 found this review helpful

I purchased the 8 X 10 Photo Frame as a way to display photos at my wedding reception and planned to use it in my home thereafter. I was able to get the product running and to load a 'test' set of pictures, but the product then 'froze' at the startup screen. I checked the Pacific Digital support website, which provided steps (basically, a sequence of buttons to hold down) to 'unfreeze' and reinitialize the unit. I tried this sequence several times, to no avail, and then called Pacific Digital customer service. After repeated messages left on a voice mail system ("we're sorry we missed your call - we'll get back to you") at all times of the day and night, I was unable to contact anyone at the company and no calls were ever returned. Long story short - our wedding came and went, the problem was never (and will apparently never be) resolved, and the Digital Photo Frame is now a $390 paperweight. Absolutely useless. My recommendation: DO NOT PURCHASE A PACIFIC DIGITAL PRODUCT. This is clearly a fly-by-night outfit.


Poor power supply   April 24, 2006
J. Sullivan (San Jose, CA)
31 out of 31 found this review helpful

The frame and the pictures it displays are fine. Sometimes it is a little hard to get it to download photos from my PC. My major complaint is the power supply. The original power supply dies after 4 months. It was repalced under warranty (after some grief with customer service). The raplacement died some months later after the warranty had expired. I then had to buy one. That one died after a few months and the company didn't have the replacement in stock. After months of waiting from them to stock the item I gave up and after lots of searching on the web I found a supply made by another compay. I had to change the connector to make it match the connector on the frame. It's been doing fine since then. I should note that my daughter has the same frame and has had almost identical problems. It looks like there are a lot more of these types of frames on the market now. I would do a lot of shopping before buying this one!


Picture quality and customer service excellent   December 24, 2004
A. Felsen (Maryland, USA)
26 out of 27 found this review helpful

I was a little worried about buying the memory frame based on some of the reviews here which said the picture quality was lacking and the company's customer service was poor. When I opened the box and found that it contained two USB cables instead of 1 USB cable and 1 plastic stand to hold the frame upright, I thought I might be in for a bad customer service experience.

I called the toll-free number listed on the web site yesterday and left a message. I receive a return phone call this morning. When I explained the problem to the customer service rep he said they would ship out a replacement stand immediately. So top marks for customer service.

As for the picture quality, on a screen of this size 800x600 is more than sufficient. I loaded a few pictures directly from a USB drive without reading the instructions. It was pretty easy to use the menus. I couldn't get the transition effects to work right, but after loading pictures with the included software everything worked ok. There may be something about that in the instructions, but I haven't read them yet.

The software automatically scales the pictures down to 800x600. They look great on the screen. The viewing angle is acceptable, the image is bright, and the colors accurate.

This memory frame was purchased as a gift and will go to my parents so they can have a rotating slide show of the grandkids. I will be purchasing a second one for myself. Other reviewers have said it is better to print your pictures and frame them. That may be the best answer for some people, but I'm running out of wall space for prints. The memory frame will let me display 90 of my favorite pictures in one spot.