Opteka OPT15 15-Inch Digital Picture Frame with 1 GB Built-In Memory |  | Brand: Opteka
List Price: $229.99
Buy New: $154.88
as of 3/18/2010 07:14 CDT details
You Save: $75.11 (33%)
New (2) from $154.88
Seller: Mercy Homes. Helping orphaned/abandoned children!
Rating:  117 reviews
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6
Dimensions (in): 13.8 x 2.7 x 16
15" Multimedia TFT LCD Screen
128mb internal memory
Displays digital pictures, music and video
MPN: OPT15
Model: OPT15
UPC: 049936863822
EAN: 0049936863822
ASIN: B00102T3VY
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Resolution: 1024x768: Full 15-Inch inch (diagonal) 4:3 screen with brightness control: remote control included | | • | Features slide show mode and image rotation and is compatible with JPEG, JPEG Motion and AVI files | | • | 1GB built-in memory allows you to use your memory card in your camera while your pictures are shown on the frame | | • | Enhanced TFT LCD Screen with the highest possible resolution, wide viewing angles and long life span | | • | Compatible: SD, Compact Flash, Secured Digital, Multi Media Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, and Memory Stick Pro |
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Product Description
This 15" digital picture frame is big enough to display your favorite photos, even if your intended audience is on the other side of the room. The 15" Opteka Digital Picture Frame also boasts an unbelievable 128mb of internal memory, allowing you to store your favorite photos directly on the frame. Instantly plays MP3 music with the integrated speakers. Slideshow supports up to 2mp image files (JPEG format). Larger files can be reduced. Plays automatic slide show with MP3 music on the background and multiple transition effects. User-friendly on-screen display lets you access all controls easily. Includes a credit card style remote control.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 117
 Best for the money December 12, 2008
ReadsALot (Cincinnati, OH USA)
103 out of 104 found this review helpful
I bought the Opteka 15" frame after reading all the reviews I could find for similar products. What struck me is that people's experience with Opteka seemed consistently good. My unit worked great out-of-the-box with no dead pixels, no need for image brightness/contrast adjustment, or other startup problems. The Opteka has all the key features you need at an excellent price.
Other reviewers have covered the basics well: The attractive wood frame, good picture quality, both random and sequential slide shows, and relatively simple operation. I agree with the other reviewers that this unit's 4:3 ratio of image width to height is an important selling point for this model---I have thousands of photos with this aspect ratio and only a few with the widescreen ratio (stills from an HD video camera). So I'll focus on some subtleties I haven't seen covered in other reviews.
Picture quality: This seems subjective, especially since I didn't see this frame side-by-side with its competitors. My standard of comparison was my Dell laptop screen, which has a similar physical screen size but 1280x 800 instead of 1024x768 resolution. Running the same images in slideshows on the two devices, I thought the images on the Opteka looked better, with better shadow detail and vastly better viewing angles. Note that the surface of the digital frame is regular shiny glass rather than matte, "non-glare." Reflections could be an issue--situate it in your room to minimize them.
Ease of setup: One of the other reviewers complained "To attach the adapter, one must remove a panel from the back of the product. Once the adapter cord is installed in the jack, the panel can not be replaced on the back of product." This is wrong, there's no design flaw here. The design is actually quite elegant and saves having an external power brick dangling on your wall or floor. If at first the compartment door doesn't close, flip the transformer brick over and then the door will close nicely. You'll need a small Phillips head screwdriver to open and reclose the panel door. Just over 4.5 feet of cord extends out the bottom of the frame, so plan on placement near an outlet or power strip.
Ease of use: Once the unit is assembled, all you need to do is plug in your memory card or flash drive. The unit automatically displays a slideshow from internal memory if no cards are plugged in. But when you turn the Opteka off, then insert a card or flashdrive and turn it back on, it's smart enough to automatically switch to displaying images from the new source. Now that's ease of use! (What if you insert both an SD card and a flashdrive? The unit will still automatically start a slideshow, but you may need to use the menus specify which image source to use.) One minor ergonomic flaw for SD card users: too little of the SD card protrudes from the card slot to provide a decent grip for removal. If you plan on swapping SD cards while visiting someone, pack tweezers!
Randomness: When you select random image display, there's no duplicate prevention---by chance the same image may re-appear 30 seconds later. Also, the handy feature of using the remote to re-display the previous slide (to show someone else or simply get a longer look at it) works only in sequential mode. In random mode pressing the back button on the remote does not re-display the image you just saw.
Ability to handle LOTS of pictures: Presented with a flash drive that had over 4,000 pictures in a single folder, the frame handled this volume of images fine, with a couple of quirks. Not surprisingly, it was less responsive navigating through some of the menus, but the most noticeable effect was the slideshow timing became erratic in random playback, ranging from a few seconds to about a minute. If you don't have the fast slideshow speed (choices of slow, medium, fast) selected, you probably won't care. (Sequential playback speed was consistent even with thousands of images. Some processing the frame is doing in random playback mode is taking a variable amount of time...)
Is internal memory in a digital frame a complete waste? My first thought: With a 4GB SDHC card now available from Amazon for less than $10, the 128MB or more of internal memory many of these frames have is essentially a vestigial feature likely to disappear in the next generation. My second thought: the internal memory would be useful as a "favorites" repository. Suppose that as Grandpa watches a slideshow of a new batch of pictures, he sees one he really likes. He presses the remote's "setup" button to freeze the slideshow on the current picture and to display an option for copying the picture to internal memory. Next month you drop by Grandpa's house and swap the flash drive in the Opteka with a new one containing the latest batch of family pictures. Grandpa then saves his favorites from that new batch of pictures to internal memory. Thus, he builds his own "best of" collection over time.
Zooming: The remote control lets you zoom in several times to make a portion of the image fill the frame. I had hoped that if I zoomed the image on the frame I would be able to see, for example, facial expressions more clearly--many people zoom in on group photos on their digital cameras' LCD screens to check for eye blinks, for example. No such luck. The frame dynamically re-sizes the image to 1024 x 768 resolution immediately before displaying it and does NOT use the original hi-res image to zoom in. So zooming isn't worth much - it just give you a steadily more pixelated view as you zoom in.
Video playback: The unit can play the 640x480 resolution, 30 frames per second AVI-format movies produced by my Canon digital cameras, but playback is NOT smooth (maybe 15 frames per second). Look at other units if you want video playback (a nice-to-have feature for me).
Power save: Some frames have motion sensors to turn them on when they sense someone is in the room. The Opteka does not, but it does have power options "Always on", or 2, 4, or 8 hour auto-shutoff.
Net, some room for improvement. Excellent overall.
 OK but buggy 15" digital frame October 24, 2009
Timothy Oey (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
64 out of 64 found this review helpful
The Opteka is an ok 15" Digital Picture frame. It is attractive and has a bright, crisp wide angle display (1024x768). But it has some major bugs as of the model available in Oct 2009.
As of the model I got in Oct 2009 from Amazon (price around $180 at the time), there are some details in the description and some reviews which are no longer accurate -- the frame is being updated/changed over time. Apparently this is the 3rd or 4th revision (according to the tech support guy with whom I had some long conversations).
Relevant items that are correct:
- the manual is horribly written
- 4:3, 1024x768, wood frame
- has a remote
- auto displays from card inserted into frame
Changes:
Description said: "Wall mountable in landscape mode" - the unit I got could be wall mounted in either portrait or landscape mode although landscape is more natural so it puts the on/off switch on the side. Based on the frame orientation (on desk or on wall) the frame auto rotates images so that pictures appear with the correct side up depending on whether the frame is oriented in landscape or portrait mode.
Reviews on June 5, 2008 and Dec 11, 2008 said that it had a panel at the back to contain the AC adapter. This was not true of the model I got -- there was no AC adapter compartment at all. Although there was a large "notch" where the AC adapter could be taped/velcroed into place behind the frame. I did this so I could hang it on a wall where I have a plug in the middle of the wall and not have any cords showing (a separately purchased flat right angle plug adapter helped tremendously).
Review on Dec 11, 2008 said "Ability to handle LOTS of pictures: Presented with a flash drive that had over 4,000 pictures in a single folder" -- well I put an SD card in with 1519 pictures and it would not display them. I used a PC to transfer all of them to internal memory, it still would not display any of them -- just left me in menu mode. It would not display pictures individually either -- would not even show file names. When I organized the pictures into separate folders of 400 or so each, then it finally would display them.
Another review said it was hard to remove SD cards, this is no longer correct. SD cards pop in and out easily using the push in to pop out release mechanism common in cameras.
Other notes:
I could not find a way to have the frame display pictures in a random order from an SD Card -- they always seem to start from the beginning and proceed forward in order.
The pictures start automatically when the frame turned on (some frames I've had require user intervention).
***IMPORTANT #1*** It is extremely hard to transfer pictures from inserted memory card into built in memory -- you must manually select each picture to move and then move it using remote -- very tedious. Other frames I've had would auto load all images from a card -- this is much more convenient. The only way to mass move pictures onto the frame's built in memory is using a Windows PC (according to the manual) and the supplied USB cable -- in which case the frame pretends it is a 1GB USB drive and you do all the loading from the PC side. Strangely when you put the frame into this PC USB mode by hooking it up, the frame displays a picture of a current day Apple iMac -- weird. This transfer mechanism means that Grandpa would have a hard time loading up new pictures. But you could send new SD cards to him periodically to pop in the side of the frame.
***IMPORTANT #2*** The frame has some odd bugs. If you have more than 500 or 600 pictures in any given directory, it will refuse to show any pictures. I copied 1519 pictures on the the frame as well as onto an SD card and the frame would only display the menu, would never display any pictures. When I separated pictures into folders of 400-500 each, it would then display pictures. But after a while we noticed that it would rotate through only the same set of 400-500 or so. It would never display the others. I could not figure out any rhyme or reason behind the order of display or why it chose only those.
The remote is hard to use -- must be directly in front of frame and fairly close. Buttons are hard to push accurately -- sometimes you cannot seem to press a button and other times it gets double clicked when you meant to only push it once.
I wish more digital picture frames had auto IR sensors to pause and turn off when no one was in the room and then turn on again when someone enters the room but it doesn't. It does allow you to set it to turn on and off once a day automatically based on it's internal clock. I did not find any other automatic ways to turn it off and on.
Overall I'm ok with the frame as it looks good on our dining room wall, for the jpegs it displays it displays them well, has no cords hang down from it, and is easy to turn off and on using the switch on its side. I really wish it had an IR sensor, would load pictures from memory cards more easily, would pick up showing photos wherever it left off and/or show photos randomly, and would actually display all pictures loaded into it or on memory cards inserted on it.
 Insanely LARGE viewing angles, 4:3, its 15", Bright and it shuffles. What more do you want. June 5, 2008
C. Gangi (California)
89 out of 92 found this review helpful
Ok, I was hesitant to buy this digital photo frame like everyone else. All I had to go buy was 1 review here from Amazon. I took a nose dive though and went for it.
When I took it out of the box I noticed it was just like a real picture frame, it has actually real wood on the outside and glass over the frame.
It comes with a remote control which is very easy to use after some tinkering with it.
The instructions are horrible, but lots of instructions for these frames are horrible. So just figure it out on your own, its not hard.
The ONE most HORRIBLE thing I have about this device is the A/C adapter, you have to unscrew a panel at the back then place the A/C adapter in it then close the thing and the cord can't even hang out! So prepare to mod your frame if your wall mounting. I used double adhesive tape on the a/c adapter so it stays on.
But as for the picture itself, its crisp and vibrant. You can adjust the contrast, brightness, tint, and color by pressing setup at any picture on the remote.
It takes flash drives along with tons of other SD cards. Reads flash drives no problem, it also SCALES images VERY well. I had a 400 X 600 image and it scaled it no problem but for best results use a high resolution image and scale it down.
It's 4:3 so no stretching of images, has a LARGE viewing angle which is insane for if your wall mounting. It looks nice and stylish.
You can random mode the pictures so it shuffles through them and change transitions. Fast, Medium, Slow are the speeds I believe slow is 10 seconds. Which is enough for me.
Only takes Jpeg files from what I have seen which is fine, its standard format. Takes a large variety of Jpegs and loads a little slower with large files but your suppose to scale the image down anyway.
Sound quality is a bit thin, but you didn't buy this for sound? Did you?
Video haven't tried.... Honestly I don't want to try. I bought this to display images, I have a HDTV for film clips.
This digital photo frame is the best, hands down. If your nervous about the company or brand don't be.
Don't have any doubt to get it. But it will take some time to setup.
Get it.
Extremely good...not perfect July 6, 2008
Stuart J. Cohen (Washington, DC, USA)
47 out of 47 found this review helpful
Like others, when I saw the name "Opteka" I was hesitant to buy the product, but the smaller version (11.3") had good reviews so I decided to purchase the 15" version.
The product looks sharp with a real wood frame. The 1024 X 768 display is the highest resolution display I saw and provides crisp images. The instructions are adequate and I got the product working quickly using a 2 GB SD Card. The product can also use XD, Compact Flash and several flavors of Memory Sticks.
The input files are limited to JPEG and AVI Motion JPEG. If you have photos in other formats, you will need to convert them to JPEG. I have not tried the video features of the frame, just the still JPEG features.
The manual states that the product can handle 12 megapixel JPEG files and the product handled my 7.1 megapixel files with no problems.
Pictures shot in portrait mode in a 7.1 megapixel file had to be resampled to a resolution 576 X 768 pixels, otherwise both the top and bottom of the picture were cropped out, even when the frame was set to "Optimal Mode". In other words a 7.1 megapixel picture of my fiance with a resolution of 2304 X 3072 pixels would result in images where half her head would be missing until I resampled the picture to 576 X 768.
The instructions stated that the product only supports JPEG files "taken from" digital cameras and may not support files "from" some software applications. I edited some of the pictures using Canon Easy PhotoPrint EX and Corel Photo-Paint X3 to correct Red-Eye or to resample the resolution. The resulting edited photos displayed on the product with no problems.
The product contains two speakers to provide music to go along with the slideshow. The sound is nothing to call home about, but that was not a feature I bought the frame for.
The product has a clock feature, but has no mode other than the setup mode to display the clock. Once again this feature was not a feature I bought the product for.
The product must run using an AC to DC adapter. To attach the adapter, one must remove a panel from the back of the product. Once the adapter cord is installed in the jack, the panel can not be replaced on the back of product. I just left it off.
The product has a support that can be attached to allow the frame to stand upright on a desk. It does not have hooks to allow it to be hung from a wall. I attached a string to the two top thumbscrews used to attach the support mount on the back of the unit. I then hung the unit on the wall using a strong hook, for the unit is a little heavy.
The unit has control buttons on its back. It also has a remote control.
In all this is a solid unit, providing a great display. I am quite happy with my purchase.
One of the best digital picture frames available- for actually displaying pictures December 9, 2008
wandern (USA)
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
I ordered this Opteka 15" digital picture frame with a bit of trepidation after suffering through several extremely poorly implemented digital picture frames. There were few reviews here on Amazon, and the price seemed "too good to be true" for a 15" frame with 1024x768 resolution. I was pleasantly surprised when I received the frame in the mail. The (apparently real) wood frame was packaged in a protective sleeve to prevent scratches, and the unit sports a real glass cover over the LCD that can be cleaned. The frame is nicely filled and stained, without any gaps or defects. The only visual miscue is the hole for the IR remote control that's punched through the fiberboard matting and looks a bit out of place on the beige surface.
On to functionality. There are several features that I consider a must for a digital picture frame. After all, I want it to actually display pictures, not play movies. A digital picture frame should have a bright, high contrast display, a reasonable aspect ratio, shuffle capabilities, the option to either crop or to "letterbox" a picture (display the entire picture in its original aspect ratio), have a fast enough processor to give smooth picture transitions, and should handle large .jpg files to allow for impromptu displays off of a camera's media card, and ideally be easy to use.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this Opteka frame managed all of the above, less expensively than many of its smaller competitors.
Display quality:
This frame has a nice, bright display (I actually had to turn the brightness down out of the box) with a surprisingly good viewing angle. I compared it to an older IBM Thinkpad laptop with a screen of the same physical size and resolution, and judged the Opteka to have a better viewing angle, although slightly less color fidelity than the laptop. The large brightness adjustment range will be handy as the flourescent backlight slowly dims from age, and will extend the usable life of the frame.
Aspect ratio:
For some reason unknown to me, "widescreen" photo frames are all the rage. Widescreen is great for movies, but that's not what I'm buying a photo frame for. Most DSLR cameras have an aspect ratio of 3:2 (width to height) or 4:3. Almost all digital point and shoot cameras have a 4:3 aspect ratio. The 1024x768 resolution (4:3 aspect ratio) of the Opteka means that for most photos, the screen will be completely filled by the photo with no cropping required. Even for DSLR users, a photo can be "letterboxed" with black bars above and below the picture, but still utilize a great deal of the screen.
A widescreen photo frame will require heavy cropping of almost all pictures unless you want to stare at a Ken Burns effect all day or view the tiny picture remaining after it's been letterboxed onto the widescreen display.
Display options:
The frame allow a choice between cropping a photo to fill the display, or fully displaying it in its native aspect ratio. It also does a true shuffle, which is wonderful when you have thousands of pictures loaded onto your media cards. The frame has a limited choice of picture-to-picture transitions, although they're smooth and quick. The frame also quickly enumerates pictures off of any inserted media card and immediately begins playing them. It easily handled 10 megapixel files directly from a digital camera media card. If you use a digital asset management program like Lightroom or Aperture or other program like iPhoto or Picasa, you'd probably just want to export pictures at 1024x768 resolution and apply appropriate automatic sharpening to really optimize your viewing experience (and have enough space for thousands of pictures on a 2GB thumb drive or memory card).
Other:
The small included remote control is easy enough to use. The frame supports copying from an external memory card to its small internal memory so you don't have to USB connect it to a computer to utilize the onboard flash (although with support for CF, SD, USB thumb drives, etc., and current memory card pricing, I can't see any reason you'd really want to use the internal memory, except possibly to load it with some base pictures if you're giving it as a gift). The frame includes provisions for supporting itself on a table, but curiously doesn't come with an appropriate bracket or fixture for wall mounting. The wall wart/AC-DC adapter is quite small and conveniently mounts behind a removable cover on the back of the unit with only the AC wall power cord sticking out. This is a great design feature, as it eliminates an unsightly external adapter, but in the case it ever failed, allows you to replace it.
Summary:
I'd highly recommend this frame- the LCD screen quality alone is better than most of its budget competitors, and the appropriate aspect ratio, true shuffle, and ease of use seal the deal.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 117
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