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Mac compatible digital picture frame?

Morod

Morod

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 1, 2008
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On The Nickel, over there....
Hi all,
I did a search of this subject and the newest thread I found was fom 2006. Hopefully someone out there has newer info, :)
Anyone have any suggestions for a Mac compatible digital picture frame? I want to give one to my son, who doesn't own a computer. We have digital photos in iPhoto of their new baby girl. So it would have to be compatible with iPhoto, ideally have a USB port for inputting from a memory stick, good resolution and run on ac current (not batteries).
Any thoughts? Thanks!
Morod
 
From what I know about the digital picture frames, you just put your camera's memory card into it.

If you want to put pictures into a camera's memory card from your Mac, you can plug up the digital camera to the Mac and drag the pictures onto the memory card. Then, take the memory card out of the camera and put it into the picture frame.

If you don't want to always hook your camera up to you Mac, you can search Google for a "USB memory card reader". It allows you to put your memory card into a device that plugs into your USB port and you can drop pictures onto it that way.

I hope this helped.
 
Cool! Thanks for the helpful reply on memory cards. I've never tried dragging pics back onto a memory card.
Now I need help with a brand of picture frame. I don't think the H-P frame is Mac compatible, and I couldn't find anything in the Apple Store online. I was hoping someone could tell me a brand of frame that works well. But I'll take any help I can get as I am new to this stuff, :p
Thanks again!
 
photovu.com makes wireless iPhoto-compatible frames (I haven't used them).
 
cube said:
photovu.com makes wireless iPhoto-compatible frames (I haven't used them).
Click to expand...

Wow, 19" & 22" frames! A little more than I needed, but thanks. Guess I'll just go to Target or something and have a look around. Hopefully there is something out there. We're leaving the state in a couple of weeks and want to make sure they get these pics, and I am way too cheap to buy them an iMac, although an iPod Touch might be okay. Actually I was hoping for a 7" to 9" frame. Thanks to all!
Morod
 
Morod said:
Oh, man! Reading about it, I was ready to buy it. It looks great. Unfortunately, it's only Windows compatible. But I will go back to the site and see if they have anything that is Mac compatible. Thanks for your help!
Morod
Click to expand...

It says you can upload pictures from a thumb drive or directly from a camera, so you wouldn't really need access to a windows machine.
 
Morod said:
..
Anyone have any suggestions for a Mac compatible digital picture frame?
Click to expand...

They are ALL "Mac compatible". Or maybe better to say that there is nothing system specific about picture frames. They look to the computer like a USB thumb drive or else they accept a memory card or both. Some of them do come with software but you don't need it to use the frame

The best way to use one with iPhoto is to export the photos to the desktop as small reduced resolution images then simply drag them to the picture frame memory.
 
Here's a tip that I learned by experience:

Once you get a digital picture frame, check what resolution it handles. For example, it might display images up to 800x600. Then scale all the images you put on it to (800 by at-most-600) or (at-most-800 by 600). That way, the picture frame won't have to scale them.

There are two reasons to do this:
  1. You can fit more images on the device.
  2. These products tend to be slow, so there can be a noticeably delay between pictures if you put your full-resolution camera images on it and make it scale them each time they are displayed.
 
The other important step here: don't format that memory card on your Mac! It won't work in a camera or a frame like that if you do, and you probably wouldn't have thought to do it anyways, but just in case.

BTW, post the deals you find here, I'm interested as well, but I have a fairly low budget so any deals are good.

jW
 
Morod said:
Oh, man! Reading about it, I was ready to buy it. It looks great. Unfortunately, it's only Windows compatible. But I will go back to the site and see if they have anything that is Mac compatible. Thanks for your help!
Morod
Click to expand...

The compatibility is only about direct connection to the computer. In your case, you would fill a card with JPEG/MPEG/MP3 in your mac (or just take it from the camera) and insert it in the frame.

Formatting a card in the computer for a camera is not recommended by some people, but it can be done. And in the case of a photo frame, there is no risk, assuming you have them also in the computer and backed up.
 
Thanks!

Excellent advice from everyone, thank you all! I have a Canon SD870 point & shoot digital camera and can format the card in it. This may turn out to easier than I thought will all the help from everyone here.
The people here make this one of the best forum sites on the web. Thanks again! :)
Morod
 
You can also use a USB stick with this ViewSonic frame.

Tell us how you like it!
 
Mal said:
BTW, post the deals you find here, I'm interested as well, but I have a fairly low budget so any deals are good.

jW
Click to expand...

Okay, since I am on a fairly tight schedule, I need to find one that I can buy here in town. The Viewsonic that cube linked to cannot be found in town here or even online. So I have found two others that look promising, one of which is coming home with me today. They are both 800x600 resolution. The first one is the HP DF820AF, available at Best Buy for $150:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9052776&type=product&id=1218012519043

The other one is a Viewsonic 8" SwifTouch, available at Costco for $120:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11314424&search=digital%20picture%20frame&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Mo=24&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&ViewAll=25&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=digital%20picture%20frame&Ntt=digital%20picture%20frame&No=8&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

I will let you know what I get! Again, thanks for all the help/advice. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks after all....:p
Morod
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...eValue=3239:23550&page=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED

I would prefer the DPX802WD to my previous link, because it has 500:1 contrast ratio instead of only 400:1

Samsung has some interesting frame that also displays info, weather, and stocks, but apparently it doesn't support M-JPEG, which is the movie compression used by Canon P&S, so one couldn't just use the clips from the camera directly.

Kodak just came out with the first OLED frame, with crazy contrast, but unfortunately $999 MSRP (for 8"!).
 
Getting images from the desktop to the SD card in my camera?

Hi again,
Okay, I have a formatted SD card in my camera. It's plugged into a USB port on my wired keyboard. I have all the photos reduced to 800x600 (he photo frame's resolution. Now, how do I get the photos to the card in the camera? The only place I even see the camera recognized is in iPhoto as "Canon PowerShot". It won't allow me to drag photos from the desktop to the camera there. Is there someplace else the camera should be showing up as a drive? Should I connect it to one of the USB ports in the back of the iMac? (Late 2007Al, 2.4 GHz, os 10.5.5).
Thanks for any help offered!
Morod
ON EDIT: In Finder, under Devices, all it shows is the iMAc HD and my backup HD. Shouldn't the camera be here?
 
Look in the camera menus and configure it as a mass storage device.
 
cube said:
Look in the camera menus and configure it as a mass storage device.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, cube, but no help. No camera menu allows for that option. In fact, I can't even find a camera menu, just the iPhoto menu. I may just transfer them to a memory stick, then to the frame. :(
Morod
 
It seems your camera does not support Mass Storage Mode. You would just need an extremely cheap USB 2.0 card reader (which I would have got anyway, as I wouldn't like hooking up the camera just to transfer photos to the frame).

For now, you could also check hooking up the frame to the Mac to see if it recognizes it as a mass storage device and it lets you fill the card (not the internal memory, which is probably not much, I guess). You might also have to check the menus of the frame.
 
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