What is a Digital Photo Frame?
A digital photo frame (also called digital media frame) is a picture frame that displays digital photos without the need to print them or use a computer.
Features
Digital photo frames are common in 7 inch to 12 inch sizes. Some digital photo frames can only display JPEG pictures. Most digital photo frames display the photos as a slideshow and usually with an adjustable time interval. They also can send photos to the printer.
Others support additional multimedia content, including movie clips recorded in a digital camera's movie mode, MPEG video files and/or MP3 audio. Many can display text files.
Certain frames can load pictures over the Internet from RSS feeds, photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Picasa and from e-mail. Such networked models usually support wireless (802.11) connections.
Digital photo frames typically display the pictures directly from a camera's memory card, though certain frames also provide internal memory storage. Some allow users to upload pictures to the frame's memory via a USB connection, wirelessly via bluetooth technology, and now through mobile connection. Some frames allow photos to be shared from frame to frame.
Some include a rechargeable battery.
Most 7 inch (17.5cm) models show images at 430 x 234 pixels. With some models the width of each landscape image is stretched to achieve an aspect ratio of 16:9, which results in noticeable distortion. Built-in speakers are common for playing video content with sound, and many frames come with remote controls.
Digital frames versus printed photos
A digital frame provides the same emotion-rich experience as a traditional photo album without handling and without occupying the computer or the TV set. Eye-catching in the room, it is also a more casual way to show off pictures to visitors. It provides an immediate way of sharing photos.
Rapidly falling prices and revolutionary features, like the ability to update the contents remotely (e.g., your travel photos can update in your parents living room minutes after you take them), are likely to make this gadget ubiquitous and the natural replacement for printed photos.
Implementation
A digital photo frame consists of three main parts, the LCD-panel, the PCB and the outside frame:
- The panel can have either an analog or digital interface and varies in size.
- The PCB is the heart of the digital photo frame, as it includes the device's software.
In the near future, as electronic paper displays improve to support high quality color, digital photo frames are expected to adopt this technology, to provide visibility from any angle and in very bright environments, as well as reduced physical thickness and lower power consumption.
Limitations
Because digital photo frame's display ratio doesn't always match the original picture ratio, some pictures cannot be displayed in a satisfactory manner. For example they may be rendered too small, with black borders, or they may be automatically zoomed-in and randomly cropped.
With a computer, this issue can be resolved by using generic photo editing software like Adobe P hotoshop, or specialized software like Digital Frame Master or FrameSize, to properly crop the pictures before transferring them to the digital frame. Without a computer, there is no other option but manually deleting incompatible pictures by using frame's built-in functions.
Security Issues
In February 2008, a number of digital photo frames manufactured in China were found to be carrying a Trojan horse dubbed Mocmex on their internal data storage.
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