Product Description

8" LCD DIGITAL FRAME W/MOTION SENSOR

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Product Details

• Size: 8-Inch
• Color: Espresso
• Brand: SmartParts
• Model: SPX8EC
• Dimensions: 10.10" h x 1.70" w x 8.30" l, 2.10 pounds
• Display size: 8

Features

• One-step picture transfers; intuitive interface
• Store and organize 3000 photos; 256 MB internal memory
• 8-inch (diagonal) viewing surface; built-in memory card reader
• Housed in an ultra-slim case with a rich espresso-tone wood frame
• Customizable slide shows; Audio MP3 playback

From the Manufacturer
SPX8 Smartparts 8-Inch Digital Picture Frame

The slim, genuine espresso-toned wood frame and custom designed matting of the SPX8 offers a classic style that can compliment any room or office. The removable and adjustable stand makes showcasing your memories easy. Frame can easily mount to the wall or be place on a table or shelf.

8-Inch Display Screen
The large, high-definition eight-inch LCD screen shows-off your pictures with the same crisp quality that you receive from high-quality prints. The display offers over 200,000 vibrant colors, and provides optimum contrast, allowing you to view your pictures in their natural state. Your memories will be displayed exactly as they were when your pictures were taken.

Three Easy Steps
Displaying pictures on the digital frame takes three easy steps. Simply remove the memory card from your camera, insert the card into the frame and view your photos. With the frame’s SyncPix software there is no need to upload and edit your pictures on a computer.

Sync Pix
Simply insert your memory card into the frame and the SyncPix software will do the rest. SyncPix software organizes pictures into albums so you can easily locate various pictures. SyncPix makes perfectly sized copies of each picture to be stored on the frame, while leaving the originals on the card unchanged. By resizing and optimizing each photo, SyncPix frames can store thousands of pictures, all neatly organized in the photo albums. Picture and video files are automatically transferred and music can be downloaded to the frame. All files – picture, video and music - can be organized into different albums categorized the way you want. Keep your frame up-to-date by visiting the Smartparts website and downloading the most recent software updates. Frame displays the progress of file transfers, time remaining and amount of memory left on the frame.

Smart Fix Auto Optimization
The frame automatically adjusts pictures to the correct orientation so that they are viewed vertically on the horizontal frame. The frame will also remove duplicate pictures to ensure that you don’t see the same picture frequently in your slide show.

Smart Strip
There is no need to stop a slideshow if you are looking for your favorite picture. The Smart Strip film navigation feature helps you to locate the picture of your choice while frame is in the slide show mode.

Viewing Modes
You can play different slide shows as frequently as you choose by simply selecting which album you want the pictures to be retrieved from. You can also set the frame to view 1, 2, 3 or 4 pictures at a time.

Picture Files
This digital photo frame is compatible with JPEG files. Most digital cameras will save pictures in this format by default. Pictures that are not in JPEG format, such as web, scanned or RAW images, cannot be displayed on the digital photo frame. However, these images can be converted to the JPEG format for the digital photo frame using specific computer applications.

Other Files
Frame is compatible with Motion JPEG AVI and MPEG-1 files which allow you to play videos on the frame. Frame is also compatible with WMA files and has built-in speakers so you can easily sync music to any slideshow or still frame picture.

Connectivity
The frame has two USB ports – slave and host – as well as two memory card slots. You can use the USB host port to view pictures on a thumb drive or easily download pictures from your computer to the frame using the USB slave port. The frame offers a memory card slot for Compact Flash memory cards and a card slot for SD memory cards. You can increase the amount of pictures that can be displayed by increasing the size of the memory cards being used.

Memory Cards
Secure Digital - SD
Compact Flash
Multimedia Card - MMC
xD card
Memory Stick – MS, MS Pro, MS Duo and MS Pro Duo

Smart Sensor
The built-in motion sensor will turn on the LCD screen when there is movement in the room and will automatically turn-off when there is no one present. Helping you save on energy costs.

What’s in the Box
Digital picture frame, removable picture stand, remote control, USB cable and AC power adapter.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

377 of 383 people found the following review helpful.
Great Frame and Picture Quality with One Major Flaw!
By P. Morris
After doing extensive research on other brands, we settled on this frame because of the price and features. After we bought it, we were pleasantly suprised to learn it is rated the highest by Consumer Reports magazine, and now we know why.

The picture quality is excellent. I started off with a free frame (gift) from another manufacturer that had half this resolution, and it did not give my pictures justice. Upgrading to this frame made a difference in the world to my picture quality. Do not buy anything less than 800x600, or your pictures just won't look good.

My favorite feature about this frame is the auto-sizing software available as a free download from the manufacturer's website. All you do is download it onto your computer, and any pictures you have on your hard drive will automatically be resized when transferred to your frame using the software.

One user complained about how slow it was transferring from a memory card onto the frame. This is because the frame automatically resizes your pictures to 800x600. This does take a little longer, but saves you hours of manually resizing your photos for the frame, so this *IS NOT* a flaw.

The one and only flaw I experienced (and maybe I have a defective unit) was I spent 2 hours copying thousands of photos onto the internal memory in the picture frame. So, I went and took more pictures with my digital camera, and slipped the memory card into the frame. I hit "copy" so it would copy from my card onto the internal memory. Little did I know, and the manual *DOES NOT* say this, but doing this will override any existing pictures on the memory. You can imagine how FURIOUS I was when I discovered that the thousands of photos I had stored on the frame were completely wiped out, and in their place were the 13 pictures I had copied. Please test this feature out first to see if it is indeed working on your unit before you find out the hard way, like I did. I plan on writing customer service about this (and hope I can get someone who speaks understandable English)
and seeing if this is a known flaw. The workaround on this would be to load the photos on your card onto your PC, then load them onto the internal picture frame. This is a major inconvenience, in my opinion.

I have not tried the movie files feature on this yet because it does not support the version my camera uses, and I am too lazy to figure out how to convert the movie files.

The sound is pretty decent, and adding mp3's to the slideshow is such a neat feature.

I also love the motion sensor on this frame. I never have to remember to turn the frame on and off.

All in all, this is a wonderful picture frame for ease of use, picture quality, and overall features. I would have rated it a 5 if not for the one serious flaw I mentioned. As a matter of fact, if this frame did not shine in the other areas I mentioned, I would have rated it less than a 4 because of the serious flaw. But, it has many saving graces, so a 4 is suitable, in my humble opinion. I will post an update from customer service once I hear back from them. I hope it will be easily fixed with a future firmware upgrade, etc.

****UPDATE**** 12/22/07 - I didn't get anywhere with customer service, but found out on my own when you insert a memory card and copy it to your frame, IT DOES NOT wipe out your existing pictures as originally thought.
It just overrides them with the new pictures and will not display the old pictures until you delete the new ones out. At this point, the old pictures are not listed on any menu when viewing from the frame. You have to hook up your frame to your computer, and navigate around until you see a folder in the software called "Spart Pic Software." This is where the old pictures are placed. Why this folder is not on the frame itself is beyond me, and why you have to hook up the frame to a computer to even see it is even dumber. And why this is NOT mentioned anywhere in the manual is just even stupider! (Is that even a word?) This is still a major flaw in my opinion. Why can't it just simply add the new pictures into the existing pictures folder without creating all of these inconvenient problems???? This is something I hope they fix with a firmware update.

138 of 145 people found the following review helpful.
You can't write this stuff...one problem after the next!
By S. Trudeau
I can't believe that Consumer Reports recommended anything from this company. I got this frame for my husband as an anniversary gift in August, and I still don't have a working frame (I write this on November 16). The first frame never turned on. It was completely dead. I tried running the update that Smartparts wants you to do online, and that did nothing. I contacted the company and was told I would receive a new power cord. The cord never came. I called back and was told that the cord wouldn't have fixed the problem (which made me realize that this must be a frequent issue) and that they had no record of my phone call. They asked me to run the update again. Nothing. They emailed me a return label and I sent the frame to them for repair for replacement. I got my second frame, but they didn't send back the power cord, the remote, or the stand. Kind of tough to use a frame with no power source. After a week or so, I got those parts and the did turn on...for a day. The morning after I got it, I turned it on and got a white screen with thin, vertical stripes. I called and emailed Smartparts again. This time, the man I was speaking to asked me to stop venting to him (I am super polite on the phone...it's the teacher in me). He told me that my SanDisk was the problem. I tried fixing it by running the online update AGAIN, but nothing changed. He said it might work again if I got an SD card. I told him I was not willing to purchase a separate memory card for a frame that has continued to fail for me and is supposed to work via the USB cable that comes with it (which, by the way, they recommend NOT using right in the user's manual). I insisted that I wanted to return it for a refund. He refused to offer a refund, but sent me a return label after I pushed the issue. That was over a month ago. I still haven't received the third frame. I have contacted them twice about the third frame, and both times was told it would ship the next day.

Basically, I really wish that I hadn't ever purchased anything from Smartparts. Only one customer service rep. I spoke to was helpful. The others were evasive and frustrating. I have spent so much time and energy on getting this frame thing to work. I am taking the time to write this so people can go another route. There are more reputable companies out there who make similar products. I highly encourage you NOT to purchase an item from Smartparts.

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful.
Superb picture quality and easy to learn to use
By Gerald C. Davison
I respectfully disagree with the negative reviewer who didn't like how long it takes to transfer photos from cards. I don't find this characteristic bothersome (what's the rush anyway?), though I wouldn't mind being able to suspend the operation once it is started. But these are minor "problems." Overriding them, in my view, are the stunningly clear quality of the photos and the many options one has vis a vis display time, transition effects, and order of presentation.

See all 110 customer reviews...