photo Digital Pictureframe Reccomendations?

[ddrueding]

I'm planning on buying one for my grandmother. She doesn't have a computer, but I would like to mail her SD cards and have her put them in. The less features beyond that the better. I'm not sure what size to get, either. Somewhere between 8-15", ideally less than $500.

Thoughts?

 

[sdbardwick]

My only tidbit of advice is the obvious - make sure aspect ratio of the native resolution of the frame matches the aspect ratio of the majority of the intended pictures. All of the moderately priced frames I looked at last holiday season that were not 4:3 did a terrible job of scaling 4:3 source material to whatever strange widescreen format the frame used; however, the 4:3 frames did a better job of letterboxing other aspect ratio images.

IIRC, I ended up getting an 8" 4:3 (800x600) frame from Dell (of all places) for like $160.; my grandmother seems happy with it.
The some of the more expensive frames (with the same rough specs) did have notably better contrast and color gamut (different LCD panels, I assume), so you really need to view some of your own images in person to make a final decision.

 

[timwhit]

I really don't understand why those things are that expensive. Aren't they basically a small LCD Panel, a memory card reader, and an inexpensive processor to do the extremely small amount of processing necessary to read a picture from a memory card and display it on the screen. Much larger LCD monitors can be had for less than $160. Maybe I'm not understanding something here.

 

[LunarMist]

~10.5" at 600x800 is a good combination. 82-year-olds like them. The devices with larger screens are substantially larger and heavier, not to mention more expensive.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for the advice, I'll be shopping locally tomorrow and see what I come up with.

 

[sechs]

If your grandmother is anything like my mother, I'd strongly suggest just getting a nice frame and sending glossies of the appropriate size.

 

[ddrueding]

If your grandmother is anything like my mother, I'd strongly suggest just getting a nice frame and sending glossies of the appropriate size.

Tempting. And I'm also tempted just to send down small photo albums from time to time. But I would like to get her more involved with the family, and she is the only one not on-line. The parents are in Europe, and sending updates via e-mail and Flickr daily, I'm calling grandma and passing on the important bits. I know she wants to be more involved, but lives 200 miles away.