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Toshiba Tekbright Photo Frame
by blissman70
I don't know if you know but I have a bit of a thing for digital photo frames. Nothing in a "weird" sort of way, I'm not going to run off with one and live the rest of my life in harmony?.. What I mean is that I like to show off my photographs and I feel that best way to do that is by showing them off on such items due to the ... fact that I can show off hundreds of images in one small place.
Over the years, in my digital photo frame world, I have owned many of these little delights, with branded names coming out the best, although some lesser known names do do a good enough job.
It is one of the 'better' known brands that I am going to tell you about today, one with the well known name of Toshiba, with this digital photo frame having the full name of the TekBright Gigaframe Q81.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of it I want to give a few of the specs, (which you can skip if you want to).
The entire unit isn't a bad size, being about 290mm long x 250mm wide by 30mm deep, (not including stand), weighing in at about 700grams.
It has an 8inch TFT colour screen which dons a 800 x 600 display format at a 4:3 ratio, with a built memory of 128MB with capabilities of upping the memory to 32GB using an external flash/sd card.
Apart from the fact that you can exhibit a vast amount of pictures in one place you can also listen to some soothing music whilst the images gently pass by due to the fact that this an inbuilt digital audio player with the sound coming out of 2 speakers, giving a total output of 1watt. And, to add a little extra there is a calendar and also a clock, so that you can use this for more than just pictures.
It supports several memory cards, such as Memory Stick, SDHC, SD, x-D-picture card, compact flash card.
To put your images or music onto this frame you need a PC running certain requirements, such as Windows 2000 and higher, including 7. Also, your PC will have to have a minimum of a 1GHz CPU, with at least 512MB of RAM and at least 200MB of spare HDD space.
So know the basic specs are out of the way... let's take a quick look at this digital picture frame...
Let's start with the rear, where you don't tend to look at most of the time, unless you like that sort of thing. On the back there are the two speakers, which sit behind a couple of plastic grills to hide them away yet allow the sound out. In between the speakers there is a small hole that is for hanging this frame on a wall.
Then, below the left speaker, looking at it from the back, there is the very important on/off switch, then there is the larger slot to the side of this which is for the stand to connect to.
Now we are down to the lower section of the frames rear, which gives you a power jack to the left, a USB slot next to that and the very useful 5 - 1 memory card slot.
There are two rather strange looking screw type gadgets that look a little out of place. These are for when you want to attach or change the outside frame, making your digital photo frame more to your taste.
Now for the front.
On the top, or more along the top of the screen, there is a little bit of information telling you what mode you're in and, on the other side, how many pictures you are showing and how many have already been seen.
Then, lower down, or below where the picture is visible, the are eight little option, (from left to right) There is the mode button, menu, zoom in and out, image selection, slide show and thumbnail view.
And that's about the size of it all, so to speak. With the actual technical bits of how to use it? How to set it up? And what options it offers? All a matter of trial and error. But briefly it is a matter of slotting the memory card full of your images into the slot, wait for the frame to find the pictures, set the speed you want the pictures to scroll by, select a backing track if you want to, maybe change a few of the other setting to get it running exactly how you want it. Then away you go.
You should then be presented with a slide show of your many pictures so you can sit back and enjoy, one after the other.
My opinion...
As I said I like these digital photo frame as I find they take up a fraction of the space that a standard pictures frame takes up, plus, they can hold hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures where as a standard wooden picture frame can only hold one, maybe two. So given the choice I'd rather have a digital frame sat on my fire surround than a hundred and fifty four wooden frames sat there.
This one is no exception as it does exactly what it is supposed to do, it shows pictures one after the other so that I can show off my collection without any fuss at all.
It may not be the best on the market, having a low internal memory and not even housing its own battery in case of power cuts, but what it does have certainly makes up for it, almost? Depending on where you get it from and at what price?
I mentioned the low internal memory, which at 128MB is pretty low really, but the fact that you can add extra memory using an external flash drive makes up for that. So there's no end of images and soothing music that you can't put through this sleek looking picture frame.
It supports JPEG and BMP in image formats and MP3 in audio, so make sure you convert them before you put them onto this frame. Any other formats will simply not show up and would be a complete waste of time. But then again, JPEG and MP3 are the most common formats so there shouldn't be too much trouble in uploading them.
The built in speakers aren't the best, being ½ watt each, but they do a good enough job in having some lovely background music whilst the pictures are scrolling along at a leisurely pace. I like the fact that you can choose which speed you want to show your images, opting for slow, medium and fast, 5 seconds to an hour or so, with options in between.
The initial set up, or turn on, was a matter of plugging in the frame, waiting for the lights along the bottom of the screen to flash up, then scrolling through the options by touching the relevant buttons, usually going through the 'mode' section.
But all will come as clear as daylight once you've gone through the settings once or twice.
The buttons along the bottom are great, when they light up, but once they go out they are pretty difficult to see, which could lead to a few errors, although I am well used to which button does what and where I need to press to get what I want.
NOTE:
When the buttons are pressed there is a sound, a high pitched noise if you will, which, on first impressions, may make you think that it is on the verge of exploding. But don't despair, apparently this noise is normal, (according to the online experts???) and is no cause for concern. It's just a shame I can't figure a way to turn off the noise as that is one of my pet hates. I mean, why does a button have to make a noise when you press it? Especially on mobile phones? I know when I've pressed a button, I don't need a bleep to tell me: I've just pressed the button for the love of god? Why bleep at me to let me know something I already know? All that bleep is doing is letting people around me know that I have pressed a button. Why do they want to know? Are they really that concerned the fact that I have pressed a button? NO they are not; they are more annoyed because of the constant bleeping coming from a mobile phone when someone is sending a text to their friend, who is probably sat right next to them... I... bleep... H...bleep... A... bleep... T... bleep... E... bleep... B... bleeps... L... bleep... E... bleep... E... bleep... P... bleep... S... bleep... [send].. Bleep...
Turn off the bleeping people...!!! It's not that hard and it's not that clever....
{My brain's just bleeping exploded}
And sadly, this bleep, or noise, on this frame can not be turned off without using a hammer. Luckily it doesn't bleep when it slides through the pictures so I can live with that.
As for the quality of the picture and sound?
Well, I have absolutely no complaints what so ever regarding that one, unless you want a speaker system that can be used in a night club at midnight on New Years eve.
The screen is as clear as, well, as day really, giving off such colours that you'd think Picaso was at it again, dabbling away with his brushes on a hot sunny day.
The speakers may be small, but they are good enough for what you need in this device, gently playing your favourite tracks in the background, making you feel like you may be sat in a waiting room, relaxing you as you settle into your chair, (unless you decide to have heavy metal or Eminem coming through the small speaker grills).
There are a few downsides, not many, but a few that I have to mention.
Such as the stand, which was a nuisance right from the start, wobbly and a little loose, especially in portrait mode. In fact I found getting the stand in position was a job in itself, even though it looks as simple as pushing a pin into a donkeys ass. It is supposed to slot into the 'silly' little hole in the back of the frame, with the stand itself having an adjustable slider so that it can be used for many sized frame additions.
Once I'd master the art of attaching the stand I placed this on the table, ready to give it a good testing, but I was pretty disappointed when the frame wobbled. Initially I thought I may have attached the stand incorrectly so I made a few adjustments, only to get the same results each time.
This led me to the conclusion that the stand may look as if it could hold up straight in a hurricane but looks can be deceptive, and in this case, very much so.
I never let this sort of thing put me off, especially as it was only a slight wobble, so I decided to stick a 'pad' on the underside of one side and away I went, no wobble, or more like, less wobble.
Note:
Apart from the stand you have the option of hanging it on a wall using the little hanging slot which is on the rear of the unit as well. I mean, if it was on the front then you'd not be able to see the pictures as the screen would be facing the wall.
Another downside is that this does not have the capabilities of running from a battery so you do have to have this plugged into the mains if you want it to work. (other versions of this frame do have a built in rechargeable battery but not this one so do be careful when choosing your frame).
It doesn't have the capabilities to resize the images on it, so if youre pictures are large then you may lose some of them as they scroll along. On the other hand, if your pictures are smaller then they will end up with a black border around them so that they fit the screen.
This isn't that bad as it doesn't distort you pictures in anyway at all, leaing you to enjoy the pictures exactly how you took them.
It doesn't have the options of Wi-Fi so you can't expect to get your pictures transferred from all over the globe, but then again, is that really so important as long as the pictures that are on the frame are the ones you want to see? Should it matter that a picture you take on holiday can't be instantly transmitted to the frame so that you can see it when you get home?
So now for the price of exhibiting hundreds of you favourite snaps in one small space?
This digital picture frame sells for around the £70.00 region, with some places selling it for more, so do shop around.
But, if you hang on a bit, especially with Christmas around the corner, there's bound to be a few places that are selling this at a bargain of a price.
Is it worth the money?
£70.00.... hmmm, I would have to say yes, maybe at £70.00 as it does exactly what it is supposed to do and looks a very attractive piece of kit.
But any more than that and it may be worth shopping around as the lack of certain things, such as Wi-Fi and battery may make t not worth the money, especially as there are other on the market for around the £100 region that offer such extras, although picture and sound may not be as good.
If you can get it for less though, (without shop lifting) then go for it.
Once you've got it going you'll be amazed just how clear it is.
İBlissman70 2012
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