Digital Frames - I hope I'm not just stupid but what is the problem here?

Hi everyone -

I purchased a digital photo frame for my grandparents for Christmas from Best Buy - it was an Insignia branded frame 8 inches in size from Best Buy (I know, I know...). I have the 10 inch one in my living room and it works just fine and it actually looks pretty good.

Anyway, I pulled images down from my SmugMug site on my parents' computer and loaded them to the frame. After cycling through several images it would just display a bunch of colored lines shooting up and down the screen and turn off after a random interval and after displaying random images. I returned it twice and had the same issue with all 3 so I had enough and spent significantly more money on a 10 inch HP version.

Thinking my problem was solved by opening my wallet, I pulled down most of the same images (but new files) to my own machine at home and proceeded to load them. After a few minutes this new one got to a certain point (never the same image) and just turned off.

I just about took the frame and tossed it through the window...my dogs ran away because I made noises I usually only make when they destroy something important. Any ideas what's going on here?

The respective support folks have been worthless and I'm out of options...I just don't get it - any experience or quick fixes?

Signed,

God D@mn About to Lose It

I got the Insignia 8" for a Christmas gift, I loaded a couple hundred images on a SD card and it has been working perfectly. It sounds like the issue is the files, maybe SmugMug coverts the file causing the problem? Have you tried using Jpeg files from your hard drive or whatever storage device you use.

Some frames do not well handle files which are too large in pixel count in each direction. Have you carefully read what size pixel matrices it can handle?

I bought a few of these frames when they first came out and they all sucked. I'd always see one on someone's desk at work and they looked so good. Well, not for me. They'd show the pics sideways, chop off the sides. I gave up long ago.

Isn't the answer a general purpose tablet with Wi-drive or similar?

It's definitely downloading the images from smugmug, have you got the original jpegs on your computer somewhere you can try out

Wilt wrote in post #15442239
Some frames do not well handle files which are too large in pixel count in each direction. Have you carefully read what size pixel matrices it can handle?

Yep, I ran a batch re-size in CS5 and created new files to the exact dimensions of the display for all the images.

lannes wrote in post #15443120
It's definitely downloading the images from smugmug, have you got the original jpegs on your computer somewhere you can try out

I don't keep jpegs on local storage, only the RAW and TIFF files. The JPEGs are loaded to my website and deleted from my local machine but I have a feeling I'm going to have to try this despite the work involved.

Simon_Gardner wrote in post #15443041
Isn't the answer a general purpose tablet with Wi-drive or similar?

As for the tablet recommendation, remember this is just one of many gifts for my grandparents from us so I don't want to spend a relative fortune on something that will hardly be used. More importantly, it has to be something I can leave on their table to work on it's own and leave it for weeks un-attended.

Thanks for the insight so far.

Are you pulling them right from SmugMug? I wasn't aware there was an app for that and if so can you post the link?

If you are downloading the images from SmugMug they will be in regular jpeg format, exactly the same as you uploaded them. I've never used one of those frames so I can't really comment on what the problem might be, but I'm sure someone on the SmugMug help desk can assist you. Have you tried emailing us? Shoot us an email with all the details and we'll try to help.

http://help.smugmug.co​m/customer/portal/emai​ls/new

-Zac

ZacW wrote in post #15444579
Are you pulling them right from SmugMug? I wasn't aware there was an app for that and if so can you post the link?

If you are downloading the images from SmugMug they will be in regular jpeg format, exactly the same as you uploaded them. I've never used one of those frames so I can't really comment on what the problem might be, but I'm sure someone on the SmugMug help desk can assist you. Have you tried emailing us? Shoot us an email with all the details and we'll try to help.

http://help.smugmug.co​m/customer/portal/emai​ls/new

-Zac

Yes, right from SmugMug - I'm not using an App for it...manually doing either an owner download or opening in Original size and right click -> save.

I have not tried SmugMug support just yet - I didn't really think it was their issue since I knew the files that were stored there were exactly as uploaded but Ill give it a shot.

Thanks!