Opteka OPT15 15-Inch Digital Picture Frame with 1 GB Built-In Memory Description:
This 15-Inch digital picture frame is big enough to display your favorite photos, even if your intended audience is on the other side of the room. The 15-Inch Opteka Digital Picture Frame also boasts an unbelievable 1GB of internal memory, allowing you to store your favorite photos directly on the frame. Instantly plays MP3 music with the integrated speakers. Slideshow supports up to 2mp image files (JPEG format). Larger files can be reduced. Plays automatic slide show with MP3 music on the background and multiple transition effects. User-friendly on-screen display lets you access all controls easily. Includes a credit card style remote control.
- Brand: Opteka
- Model: OPT15
- Dimensions: 16.00″ h x 2.65″ w x 13.75″ l, 6.00 pounds
Features
- Resolution: 1024×768: Full 15-Inch inch (diagonal) 4:3 screen with brightness control: remote control included
- Features slide show mode and image rotation and is compatible with JPEG, JPEG Motion and AVI files
- 1GB built-in memory allows you to use your memory card in your camera while your pictures are shown on the frame
- Enhanced TFT LCD Screen with the highest possible resolution, wide viewing angles and long life span
- Compatible: SD, Compact Flash, Secured Digital, Multi Media Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, and Memory Stick Pro
Customer Reviews:
Best for the money
I bought the Opteka 15″ frame after reading all the reviews I could find for similar products. What struck me is that people’s experience with Opteka seemed consistently good. My unit worked great out-of-the-box with no dead pixels, no need for image brightness/contrast adjustment, or other startup problems. The Opteka has all the key features you need at an excellent price.
Other reviewers have covered the basics well: The attractive wood frame, good picture quality, both random and sequential slide shows, and relatively simple operation. I agree with the other reviewers that this unit’s 4:3 ratio of image width to height is an important selling point for this model—I have thousands of photos with this aspect ratio and only a few with the widescreen ratio (stills from an HD video camera). So I’ll focus on some subtleties I haven’t seen covered in other reviews.
Picture quality: This seems subjective, especially since I didn’t see this frame side-by-side with its competitors. My standard of comparison was my Dell laptop screen, which has a similar physical screen size but 1280x 800 instead of 1024×768 resolution. Running the same images in slideshows on the two devices, I thought the images on the Opteka looked better, with better shadow detail and vastly better viewing angles. Note that the surface of the digital frame is regular shiny glass rather than matte, “non-glare.” Reflections could be an issue–situate it in your room to minimize them.
Ease of setup: One of the other reviewers complained “To attach the adapter, one must remove a panel from the back of the product. Once the adapter cord is installed in the jack, the panel can not be replaced on the back of product.” This is wrong, there’s no design flaw here. The design is actually quite elegant and saves having an external power brick dangling on your wall or floor. If at first the compartment door doesn’t close, flip the transformer brick over and then the door will close nicely. You’ll need a small Phillips head screwdriver to open and reclose the panel door. Just over 4.5 feet of cord extends out the bottom of the frame, so plan on placement near an outlet or power strip.
Ease of use: Once the unit is assembled, all you need to do is plug in your memory card or flash drive. The unit automatically displays a slideshow from internal memory if no cards are plugged in. But when you turn the Opteka off, then insert a card or flashdrive and turn it back on, it’s smart enough to automatically switch to displaying images from the new source. Now that’s ease of use! (What if you insert both an SD card and a flashdrive? The unit will still automatically start a slideshow, but you may need to use the menus specify which image source to use.) One minor ergonomic flaw for SD card users: too little of the SD card protrudes from the card slot to provide a decent grip for removal. If you plan on swapping SD cards while visiting someone, pack tweezers!
Randomness: When you select random image display, there’s no duplicate prevention—by chance the same image may re-appear 30 seconds later. Also, the handy feature of using the remote to re-display the previous slide (to show someone else or simply get a longer look at it) works only in sequential mode. In random mode pressing the back button on the remote does not re-display the image you just saw.
Ability to handle LOTS of pictures: Presented with a flash drive that had over 4,000 pictures in a single folder, the frame handled this volume of images fine, with a couple of quirks. Not surprisingly, it was less responsive navigating through some of the menus, but the most noticeable effect was the slideshow timing became erratic in random playback, ranging from a few seconds to about a minute. If you don’t have the fast slideshow speed (choices of slow, medium, fast) selected, you probably won’t care. (Sequential playback speed was consistent even with thousands of images. Some processing the frame is doing in random playback mode is taking a variable amount of time…)
Is internal memory in a digital frame a complete waste? My first thought: With a 4GB SDHC card now available from Amazon for less than $10, the 128MB or more of internal memory many of these frames have is essentially a vestigial feature likely to disappear in the next generation. My second thought: the internal memory would be useful as a “favorites” repository. Suppose that as Grandpa watches a slideshow of a new batch of pictures, he sees one he really likes. He presses the remote’s “setup” button to freeze the slideshow on the current picture and to display an option for copying the picture to internal memory. Next month you drop by Grandpa’s house and swap the flash drive in the Opteka with a new one containing the latest batch of family pictures. Grandpa then saves his favorites from that new batch of pictures to internal memory. Thus, he builds his own “best of” collection over time.
Zooming: The remote control lets you zoom in several times to make a portion of the image fill the frame. I had hoped that if I zoomed the image on the frame I would be able to see, for example, facial expressions more clearly–many people zoom in on group photos on their digital cameras’ LCD screens to check for eye blinks, for example. No such luck. The frame dynamically re-sizes the image to 1024 x 768 resolution immediately before displaying it and does NOT use the original hi-res image to zoom in. So zooming isn’t worth much - it just give you a steadily more pixelated view as you zoom in.
Video playback: The unit can play the 640×480 resolution, 30 frames per second AVI-format movies produced by my Canon digital cameras, but playback is NOT smooth (maybe 15 frames per second). Look at other units if you want video playback (a nice-to-have feature for me).
Power save: Some frames have motion sensors to turn them on when they sense someone is in the room. The Opteka does not, but it does have power options “Always on”, or 2, 4, or 8 hour auto-shutoff.
Net, some room for improvement. Excellent overall.
OK but buggy 15″ digital frame
The Opteka is an ok 15″ Digital Picture frame. It is attractive and has a bright, crisp wide angle display (1024×768). But it has some major bugs as of the model available in Oct 2009.
As of the model I got in Oct 2009 from Amazon (price around $180 at the time), there are some details in the description and some reviews which are no longer accurate — the frame is being updated/changed over time. Apparently this is the 3rd or 4th revision (according to the tech support guy with whom I had some long conversations).
Relevant items that are correct:
- the manual is horribly written
- 4:3, 1024×768, wood frame
- has a remote
- auto displays from card inserted into frame
Changes:
Description said: “Wall mountable in landscape mode” - the unit I got could be wall mounted in either portrait or landscape mode although landscape is more natural so it puts the on/off switch on the side. Based on the frame orientation (on desk or on wall) the frame auto rotates images so that pictures appear with the correct side up depending on whether the frame is oriented in landscape or portrait mode.
Reviews on June 5, 2008 and Dec 11, 2008 said that it had a panel at the back to contain the AC adapter. This was not true of the model I got — there was no AC adapter compartment at all. Although there was a large “notch” where the AC adapter could be taped/velcroed into place behind the frame. I did this so I could hang it on a wall where I have a plug in the middle of the wall and not have any cords showing (a separately purchased flat right angle plug adapter helped tremendously).
Review on Dec 11, 2008 said “Ability to handle LOTS of pictures: Presented with a flash drive that had over 4,000 pictures in a single folder” — well I put an SD card in with 1519 pictures and it would not display them. I used a PC to transfer all of them to internal memory, it still would not display any of them — just left me in menu mode. It would not display pictures individually either — would not even show file names. When I organized the pictures into separate folders of 400 or so each, then it finally would display them.
Another review said it was hard to remove SD cards, this is no longer correct. SD cards pop in and out easily using the push in to pop out release mechanism common in cameras.
Other notes:
I could not find a way to have the frame display pictures in a random order from an SD Card — they always seem to start from the beginning and proceed forward in order.
The pictures start automatically when the frame turned on (some frames I’ve had require user intervention).
***IMPORTANT #1*** It is extremely hard to transfer pictures from inserted memory card into built in memory — you must manually select each picture to move and then move it using remote — very tedious. Other frames I’ve had would auto load all images from a card — this is much more convenient. The only way to mass move pictures onto the frame’s built in memory is using a Windows PC (according to the manual) and the supplied USB cable — in which case the frame pretends it is a 1GB USB drive and you do all the loading from the PC side. Strangely when you put the frame into this PC USB mode by hooking it up, the frame displays a picture of a current day Apple iMac — weird. This transfer mechanism means that Grandpa would have a hard time loading up new pictures. But you could send new SD cards to him periodically to pop in the side of the frame.
***IMPORTANT #2*** The frame has some odd bugs. If you have more than 500 or 600 pictures in any given directory, it will refuse to show any pictures. I copied 1519 pictures on the the frame as well as onto an SD card and the frame would only display the menu, would never display any pictures. When I separated pictures into folders of 400-500 each, it would then display pictures. But after a while we noticed that it would rotate through only the same set of 400-500 or so. It would never display the others. I could not figure out any rhyme or reason behind the order of display or why it chose only those.
The remote is hard to use — must be directly in front of frame and fairly close. Buttons are hard to push accurately — sometimes you cannot seem to press a button and other times it gets double clicked when you meant to only push it once.
I wish more digital picture frames had auto IR sensors to pause and turn off when no one was in the room and then turn on again when someone enters the room but it doesn’t. It does allow you to set it to turn on and off once a day automatically based on it’s internal clock. I did not find any other automatic ways to turn it off and on.
Overall I’m ok with the frame as it looks good on our dining room wall, for the jpegs it displays it displays them well, has no cords hang down from it, and is easy to turn off and on using the switch on its side. I really wish it had an IR sensor, would load pictures from memory cards more easily, would pick up showing photos wherever it left off and/or show photos randomly, and would actually display all pictures loaded into it or on memory cards inserted on it.
Insanely LARGE viewing angles, 4:3, its 15″, Bright and it shuffles. What more do you want.
Ok, I was hesitant to buy this digital photo frame like everyone else. All I had to go buy was 1 review here from Amazon. I took a nose dive though and went for it.
When I took it out of the box I noticed it was just like a real picture frame, it has actually real wood on the outside and glass over the frame.
It comes with a remote control which is very easy to use after some tinkering with it.
The instructions are horrible, but lots of instructions for these frames are horrible. So just figure it out on your own, its not hard.
The ONE most HORRIBLE thing I have about this device is the A/C adapter, you have to unscrew a panel at the back then place the A/C adapter in it then close the thing and the cord can’t even hang out! So prepare to mod your frame if your wall mounting. I used double adhesive tape on the a/c adapter so it stays on.
But as for the picture itself, its crisp and vibrant. You can adjust the contrast, brightness, tint, and color by pressing setup at any picture on the remote.
It takes flash drives along with tons of other SD cards. Reads flash drives no problem, it also SCALES images VERY well. I had a 400 X 600 image and it scaled it no problem but for best results use a high resolution image and scale it down.
It’s 4:3 so no stretching of images, has a LARGE viewing angle which is insane for if your wall mounting. It looks nice and stylish.
You can random mode the pictures so it shuffles through them and change transitions. Fast, Medium, Slow are the speeds I believe slow is 10 seconds. Which is enough for me.
Only takes Jpeg files from what I have seen which is fine, its standard format. Takes a large variety of Jpegs and loads a little slower with large files but your suppose to scale the image down anyway.
Sound quality is a bit thin, but you didn’t buy this for sound? Did you?
Video haven’t tried…. Honestly I don’t want to try. I bought this to display images, I have a HDTV for film clips.
This digital photo frame is the best, hands down. If your nervous about the company or brand don’t be.
Don’t have any doubt to get it. But it will take some time to setup.
Get it.
From the Manufacturer
What’s a Digital Picture Frame?
This Digital Picture Frame (digital album or digital photo album) lets you view digital pictures (JPEG) directly from your camera’s memory cards. The Digital Album is the perfect way to view your photos, and it makes a great centerpiece for any home, office or business! You can create a slideshow using multiple transition effects or display one picture at a time. No computer, digital camera or Internet connection is required.
The 15-inch Digital Picture Frame from Opteka comes complete with 1GB built in memory making storing and displaying your favorite pictures easy and fun. TFT LCD Screen with the highest possible resolution, wide viewing angles and long life span. It’s compatible with SD and xD flash memory cards, as well as a wide variety of other flash storage devices. High performance digital processor inside to load, display and process each picture blazing fast. Built in stereo speakers to enjoy your favorite music. Six position adjustable stand for an optimum viewing angle. Operation is very simple - just plug in a memory card and turn the Digital Photo Frame on. Or, transfer your photos directly from your computer through the USB connector. Interchangeable frame with a simple, patent pending “Insert and Latch” step. No tools required! The Opteka Digital Picture Frame is packed with features and a low price.
The 15-inch Digital Picture Frame is compatible with the following memory card formats: Secure Digital (SD), xD Picture Card, Compact Flash (CF), MultiMedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro, and Microdrive cards.
Product Features
- Displays digital pictures (JPEG) without computer.
- Simply insert a compatible memory card into the digital frame to show photos.
- 1Gb built-in memory allows you to use your memory card in your camera while your pictures are shown on the frame.
- Enhanced TFT LCD Screen with the highest possible resolution, wide viewing angles and long life span
- Full 15 inch (diagonal) screen with brightness control: remote control included
- Features slide show mode and image rotation and is compatible with JPEG, JPEG Motion & AVI files
Technical Details
- Decorative frame (wooden)
- Resolution: 1024 X 768
- 5 Buttons (Previous, Play/Pause/Enter, Next, Exit, Menu)
- Wall mountable in landscape mode
What’s in the box:
- Opteka 15-inch Digital Picture Frame (Digital Photo Frame)
- User’s Manual
- AC Power Adapter
- Remote Control
- USB Cable, and 1 Year Limited Warranty.
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