14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
EX1011 Wireless is no wireless at all!
Date of Review: May 19, 2007
The Bottom Line: If you want a photo frame that is wireless, save your money, this isn't it.
Over the years our family has been taking pictures with our digital cameras & storing them on our computer. When we saw the wireless photo frame from Kodak, it seemed the perfect device to hang on the wall, display all our pictures from our desktop computer. We were wrong. First of all, the documentation is sparse at best. Once the frame is configured to your network, the extent of documentation, says, install windows media player 11 on your desktop, and select that computer with the photo frame. Well, it took several days of experimenting to find out, only files in "My Pictures" on the desk top will be used by the frame. During this time, I tried everything. I added new share directories to media player 11, I created play lists, I even tried mapping network drives. Most of these configurations would make the photo frame simply lock up. Next, I thought, well maybe I could simply copy pictures to the photo frame using wireless. Wrong. The photo frame is not capable of this. It can copy pictures FROM the frame but not TO the photo frame. The frame doesn't create pictures. So, why in the world would I want to pull pictures out of the frame? Obviously, someone hadn't thought this through!
I found if I have a few pictures (maybe 100 or less) in my desktop "My Pictures" folder, the frame seems to work OK. But our family album consists of maybe 2500 photos. This is when the frame begins locking up. Also, the frame will not begin displaying network pictures at power up. It only plays pictures from the memory card. So, every time the unit comes on, and if you want to display pictures from your network, you will need to use the remote control.
If you want a photo frame that you can use with your wireless network. Save your money. This isn't it.
*Update*
At the Kodak we site I found a firmware upgrade! Finally, some fixes so this thing doesn't lock up (so I thought). Upon installing the firmware, the frame no longer works. I sent email to the tech support several times & the only thing they could say was to be sure the power is turned on, a memory card is inserted, and if there are any other problems, send the unit back for repair (Not an exact quote, but basically the same sentiment). I will be sending this thing back, as it is too late to get a refund. I wish I returned it in time for a refund.
By the way. For a living, I write software for embedded devices such as this. I would be embarrassed if I were on the team of developers that designed this.
