Pandigital Model PAN604 6-inch digital picture frame

I received a Pandigital Model PAN604-JAC digital photo frame for Christmas 2007 and I am quite pleased with its picture quality and user options.

The active screen size is 5 inches wide by 3 1/4 inches high, with a diagonal active screen size of 6 inches. So, like TV sets, the larger diagonal measurement is the one that is used. The overall picture frame size is 9 1/4 inches wide by 7 1/2 inches high.

This is an AC-powered device; the usual "wall wart" is used to convert 120 VAC to the required 5V DC used by the frame itself. The power cord is a black 1/8-inch wide zip cord, so while it's not particularly noticeable, it's not invisible, either.

The frame can be used in either portrait or landscape mode. There is a fold-out stand on the back of the frame that can be rotated for either orientation. Or, if you wish to wall-mount, there are screw head slots for both orientations, as well. No template is provided for placing the wall screws, so careful screw centerline-to-centerline placement is important if you plan to wall-mount this frame, as I did (the screw center-to-center spacing for landscape mounting needs to be 4 5/16 inches, and I recommend using a level to ensure that the screws give a horizontal mounting).

The on-off switch, power cord input, and analog brightness control are on the frame's left-hand side, hidden behind the frame edge; there is sufficient room behind the frame edge to easily access these controls. There are also five control buttons on the top of the frame, again behind the frame edge, but it is much easier to use the provided remote control. The remote control is about the size of a credit card, and so could be easily misplaced. I used black velcro to mount the remote control on the lower right-hand edge of the frame; this has worked well, and looks okay.

This model claims that it comes with 128 MB of internal memory, but a "get info" on the volume shows 124 MB of memory; while not a significant difference, Pandigital shouldn't claim 128 MB when it's really 124 MB. You can also insert four different types of memory cards: CF, SD/MMC, MS/Duo or XD. However, after loading my frame with 47 pictures, and using only 3.4 MB of the available 124 MB, it became obvious that I didn't need a supplemental memory card.

Connecting to your computer is accomplished by a provided mini-USB to USB cable. The mini-USB connection is on the back of the frame and perpendicular to the back of the frame, and so requires removing the frame from its wall mount to insert that cable. This hasn't proved to be a burden, though.

Now, here's the stunning part: The frame's software is Mac compatible! Excellent. My Mac G4 running OS 10.4.11 ("Tiger") had no problem recognizing the volume as soon as it was connected to one of my Mac's USB ports. The only quirk is that whenever I upload a jpeg to the frame, it creates two files: one the desired jpeg, the other an "format not supported" file; those "format not supported" files then have to be manually deleted using the frame's internal software. With the remote control unit, this is not hard to do, so it's only a minor annoyance. If the "format not supported" files are not removed, you get a black screen with an "format not supported" error message in the middle of the display as the frame steps through its available pictures (if you have selected that mode). This upload quirk may be a Mac-only problem; but, since I don't own a PC, I can only speak to my Mac experience.

When you are through transferring files from your computer to the frame, be sure to drag the volume's icon to the trash before disconnecting the interface cable, otherwise you'll get a "device removal" error message. This might corrupt one or more files, although no apparent harm was done to my frame on the few occasions when I forgot to drag the Pandigital volume to the trash before disconnecting the USB cable.

There are a lot of easily selectable display options, including a calendar/clock display mode. Setting the calendar and clock was simple. You can select a single jpeg for display, or have the frame step though all of the uploaded pictures (the "slide show" mode). If the slide show mode is selected, you can set the per picture display time to 5, 10 or 60 seconds; or to 1 or 24 hours. You further have the option of specifying several different types of visual transitions from picture to picture. I like the "dissolve" mode best, but there are a total of ten other transition modes to chose from.

The software also allows an alarm mode, and the playing of MP3 audio files, although I haven't tried these modes, so can't comment on the frame's audio quality. There is a "line output" option, for connecting to an external audio system, but again I haven't used that feature.

The owner's manual is detailed and well-written. I didn't find any fractured-English instructions that you sometime chuckle over with "made in China" products.

Now to the heart of the issue: picture quality. I rate it as very good to excellent, and I don't understand some of the other ratings saying that that picture quality of their Pandigital picture frame was poor. I note that the Pandigital owner's manual indicates that the resolution for the frame is 400 x 234 pixels. This translates to 93,600 square pixels over a screen area of 16.25 square inches, or about 76 pixels per inch. This is just fine to provide a high-quality display according to my eyeballs. Finally, the software DOES allow adjusting the brightness, contrast, color and tint. All of these parameters are easily accessed in the "setup" mode, using the remote control.