The Internet radio search is helpful, but it only works in conjunction with the other sorting tools. So you can’t just search the entire database for “sports” for instance. The default puts you in Afganistan. So you still have to specify genre or country, but at least the search is more useful than scrolling through thousands of stations to find what you want.

The best news though is now it’s possible to find local radio stations. Select USA for the country and your city’s name for the search criteria, and there should be plenty of options. “Cincinnati” yields 18 results.

We knocked the Internet Radio search function pretty hard in our review, we’re happy to see HP addressing the issues, making the DreamScreen progressively better as they go.

Related Stories

HP DreamScreen Review

HP 8” Smart Wi-Fi Display Specifications:

• Standard Aspect Ratio (4:3) 8” LED-Backlit Display
• Resolution: 800:600
• Supported File Formats: MPEG1, MPEG4, Motion JPEG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, MP3, WMA, WAV
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi B/G, USB 2.0, PC Connection
• Internal Memory: 512MB
• Supported Memory Formats: CF, SD, MS, MMC, xD
• Stereo Speakers
• Remote Control
• MSRP: $179.99

Build and Design

The 8” Smart Wi-Fi Display from HP has a rather basic design that greatly contrasts the DreamScreen. The body is matte black plastic in a slight wave form with speaker grills formed into both sides. Directly bordering the screen is a silver frame, also matte plastic, which sits slightly in front of the body. Compared to the sleek and desirable design of the DreamScreen, the 8” Smart Wi-Fi looks like something out of the 90’s. Normally I am not always a huge fan of glossy finishes for how much attention they need to stay clean, but this model really needs something to help it stand out in the crowded digital frame space. It’s pretty obvious that the DreamScreen design team is different from the team that designed the sd828.

The lightweight plastic body doesn’t help my initial build quality impression. The plastic body feels hollow when you pick it up and even echoes when you tap your fingers on it. In terms of durability the plastic feels solid in all areas except the speaker openings and has a steady footing when placed on a desk surface. The matte plastic finish resists smudging and scratches, but does seem to attach dark prints if you handle the exterior with oily fingers.

The back-side contains a built-in extending stand for viewing images in portrait or landscape positions. In the landscape position the stand stays collapsed, and when viewing in portrait mode you rotate the hinge 90-degrees and extend it by pressing the release button. While the stand does a perfect job of supporting the weight of the frame, it is very thin and flexible. 1-2lbs of pressure to the top edge of the frame will bend the stand out an inch. When fully extended one fear I had is if someone pressed down on top of the frame, the stand might snap off entirely. If the stand is collapsed when in landscape viewing mode it is much less bendy.

One handy feature on the side of the frame is a holding slot for the remote. When you are done using the control you simply slide it into the slot about half-way and it stays hidden and secure until the next time you need it. I personally think this should be a feature on every digital picture frame.

Controls

I usually don’t have much trouble understanding most remote controls but HP threw me a curveball with the picture-labeled buttons on this one. Each button is labeled with a picture of what the button controls. Some of the buttons are easy to understand off the bat (direction arrows, play/pause, clock) while others are not (cascading pictures, power icon inside a monitor). After some trial and error I figured out cascading pictures with a play buttons equals memory source and power icon inside a computer monitor means sleep, but why not label them with something simple like a word?

HP mounts the primary controls to navigate the menus, directly access a slideshow, and start/stop current slideshows. These buttons are near the top of the frame, slightly recessed on the rear. The buttons are clearly labeled with text, but their hidden position means you need to look behind the frame to use them.

Display

The 4:3 display on this frame is the default picture size from basically any camera on the market. For example if you have a 16:9 display and view images straight off a digital camera you will have bars surrounding the image. The 8” display on the HP Smart Wi-Fi is colorful and has very good contrast. The matte finish helps to reduce reflections compared to a glossy display. Colors seem to be saturated very well and the difference between light and dark colors is excellent. The 800×600 resolution is perfect for a display of this size, keeping images looking sharp and high in detail. Backlight bleed around the edges is minimal with the screen surface having very even backlighting. Viewing angles in landscape mode were good with colors staying accurate to about 20 degrees tilted forward or back and nearly 90 degrees side to side.

Compared to other frames on the market the HP 8” Smart Wi-Fi doesn’t detect which mode it is displaying in. If you flip the stand into portrait mode you need to manually rotate each image as they load. There is no menu setting to switch the frame from landscape into portrait mode permanently. I am not even sure why HP included a pivoting rear stand if they don’t include a simple software modification to flip the orientation of the screen. It is even stranger when HP clearly labels the hinge on the back “Portrait” and “Landscape” so perhaps it was a software feature they overlooked and might include down the road.

Memory Sources

The HP Smart Wi-Fi Display can pull images in from multiple sources. Memory card support includes Compact Flash, SDHC, Memory Stick, MMC, and xD. The frame also includes two USB ports; one to attach USB memory sticks and another to connect the frame to a computer. To save images from outside sources HP included 512MB of internal storage, which can be accessed directly when the frame is connected to a computer.

Utilizing Wi-Fi this frame can pull in pictures from a linked Flickr account. To use this you setup an account on HPFrame.com and link it to your personal Flickr account. Images in your personal account can be added into sets which can be viewed on the frame. Unlike many of the other Internet-enabled picture frames that support Flickr, this HP frame doesn’t support channels. Channel support I feel is one of the best features for digital picture frames that can connect to the Internet. You gain access to an almost unlimited supply of pictures which can be used for slideshows. I really hope HP brings channel support to this frame in the future.

The 8” Smart Wi-Fi frame supports streaming radio which is linked through the HPFrame.com website. You can search by country, city, genre, and language. I found a mix of AM and FM broadcast channels that streamed online in the cities I was interested in. Each city I looked at brought up 10-20 results, so changes are you should be able to find some that interest you. In all but one case the stations I added worked without a problem and played with reasonable quality.

Users can also add a number of other online-content features to the picture frame through the HPFrame.com website. These features include weather information for up to three zipcodes, shared YouTube videos linked through your account, email photos, Facebook, MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa, Snapfish, Twitter, and MMS. In the case of streaming video from YouTube the processing capabilities of the frame were tested and the results were highly compressed and pixelated video samples.

Display Modes

The 8” HP Smart Wi-Fi display offers two display modes, single image and quadrant. Single image displays one image at a time while quadrant displays two images with the clock and calendar on the screen as well. If you just leave the frame to display pictures at the interval that you set it seems to work without any problem. If you intend to skip forward through images you definitely notice a delay as the system tries to process the request.

Menu System

The menu system is very basic, giving you access to local settings, system information, the initial setup wizard, networking settings, and the ability to reset to factory defaults. The menu layout lacked some of the polish I have seen in other picture frames, but it wasn’t the worst either. As mentioned in the display section I feel some needed features such as an orientation setting were missing, so it could use some improvement.

Conclusion

The HP 8” Smart Wi-Fi Display looks great on paper but once you start to use it, it falls flat and comes to market six months late. The extra time didn’t help, in fact it probably hurt given the release of HP’s much better DreamScreen product. The interface is lacking basic features like the ability to change the screen’s orientation. This requires you to manually rotate each image as they appear during a slideshow. The online Flickr integration lacks channel support, so instead of adding a few popular channels to supply your images, you need to manually add your own pictures them to sets on your account. Compared to the DreamScreen which only costs a little more, the design seems dated, especially for a frame with an MSRP of $179. Overall it is hard to recommend this picture over other HP models currently on the market.

Pros

• Supports Flickr and streaming radio
• Nice 8” standard aspect display

Cons

• Lacks basic features
• Limited Flickr support
• Overpriced compared to DreamScreen

Rating – 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Here’s a detailed update on what users can expect

• PC software update (v 1.27) that optimizes the image size for the resolution on the DreamScreen and compresses the file size to take advantage of storing more photos on the 2GB storage without degrading the picture quality
• Pandora
  • Better readability of station names
  • Station names now allow for accented characters in station name
• Weather
  • Channel now supports 3-digit temperature & sub-zero temperature readings
  • Data refreshes every 10 minutes
• Better AVI video file playback
• HP SmartRadio – cleaned up listings to remove inactive stations and updated others
• Better ways to manage folder copy — keep folder structure on the HP DreamScreen
• General optimization and bug fixes in the DreamScreen software

Again, it’s a great sign to see HP issue this third firmware update since the DreamScreen’s release less than two months ago. We fully expect HP to keep up the progressive work and look forward to seeing what comes next. Perhaps a search option or better localized access to SmartRadio stations?

Related Stories

HP DreamScreen Review

True to its word, HP pushed out an update to the DreamScreen that does quite a bit of updating to the Pandora application. Pandora now lets users create a new account, truly eliminating the need for a PC for this application. Users can also now create new stations and delete stations. It also appears the thumbs up/down bug where the images were not being displayed has now been resolved.

HP is being coy about other fixes or enhancements. The Pandora updates are the most obvious improvement on the DreamScreen, but it’s reasonable to assume HP repaired other issues as well.

As to the update itself – our frame did not automatically recognize and install the update as it should based on the settings. Fortunately we had a heads up that the update was coming and went to look for it on our own. So if you’re a DreamScreen owner, be sure to go into the setup screen, then info, and search for updates manually.

Related Stories

HP DreamScreen Review

HP has launched a new platform in the digital display space. I hesitate to call the DreamScreen just a digital picture frame, although it does do that. It also has a Pandora application, plays video, streams content from a networked computer, connects to thousands of Internet radio stations, interfaces with Snapfish and Facebook and has both wired and wireless Internet connections. So it’s more than a frame – it truly is a new platform.

HP DreamScreen Specs

• DreamScreen 100 – 10.2″ Display – 800×480 pixel resolution
• DreamScreen 130 – 13.3″ Display – 800×480  pixel resolution
• 2GB internal memory (1.5GB available)
• Contrast 350:1
• Stereo Speakers
• Headphone out jack
• USB Host and USB mini
• Media cards supported – CF, MS, MMC, SD, xD
• Video formats – AVI, MPG, MP4
• Photo formats – BMP, JPEG, PNG
• Audio formats – MP3, PCM, WMA, AAC
• Touch screen button
• Remote control
• Ethernet – WiFi

DreamScreen Setup

The DreamScreen packaging is thankfully minimalistic, with just the things you need, all nicely packaged. The DreamScreen can operate entirely on its own, but configuration is a little easier via the included PC software. Through the software you can configure username and passwords for the applications like Pandora, Facebook and Snapfish. The same interface can be used to drag and drop photos onto the frame – more on that later.

PC Screen

As noted though, the frame doesn’t need a PC to get setup. Screw in the metal stand, connect the power cord and you’re ready to roll. Once it’s powered on, you can go straight to photo/video viewing via memory card or configure the wired or wireless network to immediately gain access to the Internet-enabled applications.

Data entry is handled with an onscreen keyboard and the remote control. The system is easy enough to get along with – it’s not like you’re trying to craft detailed emails here. Using the keyboard to enter my wireless security code took a few seconds and I was quickly connected to the Internet.

From a build perspective, the DreamScreen looks great. The high-gloss black back, rounded edges and the way it all blends together makes the unit feel complete and well thought-out. It’s not uncommon in this space to see a display panel that was designed for no particular purpose, being jammed into a shell to make a digital frame. HP definitely designed the DreamScreen with a purpose and it shows; the end result is polished and clean.

DreamScreen Interface

We often ridicule digital frames because they have dreadful user interfaces. Because HP is viewing the DreamScreen as a platform, they spent a lot of time thinking about how users will want to interact with the product. And it shows – at power on, users are presented with an easy to understand scrolling list of applications. Using the remote or on-screen buttons, it’s easy to scroll through the list of options to pick what you want. They’re all clearly labeled with a launch icon for each.

Once in an application, there’s generally a brief setup screen. Users can also access settings via the options button on the remote. Navigation is generally very intuitive though. The only hiccup we’ve had is that to get back to the home screen to select a new application for instance, it takes a press and hold of the back button. It would have been nice for HP to add a clearly labeled home button on their remote. At this point users know what to expect when pressing a house-shaped button, manipulating a back button isn’t fluid.

We’ve talked a good deal about the remote already, and in terms of being able to do everything you need to do, it’s great. The 12 buttons do it all, including turning the frame on and off. When you’re done with the remote, there’s a little caddy on the back of the frame to house it. This is a small touch, but nice, as most frames just have you leave the remote nearby, adding clutter and a higher potential to lose the remote.

Aside from the remote, users can manage the frame with touch sensitive controls in the lower right corner of the frame. The controls remain hidden until your hand activates the sensor to light the buttons. The eight buttons handle all of the frame’s tasks – so in the event you lose the remote, you won’t lose any functionality. The buttons are responsive and it’s great that they fade away when not in use. However, they don’t always light up right away and it’s easy to make an accidental button press. I had to login into Pandora online a few times to remove accidental thumbs down ratings.

Memory/File Sources

HP has included just about any conceivable way to get files on the DreamScreen. There are two multi-card readers. The first handles the small cards including SD, MMC, MS and xD. The other slot handles CF and micro drives. If you have files on USB drives, no problem, there’s a USB host port for that.

The DreamScreen has 1.5GB of internal storage, after you delete the setup videos and stock art that come on the frame. Files can easily be transferred to the frame by copying from a memory card. There’s also the drag and drop method on the PC. Lastly the frame can be connected directly to a computer, where it will show up as an external storage device. The DreamScreen supports foldering – so it’s very easy to sort files by folder and control which ones are viewed in a slideshow for instance.

The ability to drag and drop files using the PC application is no small thing, this is only the second time we’ve even seen this method attempted. When setting up my frame, I took my 2009 folder of photos and just dropped it on the application. It took a while to move 700MB, but the job got done with minimal effort. Right now HP takes the entire files as they are, but I wouldn’t be surprised if along the way they add a feature that re formats the files for use on the frame. Loading full-sized images is a waste of storage space, but many users don’t know how to, or take the time, to re-size their images for a digital frame. You can also use the desktop software to manage your account information for the Internet-based applications.

If you want to take full advantage of the Internet connection, the DreamScreen can also stream files from a connected device on the network. The only trick here is there’s a little work required to enable file sharing on a computer and router. HP includes good documentation on how to enable this, but any time users have to edit router settings, there’s a certain percentage that will be frustrated. Even so, if you have a media server, this option is definitely nice to have and gives the DreamScreen a tremendous amount of flexibility.

DreamScreen Applications

Out of the box, the DreamScreen comes with several applications that are both geared toward sharing life’s memories and entertainment. HP is off to a great start with their application library. While there’s no public API that will let developers push the DreamScreen with new applications, HP fully intends to release more applications and firmware updates. In fact, our review unit has already found and installed a firmware update, which is good to see, we like HP being proactive about making the DreamScreen progressively better.

We’ll break down each of the applications below to give you a better understanding of what the DreamScreen can do:

Pandora

It’s easiest to start here because Pandora is easily one of the best applications on the DreamScreen. The integration is absolutely fantastic. The experience is similar to the PC or iPod flavors – users get access to all of their stations and songs play complete with cover art, track details and the ability to do thumbs up/down. Pandora is fully integrated with the user’s account, so thumbs up/down are recorded and saved, though it doesn’t appear that the DreamScreen application can show the thumbs up that users have issued through another interface. That’s likely just a bug that HP can resolve however.

The listening experience is certainly enjoyable, I currently have the DreamScreen on my desk and I leave it on Pandora a good portion of the day. The remote handles the volume, pausing and song ratings. Pandora will also play in the background as you run some of the other applications like photo viewer and slideshows.

HP SmartRadio

Access to thousands of Internet radio stations is promising. I was able to add some of my favorites like ESPN radio and Fox News, but not without issues. The way HP has you add stations is nearly unusable, unless you have a lot of time and patience. To add a station you can sort by location (country) or genre.  So if you want radio from Afghanistan, you’re actually okay, since there are two stations to choose from, but go try to find your favorite station from the US. You can view them by most popular or alphabetically – both are horrible options for finding something you know you’re looking for. There’s no way to search by station name and you can’t drill-down to state or city. This issue is fixable though, we’ll see how HP responds.

It would also be nice to have a more immersive experience. After looking at what they did with Pandora, the SmartRadio screens are pretty blah. Adding additional data like a station logo, what’s playing (artist info) and the like would be a nice touch.

Facebook

Like the Pandora integration, the Facebook application is pretty slick. While it’s not entirely full-featured, what you do get is a stream of status updates from your friends, organized chronologically. You can also browse their photo libraries by selecting a user. If you’re subscribed to events, there’s a tab for that as well.

The main downside is that you don’t get full access to the things friends post, only status updates. You also can’t issue status updates of your own, though you certainly could with the onscreen keyboard. Even so, the application looks good and is certainly a nice first effort.

Weather

HP has included a beautiful weather page in an integration with Weather Bug. The screen shows current conditions and a four day forecast. To select your city, just enter in the zip code or use the search feature to type in your location. The main problem with the Weather channel is that it only supports a single city, though the options screen leads you to believe there’s a way to enter more. In a future release it would be great to be able to view a localized video forecast. We’d also like to see a way to slice in the weather with other functions like the clock – especially in the morning.

Calendar

The calendar shows month views and users can page through by month to move forward in the calendar. We’re going to toss this feature in the useless category right now though. There’s no way to add or view events, they didn’t even include national holidays. There’s a lot more that can be done here, but for now it’s a total pass, unless you really want to know what day of the week October 13th is.

Clock

Beyond doing what you’d expect – display time, the clock can operate in a dual timezone mode, clock with calendar, or clock with slideshow. The latter is pretty useful, it makes for one of the better display options on the DreamScreen. The clock itself can be run in analog or digital mode, though there aren’t faces to choose from within those categories. The clock does shift from blue to red at 6PM however, to be a little more subtle in the evening.

If you’re using the DreamScreen bedside, you’ll be glad to know there are three alarm settings. There are a few sound options, but the frame doesn’t play a sample, so it’s impossible to know what they sound like unless you set the alarm, listen, then go back and repeat the process. You can also awake to music on the device. There’s not a visual indicator that an alarm is set and active, that would be a nice touch.

Video

The DreamScreen supports video playback of AVI, MPG and MP4 files. Unfortunately all the AVI files I moved over that were shot on a Canon digital camera struggled to play, often causing the frame to kick me out to the main menu after a few seconds. I know the DreamScreen can play video, the included videos looked great and played well. I’m not entirely sure why mine failed, but for now we’ll look at it as an isolated incident until more people experiment with video playback on the device.

Photo

Within the photo app users can browse their images by date, folder, view all or connect to the PC to see shared photos. From here users can also launch a slideshow, which has several options including 17 transitions and timing options from 3 seconds to 24 hours. Since the native resolution of the display is widescreen, there’s also an option to fit the images to screen, so there’s no black border. This option is on by default and I actually didn’t even notice my pictures were slightly edited, so I’d say HP did well here.

Music

The Music player supports a wide variety of formats including MP3, AAC and WMA. This is a comprehensive lineup, besting most other products in this class. Users can view their music by album, artist, genre or view a list of all songs. Along with songs stored on the device or attached media, the DreamScreen can stream music from the PC as well.

Snapfish

HP’s Snapfish integration is well done, users can easily log into the service on the DreamScreen to have access to their photos stored on their online service. Users can even launch a slideshow based on only these photos. There is however, no way to create a slideshow that includes data from Snapfish and photos stored on the device.

Setup

Not really an application on its own, but users can configure the device name, time zone, time and date format, brightness, network properties, time sync and the like. There’s also an option to set a time on and time off for the device, so it doesn’t run overnight. Users can also manually check for software updates, though the device can be configured to do this automatically, and there’s a self diagnostic routine to help users troubleshoot issues.

Display

The DreamScreen display is possibly the best we’ve seen on a device like this. HP has done well here to offer a high resolution display in both models, with vibrant colors and fantastic viewing angles. Users can control the brightness setting, the default is 10, the maximum. I’m actually surprised that at this level the colors look so good, they often get washed out at higher brightness levels. The blacks are held well and images with a lot of color aren’t over-saturated. Overall the display is very impressive.

The display panels are widescreen though, so users will need to edit pictures to get them to display properly in native resolutions, or let HP do the resizing work itself. As noted, we were pleased with the onboard editing the frame does on its own. The DreamScreen is also meant to be displayed horizontally, so it’s best to leave the portrait shots off.

Speakers

Generally we spend little time on the speakers in devices like this because they’re usually pretty bad. In this case though HP had to do better, with all the multimedia functions and all. The stereo speakers won’t blow anyone away, but they’re better than most notebooks and clock radios – and better than almost all other frames we’ve tested. I can listen to Pandora or the Internet Radio for hours and enjoy the experience, which is the key hurdle here. If you want more, there’s a headphone jack to add headphones or external speakers. Overall though we’re happy with the sound output.

Conclusion

There’s so much to love about the DreamScreen – the applications are generally very well done and HP is planning to offer more to expand the functionality of the platform. The display is fantastic as well. What HP is going to struggle with though to a certain degree is making the consumer understand just what exactly a DreamScreen is. They don’t want to call it a photo frame – it’s more than that. They can’t really call it a media player, that conjures up images of streaming Internet video with output to an HDTV.

It sits somewhere between, really trying to define that space generally referred to as the third screen in a home, the first two being the computer and TV. And if you look at that category and what’s out there now, HP has done a fantastic job of giving us something usable, something that adds value, in that third screen category. To this point, digital frames have attempted to accomplish such a thing, but they always fail on interface when they try to do much more than display photos. Even the online services like FrameChannel and Microsoft’s FrameIt fall well short in delivering a good experience.

So what HP has done with the DreamScreen is really define what the third screen can be. They didn’t just strap features onto an existing digital frame, the DreamScreen is new from the ground up. It’s what we said in the beginning, a platform. And it’s probably a platform that can finally get people to believe that the idea of the third screen is relevant.

Pros

• Fantastic display
• Great content integration from Pandora, Facebook, Snapfish
• Usable interface
• Future applications planned

Cons

• Some applications need help (Calendar, SmartRadio)
• Might struggle to get out of the shadow of “regular” digital frames

Bottom Line

The price point of $249 for the 10.2″ model and $299 for the 13.3″ model might give some buyers pause, but keep in mind that there are no service fees and all of the online content from Pandora, Snapfish and SmartRadio comes without cost too. Given what the DreamScreen can do out of the box, coupled with where HP is telling us they’re going to take the platform, the value proposition makes sense for those who want a screen that’s more than a digital frame.

4.5 stars out of 5 – Editor’s Choice

The panel itself is an 8″ standard aspect ratio display with 800×600 resolution. Internally the frame offers speakers and 512MB of memory. They’ve also included a multi-card reader that supports CF, MS, SD, xD and MMC cards. There’s also a port to read content from USB drives.

In addition to the card readers, the frame will be able to grab images using the internet conenction from popular sharing sites like Facebook, Myspace, Snapsh, Photobucket, Flickr, and Picasa. The frame will monitor these sites and alert you when photos have been updated. HP also mentions support to receive photos via MMS, but doesn’t provide details as to how it works.

On the multi-media side the sd828a1 can play music and movies. On the music side it supports MP3, WAV and WMA. For video it supports MPEG1, MPEG4 and Motion JPEG. The frame also works with Internet Radio broadcasts and Internet gadgets. It remains to be seen how well this works and how deep the gadget universe for this frame is.

As part of this announcement, HP also launched a digital picture frame keychain, but they did not include a picture or any specs. We’ll try to learn more when the CES show floor opens later this week.

The 8″ Smart Wi-Fi Display is HP’s most full-featured digital frame to date. Hopefully they’ve included an easy-to-use interface to support all of these new features. It will be available this Spring for $179, the keychain will retail for $24.99.

HP sd828a1 Specs

• 8″ display
• Standard aspect ratio, 800×600 pixels
• Integrated Wi-Fi
• 512MB internal memory
• CF, MMC, MS, SD, xD and USB
• Video and Audio playback
• Support for online photo sources, Internet radio, Gadgets and MMS photos

Update – 12/08/09 – HP sd828 Review Posted

HP df1000 Specs

• 10.4” LCD (4:3 aspect ratio, 800×600 resolution)
• 512MB internal memory
• Supports SD, MMC, MS, xD, CF external memory
• USB connections for PictBridge, thumbdrives, and internal memory access
• Supports printing direct through PictBridge
• Audio/video playback (MP3, AVI, MPEG-1, MP4, MOV)
• Built-in stereo speakers

Design and Build

The HP df1000 has a very simple design with a mahogany wood border and interchangeable mats to customize the look to best fit the pictures displayed. A protective layer of plastic covers the mat and LCD to help keep wandering fingertips from the screen as well as giving the front a cleaner look. From the side the profile is pretty slim, only extending about an inch beyond the wood trim (not including the stand). The electronic section of the frame is made up entirely of black plastic which helps it blend in with the background. The view from the side or rear isn’t as refined as other models, but it doesn’t really hurt the look too much.

From the rear the frame has thumb screws exposed which are used to secure the inner workings to the wood frame. By unfastening the screws you are able to swap out the interchangeable mats to give the frame a customized look.

Thumb Screws are also used to secure the stand in place, which when removed lets you hang the frame on a wall. The stand is secured to the back of the frame, which has notches to adjust the height. By adjusting how far up or down the stand is, you can change the tilt of the frame.

The build is average, with a solid feel to the wood surround and plastic body. The controls on the back of the frame feel kind of cheap and require a strong grip on the frame to activate a function. Softer buttons would have been a nice touch, perhaps not requiring so much effort to advance a picture or access the menu system.

Display

The 800×600 resolution 10.4” display is bright enough for a well lit room and even holds its own against glare from open windows. The protective layer on top of the screen doesn’t help well with reflections, but with the display on you don’t notice them as much. Colors are vivid and with the help of the picture adjustment controls you can even adjust the look to tone some images down or ramp up the saturation. One problem I have with the adjustments is the lack of backlight control, to dim the frame in a dark room, so it blends in without being a “beacon of light”.

The screen can be easily viewed from all angles around the room with a broad horizontal viewing range. Vertical viewing angles are more limited, tending to make images look distorted at steeper angles, but few people will be towering above the frame or standing under it.

Memory/Picture Sources

The df1000 has a wide assortment of possible image locations, including an outside computer to transfer images from, onboard memory, a USB memory stick, and 2 onboard memory card readers that handle all popular formats. All of the connections are located on the left side of the frame, tightly grouped into one section.

Card slots included SD, MMC, MS, and XD and another for Compact Flash. To easily handle the bulk of my images without hauling the frame over to my computer I used a USB memory stick to hold most of my images.

The df1000 is loaded with 512MB of internal storage, which is about the average for frames of this nature. For most people this could store a upwards of a thousand images if you resize and recompress the images, but if you are like me and keep the images in the original size the internal memory fills up quickly. While most functions of the df1000 could use external memory sources, you are limited to internal memory only when viewing pictures in the clock mode. This was a pretty big limitation, as you go from an almost unlimited source of images from external cards, to only a “handful” that you need loaded ahead of time.

Display modes

Users have two main display modes for viewing images; one is the main slideshow feature and the other is the clock mode which displays a calendar, clock, and two images.

The slideshow starts playing images as soon as it is opened and you can change the style of transition used between each image. Transition speed can be set to be as little as 5 seconds or as much as 24 hours. I found 30 seconds to be a good compromise.

You can pause the slideshow at any time using the remote and access a listing to quickly skip ahead to a particular image. While paused you can manipulate the displayed image, rotating or zooming in on a certain part. You can also copy the selected image to internal memory or delete it. Printing is another option available, if you happen to have a printer located in the same area as your frame and it also supports PictBridge.

In the slideshow mode you can set a digital border, with up to 6 different options. I didn’t find any to be appealing to use, and without descriptions in the menu indicating what each style was, I ended up guessing which was which. None of the options had a good look and felt as if they were a feature worked in at the last minute.

The clock mode displays a mix of images and screens in a 4 screen layout, pulling two images at a time off of the internal memory. On this screen you have a very basic calendar which displays the current date, a clock, and alarm indicator. Since I never seen to have enough clocks around the house, I kept the picture frame on this mode most of the time. With such a large screen the images were very easy to see and not squished.

If you are in a power-conscious environment, HP offers a hibernation mode which can be set to automatically shutdown the frame and fire it back up at a time of your choosing. I would have also liked to see automatic dimming or at least the ability to adjust overall back-light levels.

The df1000 supports some limited video playback as well as music playing behind slideshows. Heavy bitrate movies would stutter during playback, limiting you to low resolution and very basic movies. For the occasional clip from a newer digital camcorder it works fine, but don’t plan on watching feature length movies on it.

Menu System

The menu system has two layers of access, one which lets you switch viewing modes, and another that allows you to adjust settings. The top layer has a nice polished look, with pictures clearly showing what each selection was for.

The settings layer has no finishing touches and was confusing to understand. Many of the settings have the value “Mode 1, 2, etc” which doesn’t give the user a good idea of what it is supposed to represent. You had to pick a setting, go back to the main area to view it, and then decide if that was what you wanted.

Extra Features

The PictBridge printing feature is a handy option if you happen to have a photo printer within cable range to the picture frame. With any image that is currently on display, you can hit the print button on the remote to send it off to the printer. This is nice if you don’t want to have a computer in the area to print off images but you end up losing the ability to modify your image before printing.

Pros

• Great screen
• Nice traditional look
• Can pull images off of a ton of memory sources
• PictBridge enabled to print directly from the frame

Cons

• Poorly labeled menu settings
• Preset screen borders look cheesy and clash with most pictures

Bottom Line

The HP df1000 is an attractive 10.4” digital picture frame with good looking hardware but it has some quirks that make it difficult to use at times. The primary functions are easy to navigate for normal use but it is the detailed settings like screen borders or clock settings which offer no help in understanding which item does what. Quirks aside, if you really want a frame of this size, we think the df1000 is a good option.

3.5 out of 5 stars

HP df300 Quick Specs

• 3.5” display
• 4:3 aspect ratio
• 320×240 resolution
• Single SD card slot
• Internal battery (2 hours of battery life)
• Auto-shutoff

Design and Build

It’s odd, but the design of this tiny frame is some of the best we’ve seen. What we generally see with larger frames is manufacturers try to jam so much in, the end result is a mish-mash of ports and buttons that hampers usability. There’s just something about the simplicity of the df300 that we love. Four buttons, a single card slot and a mini-USB port that’s used for charging and file transfer.

The front of the frame is sleek with a mirror-like finish around the border. Aside from the fingerprints, this design is perfect for a portable frame. It even comes with a black leather pouch, complete with two slots for memory cards.

The back of the unit is rubberized, making it each to grab a hold of. A small stand is integrated into the back and sits flush when not in use. The stand works in either portrait or landscape, but pictures do not re-orient automatically.

Since there’s no remote, the four buttons accomplish everything in terms of frame management. They manage pretty well, with a press and hold at times to activate menus. Once you spend a few minutes with the frame though, it’s pretty intuitive.

Out of the box, this is a great looking frame that’s not only built well, but conceived well. Heck, the box even has a green bow on it, so HP hopes the df300 will be a popular gift. It’s hard to argue with their assumption, the frame is so well put together, from a hardware perspective it will be hard to disappoint.

Memory/Picture Sources

HP has included a few MB of memory in the df300, enough to store 45 resized images. To augment this, they’ve also included an SD card reader, which is the best option for storing photos. The internal memory is a bit difficult to work with anyway and is best used for the tutorial images they’ve included with the frame.

The df300 includes a mini USB port which is used for two things. First is for charging the frame, which is convenient because it will charge over USB connection from a PC, or with the included AC adaptor. The second thing is does is allow access to the SD card from your PC. The frame in this case acts just like a card reader. While you cannot access the internal memory of the frame via PC, the option to access the SD card is helpful if for some reason you don’t have a card reader on your computer. The frame must be put into card reader mode manually though, each time you want to connect to a computer. So while the mini USB card access is a feature, it probably won’t get a lot of use.

Display Modes

HP has included a pretty reasonable set of slideshow and photo display features in the df300. The frame has a 4:3 aspect ratio that does not auto-rotate images. HP has included an image resizing software though, which will make sure the screen is always filled with an image. If you have a few portrait or oddly cropped images in the mix, the frame will zoom to fill the entire screen. This actually worked pretty well on our test image set.

From a slideshow perspective HP has included a base set of 6 transitions and speeds of 5, 10 or 30 seconds. The df300 also includes an auto shutoff that can be set to 5, 10 or 30 minutes. It makes a lot of sense for such a feature in a device with a battery, we’re glad to see it here.

Otherwise the frame is pretty straightforward. There aren’t a bunch of customizations or extra slideshow features like playlists, but for what it is, the df300 is sufficiently outfitted with display options.

Menu System

It doesn’t get a lot easier to work with than the menu system included with the HP df300. There are four buttons, all of which are used to navigate the menus. When t eh frame is turned on, you can select to view images from the internal memory or via SD card if one is inserted. After selecting the source the frame defaults into a slideshow.

There are two places to access frame/picture options, but both are done the same way. From the main menu pressing and holding the options button will bring up the core set of options. From a slideshow, the same button press gives you options specific to that picture, along with screen settings. It takes a few times through to get the proper use of the options and power button when navigating the menus, but it’s easy to pick up.

The menus and options are well laid out, leading to a pretty good interface. Again, the simplicity of design really helps make the df300 easy to work with.

Display

For a 3.5” 320×240 pixel display, we’re pretty happy with the quality. Horizontal viewing angles are pretty good, which is important if you’re trying to jam several faces around this little frame. But what we weren’t expecting were any display controls.

Like the df820 we recently reviewed, HP has included controls for brightness, contrast, tint and color. These four options are more than most full-featured frames offer, forget about this new class of portable frames. Out of the box contrast and colors are accurate, but you can tweak these settings as you like to get the results you like.

We expected the display to be a hindrance on the df300, but ended up pleasantly surprised. It’s common in a frame of this size for the manufacturer to skimp in an effort to keep the price down. That doesn’t appear to be the case with this HP model.

Battery

The HP df300 includes an internal batter that charges via the mini USB port. The manual claims roughly 2 hours of battery life. In our test we disabled auto shutoff, enabled photo optimization, enabled transitions and started a slideshow with 5 second transitions. Essentially we wanted to prove the minimum possible battery life, with default screen settings. We saw 2 hours and 22 minutes in our test, surprisingly better than what HP quotes. With more conservative usage, you should be able to top 3 hours.

Bottom Line

The HP df300 does what it intends to do. It offers a portable photo viewing experience with design and build that is very good. We can into the review with low expectations, so to say HP surpassed them isn’t entirely fair. They really vastly exceeded everything we thought we’d get with the df300. While it’s hard to gush over a 3.5” frame that doesn’t jam in dozens of high-tech features, HP did what you’re supposed to do – execute well on the basics. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the latest and greatest we forget that clean and simple has its place.

Pros:

• Excellent design and build
• Reasonable feature set
• Good display
• Better than advertised battery life

Cons:

• Limited internal memory

4.5 out of 5 stars – Editor’s Choice

HP df820 Quick Specs

• 8” LCD screen
• 800×600 pixels
• 512 MB internal memory
• Built-in card reader supports SD/SDHC, xD, Memory Stick, and CF
• USB and mini USB ports
• Audio/video playback
• Direct print via PictBridge
• Interchangeable mat system

Design and Build

The HP df820 is a conservatively styled 8″ digital photo frame from HP. Visually and functionally, the df820 is a no-frills device, with a plain, classy appearance that helps it blend in in home or office environments and a set of features that focuses on image and video playback without “tech head” distractions like Wi-Fi connectivity or touch interfaces.

If you’re thinking that this HP’s basic styling looks familiar, you’d be right. On both the hardware and firmware fronts, the df820 is very similar to a Pandigital model recently reviewed on this site – so much so, in fact, that it’s almost certain that the two models come from the same OEM. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a mark against the HP, just something we thought worth noting.

The HP df820 has a removable frame that’s made of composite material but painted to resemble dark wood, which holds in place a glass pane and double mat just like you’d find in a traditional photo frame. The frame comes with a stack of interchangeable mats in different colors and finishes. With three inner and three outer mats in addition to the cream and white ones that come loaded into the frame, the options for changing up the df820 to match your decor or mood are very robust. I didn’t take the time to count up the number of possible permutations (and it’s been awhile since I’ve had a math class), but the fact that you can use the larger outer mats by themselves as well means that there are a bunch of different color combinations available – in styles ranging from a classic blue/white combo that looks great in an executive office to a flashy black/silver setup more at home in a teenager’s bedroom.

Changing out the mats is a simple matter thanks to four large thumbscrews that hold the frame to the actual display unit. Besides being careful in handling the glass, the only trick is to make sure that the hole for the IR sensor in the outer mat is lined up with the remote control sensor itself on the display. Otherwise, you’ll be taking things apart again to get everything turned around once you figure out that your remote isn’t working.

The df820 sits just under an inch and a half thick from the front of the bezel to the back of case, meaning that it doesn’t protrude so much as to look awkward hanging on a wall. A single nail recess only allows for landscape orientation wall mounting, but the frame’s plastic swing-out desktop stand can be used in either portrait or landscape arrangement when positioning the device on a table or desk. An orientation sensor automatically rotates images depending on how the frame is set up, but the menus always default to landscape orientation regardless – meaning you’ll have to turn your head sideways to figure out what’s going on if you keep the frame set up in its vertical arrangement.

The short stand is a bit flimsy, making the df820 particularly unstable on a desktop when positioned in portrait orientation, though it feels none too solid in landscape mode either. Best to set up the HP in a location where it won’t get bumped or moved around much if you’re using the stand.

Connections are all centralized on the righthand side of the frame when viewing it straight ahead, with two card readers and both full-size and mini USB ports allowing images to be pulled over to the frame from a variety of media types.

Buttons are positioned on top of the display unit itself, sitting well behind the edge of the frame. Five buttons provide complete if a bit clunky access to the df820’s clear menus.

One of the more awkward interface decisions on this frame involves the brightness dial control that sits to the left of the menu buttons. The dial, which overrides any brightness adjustments made in the on-screen color controls console, seems like an odd addition; it’s as if the designers were looking for something to do with a leftover dial, which serves (only slightly more usefully) as a volume control for the headphone jack on Pandigital’s variant of this same design.

Memory/Picture Sources

The HP df820 packs in a respectable 512 MB of internal memory, assuring that you’ll have room for hundreds of full-res images from your typical consumer digital camera – or even thousands, assuming you leave the frame’s default “Auto Image Compression” setting enabled or resize your shots to 800×600 beforehand.

Getting images to the df820’s memory is as simple as knowing where to put your card: the HP’s built-in CF and multi-card (SD/SDHC, MS, and xD) readers handle images and video files from all of the common camera media types currently in use without issue. Likewise, there’s a full-size “host” USB port for connecting flash drives directly to the df820 to copy files.

What doesn’t work well, however, is the way the df820 handles batch file transfers from external media. From all indications, there’s no way to transfer multiple images from a card or drive with this device. Instead, you’re limited to moving through individual files, pressing the copy button on the remote each time a file you’d like to transfer comes up, and then sending it to the internal memory. Given that most frames in this price range will not only allow batch transfers from memory cards, but even walk you through the process through prompts when a memory card is inserted, the lack of any such functionality on the df820 definitely seems like a serious oversight.

Of course, you can connect the df820 to a computer via its mini USB port and supplied cable to transfer lots of files quickly. The device shows up as drive, and moving bulk images this way is a snap. But with the amount of memory this HP packs, you’d think there would be a more intuitive solution for filling up that internal storage space with lots of files directly from your memory cards.

Display Modes

After a relatively long boot-up cycle of nearly 15 seconds, the df820 defaults into slideshow mode, playing back images from any external media before cycling through those on the internal memory unless you tell it otherwise. Two clicks of the menu button call up the source selection prompt, which shows all available file sources and allows you to select where you’d like the df820 to display its images from.

Unfortunately, however, there’s no option for interspersing images from multiple memory sources: once you select a memory location to play files from, the df820 simply cycles through whatever images are available in that single location.

As a multimedia frame with built-in speakers, the df820 lets users add MP3 audio to slideshows; audio files are copied onto the device using the same basic process as images. In setting up the slideshow, a few basic transitions are available, and viewers can also choose how long each image is displayed – from as little as a few seconds up to a full day per image. A wide range of options and controls makes the df820’s slideshow options pretty rewarding.

One of HP’s talking points for the df820 involves its “Digital Matting” function, which applies one of six different borders to your image if selected.

It’s a little bit goofy, and since the borders are labeled generically (Option 1, Option 2, etc.) it’s impossible to know what each one looks like without a test run to find out.

The df820 also provides a nice multi-info mode within the time mode. Users can pick how they want the information to lay out via an option in the setup menu, but the same basic components (a calendar, a clock, and two images) always appear regardless of the specific arrangement selected. For office desktop use, though, the HP’s quadrant display mode looks nice and provides all the important info about time and date neatly and legibly.

The df820 can also be easily programmed to start up or shut down at a certain time of day every day. While this feature may be good for retail or other commercial applications, a sensor that allows the display to hibernate when viewers aren’t around would have been an even nicer touch for home use.

Although it’s capable of multimedia playback, the df820 wanted to stutter some in playing back video clips directly from external memory. Copying the file to internal memory first smoothed out playback (especially audio playback) considerably. Likewise, speaker placement isn’t ideal if you’re hanging the frame on a wall, with sound from the df820’s rear-facing speakers getting severely muffled when wall-mounted. HP doesn’t list what video file types are supported, and although I’m assuming the frame can handle the most common varieties, I was only able to test the unit in person with AVI clips.

Menu System

With its simple set of features and options, the df820 has one of the more manageable interfaces I’ve seen in a digital picture frame. Entering the HP’s pictorial master menu, options for pictures, video, and audio provide direct access to each of these respective file types, and a clock icon enters the time set mode.

For exploring the df820’s options, the setup menu is where you’ll spend most of your time. Thankfully, most of the options in the list are completely self-explanatory, and submenus are easy to deal with as well.

The only real issue worth noting with the df820’s menu concerns the fact that it’s so hard – almost impossible, in fact – and unintuitive to navigate using only the frame’s five built-in buttons. Thankfully the included wireless remote works well, and with its directional controller is much easier to deal with when it comes time to navigate the df820’s menus.

Display

The df820’s 800×600 8″ LCD panel is nothing particularly special for this class of digital picture frame, but it does provide performance that’s acceptable for this price point. Like most frame displays, there’s not much viewing latitude along the vertical axis, with colors inverting pretty quickly if you’re viewing from too far above or too far below the screen.

Side-to-side viewing, however, holds together all the way out to almost 90 degrees in each direction, providing a nice wide field of coverage that makes the df820 work well as a wall unit.

Colors are accurate and contrast is excellent by default, but if you want to give the picture on your frame a tune up, the df820 can oblige. Pressing the color control button on the remote while the frame is in slideshow mode calls up a picture control menu with basic adjustment options: brightness, contrast, tint, and color.

Tweak the settings as desired, press the color control button to save your changes, and the df820 will remember your picture adjustments across sessions.

Finally, while I think the glass plate over the display unit adds a touch of class and makes the df820 look less “digital” than many digital photo frames, it should be noted that it can also cause severe glare and make on-screen images basically unviewable depending on how ambient light hits it. Of course, with the df820’s modular design, you can always remove the glass if it’s causing problems for you.

Extra Features

The HP df820 allows you to print images directly from the frame to any PictBridge compatible photo printer. To configure this option, you’ll need to connect the frame to your printer’s PictBridge input via the frame’s mini USB port and change the “USB Mode” parameter from “PC” to “Printer” in the setup menu.

Once these changes are made, however, printing is as simple as pressing the “Print” button on the remote whenever the image that you’d like to print is displayed in slideshow mode. The df820 will prompt to confirm that you’d actually like to print the image.

Output sizes and quality options will depend on your printer-side configuration, and using the direct print option with images that have been resized for the frame isn’t recommended (as 800×600 at high compression is almost too small for any print larger than 4×6). However, I had no trouble actually printing images directly from the frame to my HP photo printer, and while this feature will be nothing more than a novelty for most users, if you have both the df820 and a photo printer on your desk, there’s really no reason not to hook them up: it makes creating quick prints for friends or family members a snap and yields better quality than the Smartparts digital frame with embedded photo printer.

Bottom Line

The HP df820 isn’t a cheap frame in any sense of the word. It’s certainly well made, but it also commands a pretty high price tag for one of the more conventional and featureless frames reviewed around here in awhile. If vanilla is your favorite flavor, the df820 may appeal with its elegant simplicity and refreshing lack of frustrating and poorly implemented advanced features. It’s the little things that hurt the df820’s appeal, though: no way to copy all the files from a memory card into internal memory with a single button, no way to shuffle images from multiple sources, and sluggish behavior when viewing images or videos directly from external media. The df820’s direct print feature is a nice touch if you’re among those who will actually get use out of it, but overall, the df820 runs the risk of seeming a little boring and simplistic. And while that may be just what some users are looking for, the price tag may seem a little too high for many others.

Pros

• Plenty of internal storage
• Well implemented direct print function
• Easy-to-use interface
• Interchangeable mats

Cons

• Slideshow options a bit limited
• No way to copy all images from external sources

Three and a half out of five stars

HP df1000

The 10.4″ df1000 features a 4:3 aspect ratio screen with 800×600 pixel resolution. It comes with dual speakers and support for multimedia functions like MP3 audio and video playback. HP has included 512MB of internal memory, along with a multi-card reader and USB support. It retails for $219.

HP df300a1

This tiny 3.5″ frame joins a class of semi-portable frames, as it includes a battery that is good for up to 2 hours of picture playback. Otherwise it features a 320×240 pixel display and a single SD card reader, along with a tiny bit of included memory, good for 45 pictures. The oddly named df300a1 retails for $59.

Update:

Our HP df300 Review has been posted.

It’s also a little difficult to imagine where a frame of this size might live outside of a small desk. While it might make a decent travel companion for those who miss the family on the road, it certainly won’t be featured in many other places around the home. [Crave Asia]

Update:

Our HP df300 Review has been posted.