Digital photo frame question (a fun idea)

[KarenB]

My mom wants a digital photo frame, but she has no photos to load into it. I thought I would get her one for her birthday and load photos on it for her. I have plenty of my own I can use, but I want to add a few others and have some questions. Maybe someone could help me?

1. DSs are in college. I want them to make a happy Birthday sign and get a picture taken of them holding it to load into the frame. How do I get that picture on it? They can put it on facebook, email it, or text it to me. Will that work? (I will also get some of her friends and coworkers to hold a sign, but I can use my own camera for that)

2. I have a Kodak all in one printer. Can I scan paper photos into the frame? Do I have to put it on my computer first?

I loaded my own frame from adobe. It took a little work and time, but I did it. What I am trying to say it that I am comfortable playing around with the computer, but not very good at it.

Thanks for any help. I know she will love it and can't wait to do this.

 

[jann1033]

i don't have one but i think they all take memory cards so i would think you could just download anything on your computer then on to a memory card and put that in the frame. the only thing about emailing is i'd make sure it is big enough( ie full sized, not web sized), not sure if the frame would make it look like a little 1x2" photo or not.
i think most or all have a usb cord which would make it easier yet and i think some might have wireless capabilities

 

[wenrob]

When I did them for DH's grandmothers I just put all the pictures on a memory card and was done with it, lol. Like Jan said just make sure your DS sends your pic as a high res attachment, not something sized for the web. Yes, you can scan paper pics then put them on there. My printer has a memory card reader so I wouldn't have to put them on the computer first. If it were me, I'd make a folder on your computer titled "Mom's Pics" and put copies of all the pics you collect in there and then when you have them all transfer them to a memory card and pop it in the frame.

 

[YesDear]

yeah what they said!

My only caveat would be to have them as JPG's. Some photo frames cannot read different types of files. I do not know of one of them that does not play jpgs.

 

[KarenB]

yeah what they said!

My only caveat would be to have them as JPG's. Some photo frames cannot read different types of files. I do not know of one of them that does not play jpgs.

That is what mine plays JPGs. I am betting my DSs will know how to get a picture (with a sign) to me somehow. Unfortunately they are still sleeping.....typical college students!

I like the idea of making a folder just for the pictures that I want to put in the frame. I can take this next week to gather them, then just put them all on at once.

 

[Amy]

I did this for a Christmas gift for my dad 2 years ago. *I* thought it was a great gift, but he's not technological at all, and I don't think he even took it out of the box once he got home. And after all the work I put into it, too.

Anyway, I agree with what the PPs have said - put whatever photos you want in a separate folder on your computer, and then just download them onto a memory card. For my dad, I scanned in some really old photos - my parents when they were still dating, photos of my brother and I as kids, my dad's first car, stuff like that. Any old photos that I found that I thought he might like. The photo frame I got him could play sound, so I even included some Glenn Miller songs on the memory card so it would play while he looked at the photos.

Digital photo frames have changed since I did his, but one thing I noticed was that it was great for displaying horizontal photos, but when it showed a vertical photo, it tended to cut off the bottom - it didn't resize it to fit the frame. You might want to check the box of whatever frame you buy to see what it says.

 

[11290]

FWIW: I took all of the images (high resolution on my hard drive) that I wanted to put on the frame and copied them to a different folder, then batch converted them (using Irfanview) to a lower resolution (depends on the frame but ours is an 8") of 800 x 600 (or 600 x 800 as necessary) then loaded them onto a memory card to use in the frame. Put about 1200 pics on the card and run in slideshow. Found that there was no real need for a resolution any higher than this and all it would do was slow down the slideshow.

Found that I needed a "fast speed" card or there would be stalls in the slideshow. We have a Pandigital frame and the firmware upgrades have been non-existent so no real hope to solve this issue. Right now using a CF card (over 6 years old so slow by todays standards) but will try changing over to an SD to see if a newer card will help.

Just my $.02