Is the Pix-Star one of the top digital photo frames?
Pix-Star’s frames have been one of the top digital photo frames on the market for quite some time now. Pix-Star started and grew and the idea of a digital photo frame with an email that lets you receive photos by email from multiple sources from anywhere in the world.
Perhaps Pix-Star’s most unique offering is their free-for-life unlimited cloud storage and no hidden costs/recurring fees. Pix-Star’s frames come packed full of handy features like a mobile app & web interface, video & audio support, web album functionality, remote control capabilities, and much more. All of these features are offered for free when you buy the frame and don’t require any additional subscription fees.
Pix-Star frames come with easy-to-navigate interfaces on the frame, mobile app, and web interface. This helps elderly users share in the fun so they don’t miss out. You can even remotely control their Pix-Star frame and start slideshows, adjust settings, move files around, create new folders, adjust colors, and much more – they won’t need to lift a finger.
You get other useful secondary features like viewing weather forecasts and updates, listening to web radio & music, playing brain games, settings alerts & reminders, and much more. Combine this with video & audio support and you have a frame that can cater to most situations and needs. They can be mounted to the wall and set to automatically sync and update new web albums to make sure you always have the latest photos from your loved ones.
Is a top digital photo frame worth saving up for?
A premium digital photo frame is almost always the wait. They offer a massive boost in functionality for a comparatively low boost in price. This is mostly thanks to Wi-Fi capabilities, which in turn enable cloud storage, sending photos via mobile app, email, and through web interfaces.
There is quite a lot of variety among the top digital photo frames in terms of features and functions – which is why you need to know what you’re looking for. If you’re going to save up longer to get a better digital photo frame, there are a couple of features you should avoid.
Don’t get a digital photo with a touchscreen as they are super-prone to scratching and are less durable overall. They’re more expensive than non-touch displays, especially with any frame larger than 8-inches. Touchscreens can also be tricky for elderly users and need to be cleaned/wiped after every use to remove fingerprints and smudges from the display.
You should avoid digital picture frames with a 16:9 or 16:10 display as they don’t naturally match most of the photos we take on our smartphones and cameras. The result is that most photos need to be edited and cropped to fit the display. If they aren’t, they’ll either be resized, zoomed, cropped, cut off, or boxed in by ugly black pillar bars.
How to send photos to the top digital photo frames?
The top digital photo frames usually have several methods for sending photos and other media to the frame. These can include email, mobile apps, importing photos through the web interface, and via USB/SD card.
In Pix-Star’s case, you can add photos as attachments and send them to your frame’s unique email address. The mobile app lets you send up to 250 photos (video & audio too) to multiple frames at the same time. You can also browse your gallery to send media and even folders/collections. Through the web interface, web albums can be linked from your social media and photo-sharing accounts including Instagram, Facebook, Google Photos, and many more.
Web albums are saved to your Pix-Star frame’s internal storage so that they can be used offline. Finally, as an offline method, you can play photos on your frame by loading them onto a supported USB/SD card. These photos can be played off the USB/SD card or copied to the frame’s internal storage.
Bear in mind that every digital photo frame will have different methods and specifics, so make sure to do your research first. Pix-Star’s frames are one of the more versatile options and they come in both a 10 and 15-inch display size.
Can the top digital photo frames play videos?
Video playback and support are not universally offered features – even among the top picture frames. In many cases, video playback is only offered if you have an active subscription that is usually paid annually. In other cases, video playback is supported for very short clips but you can’t send them via the mobile app without the premium subscription.
That being said, some digital frames like the Pix-Star offer 2-minute video clip support (longer than most competing frames) and let you send them with the mobile app all for free. Almost all digital photo frames have limits on the length of videos you can play. You also have to make sure the videos you send match the supported formats. Top digital photo frames have a wider selection of supported formats and more lenient length and size requirements than cheap and mid-range frames.
Can I remotely control the top digital photo frames?
The ability to control your digital frame remotely is another feature that’s not offered universally. It’s almost always limited to a number of the top digital photo frames. For example, with the Pix-Star frame, you can control almost any setting on the frame remotely through the web interface. You can also control any connected frame up to a total of 25 connected frames from the same user account.
Pix-Star’s remote-control function lets you start and manage slideshows, change settings like color, brightness, transition style & speed, and much more. You have almost the same level of control over the frame as you would if you were using it in person.
Remote control functionality is a great feature for large families with elderly users that don’t want to be left out – but aren’t quite tech-savvy enough to use the digital photo frame to its full potential.
