Is the Pixstar digital frame any good?
A little-known fact to many is that Pixstar pioneered the idea of a digital frame with email. Previously, digital frames worked off a combination of internal storage and USB/SD card support. You’d need to load your photos onto the USB/SD card, insert it into the frame’s port, copy the contents across to the frame’s local storage – and only then could you view the photos on the display.
Pixstar’s digital frames introduced the idea of having a unique and dedicated email address. You can send photos as email attachments directly to the frame, where they’d be saved on the frame’s internal storage. This opened up a new world of possibilities and is now arguably the most dominant sector of the digital frame market.
Since that initial step, Pixstar digital frames have been improved and enhanced to what they are today. Now, through a combination of the Pixstar Snap mobile app, the web interface, web album support, multimedia playback, and features like remote control and multi-frame control – you can send photos and other media to your frame (or many frames) from anywhere in the world.
To add to this, cloud compatibility further boosts the Pixstar digital frame’s versatility and functionality. You can easily manage all your photos and other media through the web interface. Exporting all your photos from the cloud to an external source is quick and simple.
Features like remote control let you remotely manage connected frames through the web interface. Here you can start slideshows, manage your frame’s content, update the firmware, adjust settings, and much more. With a great 1024×768 display that comes in either a 10 or 15-inch variation, plenty of brightness, and adjustable color settings, you get an immersive and accurate picture at all times.
All in all, while there is no perfect frame on the market, Pixstar’s digital frame caters to a wide set of needs, offers excellent value for money, great usability, and enough features and functions to cater to even the largest families. There are no recurring subscription fees with the Pixstar digital frame and cloud storage is free-for-life!
Can my grandparents use the Pixstar digital frame?
Pixstar digital frames are known for their ease of use – despite being some of the most versatile and capable frames on the market. This is largely due to the smooth user interface and easy-to-navigate controls. Pixstar frames don’t use confusing touchscreen interfaces to make sure elderly users don’t get lost trying to work their way through the settings.
One of the most useful features is the remote-control function. It lets you take control of any connected frame through the web interface. It’s a fantastic feature for elderly users as you can start slideshows on their behalf, delete old photos, create new folders, and much more.
Pixstar’s frame supports web albums. This makes it quick and effortless to connect the frame to social media and photo-sharing platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Flickr, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more. Each time you add new photos to the connected albums, they’ll be automatically synced and saved on the connected frames. This is one of the best ways to keep your grandparents up to date with your latest photos – no need to use confusing photo-sharing apps or teaching them how to use Instagram.
Pixstar digital frames use a handheld remote control to navigate through the menus and slideshows. Slideshows are easily managed and quick to start with only one click from the main menu. This balance between feature richness and ease of use is rare among the top digital frames. The Pixstar is a great choice for grandparents and anyone who isn’t very tech-savvy.
What are the main features of the Pixstar digital frame?
Pixstar digital frames have 3 main focuses. First, they offer full Wi-Fi and cloud compatibility; coming with a mobile app, web interface, email, web albums, cloud storage, and much more. Wi-Fi connectivity also enables features like web radio & music, weather, alerts & reminders, etc.
The second focus is on ease of use. Pixstar frames are designed with elderly users, grandparents, and anybody who isn’t tech-savvy in mind – without compromising on versatility and functionality. Menus are shallow and you’re never more than a few clicks from the home screen. Through free-for-life cloud storage and no recurring fees, it’s surprising how much is on offer with Pixstar.
The third focus is on immersion. Pixstar’s frame has a brilliant display with 1024×768 pixel resolutions. They use the incredibly versatile 4:3 aspect ratio – it’s arguably the best digital frame aspect ratio at the moment. With a high screen-to-body ratio and thin bezels, the Pixstar frame offers an immersive and accurate viewing experience. You can even change color settings like hue and saturation, as well as have full control over the screen’s brightness.
There are of course other areas of focus, but these are the main aims of the Pixstar digital frame. They come together smoothly thanks to a smooth and clean user interface (across the mobile app and web interface too). These frames are incredibly well connected and equally suited to the isolated individual user as they are for large and disperse families.
Can the Pixstar digital frame play video and audio?
Pixstar’s frames all support multimedia playback. They can play still images, videos, and audio. Video playback is limited to clips no longer than 2-minutes and can play audio through the frame’s inbuilt speakers. This might not seem like much at first, but offers more than almost all of the top digital frames on the market – all without recurring fees or additional paywalls of any kind.
You’ll need to make sure that the video, photo, and audio files you send match the supported formats and file sizes.
How to send photos to a Pixstar digital frame?
The fastest way to send photos to your Pixstar digital frame is through the mobile app. You can capture new photos or other media directly through the app and your phone’s camera – or you can select previously captured media from your phone’s gallery.
All of the selected and captured media can then be sent directly to your frame via its unique email address. All these photos are saved to the Pixstar frame’s internal storage and can be used while the frame is offline.
Another great way to send photos is directly through email. Simply add the photos as an attachment and email them to the frame’s dedicated email address. This is probably the most common way to send photos to most digital frames and is very easy to use.
For an offline option, you can load the photos onto a USB/SD card and insert the card into the frame’s relevant port. Copy these files across to the frame’s internal storage (8GB storage space). From there you can include the photos in slideshows or move them around as you see fit.
Finally, web albums are an excellent way to automate sending photos to your Pixstar digital frame. Once you’ve linked your frame to the albums you want to view from your social media and photo-sharing platform accounts, they’ll be automatically synced and saved on your frame. These albums will also be automatically updated whenever you make changes to the album or add new photos.
