Mac-friendly wireless digital picture frame

I would quess these devices would mount on the desktop similar to a flash drive. The question is if you transfer photos to the frame's internal memory will it display the photos? The Mac OS puts invisible files such as .dsStore and for every jpg photo Mac OS creates an individual resource file. These hidden Mac files sometimes confuse digital picture frame software. I've been taking a spare compact flash card to stores to test how photos I've exported from iPhoto work with floor sample digital frames. When plugging in the card to a frame and listing the photos in the menu often these hidden files would show up as not supported. Sometimes the slide show didn't play correctly. Cards from my cameras seemed to play correctly.

In the end I decided to try to remove these files. I went to terminal and navigated to the /Volumes directory where my Compactflash card was mounted. I performed a rm .DSStore and a rm ._*.jpg to remove all the resouce files. Now the compact flash only has jpg files. I ended up creating an automator file that prompts me to navigate to the external card and then deletes all the hidden files.

The best thing to do is buy one, take it home to test and if it doesn't work you could return it to the store. I'm looking for an 8" frame with 800x600 resolution. Anything larger needs 1024x768 resolution for the photos to look good but those frames are out of my price range.

I have to go back out to try my newly formated compact flash card to see if removing those hidden files work.

Good luck in your search. Report back your findings.

Kelvin

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/downloads/dlnekn035002.jhtml?operatingSystem=mac_os_x_10_4x&downloadLanguage=en&CID=OTC-iphoto

"This plug-in lets you upload pictures from your iPhoto collection to your Kodak Gallery account using the Export feature within the Apple iPhoto application."

Can the picture frame view the Kodak Gallery via wireless?

{quote:title=KRitchie wrote:}I would quess these devices would mount on the desktop similar to a flash drive. {quote}

I disagree. Communications with machines over a wireless network are not rextricted to those devices being mounted on the desktop as is necessary in the case of a flash drive. Instead, a wireless connection opens the possibility for various communication protocols to be used, e.g. tcp/ip and by extension http, ftp or some proprietary method.
I do not know how the KODAK Gallery Upload Plug-in Software mentioned below works, or how the KODAK EasyShare Wireless Picture frames are able to connect to the Kodak Gallery photo-sharing site, as quoted in this article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22014505/ (near end of article):
“The wireless option is great, because you can access your photos from the Kodak Gallery photo-sharing site,” said Carr of Kodak. “You don’t have to install any software; just follow a series of on-screen menus on the frame by using the remote control.”
Hoever, I think it is obvious that in these situations, the wireless digital frames in question are not required to mount on any desktop.

As a side note: I would have thought that with lower price points on small LCDs, wifi becoming ubiquitous, the general conversion to digital cameras, and the public becoming more familiar with photosharing of various nature–from iPods to photocasting to flickr–we would have seen by now a simple, acceptable large, no-fuss wireless digital fram that you buy, send to your grandmother, she puts in some AA batteries, types in a username-password (or just an e-mail address) hangs it on a wall and voila! it receives photos that I have tagged in my iPhoto to be displayed on "Grandma's frame". Simple, sweet, don't-know-how-why-they-didn't-think-of-it-sooner.

Apple made that Apple HiFi stereo. Why not make an Apple PhotoFrame?

Whew!...this is the first post i've seen where someone talked about the pain involved w/Macs and digital photo frames. My wife bought one and I uploaded the photo's very easily, but then after slide showing a few pics it crapped out. After some painstaking thought, I plugged it into my old pc and removed the hidden files. Now it works great.
I haven't checked it out yet, but does anyone know if running windows through parallels puts the hidden files on the memory card? Would like to dump my pc but unless there's a gui utility to navigate and remove those hidden files then I need to keep my pc as I am not automator savvy!
shaun

(Just found Blue Harvest...app that sits in system prefs and cleans those bad hidden files!!!!
edited by Shaun about a half an hour after posting)

Try exporting the files from iPhoto to a folder on the desktop and use something like

GrimRipper

Simple contextual menu utility for ripping off the resource fork. Very handy to get rid of resource forks in pictures or Word documents

On the files, then copy them to the Frame.

Regards

TD

I forgot the Kodak frames have wireless connectivity. I was thinking of the USB connection when I mentioned mounting on a desktop.

I have purchased a Pandigital 8" with 800x600. They even have Mac instructions although they don't mention the hidden files. I removed all the hidden files from the card and works great.

I'm going to try to try a card with out removing the hidden files to see how it works.

I wish the Mac OS would just not put these hidden files on non Mac formated drives or flash cards without having to resort to 3rd party apps or terminal commands.

Kelvin

Message was edited by: KRitchie

I purchased a Pandigital 8" digital frame, PAN80-2. It's resolution is 800x600 in 4:3 format. This frame features 128m of internal memory, an on board multi-format card reader that can read just about any card, two decorative frames; a black and a clear frame, a USB2 port to connect to the computer and one for connecting USB flash drives. The instructions are well written and even mention hooking up to a Mac. Some of the features are a calendar that has a small insert for a photo. In slideshow mode the photos cycle through the calendar, timers for turning on and off the frame and an onboard battery to save all the settings if the frame is unplugged. It will play MP3 files but the speakers are small and ambient noise over powers the audio. Mpeg1 and Mpeg4 video can be played but I didn't try video playback. The frame does allow you to connect to an external amplifier.

My first test was to use iPhoto to load an CF card and use it on the frame. If you turn off the frame and then insert the card the frame will start a slideshow from the card when powered on. I experimented with the default export settings and custom size settings to see how well the frame performed. Photos loaded onto the frame and viewed in slideshow mode played back correctly for any size exported. However, if you exited the slideshow mode and viewed the thumbnails of the photos on the frame only the native sized photos where recognized. If you used iPhoto's export dialog and selected Kind=JPEG and then created a custom size, even if the size was 800x600, for some reason the frame couldn't display the thumbnails. I tried several combinations of sizes and the thumbnails wouldn't display on the frame. You received an "invalid format" error.

If I exported the photos from iPhoto using Kind = Current and then used Photoshop Elements I could resize the photos using the batch feature to 800x600 and the frame would play the slideshow and display all the photos in the thumbnail viewer. I found resizing the photos from 2m, 3m and 6m down to 1024x768 at a medium or high jpeg setting let the frame display the photos without jaggies and with good sharpness.

The frame is size sensitive. Photos in 800x600, 1024x768, 1600x1200 and 3 and 6 mega pixel sizes display fine so there won't be any issues taking a card out of a camera. If you use software to create photos outside those ranges the frame will not display the photos in the thumb nail mode.

I hooked the frame up to my iMac and it mounted on the desktop with no problems. I was able to load the same 50 photos into the internal memory without issue. This frame doesn't seem to care about the hidden files that are placed on the external drives; .DSStore, resource files etc.

I would expect Pandigitals larger frames to work the same way. They have a 10" model that is at 1024x768.

I returned a Smartparts 8" digital frame and didn't like it and it only supported WMA audio files.

Kelvin

Message was edited by: KRitchie

Message was edited by: KRitchie

All good info..Thanks
The Frame I was referencinjg in my above emails was the Smartparts 15" from Costco. But we also bought the Pandigital 8" at Costco to give for a present, so Your info is helpful...especially the WMA info....No mp3's? A quick look on the Smartparts website says the 15" supports MP3....will let you know!

Hmmmm...I finally hooked up the Pandigital to my macbook pro..it mounted then dismounted....an my windows/parallels saw it...but said it was in use by another program...so no go for me.....tried all of my macs...no go...same probems...wonder if this is a leopard issue?
Is there a utility to tell me what programs are runniong and having problems..like event viewer in windows?
thx

This ZDnet review of the kodak says you need a third party app to use the frame wirelessly:

ZDNet wrote:
A couple of notes for Mac owners: Currently, Kodak doesn't provide an application that allows you to stream photos from your Mac to the frame. However, the frame works on the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) network protocol, and there are third-party UPnP Mac apps out there such as Twonkyvision MediaServer that are compatible with the frame (the same goes for third-party Windows and Linux-based UPnP media server apps).

A review of a kodak frame on amazon said the Twonkyvision software was buggy.

We're looking for a good wireless frame solution for mac, too. Not sure one exists.

I received a Kodak EX811 digital picture frame for Christmas 2007, and just spent several days flailing away with tech support at Kodak about how to connect this thing to my Mac. I think I have it figured out, so this may help. Comments should also apply to the EX1011.

The nomenclature is a little confusing. Kodak refers to picture galleries in two ways. One is at their free (for a limited number of photos) web site www.kodakgallery.com. The other is the picture gallery in their application EasyShare.app. Also, "wireless connection" can refer to the EX811 communicating with an application on your Macintosh, or to the EX811 communicating directly with kodakgallery.com.

It's this latter point that raised the most confusion for me. The EX811 on a Windows PC can communicate directly with applications on the PC (with Windows Media Player 11 as a surrogate) or to kodakgallery.com. On a Mac, only connections from the EX811 to kodakgallery.com are possible. (Except by using third party software such as TwonkyMedia. but that's another $40.) It is even more confusing because the Preferences > Wireless menu of EasyShare.app looks like you should be able to connect directly to the EX811, but the device never appears in the list. I think that wireless connectivity feature is for Kodak cameras and other devices, but not the digital picture frame.

So basically, set up the EX811 with an IP address on your local network. Mine is an AEBS, and I gave the unit a static IP address using its MAC. Go to kodakgallery.com and set up an account. Then tell the EX811 the username and password of the kodakgallery account (System Settings). If successful, the EX811 should now display the gallery as a source option upon startup.

To put photos on your kodakgallery account, you can use the EasyShare application. You'll have to open ports 8770 and 15740-15742 on the Macintosh's firewall (System Preferences > Sharing). You can set this application to automatically upload any photos that you designate as Favorites (they get a cute little heart icon), or you can upload them manually.

Another hint for Mac users. If you want to put photos on your EX811 using a flash drive, it has to be formatted as an MS-DOS file system.

I have been using TwonkyMedia from TwonkyVision for a few days now. It is really poorly documented, but with a little determination you should be able to figure it out. I haven't found any bugs, just a bit of clunkiness.

Once set up TwonkyMedia shows up as a source option on the Kodak digital picture frame. You can designate photo sources on your Mac for TwonkyMedia to use in Safari. I have a folder on my desktop (designated as a source to TwonkyMedia) to which I drag the photos I want to play on the frame. Then Rescan Directory Contents (or wait for Twonky to do it on a timed basis) and the photos appear on the Kodak frame. It seems to help if, after rescanning the directory, I restart the Twonky server.

With this setup I can load a batch of photos and they play all day on my frame, continuously repeating. Better than a lava lamp.

Shaun Kennedy1 wrote:
Hmmmm...I finally hooked up the Pandigital to my macbook pro..it mounted then dismounted....an my windows/parallels saw it...but said it was in use by another program...so no go for me.....tried all of my macs...no go...same probems...wonder if this is a leopard issue?
Is there a utility to tell me what programs are runniong and having problems..like event viewer in windows?
thx

I get the same thing. My mounts and then dismounts quickly. I'm running Leopard. Very annoying.

This is all very discouraging. All of the "fixes" mentioned here sound way too complicated and hit-or-miss for my mom to be comfortable using. (And really, for me, too, and I'm pretty good at this stuff!) I hope someone at Apple is madly scurrying around developing a digital photo frame specifically designed to work with iPhoto.

A red flag for others trying out various options...

I bought my mom a Phillips 8" frame at Sharper Image and was assured that it would work easily with a Mac. Not so. The frame itself is hard to operate - lousy instructions, counter-intuitive and oddly labeled multi-function buttons, and finally absolutely useless instructions for connecting to Macs and transferring photos. They tell you to plug the frame into the USB port. That's it! Only once did the frame get recognized by my computer, and then I could not drag & drop photos -- either from iPhoto or exported JPEGS. The Mac froze. After that, the computer never again recognized the frame. The only GOOD part of this sad story is that Sharper Image was WONDERFUL about taking the frame back and issuing a full refund.

I got an EX811 here in Scotland. Using the Kodak frame & remote, I have it connected to my wireless router (or so it claims) but the online gallery doesn't show up as a source.
I've e-mailed Kodak Gallery and the only support number I can see is for the Netherlands.
Any thoughts? I am guessing it is a firewall setting or similar but as I'm not an IT Pro, I could spend years scrabbling around.
Ta