9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Disappointed
Date of Review: Dec 26, 2007
The Bottom Line: Good picture quality, wireless feature is a disappointing let-down.
I bought my EX1011 just before Christmas, and really haven't had the problems all the other reviewers have had. Apparently Kodak has read and responded to a lot of the bad reviews. My EX1011 came with 2 different manuals, one on using the frame in general, and the other on setting up the wireless connection. I had absolutely no problem setting up the connection. All my photos are in "My Pictures" folder, and I linked to it and all the photos are available (about 1200 pix). My computer had WMP 11 and Vista installed, and they work fine with the frame. I've used my frame only with the wireless, and haven't even tried the memory card method or used the internal 128M of memory (which by the way seems pretty small -- 100 or so pictures -- you'll get sick of looking at that few pix in a very short time). So, out of the box, set-up and initial use is great. Your computer has to be on, and WMP up and running for the wireless to work, so consider this when thinking about you would use the wireless feature. I generally don't like to leave my computer running when I'm not using it.
Now the down side. There is no way that I have seen to have the frame do a random selection of the available pictures. Meaning every time you start it up (which is an annoying 8-step process with the remote control), the slide show starts with the same pictures and goes through them in the exact same order each time. When you turn off the frame, turn off your computer, or put your computer in hibernate, and then start it up again, you get to see the same pictures over and over again. The second problem is that the frame freezes up a lot. Sometimes it runs for a couple hours, but mostly after about a half hour, it freezes. To get it going again, you power it down then power it back up again, going through the 8-step remote control process to see guess what: the same pictures you've already seen about 800 times. You will never get to the pictures at the end of the line. It would be nice if there was a random setting, and also the capability for the frame to pick up where it left off and start by itself when it senses the computer is on and available. Lastly there is a stuck pixel in the frame, making a nice white dot near the middle of the picture, which sticks out like a sore thumb.
I checked the website for firmware updates and there was one available. I downloaded and installed it without any problem, but it didn't fix the items mentioned above.
I used the audio feature which works pretty well, but you can't expect very good sound from the speakers provided and that's pretty much the case. It does give you an audible indication that the frame has frozen up though!
I have to agree that this thing is not ready yet. Operation and user interface are clunky. Seems like a rushed job. I'll be returning my frame to Best Buy, and will maybe get the Kodak SV1011, which is the non-wireless version for $30 less. The Westinghouse 8-inch model had an awesome picture in a more 4:3 aspect, but they were sold out of that one.
