Compositor Digital Photo Frame

The digital photo frame is a relative new comer to the gadgets market and they are only starting to take off now as the price decreases and the quality and variety of the photo frames increases. The Compositor 8″ Digital Photo Frame is fully loaded with great functionality and the 8″ screen is quite reasonable especially for the price you pay. First things first though and here are some brief technical details

Technical Details

• Supported Media Cards: SD, MS, MS Pro, XD, MMC all 8MB to 2GB
• Supported File Formats: JPEG, MPEG-1, AVI, WAV, WMA, MP3, TXT
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9 / 4:3
• Screen Size: 8″
• Screen Resolution: 800×600
• Speakers: 2 x 1 W built-in
• Extras: USB 2.0 Interface, Remote control, OSD

Using the frame: Part 1 - Getting going

As mentioned above the Compositor has got a remote control which makes navigating a breeze because using the buttons located on the back of the frame takes some getting used to as they are laid out side by side and you will often push up instead of left and right instead of down. The initial menu that you get shown is a simple one where you are asked to choose which file format you are looking to playback and the next menu is designed in much the same light where it asks which memory slot you want to locate the files in; although it makes it even easier and only allows you to select the memory slot that contains files.

At this stage it would get a little confusing for a novice as it then asks which directory you want to display the files from which is often confusing especially if you have taken your memory card from your camera and put it directly into the digital photo frame. Once you have managed to navigate your way into the directory that contains all the files, it then automatically starts displaying the media in a slide show format, transitioning from one image or movie to another.

Using the Frame: Part 2 - The output

The image quality is not by any means ground breaking but I must say that it is more than adequate concerning the size of the frame and the resolution it displays at. Images are nicely displayed regardless of whether or not they are landscape or portrait and there is very little, if any, pixelation as the Compositor tries to figure out the best transition effect.

The 2x 1W speakers pack quite a punch and are much louder than expected, but not loud enough to compete with any other loud music/sound source at the same time. This brings me onto one of the nicest features which is combining music with your image playback. All you need to do for this is put an mp3 file onto the memory card and while the images are displaying they have a soundtrack - an absolutely brilliant feature.

Video playback is good quality as well, but as with images you lack the ability to rotate your video and end up having to move the entire frame onto its side to view a landscape video - not so great. Another downfall is that there are only two supported movie file formats (.avi and .mpeg) - I feel that .mov and .avi/.mpeg with special encodings (divX etc) should be supported now days.

Using the frame: Part 3 - The Extras

As with most gadgets these days there are a whole bunch of settings and extras so that you can customize the frame to your exact needs. The strangest extra on the frame is a read only calendar. I am still struggling to understand why this feature was incorporated into the frame as it makes no sense to me. The one extra that is missing is a simple image editor - so simple in fact that all you could do is rotate your images and re save them, thus enabling you to “fix” any images you may have missed when copying the files onto your memory card.

Some concerns

As with most products there are quite a few complaints about this frame and the major one for me is the fact that while you are viewing a slide show there is no way to rotate an image that isn’t being shown correctly. The other major gripe I have around this frame is the fact that it does not have any form of a battery which I feel would have made the entire product 100 times better because it would then be more portable and easier to use when showing off your photos to your guests.

Conclusion

Even though it has a few, in my opinion, major flaws the Compositor Digital Photo Frame is a great buy and definitely attracts its fair share of attention. If set-up correctly, there are hours of photos, movies and music that can be played which will make for a great very modern art piece which can be neatly mounted on your wall or left on its own stand.

Pricing and availability

The Compositor Digital Photo Frame is available in an Acrylic, Metal and a Wood finish and retails for anywhere between R1400 and R1900 rand depending on where you purchase it. This particular model is available at all major CNA Stores. Similar products are available from WantItAll and prices are dependant on what size frame you purchase and how feature complete it is.

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(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Filed Under Audio/Visual, Featured Reviews, Home Entertainment, Other Gadgets, Stuff