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March 2008
Editors' Choice Photo Accessory Genius PF-A01 Digital Photo Frame Reviewed by Terry Kibiloski
The PF-A01 digital photo frame, from Genius (currently selling for around $175), is a remarkable device that displays your digital photos with incredible clarity, one photo at a time or in multi-photo format, while playing your favorite MP3 files in the background. Add to all of that a real-time clock and calendar feature and you have just about everything you could ask for in a digital photo frame. As our regular readers know, we put our review products through a lot of testing and abuse before they earn our Editors’ Choice award. This unit was no exception. We kept it running for several weeks non-stop, dropped it off a shelf, dropped it from wall-hanging height, tried to mess it up using the included remote, and it just kept on performing fine, being the first digital photo frame to earn our Computer Times Editors’ Choice award. While it is difficult to take a photo that shows the actual wood grain of a digital photo frame, while at the same time showing the clarity of the photo displayed, we attempted to do so below, using a digital camera without flash. This photo, as with all of the photos we tested, displayed on the digital photo frame with the same crisp clarity that it did on our Samsung SyncMaster 205BW computer monitor. The Genius PF-A01 is truly equivalent to having a high-quality computer monitor hanging on your wall or sitting on a book shelf.  The actual outside frame is approximately 10 inches tall by 12 inches wide, while the display screen is slightly larger than 6 inches tall by 8 inches wide, which easily allows it to present multiple photos at a time for excellent viewing. The image below shows the multi-picture view with the real-time clock and calendar feature turned on.  The multi-picture slide show will display up to four pictures on the screen at one time, varying the sizes and number, depending upon the actual size and orientation of the original photos, and will rotate through your pictures at speeds of 3, 6, 12, or 30 seconds. If you are displaying a single photo, you can set the change speed to: 5, 10, or 30 seconds, 1 minute, or even 1, 2, 3, or 4 hours. There is a convenient sleep interval mode that allows settings of 30 minutes, 1, 2, 4, and 8 hours. With its built-in 128 MB of flash memory, this unit can store up to 700 pictures using Auto Photo Resizing technology via its copy function, plus it provides multiple ways to download or display photos. You can hook it up directly to your PC, using the included USB cable, plug in your photo memory card (CF, SD, MMC, MS, MS-Pro, or MD. Plus), or use its USB host function which lets you show photos and play MP3 music files directly from your USB device.  Another nice feature of this Genius PF-A01 digital photo frame is the quick preview mode, which provides a quick preview of all of your photos on your memory card or USB device to let you preview hundreds of photos in seconds.  Also, the remote control unit has intuitively simple controls, plus there is a convenient slot on the back of the unit to store the remote. This is a very versatile digital photo frame that offers something for everyone. With the real-time clock and calendar functions, it makes a perfect addition to anyone’s desk or workspace. Turning off these functions, and playing MP3 music in the background, it makes an attractive frame to hang on the wall for a photographer to show off photos with a little mood music. If the built-in speaker does not provide the quality you desire, you can use the speaker output port to connect higher-quality speakers. Cut the music and you have a very nice wall-mounted or table top frame that will present your photos at whatever change speed you wish to see them presented. Our testing and review provided only a single caution for consumers. While the unit is advertised as being able to play up to 640 x 480 Motion JPEG movies without delay, you should not buy this unit with expectations of playing the digital videos you take with your digital video camera. It is not compatible with many of the popular video formats/resolutions being used today with state-of-the-art video cameras. While we mention this for the knowledge of our readers, we do not view this caution as a real drawback because a digital photo frame is intended for still photos, not as a digital video playback screen. Buy yourself a video playback device for that purpose.  System Requirements:
Package contents
To find out more details about this unit and how to purchase it, click on the photo frame below.
And, for all of you techies out there, here is the spec sheet straight from Genius: Display screen:
PC linking
Hardware decoding
Memory:
Card slots:
Photo playback
Other function
Interface
OSD Language
Manual language
Size
Net weight
Power supply
To find out more details about this unit and how to purchase it, click on the photo frame below.
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