The Philips Digital Photo Display

Digital technology has revolutionized photography in more profound ways than when Mathew Brady was taking pictures of Civil War soldiers. One can store photos on digital media, upload them to a computer, work with them with software such as Photoshop, and email them to other people around the world.

The problem has been how to display ones digital photos. There are very good printers on the market that will print photos. But having hard copies of digital images seems to be a low tech solution. Keeping them on the computer, however, makes sharing them rather awkward.

The Philips Company would seem to have come up with a solution to this problem. Philips has come out with a Digital Photo Display, a kind of electronic picture frame that can store fifty or more digital photos and allow one to display one, some, or all of them while hanging the Display on the wall or stand it on a flat surface as if it were an ordinary picture in a frame.

One simply inserts a memory stick card or some other digital medium to load the photos into the Digital Photo Display. Then one can choose a display function. A slideshow, for instance, would display each photo in sequence, one after the other. One can also display single photos or photos in thumbnail mode for easy searches.

The Digital Photo Display has a USB port for easy loading of photos from a camera or a PC. There is a timer mechanism that allows one to turn the display on or off at preselected times. One has the choice of portrait or landscape display options. The Digital Photo Display runs either on a rechargeable battery or an AC power cord.

The device has a high pixel density display and full color capability to show the photos with print like quality. The brightness can be adjusted to match the ambient light, whether one is displaying ones photos during the day or at night.

The Philips Digital Photo Display would seem to be a marvelous way to display, for instance, all or a good selection of photos from-say-a family vacation or some other memorable event. An artist can set up a portfolio of ones work for easy display. Operating the device does not require a lot of computer knowledge. The product comes with a manual on a CD ROM.

There are, however, two drawbacks to the product. First, it only comes in a seven inch size. Second, the price would seem to be a little steep, at about two hundred and fifty dollars. The battery only lasts .8 of an hour. Still, it can be a useful product and, if it catches on, the price will surely come down and the variety of sizes expand.