ViewSonic photo frames bring video, widescreen

ViewSonic today preempted Mother's Day by a sweeping launch of ten different digital photo frames, including its inaugural large widescreen model. The DPX1002WD (shown) is the company's first 10-inch unit to switch to widescreen and has one of the highest resolutions at its size, displaying both BMP and JPEG images at up to 1024x600. The wood-frame display also serves as a full-fledged media player with support for the MPEG-1/4 and Motion JPEG video formats commonly found in digital cameras as well as MP3s for audio. Images are relatively vivid with a 400:1 contrast ratio and 400cd/m2 brightness.

It holds 256MB of built-in flash memory to permanently store copies and includes both a multi-format card reader to load content from most cameras as well as a USB connection to drag-and-drop photos directly from a Mac or Windows PC. It sells now for $209.

Other models are dictated by playback features and size. The x04 series keeps the same audio and video playback options but switch to a more traditional, white plastic photo frame and halve the onboard memory to 128MB. It ships in widescreen 7-inch (DPX704WH) and 10-inch (DPX1004WH) models for $139 and $179 respectively alongside a standard-ratio 8-inch version (the DPX804WH) for $149.

At the base end, the x02 series limits its non-photo support to music. The 7-inch models (DPX702BSL-BW, DPX702WD-BW, and DPX702WD) all opt for an 800x480 widescreen image with 500:1 contrast and 250cd/m2 brightness, while 8-inch equivalents (DPX802WD, DPX802WD-BW, and DPX802BSL-BW) switch to a standard-ratio 800x600 LCD. All models make up for their lack of video with 256MB of storage and sell at $139 for 7-inch versions and $149 for 8-inch frames.

Filed under: gadgets, digital imaging
Other story tags: ViewSonic