Digital picture frames have been around a while, but they have all been dependent on other devices for the pictures. Whether it be a computer, a USB stick, or an SD card every picture they were needed to transfer the pictures onto the frame; that is, until now.  Brookstone has tried to bridge that gap by building a scanner into the iConvert 8″ Digital Frame.

Features

• 8″ screen size, 4:3 aspect ratio, 800 x 600 resolution
• 2 x 1 W speakers
• 1 GB internal memory
• Supports Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro), Secure Digital (SD 2.0), xD Photo Card, Multi Media Card (MMC), and Compact Flash (Type 1 only)
• Sheetfed Scanner from 1.5″ x 2″ ~ 4″ x 6″ with resolutions up to 1200 x 1800 pixels, 300 dpi

To display the pictures and movies the iConvert Digital picture frame has an 8″ screen with a resolution of 800 x 600.

To get pictures onto the frame there are several options. First, the pictures can be transferred directly from a computer onto the frame via a USB cable. Second, the pictures can be transferred to the frame from a memory stick. The frame supports the following types: Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro), Secure Digital (SD 2.0), xD Photo Card, Multi Media Card (MMC), and Compact Flash (Type 1 only). Third, pictures can be scanned directly into the frame using the built-in scanner.

The sheetfed scanner that is built-in can scan photos that range in size from 1.5″ x 2″ to 4″ x 6″. The resolution of the scanner is up to 1200 x 1800 pixels at 300 dpi. When an image is scanned it is automatically converted to JPEG format.

In order to print pictures you normally need to put them back on a computer, but the iConvert Digital picture frame also supports printing pictures directly via a PictBridge connection.

The frame is also capable of playing movies and music. The frame supports MPEG-1 and MPEG-4 (AVI) Video and MP3 audio.

Design

When it comes to picture frame design there isn’t much to talk about. However, with the iConvert Digital picture frame there is something that you won’t find on other digital picture frames. That extra something just happens to be the aforementioned built-in scanner. The scanner is located at the bottom of the picture frame and consists of a small slot that you feed pictures into.

Above the scanner is the 8″ LCD screen and its controls. The screen has a 4:3 aspect ration and a resolution of 800×600. This isn’t horrible, but it also isn’t the best I have seen.

To the right of the screen are 6 touch buttons. The top one looks like a wrench and it opens the settings menu. The next three are for navigating and selecting the menus. The next one is the exit button and it is used to exit the menu, and the last one is for starting the scanning process.

Controls

On the left side are two memory card slots. With these two slots the frame supports 5 different formats. The top slot supports Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, xD Photo Card, and Multi Media Card. The bottom slow is for Compact Flash.

Memory Slots

On the back is a power button at the top, two USB ports (one mini, and one regular), and a power plug at the bottom.

Power Button

Connectors

Performance

The first thing I did was turn on the picture frame and turn it on. I was immediately greeted by a screen that allowed me to choose where to display images from, but because I didn’t have anything plugged in so I only had one option. After selecting ‘Internal’ I was taken to the main screen.

Memory Screen

The main screen has options for viewing photos, listening to music, watching videos, viewing scanned images, the calendar, and the setup menu.

Menu

Since I don’t have any images, music, or movies loaded in the frame, I decided to checkout the setup menu. This screen is accessed easily by pressing the wrench button. Once pressed the screen displays a menu that has sections for language, sleep timer, USB link, scanner quality, playback volume, and factory default. The only setting I changed was to set the scanner quality to 300 DPI, which is the maximum.

Setup

The only other screen that can be accessed without images, or pictures is the calendar. Since I have not set the date or time, the calendar displays January 1st. To access the setting menu for the calendar you just press the settings button while on the calendar screen. The calendar setup menu has options for setting the clock, alarm, alarm ringtone, date, slideshow photo, and also the system setup. While setting up the calendar I ran into my first frustration. In order to set the time and date you have to click the up and down arrows, unfortunately the buttons cannot be held down so you have to press them multiple times to get to the correct month, date, and time. To make things worse, the buttons require a slight pause in between presses. Needless to say, setting up the date and time is a test of ones patience.

Calendar

So now that I have covered the setup I want to move onto scanning. To start the scanner all you need to do is press the scan button. As soon as this button is pressed the screen changes and the scanner starts up. The only thing left is to adjust the scanner guide and insert a picture.

Scanning

Scanner

After the image is scanned there is a short pause while the image is processed. After the processing the image is displayed along with a menu that will allow you to rotate, save, or cancel the image , or exit the scan mode . My image showed up with the wrong orientation so I had to rotate it before I saved it. This whole process was very easy and I didn’t have any trouble. I did however find it interesting that images that are scanned into the picture frame do not show up under “Photos” instead you have to look for them in “Scanned Images”.

Rotate Photo

Rotate Photo

Scanned Images

Next I wanted to load up some images from my camera. So I put some images on a CF card and stuck it into the frame. At first I could not find a way to see them or transfer them to the frame, that is until I remembered that I selected internal memory when I first turned on the frame. Since there isn’t an easy way to switch to a different memory I had to turn the frame off and then on again before I could tell the frame to look at the pictures on the card. Once I had selected the card I was shown the same main screen, but this time I selected “Photos” and was shown all the images on my card. If I then pressed the settings button it gave me the option to transfer the current image to the frames internal memory. This process was easy and fairly quick, but I have hundreds of images and it would take forever to transfer them all one at a time. A mass copy feature is something that would be very useful. In addition, I think it is silly to make people switch between the different memory types. It should be like a computer and just show them all.

During all this testing the only thing I wished for was a bigger scanner. If Brookstone had made the scanner go across the bottom I would have been able to scan more of my larger images. Instead I had to rely on my flatbed scanner for that.

Support and Warranty

The iConvert Digital Frame comes with a one year limited warranty. The warranty only covers defects in material or workmanship, so if you drop it or you kid spills juice on it, you are out of luck.

If there is a problem Brookstone either repair, replace, or provide you with store credit.

While I can’t complain about the coverage, I really did hope for a longer time-frame. Normally a picture frame sits on a shelf, so there shouldn’t be much wear and tear. However, with the built-in scanner there is a whole new level of wear. The more the scanner is used the quicker it will wear out. It would make me a lot more comfortable to know that if the scanner breaks down it is covered and one year just doesn’t seem like that much time.

Conclusion

Having a scanner built into a digital picture frame is a great idea if you don’t already have an external scanner. The means this digital picture frame doesn’t need a computer or a digital camera to get pictures on it. If this is where you see yourself then this picture frame may be what you are looking for. The iConvert 8″ Digital Frame can be purchased for $199 direct from Brookstone. This is about double what other 8″ picture frames cost, but when you throw in the scanner the price seems to fit.