Coby DP-768 7-Inch Widescreen Digital Photo Frame with MP3 Player and 2 Wood Frames | 
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| Brand: Coby
Category: Photography
List Price: $86.99
Buy New: $53.00
You Save: $33.99 (39%)
New (22) Used (1) from $53.00
Rating:  478 reviews
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Native Resolution: 7
Display Size: 7
Removable Memory: Memory Stick
Size: 7-Inch
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 2.2 x 10.3
MPN: DP-768
Model: DP-768
UPC: 716829917688
EAN: 0716829917688
ASIN: B000R9BN46
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | 7-inch widescreen TFT LCD screen; displays JPEG image files | | • | Plays MP3 and WMA audio files and AVI, MPG, and XviD video files | | • | AV output for use with home theater systems | | • | SD, MMC, MS, xD and CF card slots; USB port for use with flash memory drives | | • | Built-in stereo speakers |
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Product Description
Those old photo frames atop your dresser, desk, night stand and on your walls are vignettes of memories captured as prints in the era of film cameras. The digital-camera makes available a technology where photos don't have to be displayed as prints. They're displayed on screen, much like that of a TV set or a computer monitor. This frame uses LCD flat-panel technology and, at 2-1/4" deep, fits almost anywhere a standard frame would. You can download pictures from virtually any digital-media memory card (used by a digital-camera) into the frame's integrated memory-card reader slot. It's a great gift for a loved one or just for you. Displays JPEG Image Files Plays MP3 and WMA Audio Files Plays AVI, MPG, and XviD Video Files AV Output for use with Home Theater Systems SD - MMC - MemoryStick - xD and CompactFlash Card Slots Integrated Stereo Speakers Two Interchangeable Frames Wall Mountable Design with Detachable Stand for table or desk use Unit Dimensions - 10.25 x 8.75 x 2.24 (WHD)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 473 more reviews...
 Works as billed February 21, 2007
481 out of 499 found this review helpful
I've had one of these for a day, and it seems to do what the manufacturer says.
When properly formatted (see below), the pictures are bright and accurate -- just what you'd imagine a digital picture frame would look like.
Here are the two main lessons I've learned so far:
1. Formatting: Resize your pictures to fit within the frame's resolution of 480 pixels by 234 pixels. It will display bigger pictures (say, 2000x3000 pixels from a six-megapixel camera) but its algorithm for downsampling must be really stupid, as the results are awful -- the pictures look twinkly, oversharpened, overprocessed, and just plain ugly. Downsize them yourself, and all that goes away. If you have a lot of pix, this process can be somewhat tedious, but there is a very good freeware image manager called XnView that will do it on batches of pictures at once with a minimum of muss and fuss.
2. It won't display grayscale pictures (i.e., black-and-whites where the color count is reported as 256). To make these display, you have to convert them to RGB mode. They're still B&W in appearance, but internally they're full RGB, 16 million colors, and that makes little Coby very happy. Go figure.
When you downsize to 480x234, you get a very small file -- less than 30KB, oftentimes. That means you can store hundreds of pictures on even a small memory card of 256MB. Put it in the slot, set Coby to either go through them in order, or shuffle them, and sit back and watch your life pass before your eyes in dazzling color (or dazzling black and white, if you must).
My Coby was a little over $100, including shipping to Alaska. The image screen is only 7" diagonally, meaning you can't really display it on a wall, but it does make an excellent display for your desk. If they can get a wall-size version (say, 11x14) down under $500, I'll probably give that a try next.
In case it's not clear from the product writeup on Amazon, you have to plug this thing into a power socket to use it. There's no battery. And, even if there was, it wouldn't be too feasible -- you'd have to either take the thing apart every few hours to stick in new batteries, or keep it plugged into a charger part of the time. Mo' bettah just to give up and accept that it's an AC device, not a battery device.
Stan Jones
Anchorage, Alaska
Great frame for the price December 29, 2007
74 out of 75 found this review helpful
I read lots of reviews on products before I purchase them. Don't we all? So as I am looking for a digital photo frame for my mom's gift for Christmas, I begin to get swept away by the MANY reviews regarding these frames. "The ratio is incorrect" "The qualiy is subpar" "I cannot program the [insert technical phrase] wih this product". Now I am thinking that my $60 gift is going to turn into a $200 gift, just so I can insure I am not giving my mom a blurry, difficult to work piece of junk!
Well, I take a breather, step back from the computer and reassess. Neither my mom nor myself do photography as a hobby. I have a nice 7MP camera whose setting is mostly on "General Use". I have NEVER used the Manual Focus feature. I consider the picure a success if I can either A)Print it out as a 3 1/2 x 4 to show to others or B) I can view it on my computer without squinting my eyes in an effort to figure out what I am looking at.
To make a long review endless: This frame is perfect. It supports most memory cards so you can load as many pictures as you would like. There are less than 8 buttons, all of which are clearly labelled, which makes my mom happy. She got it working in less than 5 minutes. The pictures looked just like they did on my computer monitor - my kids' cuteness projected well.:)
If you are a camera geek (a fond term, nothing mean intended here), you may want more than this frame can offer. But for those of us who are casual picture takers and simply want to pass on the memories, this item was just right.
Probably the best digital photo frame available as of Dec, 2007 December 28, 2007
81 out of 84 found this review helpful
I wanted to get a photo frame for my sister. She doesn't have a computer (and she doesn't want one) and I wanted to get her something easy to use and something that looked really great. I didn't think I was going to buy one of these Cobys. I thought I would buy either a Phillips or Kodak. But after doing a little research on the specs of each, the Coby DP887 was the natural choice.
It has higher resolution than most other frames (800x600).
It has higher brightness than most other frames (350 cd/m2).
It has higher contrast ratio than most other frames (500:1).
It uses LED backlight technology (the latest and best at this time)
It accepts SD, MMC, MS (including MS Duo), xD, CF cards & USB flash drives. (note that it does not have SDHC certification to accept the newest SDHC cards)
It has both a full size USB port for USB flash drives and a mini USB port to hook it up to your computer.
It has built in speakers, a headphone jack and volume control.
It plays MP3s & WMA audio files (I have not tested this yet).
It also plays AVI and MP4 video files of the type generated by video cameras (At this time, I have only tried one small camera-generated AVI file and it played it well w/sound)
It has a wireless remote control.
The DP887 has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which matches the vast majority of digital photos.
The one thing you need to know about this frame (and the rest of the Cobys) is that it doesn't have any internal memory. That may seem like a problem to you, but let me explain why it is not. It can play material directly from a memory card inserted into any of it's four different card slots or directly from an inserted USB flash drive. For example, 1 or 2 GB SD cards are cheap. You can stick a 2GB SD card in there and now you have a 2GB frame. Compare that with some of the other frames which cannot play directly from memory cards and require you to copy material to the frame itself, which usually have 512mb or maybe 256mb or less of memory. Besides, who wants to deal with the additional step of copying material directly to the frame? In fact, if you already have USB flash drive or a memory card reader, you won't have to hook this frame up to your computer at all. Just load up an SD, MMC, MS, xD, CF card, or USB flash drive with photos and plug it in to the frame. In this way, for example, you can just send your parents a cheap SD card preloaded with pics in the mail if you wanted to. All they would have to do it plug it in to the frame and go.
The frame also allows you to copy material from any inserted memory card to another, or to/from a USB Flash drive - through the frame itself, with no computer involvement. This works in any direction, meaning you can copy to/from any memory card or usb flash drive inserted into the frame.
For example, you can copy photos/files
from a USB Flash drive to an SD card
from an SD card to a USB Flash drive
from an SD card to a CF card
...etc., using only the frame (no computer).
The frame has a little menu driven "os" which accommodates this functionality, though it is very clumsy. This would be helpful if for example, you were using an SD card as your main storage for the frame and you wanted to add photos from a USB flash drive but you don't have access to a computer, or an SD card reader (ie. say you were visiting your parent's house and you wanted to add more photos to their frame).
The frame also functions as a 5-in-1 memory card reader when connected to a computer. This makes it easy if you don't already own a memory card reader for your computer or a USB flash drive. Plug the frame into your computer, and four new removable mass storage drives will be recognized and appear (one each for the SD/MMC, MS, xD, CF card slots). Since the frame itself acts as a memory card reader, you can attach the frame to your computer and use it to load up a memory card inserted into the frame.
To those people who are complaining because they are trying to attach the frame to their computer and copy photos to it, you must understand that the frame does not have it's own internal memory! You MUST have a memory card inserted into one of the frame's card slots in order to copy material directly to/from a computer. Think of the frame as a host, it is not a storage device in and of itself.
Operation is simple. Just turn it on, insert the preloaded memory card(s) of your choice (or USB flash drive), select that card graphically via the remote control or keys which are located along the sides of the frame (you have to do this because you can have one of four different types of memory cards inserted simultaneously), then select slideshow and viola!
The frame will automatically scale down any large photos, which either have to be in JPG or BMP format. It does not automatically rotate them to fit the orientation of the frame, but you can do that manually with the remote control (though you can't save that preference in the frame). It is best to orient the photos ahead of time on your computer. The slideshow function has about ten different transitions and you can set the frame to use one specific effect of your choice or randomly use all ten effects. You can change the on screen duration of the of the photos from 5 seconds all way to 1 day. You can set the photos to play randomly or in the same order each time. You can also have MP3 or WMA music play though the slideshow, though I have not tired this yet. Using the thumbnails it generates, you could also select a single photo to display with no slideshow.
The frame has adjustable volume (for music and video playback) and an easily adjustable brightness control (via a wheel knob on the frame). I find it very easy to use. It does not have light detection to automatically brighten or darken the frame based on ambient lighting conditions - that would have been nice. The remote control has a very limited range and working angle, which can be annoying. The on/off switch is located on the frame itself and you cannot use the remote control to turn the frame on or off. If you turn the frame off during a slideshow, the next time you turn it back on, it will automatically restart the slideshow unless you tell it otherwise. Because of that, you could plug it into an electrical timer to easily have it turn on and off at set times of your choice.
Overall, I am very pleased with the frame so far and my sister loves it! The LCD looks fantastic, it is very bright, very sharp and it has excellent color and contrast. The photos look natural and clear (assuming they were natural and clear in the first place :) The frame is easy to use, it offers many options for loading photos and it can even serve as a 5-in-1 memory card reader. The brushed-metal outer frames (it comes with both silver and gold) are very sharp looking. I would recommend the DP887 to anyone looking for a digital photo frame.
NOTE: The Amazon description for this product is wrong in that it definitely does not have an "AV Output for use with Home Theater Systems" or a "Composite Video output." Not that I ever thought it did, (its a photo frame!) but just note that it definitely does not have any type of video out, so don't buy it thinking that it does. The rest of the specs are correct.
If you have any questions feel free to leave comments as I will check back occasionally.
Simple, easy to use and gorgeous 800x600 frame - not widescreen, no stretching! December 18, 2007
54 out of 57 found this review helpful
Shopping for a photo frame has proven to be a difficult task. There are so many brands out there and prices vary by a ton. The last thing I wanted to do was get suckered in by a less expensive frame that ended up stretching my photos and making them all look grainy.
I knew I wanted a frame with a high resolution so the photos came out clear and crisp. I wanted the 4:3 aspect-ratio instead of "widescreen" because I did not want my photos to stretch, have black bars on the sides or get cropped. I didn't want clear, black or wood because it was going to be displayed in my parent's home and those styles don't match up well with their decor.
After some long nights of research and took a gamble and bought this frame. Despite this page saying "widescreen" I knew it wasn't right because of the 800x600 resolution. When I opened the box, my hunch was right. 4:3 aspect-ratio. Yeehaw!
The interchangeable frames are beautiful. The silver metal resembles stainless steel or satin nickel and looks stunning. The gold frame (which comes pre-installed) is more of a pale brass color. Each frame is backed with a velvet-like cloth. The quality is better than expected.
Setup couldn't have been easier. I copied a bunch of photos from my computer onto the blank 1GB memory card I purchased. I plugged it into the memory slot on the frame, selected memory card from the menu, and instantly got the first page of thumbnails on the screen. I selected the first photo and pressed the "Slide Show" button on the remote. That was it. Photos began to cycle every few seconds with random transitioning effects. The quality of the photos was awesome. So much better then some of the cheap 7" widescreen frames I've seen in just about every store nowadays. My parents are going to be thrilled on Christmas.
I haven't tinkered with the MP3, video or additional features and capabilities just yet. I'll be sure to once my parents open up their gift, preloaded with 100+ family photos. :)
For those looking for a frame with great resolution, modern looks and top notch construction . . . look no further, this is the frame for you.
***12/31/07 MP3 Update***
We copied a bunch of Christmas MP3s to the memory card. There is a setting in the menu under Audio/Music that allows background music to play during the slideshow. This was a nice touch. Once the slideshow started, the music followed shortly after. Volume control and mute are both easily done from the remote control. You can also view and play the files directly from the Music menu. Sound quality was as expected.
Great for Price March 26, 2007
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
Overall: This digital picture frame is a solid product with a moderate functionality. Very good for the price. Nicer picture frames will cost about twice as much.
Here's what I LIKE about this frame:
- Although the display is only 480x230, the image quality is very good.
- Rotary brightness dial.
- Interchangeable face plates (white or black).
- Extending support leg so the vertical angle of frame can be adjusted (mine is almost upright).
- Very nice compact remote remote control.
- Multiple card slots (CompactFlash, SD, USB FlashDrive, etc.).
- USB hookup (not sure if it's 1.1 or 2.0 -- haven't checked) (inserted cards show up as removable drives on Windows PC's).
- Audio/Video Out (but no cables).
- Will automatically start the photo slide show when powered up.
- Can be wall-mounted.
- Plays MP3's (I haven't tried this feature yet).
Here are my DISLIKES for the picture frame:
- When power is interrupted (either by off/on switch or pull the plug), the slideshow does not remember where it left off -- it will start at photo 1 again (not nice when you have 8,000 photos on it like I do).
- The built-in speaker constantly emits a slight hiss (white noise), even when the volume is turned completely down. I overcame this by inserting a rolled up piece of paper (kind of like a lollypop stick) into the Audio Out port, which tricks it into thinking there are headphones connected and kills the speaker connection.
- Does not have any sort of timer (but I don't think any digital photo frames do). It would be nice to have some sort of timer to have it come on only when people are expected home and awake (weeknights, weekends, etc.). It's not practical to turn on/off every time -- especially since it goes back to photo 1 on the slideshow.
- Odd screen ratio (16:9).
The 16:9 screen ratio is probably because Coby uses the same screen on this digital picture frame that they use on their portable DVD players, which also have the cinema 16:9 screen proportions. It a bit cumbersome to format photos to fit nicely on this screen, but it's not that bad if done as listed below.
Preparing Photos for the 16:9 display:
1. Download and install the freeware utility FastStone Photo Resizer (it's FREE).
2. Create a folder called "PhotoFrame" (e.g. "My Documents\My Pictures\PhotoFrame\")
3. Run FastStone Photo Resizer, select your photo source and add them to the left side by clicking the "Add" or "Add All" button.
4. Click the "Settings" button for "Output Format" and specify Quality=80, DCT Method=ISLOW, Photometric=(No Change), Smoothing=0, Progressive=. Click OK.
5. Specify your output folder (the "PhotoFrame" folder from Step 2).
6. Click the "Advanced Options" button.
7. Under the "Resize" tab, specify In Pixels=, Width=480, Height=270, Switch Width...=, Preserve Aspect Ratio=, Smart-Cropping=. Click OK.
8. Set any other options, as desired (e.g. Rename, etc.)
9. Click Start.
10. When done, simply copy the files from the "PhotoFrame" folder to the media card on the picture frame.
The process above will create very small files that display nicely on the frame. Photos in the Portait orientation will be tall and skinny, but it's better than having heads completely cut off. Landscape photos will fit perfectly to fill the full picture frame's screen. A small slice is cropped out at the top and bottom of Landscape photos to make them fit the 16:9 format. Photos take up only about 35 KB/photo, so you can fit about 3,700 photos on a 128 MB card -- Nice, huh?!
I hope this was helpful! Enjoy!
UPDATE on 2008-03-31:
Although you can fit many of the small photos on a small memory card, I found that the photo frame only supports about 2000 file entries. So, if you put more than 2,000 photos on a card, after a while you'll wonder "why haven't I seen any of the photos from ...?" They're there, but the frame won't display them.
Also, I've had my photo frame running continuously for about 1 year and 3 months -- still working great.
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