CTA MI-PF15 15″ Digital Picture FramePictures play an important role in our lives.  They remind us of the people we love, and the good times (hopefully) from years gone by.  Before meeting Reiko, I had maybe 1 picture displayed at any given time; and that picture happened to be my desktop background.  I’ve certainly changed in the last few years and started displaying more pictures around the house, but there is one group of people that always have a large number of pictures on display:  parents.

When visiting some of my family this past spring, I was surprised by the number of photographs that covered the walls.  Almost everywhere you looked there would be another picture of siblings, cousins, distant relatives and those no longer with us.  The same is said with Reiko’s parent’s home and, if memory serves, every person that has children keeps a large number of pictures on display.  By surrounding ourselves with pictures of our family, houses become homes, and strong bonds are maintained.

But what happens when you have so many display-worthy photographs that you run out of wall space?  How about some digital picture frames?

In the last few years, the cost of digital displays has dropped significantly.  The benefit with this (aside from the larger flat-panel computer monitors and televisions) is the emergence of simple home electronics that make use of the technologies.

With a wedding ceremony less than 230 days away (May 1st is just around the corner) and Christmas even closer, I’ve been considering gifts for friends and family that are both useful, and can be enjoyed again and again for years.  With this in mind, I started looking for some large screen digital photo frames.  What I like most about these devices is the ability to cycle through several hundred photos.  When people are married, there are literally hundreds of photos taken, but only one or two displayed.  Depending on the family, this could be one of the few times extended members are able to get together and enjoy each other’s company while also celebrating the joining of two people.  Why not have a “Ted and Jane’s Wedding” frame that cycles through several dozen photos from the big day?  Wouldn’t it be great to have a picture frame for each of the children with pictures cycling as they grow up?  I’m sure there are many parents and grandparents out there that would enjoy such a gift.

These displays are incredibly simple to use, and some even play music and video.  In most cases, we only need to put a memory card into the slot and the pictures will be automatically displayed in a slide show or mosaic immediately.  For the moment, 15″ displays seem to be the largest models available (for under $300 on eFrameStore.com, last I checked), but I’m sure there will be larger ones before Christmas.

The only issue I can see with these is the screen life.  How long can these displays be used, and are there problems with burn-on or dead pixels?  It would also be beneficial if we could set the display times.  I don’t think it would make much sense to have the picture frames constantly displaying images all night or while we’re at work.

That said, I plan on getting at least one of these units before the end of the year.  Reiko and I have taken thousands of photos in the last two years, and there must be at least 50 that are perfect for display.  Hopefully OLED technologies will be refined enough in the next few years to be incorporated into these devices as this would make the digital frames mature enough to start replacing some of the more traditional photographs in our home.