Home > Consumer Reviews > Coby DP-888 8-Inch Digital Photo Frame with MP3 Player & 2 Wood Frames

I bought both the Coby DP-888 8" frame and the Kodak EasyShare SV811 8" frame and compared them using the same slide show. One was to keep and the other was destined for Grandmother as a gift. I wasn't interested in email, websites or wireless. I used a USB flash drive on both and exported the photos from iPhoto, including some movies I took with my digital still camera (640x480 resolution, 16 bit). I also tried exporting a slideshow from iPhoto (in the form of a Quicktime .mov file).
The bottom line is that the Coby has a 4:3 screen and is much better suited to a camera format than the Kodak 16:9 screen (a ridiculous format in either portrait or landscape orientation) but the Coby firmware is extremely primitive compared to the Kodak.
A few pros and cons for each frame.

Coby pros:
-screen is good (800x600; one of the few screens for which you can actually find the resolution) with brightness control on the frame. Plenty bright.
-frame looks nicer than the Kodak
-sturdier leg for supporting display with rubber "feet" to keep it from slipping
-4:3 format
Coby cons:
-no auto on feature
-no auto rotation of photos in slideshow (that has to be done before sending to the frame)
-no setting for frame orientation (not critical - probably want it in landscape to match most photos)
-transitions not as nice looking as the Kodak
-can't play movies as part of slideshow; must select photos or video
-doesn't recognize .mov files (so it wouldn't play my Quicktime slideshow)
-can't play 640x480 movie from USB drive or a CF card properly; movie stutters and skips and sound is broken up

Kodak pros:
-has some internal memory (Coby has none)
-auto on/off feature
-nicer transitions
-menus slightly easier to navigate
-can turn frame on/off with remote (Coby can't)
-can set frame orientation
-auto rotation of photos
-plays .avi files fine (although the firmware must sort by file type because all of the movies were grouped at the end of the slideshow)
Kodak cons:
-would not play my Quicktime slideshow properly (slide duration was way too fast and no sound)
-lousy 16:9 format (there is an option to either display the entire image, which can make for a small picture depending on frame and picture orientation, or autofill, which will crop your carefully framed pictures in undesirable ways)

The verdict is that both of these frames are flawed. If the Coby had the more sophisticated Kodak firmware (or vice versa) I would have been reasonably happy. As it was, I couldn't stand the widescreen format of the Kodak frame and that went to Grandma (hey, at least it is easier to use). I think the digital frame market awaits some savvy manufacturer who will be able to put it all together to produce a five star product but these two frames are not it.

I'm like most people with a digital camera. I take a bazillion pictures, develop 10% onto paper, and then banish the other 90% to computer storage archives. I mean, I'd love to display a lot more of those pictures from my computer, but who has the wall space or time to organize all of those prints? That's why I decided to get a digital picture frame. I had been looking for quite some time, but was always turned off by the small-ish LCD sizes or poor resolutions. Then I came across this Coby 10" widescreen unit, with the 800x480 pixel display! There were no reviews on Amazon (at the time), but spec-wise it had what I wanted; a larger display and higher resolution.

I took the chance and ordered one and am I glad I did! The display is huge, and the pictures look crisp. Colors are pretty accurate when compared to that of my calibrated LCD computer monitor. The interchangeable frames (it comes with a black one as well as the white one) make it easy to match with your décor. The litte remote is easy to use, but easy to lose as well, so make sure you place it somewhere easy to find. The built-in MP3 player is a nice touch. The speakers aren't that great (it is a picture frame after all), but it's nice to have the frame play music while in slideshow mode. There is a variety of transition effects to choose from. I haven't tried playing videos on it, so I can't comment on that feature.

That being said, there are a few things that prevent me from giving this 5 stars.

1. The adjustable stand is made of cheap feeling plastic. I've seen other frames that have much nicer backs. Yes, I know it's the front you are looking at, but the stand should be sturdier, in my opinion.

2. The angle of the stand, while adjustable, is simply held in place by friction. It actually has one setting that it can click into, but then it is angled too much to view at a normal position.

3. There seems to be a software bug that causes the display to act weird in slideshow mode. Well, to be more precise, if you are in slideshow mode and you choose either the Fade, Mask, or Cross Comb transition effects, then the very top horizontal pixel line starts to show black sections. It looks like dead pixels, but once you exit the slideshow (or use other effects other than then ones I listed) everything is fine. I have recreated this problem, but I don't know if it's just my frame or all of these. No biggie. I now use no transition effects it is perfect.

4. This is not really a complaint about the product but more about Coby's specs. On their website they state the LCD is 800x480. Great! So I ordered the frame and then resized a whole bunch of pictures to that resolution. However, when I got the frame and started using it, I noticed that all of my pictures had black (blank) bars on both the left and right sides of the picture. It turns out that the resolution is actually 860x480 (which I found out after some trial-and-error). It would have been nice to know this ahead of time to save me from having to re-resize my pictures. Plus, sizing pictures to 860x480 is a really weird ratio... kinda like getting 4x7 prints.

I ordered this from Total Electronics (one of the Amazon vendors) and it arrived quickly. When I reported the "dead pixel" problem (which turned out to be a software bug, not a defect, so to speak), they responded to my email quickly and offered to take it back no questions asked. Now that's customer service!

Overall, I am very pleased with this product. In reality, it rates 4.5 stars. I'm the type of person that agonizes over something before finally buying it. With this purchase, that was totally unncessary!

I am glad I opened this to get it set up before giving as a gift, as it had problems and I had to return it:

1. Stated resolution is 480x234, so I figured I would get good results if I resized images to 480x234. Nope. In 4:3 mode there are black bars on the top, bottom and sides. In 16:9 mode there are black bars on the top and bottom and the photo is smooshed. Coby phone support could not tell me what resolution I should use.

2. Slideshow would only step through images one time, and then stop on the last image. I tried 2 different USB flash drives, but it made no difference. Coby had no solution.

3. Remote came with a dead battery.

4. Sent Coby and email with these questions, and they never responded, so I finally had to call and they did not resolve anything.

I am very satisfied with the COBY DP-768. It is a basic photo frame that provides all that I require. The set-up is not terribly intuitive, but not too bad. I did find that I had to experiment quite a bit in order to get my photos to properly fill the 16:9 frame. I ended up cropping my jpeg photos to 700 x 460 pixels (that is 8.75" x 5.75" at 80 pixels/inch). I set the frame to 16:9 format, and then set the image to "origial" size. This worked for me, but I don't fully understand why these dimensions don't equate to a 16:9 display proportion. I also don't understand why photos cropped to match the instruction manual display resolution of 480 x 234 pixels did not work well for me. At those setting, the image did not come close to filling the screen. I feel that the instruction manual was lacking in describing the process required to properly crop photos to an acceptable format. My camera only takes images in 4:3 format, so some tinkering was required.

This is a great digital photo frame. I purchased it as a gift for my family. The ease of use is fantastic. The picture quality is excellent and the choice of a wood frame or black frame is a nice option. It looks much more like an actual photo frame compared to so many other models on the market. It is PC and Mac compatible which is a plus. I bought it primarily for viewing photos, not playing MP3s or videos. So, I can't critique the music or video output. The only "con" I would give it is it doesn't have its own hard drive to store photos. You must use your memory card at all times. That's not really a problem for me, but someone may prefer built in memory. Based on the picture quality and ease of use, I would definitely recommend this as a great purchase!