Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

NIX X18A Digital Frame My wife and I purchased this device recently at the end of August, 2012 from Amazon and enjoy it immensely. This unit delivers a bright, sharp, saturated, colorful image right out of the box. This model is a widescreen model. We own cameras of differing formats. Fortunately we have a widescreen format camera (Canon SD 3500) and I think that is the format of the future. However, we have thousands of images on the older 4/3 size format, and the same is true for my SLR 3/2 format digital camera. Our images are mainly nature photographs with a few family images spaced throughout the slide show. When using the NIX X18A unit the screen is full size for all image formats when the display mode is set for "Optimal". This setting is found when clicking the "Settings" button on the remote and is the default condition. When setting the Display mode to "Original" there is no stretching applied to fill the screen so images of people are far more flattering. However, there will be a vertical black bar on both sides of the images when viewing the older formats. This is not a problem for us, so our picture frame is set for "Original". My opinion is that if you have mainly people images on the older, almost square 4/3 format, I would buy the smaller NIX X15B which is a 4/3 format unit and you might be happier. The photos would fill the screen, and on the "original" setting, no stretching would occur for any format. If you were to use widescreen images, a horizontal space appears at the top and bottom of the screen on the NIX15B. I use a San Disc 8 GB SDHC (Class 4) card for the photos and the music. It can be purchased at Amazon for less than $6.00. A comment was made in a previous post that you cannot load the pictures directly into the card and then place the card into the picture frame. I resize all my image files to 2000x2000 pixels (~700 jpg images and growing) in a separate folder on my computer, and then copy that folder onto the SD card. I also place the mp3 audio file in the same folder. That way the music is just for those files. I have no trouble viewing my image files on the NIX. As an aside, I found the PNY 8GB Optima HD card (Class 4) was faster in downloading the picture files from the computer to the card. That is a small issue but where I am putting in 100's of files, it saves me a bit of time. Our slide show time is set for 5 seconds. This is done by pushing the "Settings" button on the remote. On our NIX it appears that the actual timing depends on the transition (fade) such that the time the image is viewable can vary between 4 seconds and 10 seconds. This is not an issue with us. If the image has a title, it can be viewed by pressing the "Menu" button on the remote. The addition of music to the slide show is a bit tricky, but once learned it goes quickly. On our NIX, the slide show comes up if the SD card is in place. I insert and replace the SD card with the unit powered off. With the unit powered up, push the "Exit" button twice to get the screen to show the icon with "Pictures" on it. Push the right arrow button once and the "Combo" icon should be highlighted. Then push the "Enter" button twice. Wait a few seconds until you see the list of picture files on the screen and then push "Enter" again. You should then get an almost blank screen and after several seconds the sound will come on. Make sure the sound volume is up in order to hear the sound because the unit comes with the sound volume off. The volume control is on the remote too. We have found that the sound seems to be too loud or too soft at first, but if you go behind the unit and press the "Up/Down" controls, it seems to adjust in smaller increments. I have loaded an AVI video file into the included 4 GB thumb drive, and inserted it into the NIX and that worked beautifully, too. If you go to the FAQ on the NIX site for the NIX 18-A, you will find a link to a video converter that works well, but also loaded an unwanted search engine into my computer, so beware. It seems that whenever a button on the remote is pressed the music goes away and you have to start over again to get it back. The music "Combo" function is an area where improvement could be made. The NIX 18-A digital picture frame is a great piece of equipment. We thoroughly enjoy it with or without the music.