Kodak W820

Hello fellow users.
Here is some background...
I am an advanced user. I have a good background in networking.
I have a DIR-615 Hardware Version: C1 Firmware Version: 3.11NA
I am running Windows 7 on my computer.
I been using the unit for two days now.
It is running wirelessly (with WPA encryption) and I did not connect a SD card.

This unit was easy to setup for me. I searched for a wireless network and selected my SSID. Next, I had to enter my wireless passkey. Entry was a little hard because you are using a scrollable method to select from an on-screen keyboard. Since you only have to do it once, it wasn't too bad. The device was now online and was ready to access the network.

The frame was on the network and already ready to help the user press on. The first thing I notice was that it instantly set the onboard clock. VERY nice. The next it wanted to do was to update it's own firmware. I went ahead with the upgrade to have the latest features available to me. The unit was than ready to get pictures but first I had to complete the installation on my PC.
I install the accompaning software to my computer. The software was a breeze to install. It assumed (correctly) that I wanted to add 'My pictures' to the album that would be shown on the frame. This was all it too to view my pictures on the frame.

Since must of my pics are on a network drive, I tried to use the PC software to add the network drives. My drives where already mapped to a Z:/ drive. Unfortunately the PC software wanted to play hard ball and wouldn't let me add this kind of drive. Alas, I ran into my first disappointment. In order to share photos, they must be loaded to the local PC. This was a devastating blow. In summary, the only way to view a set of pics is to copy them to the local computer.

The next step I tried was to update my PC software to see if any software would fix my problem. I went to the website and downloaded what I thought was the right software, much to my dismay, I downloaded the 'Kodak EasyShare' sotware on accident. This software is not the same that is used with the picture frame. The picture frame requires, 'Kodak EasyShare digital display software,' much different from the software I downloaded. Since I downloaded the wrong software and installed it, I wanted to see what it was like. This software did allow network drives to be accessed. The software was obviously a lot more mature than the frame software. It would be so much better if they could intergrate the two packages together in the future to give the frame software a little boost.

So I closed all the software and looked for the 'Kodak EasyShare digital display software' upgrade. With a little google power, I found what I was looking for. I was suprised to see that I couldn't get a download for Windows 7. The frame PC software was only availabe for Vista; so I just downloaded that instead. So now I have version 1.4.0.514, and it runs on windows 7 as far as I could tell.

I did find one feature that is still a little buggy. Under options, there is a option to change the frame's settings. This feature pops up a windows and it is pretty much blank. I don't know if this is because I am running Vista software on Windows 7 or because it just doesn't work. This didn't bother me too much because the frame offer the same controls. It is a little inconvinient but nothing that I will cry over.

I haven't tried RSS feeds or a flickr account but this option is something that I will look into. It is a cool idea if it works correctly. Hopefully I will have some feedback for everyone in the next month.


Here is a basic summary of my frame usage:
Things I haven't tried...
RSS feeds
flickr account setting
audio playing
video feeds
iTune collections (I don't use iTunes)

Things I like:
The easy setup.
The firmware updating is done automatically with little effort.
The clock was automatically updated
An option is available to view the current weather.
The PC software didn't have to be actively running in the taskbar for the frame to work.
Drag a picture to an album source and it will instantly be added to the frame's slide show.
The picture quality is up to par
It has built in speakers (although they are as expected; weak at best)

Things I didn't like:
Network drive is unable to be added to the search path
I cannot access the device settings from the PC