TIPS to configure the Wi-Fi connection of your Pix-Star

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Pixstar

Pix-Star is very easy to configure including the Wi-Fi as most of the configuration parameters are ALREADY set by the device AUTOMATICALLY. The only missing information you need to enter (Pix-Star can’t find it for you, it is SECRET !) is the encription key.

But in some cases Wi-Fi routers have some advanced settings enabled for security that make it a little “tricky” for some users. Here you will find some TIPS to help you if you can’t manage to connect to your Wi-Fi network with your Pix-star.

TIP #1: make sure your encription key is the correct one!

This is sometimes forgotten… so double check it if it does not connect the first time with Pix-Star. Also be very careful that CAPITAL letters and SMALL letters are NOT the same, so you must enter the encription key as it has been defined with capital letters entered as capital letters with the Pix-Star on screen keyboard.

TIP #2: Make sure the “MAC address” filtering mode is not activated on the router

Some routers have the MAC ADDRESS FILTERING mode activated this means that EVEN if you enter the proper encription key the router with STILL  REFUSE the connnection because it can’t find the DEVICE MAC address (something like it’s serial number) inside it’s internal database. So to connect to the Wi-Fi router when such security is activated you must:

- Either manually enter the MAC address (serial number) of your Pix-Star inside the router using the configuration pannel (web page);

- Or press some button on the router so that it TEMPORARILY disactivate this mode so that you can connect your Pix-Star to it.

We invite you to either read carefully the user guide of your Wi-Fi router or call the telecom operator hotline if the device was supplied by them.

TIPS #3: Make sure there is enough Wi-Fi signal seen from the Pix-Star

When you are inside the Wi-Fi configuration pannel of your Pix-Star the level of signal for your network is indicated, make surre you have at least 1 bar (ORANGE or GREEN color)

This should be as simple as this.

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Software update available with “COLLAGE MODE” for slideshow!

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Pixstar

The Pix-Star Team is very happy to announce the availability of a software update that brings a few enhancements to your Pix-Star (FotoConnect XD only) including a very nice “collage mode” for the slide show.

When launching a slideshow, you have now the possibility to display your pictures five by five in a “collage” arrangement. In this mode, instead of viewing pictures one by one, you see them 5 by 5 with different size in a collage on the screen.

Of course, at any time you can switch back to the normal mode which displays pictures full screen one by one.

This new software version includes also a few new features such as:

- option to display the date and time on top of the slide show when playing pictures;

- when you quit the slide show the frame memorizes the last photo played and next time will start from this one. Convenient if you have thousands of pictures and don’t want to start from the beginning each time…

This update is automatically accessible from the main menu of your Pix-Star.

Posted in Announcement | 1 Comment

Pix-Star can now access pictures stored inside Dropbox!

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Pixstar

The Pix-Star Team is very happy to announce the support of Dropbox!

Dropbox Logo png

From today you can access your photos stored inside Dropbox and display them easily on your Pix-Star photo frame.

As we already do for other web albums and RSS providers the content is updated several times a day. This means when you add a photo inside one of your Dropbox folder it will be synchronised on your pix-star photo frame AUTOMATICALLY without any action from your side!

Enjoy your Pix-Star and Dropbox!

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Why when emailing pictures from my Picasa account, the photos look small on the Pix-Star screen?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Pixstar

Picasa offers this feature that once you are logged into the picasa web account you can choose a picture then email it to any email address including your Pix-Star’s email address. This is a nice feature but be careful when using it…

Apparently the pictures are resized before sending and the size is pretty small, typically around 480×360 pixels. This is much smaller than the size of your Pix-Star’s screen (800×600 pixels) so when the picture arrives on your frame it looks too small…

There is absolutly nothing we can do about this unfortunatly… So you may avoid using this feature and instead directly link your Picasa web album to your pix-star then pictures will be in full resolution.

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How to configure TVersity UPnP/DLNA server to work with my Pix-Star?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Pixstar

Your Pix-Star works ok with TVersity UPnP/DLNA server but a small configuration adjustment is necessary on the TVersity server.

Because TVersity by default uses very long URLs to stream medias to the UPnP/DLNA client, Pix-Star is not able to handle them and retrieve the pictures.

This problem happens also with other devices on the market, including for example the Sony Playstation 3. For this reason, TVersity created a configuration that makes the server change it’s url length and then the playstation can work, as well as your Pix-Star.

This mode is called “Play Station 3″, you can change it by going to the settings menu of your TVersity server, here you see:

MEDIA PLAYBACK DEVICE

simply choose:

Play Station 3

do NOT forget to click on the SAVE button at the BOTTOM of the page!!

and your pix-star can display the photos stored inside this UPnP/DLNA server.

ONE LAST POINT:

DO NOT FORGET to DOUBLE CHECK  that you have the LATEST software version of TVersity installed.

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Is it possible to use my Pix-Star even if I have no Wireless (Wi-Fi) connection at home?

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Pixstar

This it is an important question.

Yes, even without any wireless connection, your Pix-Star can work normally and all features are active. No problem.

It will become a basic photo frame then, playing photos that you put in USB stick, SD card or copy to the local memory. Of course till you install a wireless router it WON’T be possible to receive photos by email or access web albums as this requires en Internet connection.

In a word, all features of the frame will work except the one in relation with Internet (receiving photo-mails, sending photo-mails, accessing Web Albums, etc…). But for all other features of a standard photoframe, no problem, your Pix-Star can work normally!

A wireless connection (Wi-Fi) is NOT mandatory to use this product, just that some features related to the Internet won’t be available.

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Why my Pix-Star photoframe slide show does not show all the pictures, especially Web albums and weather?

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Pixstar

As you’ve probably already noticed while using your Pix-Star, it offers many different type of slidehows. You can practically launch any kind of slideshow from just 1 picture, to 1 album or even a combination of albums.

Also as the Pix-Star has a local memory, and at the same time can access photos from the web and from USB sticks or SD cards, it can play albums from various sources.

So when you are launching a slideshow you should first check which source of photos it is going to play. For example, if you launch a “play all pictures” slideshow from the local memory then the web album pictures won’t be inside this slideshow, same for weather information. But the pictures coming from email will be in the slide show as they are inside the “My Local Albums” menu.

As you’ve seen also, on the top of the main menu, just above “My Inbox” you have a button called “Play all Pictures”. This button is the default button for playing a slide show of ALL the photos of your Pix-Star, no matter from which album or which source they come.

We strongly suggest, especially for non technical-savvy users to use this slideshow. It is by the way the default slide show that will run AUTOMATICALLY when you unpack the product the first time or after a factory reset.

It is the EASIEST slideshow, that you can be sure to have ALL your photos inside, including Web album pictures, Weather, Photo-mail, SD card, USB stick, etc…

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Your Pix-Star photoframe is now completely configurable remotely from the web!

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Pixstar

Since the first product was launched a few years ago, Pix-Star has been using a very unique approach to simplify the use of a wireless product by computer savvy people by combining the product with a dedicated web site account so that the frame can be easily controlled over the internet.

This approach allows for example other members of the family to assist each others to manage the content of the frame or its configuration.

Till recently only a limited number of parameters could be controlled over the Internet. We have now extended this list to the full configuration of the frame.

Starting now you can very easily from your account at pix-star.com, not only read the current configuration of your photoframe which is thousands miles away from you, but also, in just a few clicks, change any parameter.

This includes currently:

  • Change the language of the user inteface of the product;
  • Activate or desactivate energy saving mode and configure the time the display switches on and off;
  • Configure the way incoming photos by email are accepted (manually, semi automatically or full automatic mode);
  • Adjust the time per slide for the slide show;
  • Configure the mode for the slide show: Normal mode or random mode.
  • Adjust the brightness of the screen;

The web site also displays a few orther information that are quite useful:

  • Percentage of the internal memory being used;
  • Software version of the product.

This menu is accessible from inside your Pix-Star.com account, once logged in see on the left side menu bar, at the bottom, the link “frame config.”.

This should simplify even more the use of your Pix-Star or the one of your parents and grandparents!

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Pix-Star app for Android has now been released, give it a try, it’s free!

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Pixstar
Pix-Star photo android app

Pix-Star photo android app

The new Pix-Star app for Android has now been released and is available for FREE from the Android Market.

From your mobile phone (Android OS only) access the Android market and search for ” Pix-Star “, it should return a link to download the app directly on your mobile phone.

Access Pix-Star Frame viewer on Android Market

Once installed you can:

  • Access your frame or your family members’ frame content stored inside pix-star.com, including all web albums not only pix-star album but also all RSS albums (Picasa, Facebook, etc…) that have been linked to the frame;
  • From the mobile phone when you are in the camera mode you can directly share  pictures to the Pix-Star frames configured inside the app;
  • This app support multiple frames login/access meaning that from 1 single app from your mobile you can access several Pix-Star frames;
  • You can launch a slide show on your phone of your frame albums. The slide show is configurable with many type of transitions, slide duration and random mode.

This app becomes very convenient when you are on-the-go to show your pictures to your friends. No need to be at home with your Pix-Star frame by your side to share your best moments. Keep your Pix-Star photo frame in your pocket with this Android companion app!

Also if you manage the frame of your parents, grandparents or other family members you can access their account and visualise the pictures stored there and provide some help to them if necessary.

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How to manage the photos stored inside my Pix-Star Photoframe wirelessly from my computer (SAMBA)?

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Pixstar

As you know the latest wireless photoframes from Pix-Star (PXT510xxxxx, FotoConnect XD) are equipped with a technology called “SAMBA” which makes your Pix-Star behave like a network disk on your local network (make sure your Pix-Star WiFi connection is properly configured).

It is very easy from a PC or a MAC to browse wirelessly the content of the memory of the Pix-Star directly from the file manager of the computer. You can then copy photos to the frame memory, delete photos, create new folders, reorganise photos, change folder names, change file names, etc…

Here a few more information on how to do this easily.

- If your computer is a PC.

On the PC, open the File Manager and look on the left side at the “network neighboorhood” section. When you click on this choice you should directly see a disk called ” Pix-Star “, if not then try to go to the icon called ” MSHOME “, your Pix-Star is inside.

Once you’ve found the Pix-Star network disk, you just click on it to open, inside you will see a disk called ” Share “, click one more time and the disk called ” Pix-Star” which is the local memory of your frame. Form here you can start to create new folders, add pictures, remove pictures, etc… directly wirelessly from the PC.

Once added, the pictures will be immediatly visible from the frame ” Local album ” menu or inside the Frame File Manager menu.

Easy!

- If your computer is a MAC.

Open the finder of your MAC, normally on the left side you should see a section called ” SHARED “. Inside your Pix-Star disk should be already visible. Then double click on it to open it, normally after a few seconds it should display a disk called ” SHARE ” this is where you need to enter by double clicking again. The next step should then show you the Pix-Star disk which is actually the memory of your frame.

From here you can start to create new folders, add pictures, remove pictures, etc… directly wirelessly from yoru computer. Once added the pictures will be immediatly visible from the frame ” My Local album ” menu or inside the File Manager menu of the frame.

Easy too!

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