The Pix-Star Team is very happy to announce the support of Dropbox!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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:
The web site also displays a few orther information that are quite useful:
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!
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:
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.
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!
The latest Pix-Star FotoConnect ‘ XD ‘ series support a technology called ‘ UPnP / DLNA ‘ which makes it possible to access photos stored on any compatible device on the network such as, a PC, a MAC or a NAS server.
The thing is that MAC don’t support this UPnP technology. It is then necessary to install a piece of software on your MAC so that it can ‘speak’ UPnP and stream its pictures over the local network to devices, such as your Pix-Star.
Several companies developp such software so you may try whichever you want. We like to use eyeconnect which is simple and easy to configure. And it works great with Pix-Star!
Have a look at their web site:
Add UPnP to your MAC with Eyeconnect
Enjoy streaming your photos with Pix-Star!
Available end of June 2011, the new Pix-Star FotoConnect XD 10.4 inch (PXT510WR02) is the new revolutionnary product from the Pix-Star FotoConnect family!
10.4 inch display… Big is beautiful!
The new Pix-Star FotoConnect XD 10.4 inch LED LCD displays bigger and better images with crisper, brighter and more natural colours.
Its 4:3 ratio display is perfectly suited for digital camera photos as they appear in full screen… no more black strips!
Enjoy the best shots of your family in full screen, full resolution. Small is delightful… but BIG is simply BEAUTIFUL!
Pix-Star FotoConnect XD 10.4 in. 800x600 ratio 4:3 Front View with Remote Control
Sharing, sharing, sharing… RECEIVING and SENDING photos by email has never been so easy!
Pix-Star invented the concept of “the frame with an email address” several years ago. Since then it has been the easiest way to share pictures with your family directly from the frame.
Thanks to its advanced contact list management, sending pictures from the frame to your friends requires just one click.
Even with ease of use you never have to sacrifice security with advanced email filtering options, which are easily configured in your Pix-Star web account.
Access your pictures from the largest selection of online picture storage providers
Pix-Star offers one of the most comprehensive support for online album providers.
We currently offer access to more than 20 providers and our team is always adding new providers. Here are some of the online picture storage providers you’ll be able to access with your Pix-Star: Picasa, Facebook, Smugmug, Shutterfly, FlickR, Mobile Me, Koffeephoto, etc… just to name a few. If you have recommendations for new providers, let us know and we’ll add them quickly.
UPnP-DLNA support allows easy access to pictures stored on your local computer
Pix-Star has always been about accessing pictures wirelessly from different sources.
In addition to accessing your pictures stored in online web albums, you can now use your Pix-Star to display photos stored on your local network, on your PC (Windows 7 and above), Macintosh or any compatible NAS server. You no longer need to copy or transfer pictures to the frame, you can easily browse through your Pix-Star menu, find your device in the list, click PLAY and your photos will begin to display in streaming mode.
Access thousands of pictures from your Pix-Star in just one click!
Pix-Star FotoConnect XD 10.4 in. - Back View with VESA mount compatibility
Other unique features…
- Website and device user interface supports 8 languages;
- Customizable options which allow the screen to automatically switch on and off (energy saving);
- Slide show options that support random mode and several different transition types.
- Etc…