GolfHos

My parents are almost Luddites -- my mother, for example cannot and will not use the computer.  She claims that she "cannot double-click".  My dad is more computer-savvy, but there are still limits to what he knows how to do, and he's conservative in that he doesn't venture into uncharted water.

So my wife and I would like to share pictures with them.  We've previously sent them prints, even having reprints made just for that purpose.  But now we've up and gone digital.

The thought at present is between (a) buying them a digital picture frame (and periodically sending them a new CompactFlash card to pop into it) and (b) just having photo albums made of selected photos.  On that latter option, it seems Shutterbug and others offer these things for fairly cheap, and the old-school among us (read: my folks) might better like the notion of the hard-bound, tangible album that they can store in the closet and never look at.

The d-frame would probably run about $170-$200 and last maybe 6-7 years (60,000 hours at always-on); the albums are about $30-$40 each and last ... ?  Based on cost, we'd spend in 2-3 years on photo albums what the digital frame would set us back.  But it's not like we can't afford $35 every four months.

Comments?  Recommendations?  We don't want to buy technology for technology's sake -- we want to buy what will best help them both to view the damn pictures.

can't you just email the pics? [sm_dontknow]

And then how does dear old mum see them?

Just do the shutterbug albums. They can take them to show their friends.

Clive,

I'm no expert(duh), but I like the digital photo frame idea.  Those things are neat.  They can display the images, in a slide show manner, and there is no real learning curve.  Even if you buy new flash cards, just to send them, I say you are miles ahead.

A little spendy, but as you pointed out, relative.  Cool idea.  In fact I have already stolen it, along with some other of your intellectual property. 

If you decide to go this route, re post, and let us know how how it was received.

size/brand/cards, etc.

Turn off double click and turn on single click then. :D

burn em onto a dvd-r - and play them on tv ?

My first thought was leaning towards the photo albums.
Then I started to lean towards the Digital Frame. 

Can you combine the options?  My suggestion is to go with the digital frame, and if there are any photos they especially like get a print of those made.

Let me paint a picture:

They have a VCR (from way back in the day) and a drawer full of tapes.  I have never seen them use the VCR, which resides under a snappy and nearly opaque dust cover.

My folks had a 20" TV until my sibs and I pooled resources and bought them a 25" TV.  They still use it, some 15 years later.

My brother got them a cheap VCR/DVD combo machine for Christmas 2005.  They NEVER watch DVDs -- can't figure out how to work it, even after being instructed >1 times and having us a phone call away to walk them through it.


The digital frame, bless its tiny electronic heart, requires only placement of the CF card within it and the toggling of an on-off switch.  I believe my dad can handle those two tasks.  :D

"Both" is your advice to the lawyer who won't spend more than $20 for a bottle of wine?!

[sm_devil]

wow, it REALLY is that bad.
 :P ;)

I like this idea.  If they don't already have a dvd player, you can buy them one for $50-80.  The controls for viewing pictures are usually pretty simple, too.

Another option if buying/burning blank dvds isn't cost effective might be to use VCD format and regular blank cds.  The capacity is smaller, but you might not need all the space in a dvd if you send pics frequently.  I've burned vcds on my laptop since it can only burn cds, not dvds.  Most dvd players these days will play vcd format.

Here's an example:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=483

D'oh!  I started my post before seeing your response to Aske.

And I don't spend any money on wine. 

It wasn't the full extent of both options; I only suggested you get prints of their favorite pictures. ;D

edit: In all seriousness, I am a very frugal person and, generally speaking, won't spend money on myself.  Gifts I tend to go "all out" but even then I set a price range.

If the VCD use involves nothing more than opening the tray, placing the disc on it, and pressing "Play", that might work.  (DVD menus tend to trip them up.)

I'll have to check and see if their DVD player will handle VCDs.

The nice thing about the frame is that they don't have to take anything out to look at the pictures as it would be out in display.  Sometimes people don't want to take the extra steps in between. (Like getting out the album, etc.)

Does Walmart or Costco offer an option to put digital pics onto 35mm slides?

I'd stick with prints.  Even easier when you're digital to be honest.  Selectively create a CD with the best shots and run on down to Walmart.  I'm not sure exactly how but my wife hits some sort of kiosk deal there and creates prints from digital way cheaper than we can print them at home. 

Best of both worlds.

Besides, a real, honest to God photo in a frame looks better next to the loom.

I looked at the digi frame thing for my parents when the kids were born.

There's one (or more) that downloads the new images directly from the internet (Don't worry, it's automatic), it just had to be plugged into a phone line.

I'm taking the kids to school in a minute but I will have a look online for it when I get back.

It saves the postage system hassle and expense of sending new cards  and hearing about luddites plugging them into the toaster.

http://www.ceiva.com/lmore/dpr/sending_photos.jsp

The auto update ones can get photos from anyone you send your password info to.

You mentioned sibs earlier, they could upload their pics and your parents would get them too, they might chip in for the cost of the frame and service again    ;)

You can send pics from your cellphone if you are away or catch something funny that the lad does when you are out.

You get unlimited pic storage space on their servers.

Your parents can select which ones they might like to order prints from, if any.  Not sure what the cost of prints would be but beyond that, it's free to them. 

They still work with a memory card as the other ones do.

The 8 inch one retails for $250 with a 1-year pic plan.  After that the rate is 99 bucks per year, plans come in 1 and 3 year periods (3 yr is 250).

If they don't like the auto update you can drop that part after the 'free year' is up and just use it with the cards.

The 8 inch one can pop 50 new pics a day up for them, that's a dose for even the most doting grandparents.

The update phone call is free (here) and it takes place overnight.  It's automatic.

There are features that they will likely never use, wireless, broadband etc. but they are there if they ever want them.

When I looked at them before they were smaller and had fewer features.  Still, the only thing that stopped me buying it for my parents was it wouldn't do the free update from overseas and I didn't want to give them a gift that cost them 100s of quid a month making transtlantic calls while they slept.

In the end we bought them laptops instead.   :'(

There may be other ones with better resolution but to parents the age that ours are, that isn't going to matter.

They go for a steal on eBay.

Did I mention it's automatic?

Ours is a 19". [sm_anon] :glasses: :D

It's a good thing you said that anonomously....

Yep, they'll never figure out who it was. ;) :D

I've got a digital photo frame at home (Phillips, and I don't remember the specs - but it's a smaller one).

Pros -
- it's neat-o
- the pictures look really good - bright, probably better looking than most prints
- once you set it up, you just turn it on and it works
- it holds ~90 jumbo-mega-pixel photos in the internal memory w/o a card
- basic set up w/ a memory card was super-duper easy


Cons -
- you pretty much have to keep it plugged in (it has a 1 hour battery)
- if you want to do anything special (besides just watch a basic slideshow), the menus are pretty confusing, and there's no good manual.  This also means that, if you get the frame into a funny state (like showing 6 copies of the same photo at once), it's not easy to undo it.  (And I mean not easy for a tech-head)

It sounds like your folks are like mine, not anti-technology but just don't want to have to deal with it.


I totally agree.  Besides, they probably feel more comfortable opening up a book to look at pictures than staring at an LCD screen.  Plus, if they have a favorite, you can get a bigger, framed version.

She can always hit the "enter" key instead of double-clicking.

A further picture-painting:

When we lived in Oregon and my folks came out to visit (from the East Coast), my mother would NOT turn her watch back three hours.  She insisted that it was "easier" to look at her watch, then mentally subtract three hours to arrive at current local time, rather than have the watch display the proper time.  A five-day visit, the watchhands clutching the Eastern time zone all the while.

I suggested that she turn her watch ahead three hours when she got home, since she could employ the same technique to make telling time so much easier there.  "Frosty stare" pretty much sums it up.

Send them an Etch-A Sketch in the mail with your portaits drawn on them.   

 ;D

Telling by the sun is the easiest. :D

;D ;D
LOL