How to transfer pictures from your pc to a SD media memory card to display on a digital picture frame.
The short and simple answer is this:
You will need a media card reader to create folders in your SD card or to format your SD card (or other card type).
Once you have created and name a folder/s or formatted the sd card, you can drag your pics into it.
Keep it simple and create only one folder and drag all your pics that you want to display on your Shomi digital frame.
The Shomi digital frame will display jpeg, tiff, and gif files but I recommend you drag pics of the Jpeg type(.jpg).
Note that formatting the media card will erase any files in it so backup or transfer your pics from the SD media card
first before formatting.
Granted this won't work for every situation but the basics apply to most operating systems, camera types and digital frames.
That's the basic but read on for complete details:
This is what worked for me using using windows vista and a kodak dx4530 digital camera with a 1 gb sd card. to display on my 7" Shomi digital frame that I bought at Wallmart.
Ideally you want to take pictures on your camera and
then simply remove the card and plug into the digital frame
and everyone goes ooh and ah over your picture frame! Right? Right. But NO you want to do more.
You want to pick out your favorites from your computer or picture cds and transfer them to your media card to display
on your digital picture frame. Right?
And you figure you'll just drag and drop from your pc to your card and wallah. Right?
But the pictures don't stick and you get error messages, and its almost next year and you are pulling your hear out and thinking of tossing the computer from the 70th floor. Right?
Well don't despair, here's what you need to do?
First go buy another SD card or whatever type card you use for your particular digital picture frame? What?
Yes you will be experimenting, trial and error stuff and in the process you may delete all
the pictures on your original sd card and you may never recover it. Or you may even ruin your memory card.
You can use your existing sd card but you may loose all your pics you now have on it.
Moreover you will dedicate this new sd card to store your pics you want to display on your digital picture frame.
In any case backup your exisiting pics that you now have on your Sd card.
Next if you don't have a media card reader you need to buy one. I won't go into details about this but your
fav. computer store will help you pick one out and for a fee maybe even install.
Also there are USB ones that are simply plug and play and they sit outside your computer. The reason you need a media card reader is because you won't be able
to format and create a folder in the Sd card using your camera. At least might won't work that way.
I tried it and it doesn't work. In other words you can connect your camera to your PC and try to format
the Sd card in the camera but this won't work. If it works for you great. But a media card reader is faster and will allow you to format, create folders,
and work with different types of media cards. Most newer pcs and laptops come with built in ones.
1. Close all windows and programs
2. Now if you have a media card insert your sd card into the appropraite SD card slot. Its the one that says SD on it.
(if you can't tell which one is the right slot for your card you are beyond help and should phone
in that favor now to you local computer guru and have him/her come over and hold your hand throughout the process)
3. Windows vista will automatically detect the card and drive, and open an autoplay window. Choose the option to open folders to view files.
If not manually open my computer and locate the drive with the removable card in it.
4. Create a new folder in your SD card to hold pictures for displaying in your digital frame.
To create a folder right click the drive letter holding your SD card and from the menu that pops up choose new
next choose folder. Naming it is optional e.g. summer 2007 but recommended.
Right Click on the folder you just created. From the menu that pops up choose properties.
Under the properties window that open click on the general tab. In the General tab window towards the bottom
are some attributes options. Uncheck any attributes or highlighted options.
In other words none of the attributes should have a checkmark or be highlighted. This will allow you to change
this folder from a read only folder to one you can write to. Click on apply button then ok button.
Now that you have created a folder you are ready to drag and drop pics from your pc or cds into this folder.
I recommend pics of the jpeg type since this works best and in most digital frames.
If unsuccesful Retry the steps above above but first close all windows.
Also check folders again and uncheck read only attribute before dragging pics to this folder.
I noticed I had to do this several times even though I had already unchecked read only before??
If this doesn't work go to step 5
5. Locate the drive that has your Sd card and right click on it.
From the menu that pops up choose format.
(Note that formatting the media card will erase any files in it so backup or transfer your pics from the SD media card
first before formatting.)
A Format window opens. Set all settings to default. Under Volume label is a text box,
here you can name your card e.g shomialbum (11 characters at most).
Under format options check the Quick format option.
Next click on the start button. Once formatting is complete close the window.
Your card is now formatted for you particular system.
Next you need to create a folder in your SD card.
To create a folder right click the drive letter holding your SD card and from the menu that pops up choose new
next choose folder. Naming it is optional e.g. summer 2007 but recommended.
Right Click on the folder you just created. From the menu that pops up choose properties.
Under the properties window that open click on the general tab. In the General tab window towards the bottom
are some attributes options. Uncheck any attributes or highlighted options.
In other words none of the attributes should have a checkmark or be highlighted. This will allow you to change
this folder from a read only folder to one you can write to. Click on apply button then ok button.
Now that you have created a folder you are ready to drag and drop pics from your pc or cds into this folder.
I recommend pics of the jpeg type since this works best and in most digital frames.
If unsuccesful Retry the steps above above but first close all windows.
Also check folders again and uncheck read only attribute before dragging pics to this folder.
I noticed I had to do this several times even though I had already unchecked read only before??
I had to do frequent ejects, reboots, even cutting the power when the windows system hungs up.
Task manager was useless in this case.
Don't even try to move more than 3 files at a time, trying to drag a whole cd to the memory card just created errors and system hung ups.
The best advice drag one pic at a time. Yes its painfully slow but its the only thing that seems to work with my system.
And even dragging one pic at a time I noticed that I could only move 10 to 15 pics to the memory card
before the "destination not found window" popped up and the copying window hung up, and windows hung up.
If you are running win vista 32 and you experience long delays When you
copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
there might be a solution at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979 for this. I tried this but but still experienced
the copy window hung up.
6. Before removing your card from the media reader, right click on the drive holding your card,
from the menu options that pops up and choose eject. This allows you to safely remove your card.
This way you don't loose data on the memory card. This works some of the time but if the system hungs up
you probably lost the last picture you were trying to copy anyway.
Also if you reinsert your card after a reboot and windows says it wants to scan your memory card for errors,
Sometimes this works well and sometimes all the pics in the folder are lost.
My best advice open the folders without scanning, and once you can work with the sd card again
create a new folder to hold to new pics, so that the the pics that stick in your old folder are not deleted.
Later if you want you can organize or move all your pics back to one folder.
I did notice that moving pics between folders within the memory card itself is super fast and have not encountered any problems.
7. Try the card in your digital picture frame and hopefully this works. If it doesn't keeping looking for help elsewhere.
I hope this helps, sorry I don't have advice for other OS's.
Below are problems you may encounter:
In theory this is how it should work but here are Problems you will encounter:
frequent system hang ups
frequent reboots are not uncommon when the sytem hangs up
frequent ejects of the sd card not uncommon
pulling your hair out not uncommon
feelings of throwing out the computer through the 70th floor window not uncommon
PS By the way if this is successful then you can use this method to store all types of files
on your SD card including mp3 files.
Tips: Try a couple pictures first to see if they stick to your card and will display in your Digital Picture Frame.
Don't drag ten cds worth of pics only to find that they didn't stick and won't display in your digital pic frame.
You will have lost a lot of time, if it didn't work.
Tip If you are successful at storing your pics in the Sd card and they display well in the digi frame then
go ahead and add more pics.
Tip: If you can afford it how bout creating other dedicated memory card e.g your favorite or scenic pics only.
Tip: You can store much more pics in your card if you reduce the resolution and resize your pics before
transferring them to you media card. But that's another lesson right and who has the time, right?
Remember most picture frames will display your pics
in a certain size and resolution.
For example my Shomi frame will display your pics at 420 x ? (I threw my manual out so I don't remember the size and
resolution). But let's say that you took a picture in high quality mode, that means you have a
5MB pic capable of displaying at resolutions of upto or more than 1024 x 768 and printing large prints.
Well you don't need that much quality for a 7" digital frame.
I recommend that you reduce the size and resolution if you want to store more pics in your SD media card.
Tip: If your memory card seems corrupted and wont work in windows, try inserting it into your camera.
Mine was able to reformat the card to use in the camera again.
Tip: Do Share problems you encountered and their work arounds or fixes.
Now let me call my hair dresser and cancel my appointment 'cuase I don't have any more hair left.
FAQ's
1. Now that I have successfully stored pics in my media card and displayed it my digital picture frames,
can I still use my media card in my camera to take pictures.
Yes. At least in my dx4530 kodak camera I still can. But I recommend that you have a media card that
is dedicated to holding your favorites for display in your digital picture frames.
Use a different media card to shoot pictures that way you have a lot more storage space in your camera for shooting pics.
If you share the same card you may not have enough storage for a lot of new pics.
2. Now that I have successfully stored pics in my media card and displayed it my digital picture frames, can I still
use my camera to take pictures and then display it in my digital picture frame again.
Yes. At least in my dx4530 kodak camera I can still take pics and display it again on my digital frame.
Your digital frame will display both pictures you transferred and new pics you just shot.
However, your camera may not be able to display pics you transffered using the media card.
You camera may only be able to display recent shots you took with the camera.