Steve's Digicams Reviews the Transcend Digital Album

[James Fee]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/digital_album.html

"All things considered I was quite impressed with the Digital Album. We recently reviewed Transcend's PhotoBank, a great little 20GB portable storage unit with flash memory card slots that sells for $269.99. The Digital Album sells for $359.99 and uses the same 1.8-inch 20GB hard drive and Li-ion battery but includes the ability to view images and movies on its 2.5-inch color LCD or a TV set. For less than $100 difference in price you get a lot more "bang for the buck" as it also offers the ability to output to a TV set, comes with a wireless remote and can also be a fairly decent MP3 player too. Know what's really cool? Going to your friend's house and plugging your DA into his big screen TV and then sitting back and controlling the action with the handy little remote control. It also makes a great backdrop for family or business get togethers, just have an automated slideshow running along on its own. And let's not forget that you can just carry the DA along with you and show off your photos and movies to other people on its builtin color LCD. This is not a low-res muddy looking LCD either, it is big and bright and very colorful and better than most found on the back of even the most expensive digital cameras. "



The Transcend Digital Album seems a little light as a MP3 player, but it sure does shine as a digital photo album.

[James Fee]

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/digital_album.html

"All things considered I was quite impressed with the Digital Album. We recently reviewed Transcend's PhotoBank, a great little 20GB portable storage unit with flash memory card slots that sells for $269.99. The Digital Album sells for $359.99 and uses the same 1.8-inch 20GB hard drive and Li-ion battery but includes the ability to view images and movies on its 2.5-inch color LCD or a TV set. For less than $100 difference in price you get a lot more "bang for the buck" as it also offers the ability to output to a TV set, comes with a wireless remote and can also be a fairly decent MP3 player too. Know what's really cool? Going to your friend's house and plugging your DA into his big screen TV and then sitting back and controlling the action with the handy little remote control. It also makes a great backdrop for family or business get togethers, just have an automated slideshow running along on its own. And let's not forget that you can just carry the DA along with you and show off your photos and movies to other people on its builtin color LCD. This is not a low-res muddy looking LCD either, it is big and bright and very colorful and better than most found on the back of even the most expensive digital cameras. "



The Transcend Digital Album seems a little light as a MP3 player, but it sure does shine as a digital photo album.

[Felix Torres]

Good idea, but...
...composite video out?

Sorry.
Uh-uh.
Wake up and smell the HDTV, guys!
Component video is the *minimum* acceptable interface for any serious digital video device...

Anything else is just a joke.

[James Fee]

Isn't that a little overkill at this point? The content is just not there yet.

[Felix Torres]

What is overkill?
The album capacity or the video interface?
Cause unless you're taking photos with a cellphone, NTSC bandwidth is completely inadequate for photo displays.

Even HDTV barely cracks the 2MP range at its best.

[James Fee]

Originally Posted by Felix Torres

What is overkill?
The album capacity or the video interface?
Cause unless you're taking photos with a cellphone, NTSC bandwidth is completely inadequate for photo displays.

Even HDTV barely cracks the 2MP range at its best.

oh I don't disagree with any of that. I just don't see the demand nor the need for an HD quality device in 2004. This thing is already almost $400 and I can only imagine what an HD Ready sticker on the outside might add to that cost.

[Felix Torres]

Originally Posted by James Fee

oh I don't disagree with any of that. I just don't see the demand nor the need for an HD quality device in 2004. This thing is already almost $400 and I can only imagine what an HD Ready sticker on the outside might add to that cost.

On the cost front, I would point out that the cost of HD output is minimal since even $50 DVD players have it. To say nothing of Gamecubes, XBOXes, cheap PC video cards (starting at $30) and assorted digital media devices of the set-top variety.

On what you see or don't see, I'm afraid I can't help you; we all of us see only as much as we choose to look for, which I find is a fact very much on my mind this pre-election weekend.

To see something, we first have to be willing to accept its reality...

Peace.
(Gotta go contemplate my navel some more.) :wink: