Features

• Receives and displays a digital photo slide show without a computer
• Receiver receives 50% more pictures each night than the previous model--up to 30 at a time
• An ideal gift for even the most non-technical parents, grandparents or friends
• Order prints of favorite photos through the mail simply by pressing “Order Print” button on Receiver
• Requires subscription to Ceiva Network--low monthly and yearly rates available

Reviews (58)

What a great invention!
Our family shops regularly at Amazon, but this is the first time we are taking the time to submit a product review. That's because no product has ever made such a profound impact in our lives as the Ceiva Digital Photo Receiver. We have had our Ceiva Receiver for over a year now and have thoroughly enjoyed receiving pictures from our distant family, and friends that have moved away over the years. It may sound silly to write about the emotional impact an electronic item has had in our lives, but it's true. This year we gave two new Ceiva 2 Receivers as gifts, and they have been a huge hit again! Ceiva has really given us the ability to stay close and involved in the lives of people that really matter to us. I've read other reviews here about difficulty with set up and connection costs, but to be honest, it has been pretty easy to get a handle on using the product and website, and the costs are very minimal, especially given the emotional value to our family. Our cell phone costs 5X that of our Ceiva and is nowhere the value to us. We're looking forward to seeing what's next from Ceiva......and seeing pictures from our family and friends for a long time. Thanks for making such a wonderful product!

CEIVA Rocks!!
My wife and I just bought one of these for my parents, who live in Chicago (we are in California). When our twin boys were born earlier this month, we started sending daily pictures of the boys to my parents' frame. They love it! My folks aren't very technologically-saavy, so the fact that they can just wake up and look at new photographs is fantastic. My father hasn't been able to visit yet, so his entire experience of his grandsons has been through his CEIVA.

I've read some of the reviews here, and I have to disagree with some of them. I have always found CEIVA's Customer Care team extremely helpful. Granted, you might have a significant hold time if you decide to call in the day after Christmas =-), but then again, all of their on-hold messages tell you this, and recommend that you contact them via email. I've usually gotten an email response from them within their stated turnaround times of 48 to 72 hours. Keep in mind that online review sites like this one are typically where disgruntled customers go to vent their steam, so the fact that CEIVA's reviews are still overwhelmingly positive really testify to the strength of their product and their support staff. I mean, look at some of the idiotic comments some of the other posters have made-- "Gee, it doesn't work in Canada and I bought one without looking that up first. Man, am I pissed!" Some people will never be satisfied.

How many other companies:

* offer an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee?
* base their entire business on helping families stay connected?
* offer extended support hours during the holidays?
* respond to email within 2 to 3 days, including weekends?

If I sound like a cheerleader, it's because we have had such a fantastic experience of this product. The 30-day return policy makes it a completely no-risk purchase, and once you try it out for a day, you will never want to take it back.

Before purchasing the CEIVA frame, I checked out some of the other models out there. CEIVA is the only digital photo frame that allows you to share pictures over the 'Net. The next most-popular model is the Pacific Digital photo frame. I tried contacting their Customer Care team to see what their response time was. Not only was their "Chat with an Operator Now" link pointing to a dead web page, but when I called their support number, I was only able to leave a voice mail. I got a call back later that day (about 8 hours later, in fact), and spoke with a young man who seemed to know nothing at all about their products. (Here is the link to that other company, by the way: http://www.pacificdigitalcorp.com/index.htm) It's a joke... talk about a lack of Customer Service!

If you want to check out the CEIVA, it's easy-- try one under the 30-day return policy and see if you like it. And shoot their Customer Care team an email and see how long it takes them to get back to you. My mom and dad love waking up each day to look at new pictures of their grandchildren, and I couldn't be happier with my choice of Christmas gift.

Is There Anyone Running This Ship?
Have had this service for a year now and have yet to see any advancement in their product. There are so many things that need adjusting to make this service and product a much better experience for the user, but I don't think anyone is home. My mom had to send in her frame - still have to pay the monthly charges - and they said it would take a couple of months to replace it. A couple of months? What, is there only one person out there who puts these little frames together. They need help.<br /><br />Frustrated in Dallas.

Unethical, no service
Ceiva does not offer improved service on a regular basis. My unit failed but I still had to pay the monthly fee while I waited for a new power supply. I was one of the first users. They recently raised my rates on in excess of 20% without prior notice. Understand that you can't suspend the service on a monthly basis if your relatives that use the service become ill or travel. AND once you drop $ on this unit you are done. Currently there are no alternative service providers.

Great gift for grandparents
True, you must subscribe. But if you are purchasing it for a grandparent or anyone who has no computer, it is still cheaper than internet access. I look at it as an ongoing gift. I purchased one of these frames for each grandparent, and I renew them on a 3 year basis, which is cheaper. The grandparents LOVE getting up and checking the frame each day to see the new pictures I put on. Since they live 900 miles away, it is a great way for them to see the kids growing and keep up with what they are doing. They don't have computers, so I handle the controlling of the frame from mine. It is really a wonderful gift! ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Ceiva put the future in an unassuming black picture frame with this amazingly simple yet innovative product. This Internet-enabled frame makes it so easy to receive and display digital photos that even the most tech-shy relatives will love it. The traditional frame houses an LCD screen that displays up to 20 pictures in a single-view or slide-show format. Once a day, the frame dials in to Ceiva's Web site and downloads any new photos that have been sent to you (or that you've uploaded). What's truly amazing is that it works flawlessly--it's a cutting-edge technology idea that's well executed.

The frame itself is a handsome classic black with a black matte. It's about the size of a standard 8-by-10-inch frame, and the viewing area is about 5 by 7 inches. The display resolution is 640 x 480 VGA, and the images are displayed as JPEGs. We were impressed with the picture quality, especially considering the display is passive matrix--colors were a bit washed out, but otherwise pictures were sharp, bright, and looked good. The viewing angle isn't great--you won't be able to see pictures well from the side--but overall, the screen worked very well, even in relatively bright light.

You do the bulk of your setup online at Ceiva's Web site. Here, you can lock, delete, upload, or send photos, and you can adjust the rest of your settings, such as the slide-show interval or the time the Ceiva turns off the display every night. (The standard setting shuts it off from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m.) Within your account, you can choose who can send pictures to you (your "Buddy list"). Your buddies don't need to own Ceiva photo frames, but they have to get Ceiva accounts, which are free. In addition to photos, you and your friends can send and receive any kind of digital image, from hand-drawn cards to scanned art. Subscription channels even let you get comics, weather and traffic reports, and horoscopes on a daily basis. Ceiva's site also provides simple tools to add messages to your photos.

The controls on the Ceiva are extremely easy to use--there is one button that adjusts brightness and another button to stop the slide show and dial-up on demand. If you want to download pictures immediately (for instance, right after your mother calls and tells you she just sent a new batch), you press and hold the settings button on the frame until it connects.

You don't need an extra telephone line to use the Ceiva--the photo frame uses your existing line for just a few minutes every night. Ceiva provides a Y-connector in the box to make it easy for you to plug the frame into your phone jack without disconnecting your phone. The photo frame also doesn't require you to have an Internet connection to download photos, although a subscription is required to download photos. The subscription costs $79.95 per year to maintain this service via a local connection, and multi-year plans are available starting at less than $5 a month. However, if you want to upload pictures, send them to other people's Ceivas, or modify certain frame settings, you'll need to use an Internet connection.

Overall, our experience using the Ceiva was simply wonderful. It's intended to be simple to use, and it does a great job receiving and displaying photos. It strikes us as the perfect gift for your mom and dad, your grandparents, or any long-distance friend who is computer-shy. Not to mention that the Ceiva photo frame is just plain cool! --Michael Lewis

Pros:

• Extremely easy to use
• Good picture quality
• No existing Internet account necessary
• Others can send you pictures for free

Cons:

• You must adjust most of your settings on the Web site

Features

• An ideal gift for even the most non-technical parents or friends, the Ceiva digital photo receiver downloads your latest digital photos from the Web and displays them in full color
• Simple plug-and-play connection and 1-button operation--owner or user needs no computer skills or Internet access
• Upload photos to your Ceiva Web account; the Ceiva downloads automatically and displays them in slide-show mode
• Sharp, bright VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels)--thousands of colors
• Requires subscription to Ceiva Network; low monthly rates available

Reviews (223)

Fabulous
I just got one to give to my technophobe mom on Mother's Day. I am extremely impressed. It's attractive; it looks far more like a picture frame than an electronic device. The photo quality, while not quite as good as an average computer monitor, is quite respectable. It was extremely easy to set up and get working. And it works perfectly.

The frame cycles between 20 pictures that you've uploaded to the Ceiva web site, showing each for between 5 seconds and 2 hours (the time is up to you). It downloads new pictures from the web site automatically every night; you can also force it to download immediately. You can store up to 1000 (I think) pictures on the web site, and the frame will rotate them, choosing 20 different ones each day. You can also tell it to keep pictures until further notice, or have it choose one picture randomly each day from each of 20 albums that you establish online, or show "channels" like the local weather and prime-time TV schedule, or any combination of the above.

You can send photos in JPEG or several other formats. Ceiva's web site recommends editing photos to increase color saturation and contrast, and decrease brightness, in order to optimize their appearance on the frame (as opposed to on your monitor). I think their advice is correct, but I don't want to bother saving 2 versions of each photo, one for me and one for my mom's frame; the quality is still pretty good. Ceiva also recommends saving in 640x480 pixels, but I've found that larger pictures (both slightly larger and way larger) look just as good, so I don't bother saving a small version just for the frame. (I have a fast web connection, so I don't mind the time it takes to upload the image from my PC. I'm not sure whether this results in longer time for Ceiva to download photos to the frame, but I suspect that they convert them to 640x480 before downloading them.)

Now the drawbacks:

- It's expensive. ....

- The image quality could be better.

- Th image must be viewed pretty much straight on, not at much of an angle.

- The person with the frame can do very little. Basically all they can do (besides enjoy the show) is change the brightness and force an immediate download. Anything else, including telling it what hours to go dark at night, how long to show each picture, what pictures to change the next day, or your changed phone number, must be done on their web site. The assumption is that if the owner doesn't have a PC, he/she doesn't want to get involved with these things. That's probably the case most of the time, so I think this is a reasonable design, but there are probably some users who want to do more. Also, if there are connection problems, it can be cumbersome to troubleshoot and correct them with so little control from the frame.

- The web site user interface is confusing. It's actually pretty powerful once you figure it out, but it's way too hard to figure out.

- Of course, you need your photos in digital form to send them to Ceiva's web site. If you already do digital, this is no problem. If you will have to start doing this just so you can send them to Ceiva, that's additional time and expense that you need to factor in.

- The frame comes in your choice of colors, so long as your choice is black.

- Other users have complained of hardware problems. Most of those seem to show up right away, so you can reduce the problem by getting the unit in advance and trying it out before giving it as a gift. But the number of complaints I've seen seems rather high.

I expect that most or all of these problems will be fixed over time. The price will inevitably come down, and Ceiva's web site suggests that a new model this summer will accept pictures directly from memory cards rather than requiring a service subscription. (Some competitive products already do this.) Display technology, of course, keeps improving. Their web site promises an improved UI in a few weeks. And it implies that other colors will be available eventually. In a couple of years, I think this will be a much more appealing product, perhaps good enough that I'll want several around my house.

But if you have (say) a parent who craves pictures of their grandchildren, a couple of years of pleasure is worth a lot. That's why I sprung for one for my mom last week, and I liked it so much, I ordered a second for my wife's grandma yesterday. I just packed up my mom's after having it running in my office for a few days, and I miss it already!

Perfect Gift for Grandparents and Digital Camera Owners
I bought my first ceiva for my mom as a mother's day gift last year. She absolutely loves it, best gift I have given her since the birth of her first grandchild. She lives out of state and doesn't own a computer so the ceiva frame has made it easy to share pictures with her. Set up is a little bit cumbersome since you have to register the product before it is able to receive photos (I would recommend setting it ahead of time for a non-technical user, it takes about 5 minutes). The good news is that once it is set up, it works by itself from then on.

I recently bought another ceiva as a birthday present for my brother who owns a digital camera. He uses the frame as digital photo album which he keeps right in the livingroom. It is a great conversation piece for when he has people over to his place. I also looked at the Kodak frame since it has a compact flash reader but decided to stick with the ceiva since our mom already had one and it was a lot cheaper.

Overall, I think that it is a great concept and don't have any complaints except making the set up easier for non-technical people.

International - Maybe so!
There may be hope for those of us with family or friends living outside the states who wish to use the ceive service. There are
a few gotchas... 1) Is this legal 2) Do the friends/family mind
paying for an international call 3) Do you mind paying for an additional black box?

Using a product known as a Store and Forward dialer it may be possible to connect to the Ceiva network. It would work like this.
Purchase the frame and register it here in the USA.
Purchase the Store and Forward dialer ...
and program it to dial the local number that you've registered
the Ceiva to.
Send both items to their destination
Plug the Ceiva into the store and forward box
When Ceiva dials out each night, the store and forward dialer
will intercept, dial the long distance number, and then the
local access number that you've registered for.

This has not been tested and I'm not sure if timing would be a problem.

I've purchased the item and use it domestically to send baby pictures to my wife's grandmother, and both of our parents.
We've been very happy with the product to date.

Don't Buy!!
My mother has a Ceiva and it has been more trouble than it's worth. I have called Ceiva 7 times this week. After being on hold more than 30 minutes each time, I have gotten different instructions every time and still nothing works. Their support staff knows absolutely nothing!

DON'T BUY THIS POOR PRODUCT
This is not a grandma/grandpa friendly product. To really get the most out of this product you must have a computer. I purchased one some time ago with failures within a few months. I called and also spent a great deal of time on hold. Since I live in Southern California I dropped in to complain. Turns out they had bad adapters -they gave me a new adapter but eventually that one failed too. As far as having more than one location, HA!The company has ONE location, in Burbank, CA where the executive offices and everything else is housed. It is a pretty high end rent district and contemporary offices. From my time there I could tell the customer service dept. was there and I heard programmers upstairs as well. Also the price of the subscription has increased dramatically (early on it was $49 now it's double that). My in-laws bought one too before my problems but now both frames sit in the closet. Save your money and keep your frustration level down! ... Read more

Features

• Receives and displays a digital photo slide show without a computer
• Receiver receives 50% more pictures each night than the previous model--up to 30 at a time
• An ideal gift for even the most non-technical parents, grandparents or friends
• Order prints of favorite photos through the mail simply by pressing “Order Print” button on Receiver
• Requires subscription to Ceiva Network--low monthly and yearly rates available

Reviews (58)

What a great invention!
Our family shops regularly at Amazon, but this is the first time we are taking the time to submit a product review. That's because no product has ever made such a profound impact in our lives as the Ceiva Digital Photo Receiver. We have had our Ceiva Receiver for over a year now and have thoroughly enjoyed receiving pictures from our distant family, and friends that have moved away over the years. It may sound silly to write about the emotional impact an electronic item has had in our lives, but it's true. This year we gave two new Ceiva 2 Receivers as gifts, and they have been a huge hit again! Ceiva has really given us the ability to stay close and involved in the lives of people that really matter to us. I've read other reviews here about difficulty with set up and connection costs, but to be honest, it has been pretty easy to get a handle on using the product and website, and the costs are very minimal, especially given the emotional value to our family. Our cell phone costs 5X that of our Ceiva and is nowhere the value to us. We're looking forward to seeing what's next from Ceiva......and seeing pictures from our family and friends for a long time. Thanks for making such a wonderful product!

CEIVA Rocks!!
My wife and I just bought one of these for my parents, who live in Chicago (we are in California). When our twin boys were born earlier this month, we started sending daily pictures of the boys to my parents' frame. They love it! My folks aren't very technologically-saavy, so the fact that they can just wake up and look at new photographs is fantastic. My father hasn't been able to visit yet, so his entire experience of his grandsons has been through his CEIVA.

I've read some of the reviews here, and I have to disagree with some of them. I have always found CEIVA's Customer Care team extremely helpful. Granted, you might have a significant hold time if you decide to call in the day after Christmas =-), but then again, all of their on-hold messages tell you this, and recommend that you contact them via email. I've usually gotten an email response from them within their stated turnaround times of 48 to 72 hours. Keep in mind that online review sites like this one are typically where disgruntled customers go to vent their steam, so the fact that CEIVA's reviews are still overwhelmingly positive really testify to the strength of their product and their support staff. I mean, look at some of the idiotic comments some of the other posters have made-- "Gee, it doesn't work in Canada and I bought one without looking that up first. Man, am I pissed!" Some people will never be satisfied.

How many other companies:

* offer an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee?
* base their entire business on helping families stay connected?
* offer extended support hours during the holidays?
* respond to email within 2 to 3 days, including weekends?

If I sound like a cheerleader, it's because we have had such a fantastic experience of this product. The 30-day return policy makes it a completely no-risk purchase, and once you try it out for a day, you will never want to take it back.

Before purchasing the CEIVA frame, I checked out some of the other models out there. CEIVA is the only digital photo frame that allows you to share pictures over the 'Net. The next most-popular model is the Pacific Digital photo frame. I tried contacting their Customer Care team to see what their response time was. Not only was their "Chat with an Operator Now" link pointing to a dead web page, but when I called their support number, I was only able to leave a voice mail. I got a call back later that day (about 8 hours later, in fact), and spoke with a young man who seemed to know nothing at all about their products. (Here is the link to that other company, by the way: http://www.pacificdigitalcorp.com/index.htm) It's a joke... talk about a lack of Customer Service!

If you want to check out the CEIVA, it's easy-- try one under the 30-day return policy and see if you like it. And shoot their Customer Care team an email and see how long it takes them to get back to you. My mom and dad love waking up each day to look at new pictures of their grandchildren, and I couldn't be happier with my choice of Christmas gift.

Is There Anyone Running This Ship?
Have had this service for a year now and have yet to see any advancement in their product. There are so many things that need adjusting to make this service and product a much better experience for the user, but I don't think anyone is home. My mom had to send in her frame - still have to pay the monthly charges - and they said it would take a couple of months to replace it. A couple of months? What, is there only one person out there who puts these little frames together. They need help.<br /><br />Frustrated in Dallas.

Unethical, no service
Ceiva does not offer improved service on a regular basis. My unit failed but I still had to pay the monthly fee while I waited for a new power supply. I was one of the first users. They recently raised my rates on in excess of 20% without prior notice. Understand that you can't suspend the service on a monthly basis if your relatives that use the service become ill or travel. AND once you drop $ on this unit you are done. Currently there are no alternative service providers.

Great gift for grandparents
True, you must subscribe. But if you are purchasing it for a grandparent or anyone who has no computer, it is still cheaper than internet access. I look at it as an ongoing gift. I purchased one of these frames for each grandparent, and I renew them on a 3 year basis, which is cheaper. The grandparents LOVE getting up and checking the frame each day to see the new pictures I put on. Since they live 900 miles away, it is a great way for them to see the kids growing and keep up with what they are doing. They don't have computers, so I handle the controlling of the frame from mine. It is really a wonderful gift! ... Read more