Netgear Meural 15" WiFi Photo Frame $363.44 Shipped ($354.36 Shipped with eBay Plus) @ Camerahouseaust eBay store

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• 

  0FoxGiven on 28/01/2023 - 17:44

  +3

  For that price just get the echo show 15

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 17:46

    +1

    From what I read, not only as a digital frame but overall as a product the Show 15 wasn't that good.
    What I remember is as a smart display it has a glitchy slow interface, lack of customizability and terrible compatibility with smart home devices such as security cams/doorbells etc.
    Linking it up to the Eufy doorbell was one thing I thought about, but apparently most people's experience is it literally takes 40+ seconds to connect, and half the time the connection fails.

    But the main reason for getting this is to use it as a photo frame, and for that if you want anything close to a "normal photo frame" which you can see at any angle, the AHVA panel in the Meural is the best performer apparently.

    • 

      0FoxGiven on 28/01/2023 - 17:53

      Well for close to $400 it still does a whole lot more than this wifi photo frame. And cameras etc works well enough if you are in the Amazon ecosystem.

      I wouldn't make the comparison if the price of this was like $120 or something.

      • 

        harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 17:57

        +1

        Yeah I know. Your comment is valid, especially if you do your research and find the Show 15 will work decently for you.
        Just wanted to point out the Meural is well designed as a digital photo frame even if it does nothing else.

        And let me tell you I have been looking out for price drops on the Meural for years and it never dropped so yeah. Just saying it's not like I picked this deal up from out of the blue. My mom has been messaging me about one like 3 to 4 times a year for awhile now lol.
        (to be fair at 3 times a year she isn't bugging me about it, but it's quite clear to me she wants one)

      • 

        johnt107 on 29/01/2023 - 08:10

        I don't think the Echo Show display perform so well as a photo frame - mine is always inserting other crap screens/adverts/info between the photos.

  • 

    y2k on 29/01/2023 - 00:47

    The Echo units (I've got a bunch of them) are just massive. If you're not into the Echo system (eg you prefer Google, or the user doesn't want cameras or microphones around), this is more appealing.

    That said, that stingy 4GB limit with Netgear means even if used as only a photo frame, Google Nest Hub Max at about $298 (Officeworks right now) would be a good alternative if you back up your photos on Google Photos. No faffing around with conversion software.

    Of course, this frame is far better looking and a smaller footprint.

    • 

      harshbdmmaster718 on 29/01/2023 - 17:18

      "that stingy 4GB limit with Netgear"

      Yeah I thought even 20GB with subscription was on the limited side. But they might have released the Meural's to "test the waters" so they didn't want to fully commit to a huge cloud storage system on their end.
      At least that's what it seems like to me.

      I would rather they limit the storage, and keep the cloud system running even after the products get discontinued. Rather then them offering 100GB or Unlimited storage with subscription and have the cloud storage service discontinue together with the product.

      At least with Arlo (which got bought off Netgear by some other company full of greedy buggers), Netgear offered Free 7 day Unlimited cloud storage (for up to 5 cameras) for their early cameras. And the new company that bought Arlo just announced they would be discontinuing those early models and cancelling the 7 day free cloud storage.

• 

  Leho on 28/01/2023 - 17:48

  +4

  get a 15-inch lcd and connect a raspberry pi to the back and run a specialized os like fullpageos? no bullshit subscription services needed.

  • 

    puffinfresh on 28/01/2023 - 17:52

    I've got the full size Meural. It was meant to come with 3 years subscription, but it expired after 2. I reached out to them and they extended it for another year. When that year expired, I got an email saying my card was about to be charged for the 4th year, but I had never given them a card. I may have unlocked unlimited free subscription :P

    • 

      harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 18:26

      One negative feedback I heard was, Netgear support seem to not know anything about the Meural. They only know all about their Routers/WiFi Mesh systems so their knowledge about the Meural sucked.
      So yeah that was one thing I took note of.

      I found their online support forums to provide enough info though, for any questions or problems I predicted having.

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 17:54

    Yeah I considered that too. I planned to buy the Pi and LCD Monitor brand new.
    But the problem with Pi is that it can't power itself down and then up again.
    And cutting the power to Pi with a timer isn't good for it.

    It is possible with some kind of electronic trickery (soldering some kind of manual solution) but it just sounded way too complicated for me.
    So the solution is to let the Pi run a photo slideshow 24/7 and get a LCD Monitor with remote control ability (Samsung M50B was the cheapest I could find). And just power the monitor on and off on a schedule with a Broadlink smart remote.
    As you know Pi's aren't cheap/available at the moment, and expenses ended up slightly more than the Meural. And best case scenario waiting for deals would be around the same amount. Even though the Samsung LCD is much bigger, I thought it would be too big for where it was going to be.

    • 

      Leho on 28/01/2023 - 18:01

      +1

      But the problem with Pi is that it can't power itself down and up again.

      • home assistant automation to login via ssh to the pi and send sudo shutdown, then power off with a smart plug, powering on you just send the on signal to the smart plug auto on an automation

      • run a chron job to kill your display server (x11) and restart it when you want it back on

      • turn off LCD with smart plug and just leave the pi running

      As you know Pi's aren't cheap/available at the moment

      correct that they aren't available but you could run this project on literally any pi, including a gen 2/3 which is cheap enough on ebay, or buy a similar sbc like the rock64 / mango pi to run it on, or even a nuc

      this is just what I would do I know pre-made solutions are easier but having it fully offline and no subscriptions is wayyy better in my eyes.

      • 

        harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 18:04

        Sorry I was just adding this sentence before you replied. "Also I think the smaller display and auto scheduling on the Meural will be more energy efficient."

        You seem to know a lot more about the function of Pi's than me, so from your perspective it does seem much easier.

        "but having it fully offline and no subscriptions is wayyy better in my eyes."

        Yeah I totally agree with you on that. But also the setup is for my elderly mom, so I would like for it to be usable for her and also not require much maintenance if there is any problems.
        I plan on using the free 4GB only so won't be paying for the subscription. If all the photos don't fit, I will batch convert them to reduce their file sizes so they do.

        • 

          Leho on 28/01/2023 - 18:06

          @harshbdmmaster718: yeah, thats completely understandable, that's why pre-made solutions are better for these types of specific situations.

          • 

            harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 18:10

            @Leho: Yeah and I did state in the deal description that I still do think it's expensive even at $360. But Amazon AU aren't restocking for months now, so I lost hope on seeing the price drop there.

            Also want to point out Meural experience is not as bad as some of the cheaper options.

            Here is another one I researched, 10 inch for $199. https://www.amazon.com.au/Skylight-Frame-Digital-Picture-Any…

            But the software and forced paid service for the Skylight is absolutely horrible according to feedback. Can't view more than 15 images without paying, can't delete photos without paying, tonnes of small things that are behind a paywall it's a nightmare.

  • 

    eug on 28/01/2023 - 18:08

    +1

    get a 15-inch lcd and connect a raspberry pi to the back and run a specialized os like fullpageos?

    The problem with that is that's exactly what it will look like - an LCD on the wall. A properly-designed photo frame will adjust the brightness and colour temperature of the image so it looks more like a printed photo in a frame rather than a bright glaring blueish monitor hanging on a wall.

    no bullshit subscription services needed.

    You don't need a subscription to use the Meural, the subscription is to access artwork. You can display your own images for free.

• 

  scuderiarmani on 28/01/2023 - 18:09

  Genuinely surprised this sorta thing still exists, let alone the huge price.

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 18:12

    +2

    I have a small 7 inch Sony digital frame which I got second hand years ago. (no WiFi, need to insert USB stick or Memory stick)

    They were already discontinued back then, but you would be surprised by the prices. When brand new, the cheapest was $250 and most expensive was $350+.
    Also they were all 7 to 8 inches in size. Not sure why but yeah.

    I know this deal is not for everyone.
    I just hope to help someone who missed out on the last of Amazon AU stock or was considering one "save some coin".

    BTW Amazon AU was the only place selling for $399. When I recently checked some places lowered their prices slightly below the $649 RRP, but when I was checking regularly no other place was selling it even close to $399.

  • 

    Jimothy Wongingtons on 28/01/2023 - 18:16

    +1

    I was there back in retail when these first came out to retail about 15 years ago…was super popular for Xmas then died in the arse.. then disappeared without much of a fight.. and now here we are again.. but now with a sub service and better res I guess

    • 

      puffinfresh on 28/01/2023 - 18:36

      +1

      I don't see this as a digital photo frame like those from 15 years ago. I see it as digital art, like the Samsung Frame TV.

    • 

      justtoreply on 28/01/2023 - 18:43

      +2

      That's because the implementation was woeful. If they had made better products back then, then they probably still wouldn't be prolific now but at least nobody would guffaw at the thought of buying one.

• 

  Aarent on 28/01/2023 - 18:10

  i didnt realise it was only 15 inches even if it said in title, when it said Mural i thought like a large digital frame, for like 400 u could get an ipad and a tablet stand :/

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 18:15

    This is designed to be a digital photo frame and nothing else. And that's what my mom was looking for (it's not going to be used by me).

    Also 15 inches is bigger than the biggest ipad, so not sure what you mean there. The cheapest deal for the biggest sized 12.9 inch iPad I saw recently was $1300. Yes it does a lot more if you need it to, but I am not going to pay $1300 and have someone use it as a digital photo frame.

  • 

    MeagerDollarBucks on 28/01/2023 - 18:20

    Is there really a 15" ipad for $400?

    • 

      harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 18:24

      I think they were thinking of the 9.7 inch budget iPad. But that's also had a shrinkflation price bump recently.

      And of course I am comparing brand new vs brand new. It's only fair because the Meural in this deal is brand new stock.

• 

  xinsnake on 28/01/2023 - 18:58

  +1

  I just buy an Epson EcoTank printer and print A3/A4 photos every week and stick them on the wall with bluetac.. It's so much better to see a photo on paper these days and it's quite cost effective too.

• 

  alidli on 28/01/2023 - 19:16

  Or this for $199 https://au.skylightframe.com/products/skylight-plus-10-scree…
  Bit smaller picture but great for families & friends if you're far apart.

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 19:28

    I linked to that exact frame in a comment above (amazon link).

    There are a lot of sneaky paywalls for that frame. So it basically requires the paid subscription for basic function. So I decided it was a good idea to avoid it.

    e.g. one of the functions is, if you load a image on the frame you can't delete that photo off the frame without subscription. Very sneaky in my opinion.

• 

  haytona on 28/01/2023 - 19:19

  @blacksmithnpc, re: point 3
  If powered off by wifi socket, can it resume pics from SD card when powered back on? Just thinking a little outside the box here

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 19:26

    "If powered off by wifi socket, can it resume pics from SD card when powered back on? Just thinking a little outside the box here"

    No I don't think so. As far as I know if you power it off, then power it on the frame will remain "off".

    Also it's not good for the frame or the SD card to cut the power suddenly to turn it off. If you do it over and over for a long time it can lead to memory corruption either the frame's onboard memory or the SD card's memory.

    SD card corruption is fine, you can buy another and replace it cheaply but if you corrupt the frame memory you might permanently break the Meural.

• 

  pw2002au on 28/01/2023 - 19:29

  +1

  Thanks. Not a device for me but it's the cheapest it's been so deserves an upvote.

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 19:31

    +1

    Thanks. Not really farming for votes so if it helps someone save some money that's good enough for me.

    But yeah if you aren't even interested in the product and still upvoting I appreciate it.

• 

  noisymime on 28/01/2023 - 20:58

  Only 1080p for 15"? For something that is meant to look like a photo on the wall, that's a pretty terrible DPI. Many 6" phones have better resolutions than that.

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 28/01/2023 - 22:20

    Well then you don't want to calculate the PPI for the 21 inch and 27 inch models lol (they are also 1080p) 😅.

    Comparing Digital Frame PPI (similar to TV use case) to a smartphone PPI or even a PC monitor PPI is not a direct comparison though. (not sure why so many people do this?)

    For example I have a 1440p 32 inch monitor which is 93 PPI. Before buying other people were telling me maximum size I should buy for 1440p is 27 inch, but it was a bargain so I just went with the big monitor. I honestly have to look hard and bring my eye closer to the display to see any pixels. I am not sitting far away from the monitor either, but if you can easily see pixels on 32 inch 1440p monitor I think the monitor must be less then 30cm from your head, at which point the screen feels too big anyway.
    Edit: It's actually 31.5 inch to be exact.

    Anyway the 1080p 15 inch Meural has a 141 PPI so sounds good enough to me. Especially when people are going to be viewing it from around 1m+ away since you aren't going to be sitting right in front of it like a PC monitor.

    I am not going to comment on whether the PPI on the larger Meural models is enough, but I think there is going to be some anti-reflective coating on the display. At least it only makes sense if they are using a display with wide viewing angles.
    These anti-reflective coatings usually "blur" the image a bit, so maybe that's a reason why they didn't feel the need to use a higher resolution I don't know.
    At least I read about the older 32 inch Samsung Frame had no anti-reflective coating so while the image was sharp, it would reflect lights and sunsets and make the photo on the Frame difficult to see. The 2nd generation 32 inch Samsung Frame added the anti-reflective coating, but feedback said this made the display slightly "blurrier" or look lower resolution.

    My smartphone has 400+ PPI, but do I think it's absolutely necessary? I don't know. Seems like a bit overkill to me, might be due to spec wars just to attract customers to who has the best pixel density. One thing I know though, is if you load a non mobile website on a phone the text will be tiny so it will look bad on a low PPI phone screen. Maybe that's one reason they drive the pixel density up so much.

    I don't think smartphone PPI is relative to PC monitor PPI, Digital Frame PPI and Television PPI. They are all viewed quite differently and from different distances. For example with a smartphone not only is it closer to your face, but you hold it in the perfect position every time. So people probably tend to notice the pixels more.

    Also I think display type has an effect on sharpness, even if they are the same pixel density. I am pretty sure with pixel density being the same, LCD looks sharper than OLED due to the pixel arrangement.
    So typically to have the same sharpness OLED displays need to have higher pixel density than an older LCD it replaces.

  • 

    eug on 28/01/2023 - 22:46

    +1

    Only 1080p for 15"? For something that is meant to look like a photo on the wall, that's a pretty terrible DPI. Many 6" phones have better resolutions than that.

    You don't stand 15cm from a wall when you look at a hanging photo.

    Don't be taken in by clever marketing. Resolution and PPI is only one part of the picture. The more important part is the viewing distance. The further away you are, the lower your ability to discern pixels, and the less the resolution matters.

    A Galaxy S22 has 3088x1440 pixels whereas the projectors in cinemas are only roughly full HD (1998x1080 for 1.85, 2048x858 for 2.39). Only high-end cinemas are 4K.

    • 

      noisymime on 29/01/2023 - 09:16

      I get that viewing distance can make resolution less relevant, but wall photos, and particularly if you've got a fancy digital frame like this, will definitely get people coming and having a closer look. This is a premium priced product for what amounts to simply a wifi connected screen, so I don't think its unreasonable to expect premium hardware to come with it.

      • 

        eug on 29/01/2023 - 10:40

        +1

        I get that viewing distance can make resolution less relevant, but wall photos, and particularly if you've got a fancy digital frame like this, will definitely get people coming and having a closer look.

        At this level of quality, I'd argue that's only a problem if your visitors are pixel peepers. They'd be missing the point of artwork if they can only focus on PPI and miss the art aspect of artwork or photos.

        This is a premium priced product for what amounts to simply a wifi connected screen, so I don't think its unreasonable to expect premium hardware to come with it.

        I agree that more pixels is nice to have, but there comes a point of diminishing returns where more pixels just makes pixel peepers happy when they're 30cm away and the other 99.9% of the time the higher resolution is wasted.

        I welcome the day all these screens move to 4K but after actually owning a Lenovo Smart Frame with even lower PPI than this, I find that in reality it really isn't an issue at all with my friends who are amazed at how good and natural the image looks in a room. Some photos arguably look better than they can on printed paper as the image is self-lit and does not rely on even high-CRI daylight-balanced lighting hitting the photo.

        Companies like Samsung realised this early on. e.g. their S22 Ultra comes with a WQHD+ 3088x1440 screen to satisfy the pixel-peepers and spec-chasers but the default resolution setting on the phone is FHD+ (2316x1080) because it reaches the point of diminishing returns.

• 

  bulaboy on 28/01/2023 - 23:12

  +1

  Dunno man. I have two of the 27” Meurals in my living room. And paid RRP on those (sooooo not OZB of me!). No regrets and loving every day of it.
  So far everyone who’s seen it has been impressed - two purchases from friends after seeing ours. I should get commission!

  • 

    h4zey on 29/01/2023 - 06:54

    Dunno man, but I think you are in the wrong website..

• 

  USER DC on 30/01/2023 - 14:41

  Dam missed it wish I knew this voucher was expiring yesterday, Item now like $35 more expensive

  • 

    harshbdmmaster718 on 30/01/2023 - 18:28

    "Item now like $35 more expensive"

    Not sure what you mean, but I am seeing it is now $90 more expensive without the code.

    Also if it makes you feel any better. I just discovered the 15.6 inch model does not have a SD card slot.
    When checking this months ago two websites said it did have an SD card slot.

    It's not much of a problem for me because I was planning to use the 4GB free cloud storage.
    But I apologize that I got this info wrong.

    • 

      USER DC on 30/01/2023 - 18:29

      No not this item in the deal, another item using that BTS code 22% off

      sorry

      • 

        harshbdmmaster718 on 30/01/2023 - 18:30

        Okay no problem.

• 

  harshbdmmaster718 on 30/01/2023 - 18:31

  Sorry guys I just discovered the 15.6 inch model does not have a SD card slot.
  When checking this months ago two websites I checked said it did have an SD card slot so I believed it (one of them was a global Amazon page).
  I was checking the netgear forums today to see how many thousands of photos total it would support and came across the info, SD card slot is not available on the 15 inch.

  It's not much of a problem for me because I was planning to use the 4GB free cloud storage.
  But I apologize that I got this info wrong.

• 

  harshbdmmaster718 on 01/02/2023 - 18:46

  Alright guys got the Meural setup for mom. Here's a few tips I learned with the process.

  App is required for setup but it comes in handy later as well so worth using even if you plan to control the frame from the Meural website.

  I resized my moms photo's that were mostly smart phone photos which were like 4000x3000 pixels down to 0000x1920 pixels. All Jpeg format. I just made the shortest side of the image the highest resolution of the frame so that in any situation the pixels would not be enlarged. This shrunk down most images to around 1MB each.
  (If all your photos are in landscape or you edit your vertical ones to landscape and crop out the best part, each photo can be as small as 1920x0000 without getting enlarged pixels. But it will take more preparation by editing the images before uploading them to the cloud, the benefit is each image will be like 500kb and you can upload more total images to the cloud)

  Then I uploaded my moms photos to the free cloud storage by logging in and using the website on the computer because that's where most of her photos are. As a test run I just limited it to 500 photos which I resized so they would take up less of the free 4GB.
  (I also learned here that the maximum recommended images per Meural Playlist is roughly 1000 images)

  Ok so first things first after everything is in "uploads" you have to add them to a Playlist to send them to the Meural. Creating a playlist is easy enough, but the layout on the website doesn't let you "select images" to add to the playlist, you can only get an option to "add" by clicking on each image 1 by 1.

  This is where the App becomes useful. So after uploading is done (most people might already do this because they are uploading straight from their phone) open the App and go to Library tab then Uploads. And tap the select button in the top right then select all the images you want in the playlist.
  Kind of annoying there is no "select all" option, you would have thought they fixed this by now because Meural has been out for awhile but maybe they didn't want users accidentally hitting delete after select all so they made it this way I dunno.
  It only took about 2 minutes anyway for me to manually select all images by tapping on the phone so wasn't a big deal for me.
  Then add them to the playlist you created, or create playlist then add.
  Once that's done, then you can go back to Library then open the playlist and send them to the Meural. Downloading 500 images from the Cloud onto the Meural wasn't as quick as I thought it would be, but go away for 30 minutes and it should be done.

  My first impressions after dialing in the duration of each photo etc to 20 seconds. Well firstly I was a bit disappointed that there is no "transition" options like on the old Sony frame I have. It just instantly changes to the next picture, not a deal breaker but something I expected because I had it on the Sony (I use the fade transition).
  Also one important setting you might want to trigger is the "orientation" option in Apps Canvas settings. If you don't turn this setting off, it will only show all horizontal images when the frame is placed that way, and only show the vertical images when the frame is vertical. So I was wondering for awhile when I did the swipe up gesture to see the image name etc, and it would say "X of 250" when I uploaded 500 images. Once I fixed this setting all 500 images showed up properly.

  So yeah I guess some tweaking of images is needed before uploading to cloud if you want to have an experience without vertical images with black bars beside them. In the display mode default setting it will "crop" in vertical photos, but you lose 50% of the photo this way by zooming in only the middle part in landscape so I just have it set to the "show entire image" mode (not so much an issue with nature/scenery, but with photos of people it might cut off heads or only show a person's midriff). My mom will likely prefer to see the entire vertical photo and won't mind the black bars.

  Other than that it is a pretty snappy system. Once it's off it's just "asleep" so if you press the power button to wake it up the photo shows instantly.
  The gesture control is pretty handy, especially for mom she might want to see the previous image once it changes, and she can just wave to the left at the top of the frame to go back (this does take some getting used to, I mistakenly scratched the frame area with my fingers the first few times I did it).
  The old Sony frame would have considerable delay when switching on, it would have to "load" all the images on the USB stick every time it switched on (even with schedule) and it would take a good 5 minutes just to load the images on the Sony before the first photo would show.

  Some other tips. I have it set as "continuous display mode" and with a schedule to turn on for 4 hours a day. Here is a tip for the schedule, when I first set it, it didn't turn off at the time I set. So I realized every time you change a setting on the Canvas with the App, if you wait a few seconds the Canvas screen turns blank for a moment. This means it has received and set the new setting. So don't rush things wait for the Canvas to respond every time you change a setting. So what I did was just turn the Schedule Off, wait for blank screen, then after the photo came back I turned the Schedule On, another moment of blank screen then back to photo. This fixed it and it turned off correctly at the time I set.

  Also additional useful info I learned.
  Single press of the power button while it's ON puts the frame to sleep.
  Press and hold for 5 seconds while it's on and it turns the frame OFF (shutdown), a message also pops up saying wait 20 seconds before unplugging the power adapter.

  Press and hold for 1 second when it's OFF (shutdown) to turn it on.
  Single press of the power button when it's asleep to wake it up.