My husband and I purchased this frame for his mom. We had previously tried to give her a computer but it collected dust. Since she loves pictures of the grandkids and we live several hours away, we thought this would be a good gift.

The first step--plugging it in--was simple. The frame needs to have a location with easy access to both phone and electricity, or you'll have cords all over the place. Once attached, it starts displaying the Ceiva company information, including the customer service phone number.

Getting the frame to properly connect and load pictures was more involved. First, it needs to be registered at the Ceiva site (that had to happen "off-site" since my mother-in-law doesn't have a computer). The website is where you load the pictures and set the guidelines for the frame (what times to turn it on and off and what number for the frame to call to load new pictures, etc) Then you need to purchase a subscription which costs almost as much as the frame on a yearly basis. Once that's done, it's supposed to be as easy as someone pushing a button (the big one on the base of the frame) and the pictures would load.

Unfortunately, it didn't work at first. Our frame took a few calls to customer service (luckily a circulating pre-loaded picture on the frame) and emails from us to correct the problem. Telephone customer service was courteous and gracious to my mother-in-law. Email customer service was slow and sometimes didn't respond directly, though they did take care of a separate problem eventually.

From my mother-in-law's perspective, the solution was just pushing that big button multiple times, intermittently over the course of the day, until it finally connected. I'm not sure it was the same solution from Ceiva's point of view.

Once that was resolved, EVERYTHING has worked like a dream. The frame revolves 30 different pictures. On the website, I keep everything in an album so I know which ones she's seen. My brother-in-law several states away can upload pictures onto her frame as well. We can also send captions with the pictures or special greetings on Mother's Day etc. She is absolutely thrilled, and I will probably be buying one for my grandmother (who is in a board and care home) this year.

PROS: Fabulous gift for the computer-less, can be accessed (on invitation/with password) by other loved ones to load their photos, easy to plug in, seamless operation once working

CONS: Expensive cost of subscription (factor it into your gift giving), took some time and customer service input to get it connected, unable to edit/crop photos on website (do it before), cost of ordering prints of photographs for the receiver (we use a different company)

PRO
- One person I know who has one and got a couple for family members likes it and does not regret the purchase
- Picture/LCD quality appears to be sufficient, bordering on good.
- Awesome idea for kids to get pics of children's and grandchildren's lives
- Low maintenance for recipient, given automated downloading of new pictures each night.

CONS
- The one consistent theme in all reviews here and on other sites is that Cust service is abysmal. I looked everywhere and could not find a phone number for cust service, despite a couple user comments about being "on hold" for 20 minutes. This scares me a great deal--not b/c I'm not technical--but b/c there appear to be a number of service and hardware complaints, and obviously resolution requires cust service. Exchanges are difficult to handle with 48hr email turnaround times, no doubt involving multiple messages back and forth.
- The subscription fee is quite high, in my opinion
- It seems the moment you cancel the subscription, whatever pictures are in the device are there forever, as there is NO OPTION to load pics other than through the subscription service.
- It seems a number of people have had technical hardware failures with the Ceiva I & II. The best warrantee I could find from all the Ceiva retailers is 60 days, otherwise you have to pay the extended warrantee of $20 for a full year of warrantee coverage. I think this is a little shotty, and makes me very uneasy given the reviews on this site.
- You have to get a subscription to the service to use the frame. There are cancellation fees for the service. So, if you buy the frame, don't like it or have problems, it seems 1) you will have difficulty reaching cust service, 2) have only 30-60 days to figure this out, hoping a problem does not occur after that period, 3) have to then cancel the subscription, which is a $10 fee within 30 days, or, after 30 days, it's $10 plus 50% of your subscription fee, which would be a total of about $60-70 if you bought a 1-year subscription (minimum is 3 months).

Summary: I really like the idea, and talked all siblings into buying for our parents, but I can't in good conscience buy this knowing all of the cons above. I truly feel that there is a good possibility of trouble, which sounds extremely difficult to resolve at the least, and expensive at worst.

-Brian U

Going to the web site as the instructions indicate, the information requested was severe -- name, address, phone number, email, as well as the code off the box. The privacy policy said that they would spam you -- well ok, all it said was that you would recieve information and offers, but we know what that means. Ads on the display too, it seems from the policies.

Then the price! $9.95 a month (discounted to $112 or so/year if you pay in advance) to make it work! Three month minimum to sign up and a fee to cancel. It apparently does absolutely nothing without the service fee, as it has no interfaces but the phone.

Looks like if it does work, she can see the grandchild pictures on a smaller dimmer screen than usual, at least she will if the kid goes to the trouble to put them in the right place on the service web page.

I will probably be forced to sign up to make the kid feel good about the gift, which will cost me a minimum of $30, and get a ton of spam. I would be happier if it gets into the trash unused.

I love this product!

I bought my first Ceiva for my (now) 97 year old grandmother when we realized that she was developing Alzheimer's. I liked the fact that I could use captions to jog her memory about names and faces. As her memory faded, I was able to alter the speed of the picture rotation to accomadate her needs. She says that all the residents of her unit want one. The nursing staff must look at the Ceiva too because they know when I put on new pictures.

Next I got a Ceiva for my in-laws. They don't need captions to remind them of our names, but they appreciate the postcard option where we can write longer descriptions of the events in the picture. The photos are also good as thank-you cards. We take a picture of our kids using the gift, and have them write a thank-you card in the margin.

My parents seemed a little envious of my grandmother's frame. Around that time, the Ceiva 2 came out. Setup was a little more complicated. The new frames allow the recipient to delete his or her own pictures. My parents have used this function to delete pictures they don't want. Everyone else loves the Weather Channel feature, but I discovered that they didn't when they twice deleted it from their frame. My parents really like new pictures. For when I am too lazy to do this, there is a picture rotation function. I like that the new frame holds more pictures than the old one.

My inlaw's frame eventually ceased to work. (That one I bought several years ago from ebay) It is difficult to trouble-shoot the frames from a distance. My inlaws brought it back to me so I could interface with tech support. I was able to find the information I needed online and customer support was responsive to my email. I have not tried to reach customer support by phone so I can't comment on the phone support problems experienced by others.

These frames do not have extremely high picture quality. However they are great for recipients who are not very computer literate. When my daughter leaves for college this fall, we will probably make photo CDs with PhotoShop, add an autorun feature and let her watch high quality pictures on her computer.

Frustrated in Utah!!

Sounds like some of the folks who have been disappointed in it didn't really check it out prior to buying. We love it. It has helped our family stay in touch across the miles.

This product is a great idea, but due to poor quality it is a MONEY PIT.

I had some questions about the service, setup etc and the customer support department was so helpful and knowledgeable. I really felt like they were on top of things!

I think anyone who wants to stay connected to their families should go purchase one!

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.

Once your Ceiva Receiver is delivered, you'll have to register it to the Ceiva Network. I actually signed up for my free account, and then just registered it once the product arrived. By the way, I learned later that everyone needs an account at Ceiva, so you may as well set up your member account while you're waiting.

Registering the Receiver is quick. You just need the 12 digit serial number and information like the phone number it's going to dial from. This was the same as my Earthlink account (selecting local numbers to dial into the provider). You have to select a subscription plan to receive pictures, but they have some great rates ($7.95 a month).

Anyway, once it's registered you can just use it, or get as fancy as you like. They have some great features that allow you to have the lcd screen turn on and off automatically, picture rotation times, and more.

You also have the ability to put text messages on your pictures, customizing them with whatever greeting you want. You can even turn a picture into a digital postcard.

Sending pictures to the Receiver you have the option to send one,or up to 30 at a time. All the web stuff is pretty cool, but nothing compares with the emotional impact of seeing the kids or other great friends and family every morning.

Ceiva has done a really amazing job in allowing people to stay connected like never before in this tech world we live in, yet you don't have to be a tech head to use it. Very cool!

If you are in the US the setup is not grandma friendly, complicated, and can only be done by a person with a computer and patience. It is not a product for most Grandma and Grandpa's. And that is the exact market they are catering to.

The price is low, and that explains the abysmal image quality.

But the yearly service fee not so cheap, and will run you close to $100. (If you plan to buy more than one frame, you better check to see if that fee is $100 per frame. Each frame has a serial number that you have to enter when you sign up with Cieva.)

Support, I spent days calling a busy tone. Finally when they did pick up I had to wait over 20 minutes. Once I got them on the line they were fine, but all they had to do was tell me I couldn't dial in from overseas.

It seems their support is in one location, and the executive offices in another, but I was told there was no way to call the executive offices because they did not have a phone (of course I don't believe that malarkey). Ceiva is obviously a small struggling company in a market that will soon offer a wide variety of superior offerings.

I had a multiple negative Ceiva experience and will not be coming back to Ceiva.

Eight days before Christmas, we received our last receiver, only to find that several pixels on the frame face were orange. An email to the customer service brought a reply within 24 hours and within four days, I had a new receiver...even before the one I was returning had arrived back to Ceiva.

The set up and uploading of pictures is not difficult if you have some comfort working with computers, which is precisely why we did it all ahead of time (and so that when the gifts were opened, they could be plugged in automatically with photos ready, rather than having to wait for the daily dial in).

Now a few days past Christmas, all the receivers are out and our family loves them. No one has had any difficulty with the at home set up (plug in two cords, press a button) and they all agree that continued subscriptions to the site will make great Father's Day/Mother's Day/Birthday gifts in the future.

This was ordered for my mother so that she could receive family photos from relatives the world over. Problems:
1. The product itself is not particular well constructed. The screen is capable of only low resolution display such that jpegs that appear sharp on your computer screen turn on grainy and fuzzy on the Ceiva receiver.
2. The entire concept is flawed. It simplicity of use is supposed to allow techno-unsavvy grandparents to easily receive photos without having to do more complex things like openning up their e-mail and receiving e-mails with attached photos. Yes, but the setup of a Ceiva account absolutely requires logging onto to Ceiva's website to: a) program in local dial-up number(s); set up the user's Ceiva account (why it's not a secure [https] site is beyond me even though it asks for personal information); specify who can access the account to upload photos. Also, if you move the receiver from one site to another (in a different dialing area), you (preferably) need to log into the website to change the local dial-in number BEFORE you move the unit. How's that for intuitive and user-friendly?
3. Most egregiously, customer service is abyssmal. Ceiva makes it clear that holidays are busy times during which their server is overwhelmed. But it took from 12/25 to 12/28 before we were first able to download our pictures because of Ceiva "server congestion". For the past 2 days, I've tried to call Ceiva's customer service line. But, surprise again, it's always busy.

Think I'm harsh? Well, read some of the more critical reviews posted previously - they will confirm our experience.

I had the product shipped to our house, where we opened it up, registered it, and got it working, all within 30 minutes (I had previously been on Ceiva's website, so I did know my way around). We put it back in the box, wrapped it, and my parents opened it when they came to visit for the holidays. I took a picture of them opening the box, and by the time we got it all set back up again, I had uploaded it to Ceiva, the frame downloaded it, and it became part of the slideshow, all within 10 minutes. My parents loved it, and are really looking forward to all the pictures we'll be sending them. They have since gone back home to Illinois, where they had no trouble getting it hooked back up by themselves (it really is just a matter of plugging it into a socket and a phone line). It's downloaded pictures just fine after they set it up (we did have to change the call-in number before we unhooked it in Pittsburgh, but that's all explained in the manual).

To address a few concerns other people have raised in their reviews: 1) Yes, it is a subscription service, but for my parents who don't have or need a computer, it's great. Plus, for my wife's parents, who do have a computer, we can send them email through our account on Ceiva and they can view the pictures we send to my parent's frame--this is free; 2) The screen quality is fine--serviceable, but not great; being familiar with passive LCD screens, I'm actually somewhat impressed by its brightness; 3) for the Weather channel, it apparently doesn't know some zip codes--if you put in one it doesn't know, it says it has added the channel (it doesn't register an error), but it doesn't actually add it to the Photos to Send page--you'll need to find another town close by; 4) this one seems like a bug to me (and a reviewer two or three reviews down apparently found it)--you can set the interval for how long each picture appears in the slide show--however, it appears that this number is stored with each picture, as opposed to being a global setting for the frame; so, the new interval (the default is 5 s, we changed it to 15 s), will only apply to pictures that you add after you change the interval). The last two things are small bummers, but really in no way diminish the usefulness of the device.

So in short, this product is great and I would highly recommend it to anyone, particularly to someone in our situation.

I bought one for my 72 year old mother despite the mixed reviews online. It seemed that with the new model, some of the problems had been worked out and it was worth a shot. I figured I would beat the Christmas rush and get everything set up at my house before I wrapped the present. We could just plug it in and not worry about the tech support issues on Christmas Day.

Well here I am, about 12 hours after I first opened the box and I'm still waiting to finish downloading my photos and channels.

Here's the process: 1) I created an account and registered the receiver. I purchased the extended warranty and got the one year subscription. This was an easy set up and there were no problems here. 2) I selected 17 pictures from my computer and uploaded them to the site. Again, no real problems here. I used a program to reduce the size of the photos to less than 100k and reduced them to 640x480 pictures because of the info I read here. 3) I attempted to dial in to a local number and download the pictures. Here is where the trouble started. I had to dial in at least a dozen different times because of connection failures. I kept getting messages like "congestion" and "general failure". These messages have appeared over these past 12 hours. I had to unplug and restart the Receiver twice because it froze after attempting downloading. 4) I finally got the pictures downloaded and then attempted to add the Weather Channel, and a couple of picture channels to the Receiver. I went through the procedure to add the Weather Channel on the Website. It told me it was added, but never showed up in my "pictures to download" folder. I emailed customer support and got an automated reply back. I tried entering a different Zip Code and amazingly it worked for Minneapolis, but not St. Paul. 5) I then attempted to delete pictures through the website. I went through the ones I wanted to trash and followed the procedures as directed. The pictures were never deleted, so the channels did not download to the Receiver, because there wasn't space. I finally selected the pictures to delete on the Receiver itself and tried to download the channels again. I was finally able to download the Channels after several more failed attempts to connect to the network. 6) There are also ways on the website to change the duration of display preferences on the receiver. So far the changes I made in these preferences have not made it on any of the downloads. My pictures are stuck on 5 second display. I'm still working on trying to resolve this issue.

This might work out OK if you are willing to take the time to work through all these problems. If you are giving this to an elderly person or someone who has little or no computer experience, think again. You will probably have to provide tech support for them for this to work properly. I hate to think about all the people trying to get pictures on this thing Christmas Eve or Day.

The display itself seems to be adequate. The pictures are fairly bright and can easily be seen, even in a well lit room. The angle of viewing is OK, but not great. It's kind of like the old passive matrix computer screens...well, better than that, but not up to the quality of current LCD technology.

Improvements that I would like to see are viewing preferences on the display and a way to directly transfer pictures to the display without going through Ceiva. I realize this ruins their "razorblade" scenario for making money through annual subscriptions, but there has to be a better way of accomplishing transfer of the photos.

My brother-on-law passed away suddenly, and we had a large memorial service. Along with the sadness, we wanted to have a way to think about some of the happy times in his life -- our Ceiva came to mind. We loaded the Ceiva with pictures from his life -- from childhood up thru the past few weeks - and had it on the table outside the chapel as his friends and family came in. People just stood in front of the Ceiva and oohed and aahed and occasionally, cried -- it was an incredible way to share our memories and talk about good times we'd had with him. Thank you-- this is a great product.

When it works the product is simple to use but the picture quality is substantially below what any computer LCD screen provides.

Customer Service: Average. They attempt to do the right thing, but their lack of financial support for their poor technology (basically if the frame stops working after 30 days it isn't their problem anymore) is very upsetting.

Technology: Poor hardware. Even the 'Ceiva II' I have now purchased suffered severe rebooting issues before finally stabilizing. And I highly recommend the extended warranty - though it is disgusting that you actually are buying for one year of protection...you aren't _extending_ any warranty they provide.
Their Website for maintaining the frame is very easy to use and has come a long way in allowing lots of different functionality to personalize your frame.

Cost: High (too high). Now that they've come up with the Ceiva II the subscription rate is $90 a year. Pretty steep. Be sure that if you have technological problems with your frame that you demand the addition of weeks/months added to that subscription.

My History: I bought my first Ceiva Digital Photo Receiver (the 'Ceiva I' as it is now referred to) in October of 2001. Actually I purchased two. Right out of the box one worked (after a bunch of hassle forcing it to dial-in repeatedly) and one did not. Ceiva sent me a refurbished frame in replacement of the one that didn't work (though this refurbished frame worked great, it was disconcerting that they didn't send me a brand new frame).
The two frames worked good for 1.5 years. Then, the frame that was orginally okay out of the box suddenly stopped working. Back and forth, we decided to get a new frame to replace it. Ceiva was good about transfering the subscription we already had over to the new frame and adding a month of service since we were unable to utilize the frame during that time.
Five months later THAT frame stopped working! Ceiva claimed they had a rash of problems with a set of frames and said a little electrical connector should fix the problem. They sent the connector for free. It did not fix the problem. My feeling is that this connector should've been sent to all customers who received those faulty frames because it looked to be a device to stop electrical surges...and obviously once your frame is dead, it isn't going to fix it. Ceiva would not do anything to reimburse cost or swap frames. I was out the money. So, because it was a frame for my parents...and they were just about to have their first grandchild, I purchased the 'Ceiva II' to replace it. Big problem there is that it meant my subscription rate went automatically from $60/year to $90/year. OUCH. Again, Ceiva was good about extending my subscription for the time I was unable to utilize the frame.

Basically, Caveat Emptor. The concept is great, but there are hassles in your future with the technology, and additional $$ to be paid out.

Other reviews on the Internet talk down the fact that Ceiva requires a subscription, but I have to tell you, it's the connection that makes this product as my grandmother would say "a magic show". I looked at other products (the most recent one made by a company called Pacific Digital) which I wasn't impressed with at all. It doesn't require a subscription, but I can tell you the quality of the product is very poor, and in the end I wasn't interested in looking at my own digital photo's at home. Ceiva allows me to share my digital pictures with my family in a way I was never able to before.

Note that someone in the family does need to have a computer to send pictures to the Ceiva Receivers in-box, but it really is fast and easy to do. The endless "thank you's" from my family has been worth every penny!

The Ceiva is basically just a screen that shows digital pictures. I bought some last year that show 20 pictures at any one time. The new ones (I just got 3 more!) do 30 -- plus some very cool new stuff too.

See... what makes this so awesome, is that the Ceiva plugs into a phone line, and then dials out every night and grabs new pictures from your account -- you could get 30 new pictures every day. There's a cost for this service, but for the value, it's really quite reasonable. They have monthly and yearly plans, or if you're buying it as a gift, you can get a gift certificate good for a year of service.

This new Ceiva does some cool things the first one didn't. First, I can delete pictures out of my slideshow right from the unit. Before, I had to do it on Ceiva's website and then have the Ceiva dial in again. Also, if I like a particular picture, I can just hit a button, and it'll order prints of that picture for me -- and they'll show up in the mail in a couple of days!

We bought 5 Ceiva's last year. Each one of them has turned out to be amazing, in increasing our ability to share our lives, our joy, and our pain with our family.

My adopted daughter's great grandmother had one. Even though she was bedridden, she was able to keep up with Erin, and see pictures of our family, as well as her other grandchildren's families, as we sent her new pictures every day.

When my own grandmother passed away this year, we took pictures of all the friends and family who came for the funeral, and then sent some of those out to my sister, who couldn't make it. She still thanks me for that.

My wife's father likes the fact that the weather channel is available on the ceiva -- every night he gets a 3-day forecast uploaded, which he can see at a glance when he gets up in the morning. They're out in Missouri, and they call us every couple of days asking for new pictures.

I never thought such a little thing could have such a profound effect on our family, but it has. I can't recommend the ceiva high enough.

It does a slideshow through 20 pictures and I change the pictures out about every week or so. I subscribed her to some of the channels they have available with the subscription (so I wouldn't have to take so many pictures...) and she get the current weather forecast, her horoscope and a flower a day.

It is perfect.

We live in Chicago, and they live in New Jersey, so we don't see each other very often. I took advantage of a trip for Poppa's 85th birthday to buy the receiver, take it out there and set it up for them. The setup is a snap. They've moved it once already (from room to room) and had no problems setting it back up. (Note that if you set it up in one area code and move it, you'll have to do some configuration changes to get it to dial the new number. I made sure that I set it up for their area code before I took it out there.)

The picture quality is very good, but the viewing angle isn't so great. You pretty much have to view the frame from directly in front of it. This newer model can hold 30 images, and I usually upload 640x480 JPEGs that are around 50KB each. It connects every night around midnight or so via their phone line and a local number I picked. A little green LED on the front panel blinks to let them know that new pictures are waiting.

The spring-loaded plastic panel on the front feels cheaply made and on my unit had a weak spring that didn't push it out all the way. But you only need it to manually advance through the pictures, order prints, or delete an image. You can use the Ceiva without pulling out the panel.

Back in Chicago, I just upload images to the festive-looking ceiva.com website (they change the site icon theme for every season) and they sit in the inbox waiting for the overnight connection. Ceiva has a nice upload tool that can upload single or multiple (up to 30) images. It can also customize them by adding captions, background color, etc. However, it doesn't let you see a preview of the changes before you upload the image. The upload tool can also email the pictures to friends who don't have a Ceiva. But it doesn't work like you might think: instead of sending them a message with the images as attachments they get an email with a link that takes them to a "crippled" slideshow on Ceiva's website. Still, it's better than no email at all.

The Ceiva website also lets you invite family members and friends to upload pictures to the unit via your account. Since I have a large family that lives all over the world, this is a nice feature to have. The accounts are limited, though. They can only use their account to upload pictures. They don't have access to my master album, which would be nice so they could see my pictures and order prints.

As a word of caution, from things I've seen posted around the Internet: if you want the best experience with this product buy it before or after Christmas, which is when everyone buys it and swamps Ceiva's website and tech support staff. I've emailed a question to tech support and received a response within a day, which isn't so bad.

Two other minor quibbles I have with the product:
- I wish the monthly subscription was cheaper. I don't like buy gifts for people with a monthly subscription attached, so I pay it. But is it worth $.../month to upload/download images to a website? I'd rather pay somewhere around $...or have it be free.
- Instead of a phone line the Ceiva should be able to connect over an existing Internet connection (i.e., TCP/IP). That way my parents, who are missionaries in Thailand, could have one as well.

But all in all, this is a good product, and the thank you's that I keep getting from my grandparents consistently affirm that.

Man is this thing neat. I liked it so much I bought two more for my parents and Inlaws, and they love it too.

They get daily updates of the grandkids each morning, and order prints directly online of the shots they like.

Limited computer skills are needed to set up initially, and none there after

I would definatily recomend this for anyone with extended distance families.