142 articles
Photography and Technology have always been a passion of mine. Since 2005, I have looked at countless ideas on how to enjoy beautiful images digitally, making the experience entertaining, amusing, and stimulating. In my other life, I am an entrepreneur and bicyclist based near Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Sep 26, 2026
A year after my first look at the Reflection Frame, the company is back with a smaller 10-inch model. I have been living with two of them, one in black aluminium and one in solid walnut.
Sep 18, 2026
Everybody gets stuck at the same place: which folder pairs with which, and who is allowed to delete what. Here is the whole thing worked through once, slowly, with a real example you can copy.
Sep 15, 2026
Plug a USB stick into your frame, type a few commands, and your Raspberry Pi makes a bootable copy of itself every week. No other computer needed.
Sep 15, 2026
A remote shell lets you fix a frame from a distance. Tailscale goes further: the web interface, Syncthing and the file share all come with it, exactly as if you were sitting on your own sofa.
Sep 13, 2026
A complete rebuild of the picture frame software for today's Raspberry Pi OS. No desktop, no compositor, no hand-written service files — one command, and your frame is running.
Nov 23, 2025
You may have noticed an exciting shift in the digital frame world lately: frames are quietly moving toward something that looks… well, printed.
Jun 8, 2025
Tap one button on your phone and have PictureFrame only show the photos of your last vacation.
Feb 22, 2025
Chris decided not to build one but three stacked digital frames. Here is how.
Feb 22, 2025
Black screen on your Pi Zero with Pi3D? Your images may be too large—here’s how to fix it automatically.
Feb 14, 2025
Your Raspberry Pi is only as fast as the SD card you feed it—discover which ones deliver top performance.
Dec 29, 2024
Increase the maximum display delay of your images in Home Assistant.
Dec 28, 2024
If you change your WiFi connection, accessing your digital picture frame will become challenging. Here is a simple fix.
Dec 15, 2024
Raspberry Pi OS requires you to use virtual environments with Python. What sounds complicated is actually very easy.
Dec 14, 2024
Here is an updated set of instructions for displaying the currently shown image from your picture frame in Home Assistant.
Nov 30, 2024
By default, PictureFrame uses English for geodata, but you can change the language. Here is what to do.
Nov 30, 2024
Raspberry Pi Connect is a fantastic feature that enables both screen sharing and remote shell access to a Raspberry Pi.
Nov 26, 2024
The 5 GHz WiFi network has higher data throughput but walls and furniture can further reduce signal strength. Less can be more.
Nov 23, 2024
Enhance your Pi3D picture frame in minutes by adding USB stick compatibility for unlimited photo access.
Nov 17, 2024
Sharing your picture frame library with your family or friends is an excellent idea but how to avoid ending up with many duplicates?
Nov 16, 2024
Dive into the essentials of configuring your Pi3D picture frame with this beginner-friendly guide.
Nov 15, 2024
Want your photo frame to focus on portrait shots? This guide shows you how to make it happen effortlessly.
Nov 10, 2024
Wouldn’t it be nice if your digital frame automatically shows your wedding photos on your anniversary?
Nov 7, 2024
Automate all the various steps in the main PictureFrame article with this script and save a lot of time.
Sep 13, 2024
Learn how to fix unstable WiFi connections on your Raspberry Pi digital picture frame with this step-by-step guide.
Jun 6, 2024
Learn how to build the best Raspberry Pi picture frame in a few simple steps. This guide covers installation with the latest OS Bookworm.
Jun 6, 2024
Find the best digital picture frame based on your individual requirements with my digital frame finder. With links to all my product reviews.
Dec 25, 2023
Samba is straightforward to use but the software is so powerful that one easily encounters errors that are quick to fix if you know where to look.
Dec 3, 2023
Find the answer to which Raspberry model is best suited for your digital photo frame depending on display size, resolution and functionality.
Nov 25, 2023
You have flashed the latest operating system image onto your Raspberry Pi. You now want to access your Pi via SSH with the Terminal app. But what is the IP?
Nov 23, 2023
Disabling Wi-Fi power management on your Raspberry Pi can significantly enhance your Wi-Fi network’s stability. Check it out.
Nov 19, 2023
Log2Ram is an ingenious solution designed to extend your SD card’s life, one of two components in a picture frame that tends to break after a few years. Here is how to avoid it.
Oct 15, 2023
If you want to use date filtering capabilities of Pi3D PictureFrame using Home Assistant, you need your photos to contain valid Exif data information. Here is how to check.
Oct 15, 2023
vcgencmd showed the power status of a connected monitor and no longer works. Here is how to read it with wlr-randr on a Wayland desktop, and why picframe3 needs none of it.
Oct 14, 2023
When you have the whole family adding photos to your frame, it is not unlikely that the same photo will be uploaded several times. Here is how to remove duplicates automatically.
Oct 13, 2023
How to turn your monitor on and off with wlr-randr on a Wayland desktop now that vcgencmd is retired, and what happens instead on picframe3.
Apr 3, 2022
Here is an update to the popular “email-to-frame” script which allows friends & family to send photos directly to your frame.
Jan 16, 2022
What if you are building a digital frame as a present and want to have the network of your recipient pre-configured? Add a second network.
Dec 27, 2021
One of the more recent features of the image viewer Pi3D PictureFrame is the option to show the date and time as a text overlay over your photos.
Dec 27, 2021
Can the Google Chromecast double as a digital picture frame as claimed in many web articles?
Dec 26, 2021
If you keep your images on Google Drive you can now directly sync them with your Raspberry Pi digital picture frame.
Dec 10, 2021
Aeezo is a Chinese digital photo frame brand with several frames under its belt. I looked at their popular Portrait 01 model.
Aug 8, 2021
The first Nixplay touchscreen photo frame has arrived on my doorsteps. Here are the results of my test drive.
Jun 6, 2021
Read my account on how I upgraded from a 24” to a 32” 4K monitor using the Pi3D PictureFrame image viewer and what the main differences were.
May 14, 2021
Read my test of the brand-new Dragon Touch Classic 10 Elite model which has been much improved over previous generations.
Apr 24, 2021
Opening up a working computer monitor is not for the faint-hearted. But it’s not difficult either if you know. Watch me stripping a BenQ PD3200U.
Apr 23, 2021
Finally, the Linux program ddcutil works on the Raspberry Pi. A great tool to automate brightness controls and much more.
Mar 27, 2021
Did you know that you can log into your Raspberry Pi via Terminal without a password? And make it even more secure?
Mar 21, 2021
Changing the display brightness via software is really difficult to do from a Raspberry Pi. The Pi3D image viewer offers a great workaround.
Mar 20, 2021
A matte in a picture frame increases the value perception of an image and also provides a solution for photos in different aspect ratios.
Mar 19, 2021
This is one of the most frequent issues for Raspberry Pi beginners. But the solution is very simple.
Mar 15, 2021
Change your landscape photo frame to portrait orientation in less than five minutes.
Mar 1, 2021
The Meural is unusually large for a table-top picture frame. But photos are meant to have space to come to life. The bigger, the better.
Feb 28, 2021
Canvia claims to have the best digital display with their patented ArtSense technology. So it was time, I took a close look.
Feb 27, 2021
Here is another stylish frame from the Aura family. Minimalistic and elegant.
Feb 27, 2021
An inconspicuous name for an exclusive stainless-steel design display. Discover the Mercedes-Benz of picture frames.
Jan 9, 2021
Are you running your Test Raspberry Pi in a headless mode without an external monitor? Here is an inexpensive and simple solution to use your computer’s monitor as a screen.
Jan 3, 2021
My January 2021 shortlist. The panel advice still holds; every model named has since been discontinued.
Dec 18, 2020
Sometimes you experience issues with your digital picture frame and suspect that it may have something to do with your WiFi network’s signal quality. This is how you find out.
Dec 18, 2020
Having owned and built large digital picture frames for over twenty years now, I may have a few insightful statistics to share. Preventive maintenance goes a long way.
Dec 15, 2020
The day will come when, for whatever reason, your WiFi SSID or password has changed, and you cannot connect to your picture frame anymore. Get some insurance.
Dec 15, 2020
If you give your family & friends the permission to directly send pictures to your photo frame, you are likely to end up with duplicates over time. Here is how to keep your house clean.
Dec 10, 2020
Writing good software is hard, and why should every manufacturer develop their own app? Introducing Frameo, the Microsoft Windows for digital picture frames.
Dec 8, 2020
The image viewer Pi3D, Home Assistant and Amazon Alexa is a match made in heaven when it comes to magically control your images on the wall. Here is why.
Dec 7, 2020
Yes, this is a bit nerdy. But wouldn’t you want to monitor the CPU temperature of your Raspberry Pi? It’s easy to do with MQTT.
Dec 3, 2020
When you have thousands of photos on your frame, you may not immediately remember every single image taken. Introducing the new Pi3D PictureFrame geolocation feature.
Nov 28, 2020
When you have many photos on your digital picture frame, you probably sometimes look at an image and wonder “when was this taken”? Siri will have the answer.
Nov 27, 2020
The HEIC image file format may be the successor to JPG. Popular on Apple devices, you can now use it on your Raspberry Pi with the Pi3D image viewer.
Nov 26, 2020
I often get questions about which digital picture frame to buy. Today, let’s take a look at which models my blog readers have been ordering on Amazon lately.
Nov 3, 2020
The aluminum Flirc case is excellent for keeping the Raspberry Pi cool and good looking. But doesn’t the metal enclosure impact the onboard WiFi performance? I was in for an unexpected result.
Nov 3, 2020
The Aura Carver frame in beautiful white chalk is probably the best designed digital picture frame for wedding photos. Now all you have to do is to get married.
Oct 13, 2020
Here is a great way to remote control your digital picture frame with your Apple Watch or Siri. It uses Apple Shortcuts and lets you magically do almost everything.
Oct 11, 2020
Skylight is the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign from the Innovation Lab at the Harvard Business School in 2016. Let’s see how the students performed.
Sep 28, 2020
The Frame is a real beauty in the digital picture frame area. But before you are being seduced by its looks, read this first.
Sep 26, 2020
The Feelcare may be a budget photo frame but I was surprised by a fresh software approach to add photos on remote frames of friends & family.
Sep 21, 2020
The Dragon Touch frame is my first digital picture frame with a touch screen that I reviewed. But it’s not only the hardware that matters.
Sep 16, 2020
The design of Aura frames is very different from many other digital photo models. But one software feature also stands out.
Sep 10, 2020
Aqara sensors are used in many home automation settings to measure the room temperature, alert when windows or doors open, objects move, or water is leaking. If you struggle to change the battery, read this.
Sep 8, 2020
The Google Nest Hub is quite different from the Amazon Echo Show and has a number of advantages for photo lovers. But it also has one big drawback.
Jul 9, 2020
Does the Echo Show make a good photo frame? And where do I find the two different picture frame modes with artificial image recognition and voice commands? An unexpected surprise.
Jun 23, 2020
Nimbus frames are made for enjoying art on a much larger scale than previously available. And for artists they provide a direct route to monetisation. You say you want a revolution?
Jun 20, 2020
Every once in awhile, setting up MQTT just doesn’t work, and you may spend hours trying to find the bug only to eventually conclude that it was just a silly small thing that you forgot. This article helps you save time.
Jun 16, 2020
Here is a modern alternative to crontab if you want to schedule tasks based on specific dates or times.
Jun 14, 2020
Why do some digital frames cost $39 and others $3,000? How can I get the best photo frame for my needs? Can I save money by building it myself?
Jun 9, 2020
In this article, I will show you three monitors I recommend for a 24 inches digital picture frame. Here is what makes them great.
Jun 9, 2020
The Ken Burns effect is a type of panning and zooming motion which makes still imagery come to life. Read here how to activate it.
Jun 8, 2020
There are several ways to autostart Python scripts. My recommendation is to use “systemd”, which became the Raspberry Pi default in 2015.
Jun 6, 2020
I often get asked for recommendations, so in this article I will show which hard- and software I am personally using for our living room photo frame.
Jun 5, 2020
There is a way to discover art, at a pace that works for everyone. At home in your living room. On your digital picture frame. This is where you find the masterpieces for free. Legally.
Jun 5, 2020
Did you always want to tell your picture frame to delete an image that you don’t want to see anymore? Now you can.
Jun 4, 2020
Your colleagues are expected for dinner and you don’t want to show all the family pictures on your frame. How about some art?
Jun 3, 2020
Overwhelmed by the many options contained in the Pi3D PictureFrame configuration file? Discover the many possibilities.
Jun 2, 2020
Most of the tutorials here on this blog involve the use of the terminal. For Raspberry Pi novices, here are some fundamentals that make it super easy following my instructions.
May 31, 2020
In this Pi3D FAQ, I have compiled questions that we received, commands you may frequently use, and several tidbits you may want to discover and try for yourself.
May 28, 2020
The proven quality of Nixplay’s hard- and software remains the key recipe for the company’s market success. Read my hands-on review of the 2K Nixplay.
May 28, 2020
Do you want to use your iPhone/iPad to remote control your photo frame? Here is how to do it.
May 24, 2020
Do you only want to show the images of your birthday party from last week on your digital frame? Just say it!
May 23, 2020
If you love photo art and you want to enjoy it in the best possible way, your will one day end up with a 4K digital frame. Here is how to build it yourself.
May 21, 2020
Using the command line instead of the GUI can be a big time-saver especially for repetitive tasks. Here is my shortlist to replace the “raspi-config” menu with the command line.
May 17, 2020
Learn about the different types of PIR sensor hardware and get a complete Python script to automate display on/off.
May 10, 2020
No more powering down a Raspberry Pi and taking out the SD card to make a backup image. Discover Hot-cloning!
May 5, 2020
For five years this was how you put a Google Photos album on your frame. Google closed the door in 2025, so here is what happened and what to use instead.
May 4, 2020
Yes, you can! Finally connect your Raspberry Pi to Dropbox and sync all your files. An official tweak makes it possible.
May 2, 2020
Don’t just restore, but also backup your Raspberry Pi SD-cards and shrink the file size of your image to a minimum.
May 1, 2020
All the questions you always wanted to ask but were too afraid to.
May 1, 2020
Bring the incredible world of Internet of Things (IoT) communication to your Raspberry Pi without using Cloud services.
May 1, 2020
Discover hacks & botches from your fellow digital photo frame home brewers.
Mar 20, 2020
Discover the power differences between five frame models and six tips how to show a green attitude.
Mar 13, 2020
If there is one thing that makes every digital picture frame on the wall look ugly, it’s a dangling power cord that runs from the frame to the power outlet.
Mar 10, 2020
Read about the model that has the best display of any large photo frames I have ever tested.
Mar 9, 2020
For over fifteen years, I have been following the development of digital picture frames. Here are my recommendations for the best photo frames money can buy.
Feb 4, 2020
You don’t need to install any additional software to see the screen of your remote digital picture frame on your Mac. Here is how to do it.
Feb 3, 2020
Many SAMBA instructions on the Internet, especially with regards to macOS, are hopelessly outdated. Here is the 2020 Version including a full SAMBA config file to copy & paste.
Feb 1, 2020
If you don’t want a cloud-based Dropbox solution, nor pay for a full Resilio license, have a look at Syncthing, the great file synchronization app from Sweden. It’s even free.
Nov 24, 2019
A new range of photo frames based on the solid Nixplay interface with many different sizes, frame colors, and display resolutions.
Oct 23, 2019
Here is the solution that you stumble upon only now after spending hours trying to decode this strange error message.
Oct 21, 2019
A digital photo frame is a great gift, but finding the best one is not an easy task. I will show which models are suitable for whom.
Aug 5, 2019
Changing a password should be simple. But there are situations when it gets tricky. Here is how to prevent those moments.
Jul 20, 2019
Not using Home Assistant and looking for an alternative to use Alexa without diving deep into the bowels of an Amazon developer account? Meet Node-RED.
Jul 19, 2019
Why is this photo frame the best selling frame on Amazon? Because Nixplay got it right.
Jul 3, 2019
You just got a Nixplay frame? Here is how to set it up with your PC or Laptop in no time.
Jul 3, 2019
You just got a Nixplay frame? Here is how to set it up with your smartphone in no time.
Jun 24, 2019
I will show you three very different slide viewers that you can use for your digital picture frame project.
Jun 13, 2019
If you want to apply smart filters to only show specific images, you will need accurate Exif data. Run a health check on your collection.
May 20, 2019
Customize the boot-up screen of your Pi like a painter signs his work at the end of his artistic journey.
May 15, 2019
Now you see it, now you don’t. Learn what lies at the end of the rainbow when it starts glowing on your screen.
May 9, 2019
There is no one “best photo frame” but it depends on your needs. Find out which one is for you before you go out and buy one.
Mar 5, 2019
If you have built photo frames for friends & family, here is a way to service them from a distance.
Mar 5, 2019
In a time where we should avoid touching things, voice control is the way to go. I’ll explain how to make Alexa operate your photo frame without asking for treats.
Feb 28, 2019
Do you want to see how many images you have uploaded to your frame? MQTT makes it easy.
Feb 25, 2019
One of my best articles on integrating a digital frame in to a Home Automation environment and saving power in the process.
Feb 18, 2019
Are you looking for a simple way for friends & family to send their images directly to your living room?
Feb 12, 2019
Are you a regular person? Use the Linux scheduler crontab to set the ON hours of your photo frame.
Feb 12, 2019
The free iOS app PiHelper allows you to remote control your Raspberry Pi. Here is an example of how to control the screen of your digital picture frame.
Feb 11, 2019
Pi3D PictureFrame is hands down the best image viewer software you can find for your photo frame. Look here for a full tutorial to set it up in no time.
Feb 11, 2019
Check out the online tool Croppola that uses sophisticated image recognition software to find the best composition and crop in a photo automatically.
Feb 10, 2019
Follow me on my journey step-by-step to learn which hard- and software to use and a few other useful tweaks.
Feb 8, 2019
Resilio Sync works like Dropbox with the difference that no copies of the files are being stored in the Cloud.
Feb 5, 2019
Learn how to install everything you need for a digital picture frame including Raspberry Pi OS, Samba, Pi3D image viewer and autostart.
Jan 19, 2019
I have spent countless hours researching the subject of digital picture frames. In this article, I will share my key findings with you.
Jan 12, 2019
Why I ended up using the Raspberry Pi for my digital picture frame and why I have no regrets five years later.
Jan 8, 2019
There are many digital picture frames out there that you can buy, but depending on your requirements, they may not exactly correspond to what you want to have in your living room.
Jan 6, 2019
Check out this article before you go out and buy a computer monitor for your digital frame project.
Digital picture frames are like a time machine. They constantly bring up memories, start conversations and make you smile. They are a great way to remain close to those who are far and bring joy to everyday friends & family.
On this website, you will find unbiased product reviews and recommendations on off-the-shelf digital picture frames as well as many do-it-yourself instructions that will enable you to build a customized digital picture frame based on the famous Raspberry Pi.
This page may include affiliate links. When you click on any link from Amazon, I receive a small commission on the sale. It doesn’t cost you a penny and helps support the site. The opinions on this blog are solely motivated by my research and experience.
If you want to show your appreciation for my efforts, please use the affiliate links throughout the website should you wish to make a purchase. It’s a wonderful token of appreciation and encouragement to continue this work. Thank you.