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E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

kurotimedesign.blogspot.com

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Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#21

Post by sedatk »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #18

> Unclear business model, subscription based, phone app dependant, making you bound to their service. Get an Inkplate[0] and easily display whatever you want however you want. My one serves as an automated calendar and trash collection schedule, decorated with inkpen drawings that look great on e-ink[1]. [0] https://inkplate.io/ [1] https://mastodon.social/@holypangolin/108698546628218087 / https://mastodon.social/@h…

E-paper and E-ink are different technologies though. E-paper is transfletive LCD and requires power to keep the image on the display.

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#22

Post by seba_dos1 »

sedatk wrote: post #21
seba_dos1 wrote: post #18

> Unclear business model, subscription based, phone app dependant, making you bound to their service. Get an Inkplate[0] and easily display whatever you want however you want. My one serves as an automated calendar and trash collection schedule, decorated with inkpen drawings that look great on e-ink[1]. [0] https://inkplate.io/ [1] https://mastodon.social/@holypangolin/108698546628218087 / https://mastodon.social/@h…

E-paper and E-ink are different technologies though. E-paper is transfletive LCD and requires power to keep the image on the display.

E-paper and e-ink are synonyms (well, to be more precise, e-ink is a brand of e-paper, but those terms are being commonly used as synonymous). Not sure what you're referring to regarding transflective screens, as both the article and my comment refer to displays that only need power to update their content.

I also have a device with a transflective LCD, it's called Nokia N900 - it would be hard to mistake one display for another ;)

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#23

Post by mysecretaccount »

One of my primary "consumer electronics" dreams for the future is that e-ink displays become cheap and commonplace.

Something about screens causes them to steal away your attention. "Ambient" screens for menus in bars/restaurants are convenient but are awful decor. This is why I will never have a utility display in my house for e.g. displaying news, weather.

I do not even really care if the tech improves - just give us larger, cheaper e-ink displays with the same DPI/contrast ratio and let them replace ambient screens.

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#24

Post by spiderice »

jrm4 wrote: post #19

Honestly, this is as close to an objectively wrong "opinion" as I've seen on here. I think a scam is best defined as something where there's a huge disjoint between what is sold/marketed, and what the person actually receives or experiences. They may not look AMAZING, but so what? They do what they say on the tin.

> there's a huge disjoint between what is sold/marketed

I think that's exactly what OP is arguing here. The website (which they didn't link to) showed entirely different capabilities than what the product can do. Nothing "objectively wrong" about that

EDIT: Take this website for example [1]. I have no idea if this is the website OP ordered from (it's just one of the top google results), but if I ordered a picture frame from this website, and it turned out to be what OP ended up with, I would 100% consider that a scam. No question.

[1] https://www.ionnyk.com/

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#25

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

asciimov wrote: post #17

I'm sorry that this guy feels that these devices are a scam. E-ink frames have their own aesthetic and do a decent job of displaying black and white photos. Sure they have some limitations, but they are good enough and solve a particular problem if you have a large amount of b&w photos to display.

maybe, but this is pretty damning

> Nice looking website, edited and misleading pictures and videos with a soothing voice to let you sleep and distract you from the truth.

> High prices, unclear specifications. Unclear business model, subscription based, phone app dependant, making you bound to their service. These devices may easilly become useless if (when) the company closes its doors.

just be transparent about what you're selling and don't require a service for something that can easily be done offline

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#26

Post by seba_dos1 »

asciimov wrote: post #17

I'm sorry that this guy feels that these devices are a scam. E-ink frames have their own aesthetic and do a decent job of displaying black and white photos. Sure they have some limitations, but they are good enough and solve a particular problem if you have a large amount of b&w photos to display.

B&W photos generally don't look very nice on e-ink (you end up with either strong banding or plenty of noticeable dither); ink drawings do though. You want high contrast content that doesn't rely on grayscale too much there.

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#27

Post by shultays »

mysecretaccount wrote: post #23

One of my primary "consumer electronics" dreams for the future is that e-ink displays become cheap and commonplace. Something about screens causes them to steal away your attention. "Ambient" screens for menus in bars/restaurants are convenient but are awful decor. This is why I will never have a utility display in my house for e.g. displaying news, weather. I do not even really care if the tech improves - just give…

They indeed feel magical after getting used to non-ink displays.

When I got my first e-ink reader and opened the box I saw that beautiful black and white artwork on screen. My first assumption was it was a plastic film with the artwork on it to protect the screen and I was supposed to remove it

But nope, the art was actually being displayed on the screen. Since the display consumes no power even while it is "on", they were shipping with that art on the display

My brain was just not able to comprehend a display can show a picture like that without emitting any lights

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#28

Post by louwrentius »

Personally I think e-paper screens are good enough for art reproduction, but it depends on what you are looking for. laser-sharp photo reproductions are out-of-the-question. But to me, that doesn't mean they can't be suitable art frames.

E-paper or E-ink displays can totally reproduce art, but they convey more of a 'vibe'. Look at the examples of my 3-color epaper display [0],[1] and/or read my blog article about the device to see for yourself [2].

The key take away is that from a distance, images look great and they are definitely good enough to be fit for purpose. Just take into account the limitation and select artwork for display that better suit this type of screen.

[0] https://louwrentius.com/static/images/epaper/epaper05_large....

[1] https://louwrentius.com/static/images/epaper/epaper04_large....

[2] https://louwrentius.com/a-1248-inch-1304x984-three-color-e-p...

Re: E-ink art frames are a scam (2021)

#30

Post by lazycow »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #22
sedatk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-paper and E-ink are different technologies though. E-paper is transfletive LCD and requires power to keep the image on the display.

E-paper and e-ink are synonyms (well, to be more precise, e-ink is a brand of e-paper, but those terms are being commonly used as synonymous). Not sure what you're referring to regarding transflective screens, as both the article and my comment refer to displays that only need power to update their content. I also have a device with a transflective LCD, it's called Nokia N900 - it would be hard to mistake one display…

Might be referring to monochrome RLCD as used on Hisense Q5. Some press calls it e-paper.
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