Sony HDMS-S1D 80GB Digital Photo Album

I was disappointed with the way this item performed, so much so that I returned it.First when I imported my picture collection onto its hard drive, it replaced the folder names with a sequential number. My photo collection is quite extensive with over 20,000 photos sorted into 2200 folders. I use the folder name to identify the contents. This was lost when they were all remaned to the sequential number. I could under take the task of renaming each, but it would have to be done via a video keyboard. This would have required a huge time commitment that should not have been necessary.Second the slide shows and presentations that it created were done by the software conventions installed on the unit. They can not be edited for content. I found a large number of the photo motion scans were not accetable. I.E. ending in a cutoff head, unappealing backrounds etc. You could direct the software to create a new show, but the results may again provide a less than desirable product.Finally, you can not save or email a slideshow if it happened to be acceptable. I had tried demo programs that Sony provides and you could do it with them.All-in-All this unit was a disappointment. It is a good idea, Sony just need to improve its useability and user friendliness.

i'd expect this type of functionality from a no name brand external hard drive. upload times exceeding 2 hours for a few hundred pictures. cheap menus, slow picture load.....put it this way, the flashdrive in the side of my tv enabled me to view photos better and faster. and you really only get 71GB not 80gb. im a sony loyalist, I always buy sony because of the quality and this was the worst product ive ever seen from them. Complete Joke for the price and functionality...

The Sony HDMS-S1D digital photo album is a useful utility with a few shortcomings. On the plus side, it is useful for downloading images from a digital camera, and I found it very intuitive to set up and use. I attached mine to a 32-inch Sony flat-screen HD set, and while switching inputs is not as easy as with the TV remote, the remote that came with the digital photo album can be used to turn on the set. You can also combine or separate elements of photo albums (which you can have the unit sort automatically upon download).However, as I noted in my opening paragraph, the digital photo album has some serious shortcomings. While it is true you can combine pictures and albums, you have to know the number designation of the album you're combining an album with, and you can only combine the albums one at a time. Also, the pictures I downloaded got cropped. I took a photograph of a DVD of W. I saw in a bookstore on a wall with The Wolfman and The Lost Boys under a sign that read "Monsters." In the original picture, you can definitely see the sign, but when I display it on the TV, the sign is not there, regardless of how I set the screen image. The same goes for any panoramic shots I've taken with my Sony Cybershot. I'm not expecting the Ken Burns-like pans one can select in a computer slideshow, but is it too much to expect a product developed by a company to be able to display a picture in a format that another product from the same company created? Instead, you end up with whatever part of the picture the digital photo album chooses to display. Also, I get very limited use from the x-Scrapook and x-Pict Story functions. While it is possible to burn music from a CD and use it with the x-Storybook feature, I actually find it more interesting to let the pictures run full-screen in slideshow mode with the music of my choice playing on a separate machine.The Sony HDMS-S1D digital photo album does what it was designed to do, especially for people who don't have access to a computer. It is a useful gadget for storing and displaying digital pictures, but not much more. This product could use some tweaking (perhaps via a software upgrade addressing some of its shortcomings?), but at $200, it's a worthwhile investment, if somewhat limited in its utility.

I bought this unit from EBay brand new for $79.99. I upgraded the hard drive to a Seagate 2000GB hard drive (same name brand as Sony used). If you could build a PC from components then you should have no problem switch the hard drive. Use camera phone taking pictures as reference while you take the unit apart to help you put the unit back together later. If you could afford a SSD drive then buy a SSD to 3.5 HD adapter. The unit should be really fast and only limited to the mechanical speed limit of memory cards when importing photos.After you take out original 80GB HD, use a HD duplicator to duplicate the original HD to the new HD. Since the capacity of a new HD is bigger than original HD, the duplication process should have no problem.After you complete the upgrade the HD and put the unit back together, power on the unit and go to setting and select initialize the HD function.Wait for initialization to completed then you could start importing photos.Suggestions:(1) Connect the unit to your PC (my OS is Windows 7) , and copy photos from your PC to Import folder of SD1 (which shows up as an icon on your desktop). Make sure you group your photos in a time folder structure (like 2016-05-05 Hiking ; 2016-05-04 Birthday Party etc)(2) Unplug SD1 from PC after complete the copy of photos.(3) Power on SD1 and SD1 asking OK to import photos, click OK button and wait for the import process to be completed. The timing to complete the import depends on how many pictures. Be patient.(4) After copy process is completed, the fun starts, you have 3 option to display photos.(a) Go to browse the HD and select which folder and use Slide show option to see photos in that folder.(b) Select a folder then ask SD1 to create a HD story with music and show a story with all the photos in that folder.(c)Select a folder then ask SD1 to create a Scrap Book with all the photos in that folder.If you have SD1 and time. Have fun.