Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Considering how most of us stash our photos, videos, and music in digital format on our computers these days, it’s not really necessary to rely on physical media for a lot of our entertainment anymore. Sharing those treasured vacation pictures does not mean that you need to print out those pictures or burn them onto a blank DVD. By using the Hi-Den Vision, you can skip that headache and use a USB flash drive or memory card instead. Better still, it can be used for music and videos as well.
That’s all on paper. The file support is impressive and the connectivity is good, but the actual performance leaves much to be desired. The on-screen menu interface is frustrating at best and, worse yet, I ran into more than a few problems with the HDMI connection. The whole point of the Hi-Den Vision 1080p HDMI Digital Photo Viewer is that it is able to output full 1080p content on your HDTV. If the connection isn’t reliable, nothing else matters.
On the bright side, the component and composite video connections are fine and I was able to extract some basic video watching capabilities. If you want something quite basic and don’t want to spend the extra money on a name brand, the Hi-Den Vision may be suitable. However, I recommend that you pony up a few more bucks to get something better.
Pros
- Affordable home multimedia solution
- Nice range of file format support
- HDMI switch to support second HD device
- Good video quality and acceptable framerate
Cons
- Clunky user interface
- Cluttered wireless remote control
- Strange HDMI output issues
- Weak multimedia player features (no shuffle, etc.)
