Re: Media Receivers for TV Display of Photos and Videos

In article <MPG.1d58050ce7af4da79897e4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Scott Meyers <Usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes 
I'm looking for an easy and inexpensive way to display on my TV the photos
(primarily) and video (occasionally) I have stored on my computers.  There
seem to be a lot of digital medial receiver products available, but most
reviews focus on audio issues (e.g., support for various audio formats,
support for playlists, etc.), and I don't care about that.  My primary
interest is in being able to display jpeg images I took with my digital
camera so that I can produce the digital equivalent of slide shows.
Because the resolution of my camera is so much higher than the resolution
of my non-HD TV, an important feature for me is the ability to easily zoom
into an image and then pan around using the remote, something I've not seen
any reviews mention.  I have confirmation from the manufacturer that one
low-priced product, the Hauppauge MediaMVP, does not support zooming.

I also want to be able to display video from my camera.  It's in MPEG
format, but I don't know one MPEG format from another.  I sometimes get
short videos in AVI format, so I'd like AVI support (presumably including
the ability to add codecs) as well as the various MPEG formats.  DIVX would
be nice, too.

I've been looking at dedicated boxes for this, but I'd also be willing to
consider a DVD player that supports the display of media off my network.
However, the DVD player would have to support region-free playback and both
NTSC and PAL DVDs, as I already own DVDs from multiple regions in both
formats; my TV is NTSC only.

Among the many products I've read about are the D-Link MediaLounge, the
Roku PhotoBridge, and Pinnacle ShowCenter, but there seem to be a lot of
products in this space.  Unfortunately, as I said, most reviews focus on
support for audio and mention photo display only in passing.  I very much
welcome comments and suggestions for which products are most likely to suit
me.

The computer I'd likely use as a media server is running Windows XP
Professional, SP2.  (I have another computer running Windows 2000 SP4, and
I'm planning to get a Mac Mini.)  I have both a wired and a wireless
(802.11g) network, and I don't have a strong preference for which I use to
communicate with the media receiver.

Thanks for any help you can offer.  If this is not the best newsgroup for
this query, I apologize -- please point me in a better direction.

Scott 

Scott,

Most digital cameras - at least the ones I have tried - have the ability to display photos directly on to a TV monitor, using S-Video or some such connector. Those with a zoom viewing facility will also allow you to do this on the TV (daughter and I have 4, all do this).

Therefore, you could try uploading the pictures back onto the camera you took them on, and display them from that.

There is a strong possibility that if you have changed them, the camera will no longer recognise them. It's got to be worth a try though, as it won't cost you anything.

Can't help you with the movies though.

David
--
David Littlewood
.

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