Skip The Reruns And Show Your Photos On TV Instead
By Wes Pitts
One
of the most convenient ways to present a slideshow is on your
television. Invite friends, gather the family around,
grab some popcorn and you’re ready to wow them with your
best shots. There are several ways to put your slideshow on
television, ranging from the very easy to more sophisticated
shows that require you to do some prep work in the computer.
For
the very easy approach, many digital cameras can be connected
directly to your television with a standard AV cable. Your
camera likely came with such a cable or offers it as an optional
accessory. Once connected, use the camera’s playback mode
to display your images automatically. Or, if your camera has
a remote control, you may be able to flip through the images
by remote. Check your manual to see if your camera has the capability
or for details on how to do it with your model.
Another easy option for displaying
your images on TV is a device like the SanDisk Digital Photo
Viewer (www.sandisk.com);
it accepts most common digital camera memory cards. Connect
it to your television’s video input, slide your digital
camera’s memory card into the appropriate slot and the
Digital Photo Viewer displays your images on your television.
The SanDisk Digital Photo Viewer comes with a remote control
that lets you move through the photos, rotate images if necessary,
zoom in and out on a photo and more. Pretty easy, huh?
The eFilm PicturePAD from Delkin
(www.delkin.com)
does double duty as a slideshow viewer and convenient image
archive. The PicturePAD is a handheld mini-hard drive
that can be used to store your digital photos when you’re
on the go. When your camera’s memory card fills up, insert
it in the PicturePAD and download your photos to the PicturePAD’s
drive, thereby freeing space on your memory card. When you get
home, connect the PicturePAD to your television and enjoy an
instant slideshow.
If you don’t mind doing a little work on your PC, you can
make an impressive multimedia slideshow that will play on any
home DVD player. This is the best choice if you want to share
your slide show with people who can’t drop by for the premier
showing, as you can send them copies.
There are many software applications
that will let you easily create slideshows on disc. If
you have an Apple computer (www.apple.com)
with a SuperDrive, you can use iDVD to create your show. Launch
iDVD from within iPhoto. iDVD lets you specify which images
you’d like in your show, the duration of clips, and also
lets you add music from your iTunes library to accompany the
show.
For Windows users, there are many terrific software programs
that let you put slideshows on DVDs as well as VCDs. The VCD
is a great solution if you have a CD burner, but no DVD burner,
in your computer. VCDs are essentially CD-Rs that your slideshow
software will encode in such a way as to allow them to be played
back in most home DVD players.
One of our favorite programs that allows you to create slideshows
on CD and DVD—complete with transitions, narration, music
and titles—is Ulead’s DVD PictureShow 2 (www.ulead.com).
You also can make basic image adjustments, if necessary, without
switching to a separate image-editing program.
Roxio’s Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 (www.roxio.com)
is another affordable software package that lets you create
sophisticated multimedia slideshows and save them on DVD or
VCD for playback on your home DVD player. This application also
features several useful disk utilities. Use the Disc Copier
function to quickly make multiple copies of your slideshow to
send to friends and family.
Sharing your photos in the comfort
of your living room can be a fun, social way to share images.
Whether you prefer to connect your camera directly to your TV,
use a special set-top viewer, or create slideshows in the computer,
your slideshow is probably the best thing on TV tonight.
