Photo Viewer places digital pics on the tube
By Deborah Porterfield
Gannett News Service
Back in the 1960s, before round-the-clock TV and Internet access pervaded the family room, slide shows were a big deal. Mom would drag out the projector and slide cartridges while Dad would set up the screen or tape a white bed sheet to the wall.
| Microsoft TV Photo Viewer | |
| • | Rating: * * * * (out of five) |
| • | Price: $159 |
| • | Bottom line: This clever, but simple-to-use gadget gives digital families another way to share their favorite memories. |
| • | Details: The Microsoft TV Photo Viewer ships with the viewer, a remote control, two AA batteries, a video cable, a blank floppy disk, a CD-ROM containing TV Photo Viewer software and Microsoft Picture It! Express 2001. |
| • | Requirements: The TV Photo Viewer software requires a PC with a 166-megahertz or higher Pentium processor, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, Windows 98 or higher operating system, 32 megabytes of RAM, 100 megabytes of hard disk space. |
| • | Information |
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Today's digitally connected families can recreate some of those magic times with a new product from Microsoft. With the $159 TV Photo Viewer, families can make digital photo albums on their computers, save them to floppy disk and then view the images as a slide show on their TVs.
Simplicity isn't a word one usually associates with products designed by technology companies. Yet that's the best word to describe this gadget. In fact, life in the tech world would be a lot less of a headache if all gadgets were this easy to operate.
Intuitive software
Even novices will have an easy time setting up and working with the gadget's TV Photo Viewer software.
When you click on a folder containing photos on your PC, the images automatically appear as thumbnail images on the left side of the computer screen. To put a picture in the album, you either drag it to the album on the right side of the screen or click the "Add to Album" icon.
Writing captions also is a snap. You simply select the picture you're describing, click the "Add Caption" command and start typing. When you're done, the program will show you how the caption looks under the picture. If it's too long (each caption is limited to 80 characters), you can trim the words until they fit.
Each digital album — one per floppy disk — can store up to 40 compressed photos, which will appear on the TV screen at a respectable resolution of 640 by 480 pixels. The directions say the quality of the photos will be better if you limit the number in the album to 20.
But during testing, a disk holding 35 pictures produced images on the TV that looked as good as on a disk holding just 20.
Setting the TV Photo Viewer up for TV viewing also proved to be an easy task. All you need to do is hook the lightweight, compact device into the TV's video output and plug it in to an electrical outlet.
Thumbnail images of the photo album will automatically pop up on the TV screen. To view the images one by one, you can press the forward button on either the gadget or its remote. You also can set the gadget on "Auto" and let it show the slides at preset intervals.
Unlike some overly complicated remote controls, the remote that comes with this gadget sticks to five basic controls:
A power on and off switch, a forward button, a backward button, an auto button and a rotate button (in case you want to see what Uncle Jerome looks like upside down).
Business savvy, too
Business people who use Microsoft PowerPoint also might be interested in TV Photo Viewer because they can download a program from the Microsoft site that allows them to use the device to show their presentations on TV sets.
As cool as Microsoft's TV Photo Viewer is, the device won't appeal to everyone. For one thing, its price seems a bit steep for such a no-frills device. And its simplicity might turn off techies who prefer more complicated devices that will let them create shows with fancier graphics and music. But for most people, this gadget's basic design is one of its biggest strengths.
