Feature: Showing Off Your Pictures
When I was a kid, my dad would occasionally haul the 35mm slide projector and a big silvery screen out of the closet to show off the family pictures. It was something of an event--enough so that, after all these years, I can still remember the smell as the projector's hot bulb burned the dust in the air. These days, there are a slew of ways to show off your digital pictures without making such a production. So instead of letting your photos collect digital dust on your PC, show them off!
Run an Windows XP Slide Show
Microsoft Windows XP has a built-in slide show that you should be able to turn on with just a few clicks. To get started, open whatever folder has the pictures you want to display, close any Windows Explorer bar (such as the Folders pane) that may be open over the task pane, and then, in the task pane under Picture Tasks, just click "View as a slide show." That's pretty much all there is to it.
If you can't find the "View as slide show" tool, here's a possible fix. Go to the Control Panel, double-click the Folder Options dialog box, then click the General tab. Now, change XP's default to "Show common tasks in folders." Click OK and try it again. To revert to your original folder settings, just reverse the process.
Once you get the slide show going, the images will advance automatically every 5 seconds. You can back up or advance slides using the left or right arrow key on your keyboard, but Windows will continue its 5-second updates unless you pause the slide show. Although you can move your mouse pointer to the upper right corner of the screen to make the slide show toolbar, which has a Pause button, appear, it's far easier to just tap the space bar to both pause and play the slide show. When paused, you can use the left and right arrow keys (or the up and down arrow keys, or even Page Up and Page Down) to go through the slides at your own pace--which is great if you're trying to narrate your slide show. Use Ctrl-K or Ctrl-L to rotate the current image 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise, if necessary. And while you can also use the slide show toolbar to end the slide show, using the Esc key is faster.
Want to have a musical soundtrack? XP's slide show doesn't let you add sound, but that's okay; you can just start the music before you launch the show. Open Windows Media Player or whatever music software you use, start a playlist, and then get the slide show rolling. The music will play in the background.
Choosing a Venue
The easiest way to show your pictures is right on your computer. But you have many other choices. If your graphics card has an S-Video output--and many modern cards do, especially higher-end models--you can plug it into your TV or VCR and show your pictures on a TV. The advantage is that you can see your pictures on a bigger screen; but keep in mind that most television screens have a lower resolution than computer monitors. As a result, your pictures won't look as sharp as they would on a computer screen.
If you've got a newfangled high-definition TV, though, you can have the best of both worlds. I recently connected my computer to the family HDTV, and the results were stunning. At 1080i, HDTV has a resolution that's roughly equivalent to a 2-megapixel photo--and everything you show on your HDTV screen seems razor sharp.
To take advantage of all that resolution, though, you need to make the right connection. The least expensive path is to plug your computer's graphics card into the HDTV via its VGA or DVI port; if you use the S-Video port, you'll get the same lousy video quality as if you had a regular TV. For even better results, consider getting an ATI Radeon 9800 All-in-Wonder Pro card. It has an optional video output component adapter as well as a standard VGA port, so you can get the best possible HDTV quality and easily switch between the two displays. All-in-Wonder cards can be a bit pricey, though; prices at PC World's Product Finder range between $240 and $400.
Here's another way to show off your pictures: with an old PC. If you have a Windows XP computer that seems too slow or clunky for everyday use, and you were planning to replace it anyway, consider setting it up in the family room and using it to run continuous slide shows. Windows XP comes with a screen saver called My Pictures Slideshow, which you can configure to cycle through all the pictures on your computer. To set it up, right-click the desktop, choose Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab, and choose My Pictures Slideshow from the drop-down menu. Click Settings to specify which pictures to include in the slide show and how often to change them.
Using an old PC as a slide show viewer--especially if you connect it to a slim LCD display--can be as good or better than one of those stand-alone digital picture frames, and it won't cost you anything. Of course, to keep peace in the family, you may need to find a way to disguise or hide the system box.
If you want to investigate a digital picture frame, though, there are several available. Perhaps the best known frame is from Ceiva, which sells its Ceiva 2 Digital Photo Receiver for $150. The unit can receive up to 30 pictures a day--and you can invite friends and family to send photos to the unit. For them, it's like e-mailing a photo. For you, it can be a delightful surprise. There's a gotcha, though: You need to subscribe to a Ceiva Picture Plan, which start at $100 a year, to use the device.
Pacific Digital has intriguing digital picture frames in a range of models from 5 by 7 inches to 8 by 10. Its MemoryFrame products include DirectConnect models that hook up to many digital cameras and upload photos to their internal memory (a USB connection is also provided). Pacific Digital offers wireless models along with its latest innovation, the 5x7 MemoryFrame PV1 Personal Media Player. This $200 unit displays your digital snapshots, plays video clips, and allows you to add MP3 soundtracks to a slide show. The PV1 can accept CompactFlash, Secure Digital Card, MultiMediaCard, and Memory Stick media. It also includes a USB port.
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