BEST way to display high resolution photo scans on a HDTV?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital,alt.tv.tech.hdtv,rec.video,rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Some of the larger TVs have SVGA input as well, which allows you to use it
like a computer monitor.

"etonblue" <etonblue@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1103262625.316554.43890@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>i have a friend who has a 50" pioneer plasma hdtv (768p). this friend
> has a couple thousand color slides that she wants scanned and arranged
> so that she can show said slides on a "slide show" on said 50" plasma
> hdtv. originally, she said she wanted them on DVDs- but, and correct me
> if i'm wrong, it is my understanding that this wouldn't be the best way
> to display them because of the DVD limitation of 480p (720x480).
>
> so what are the alternatives? i probably could convince her to buy a
> laptop with a good videocard, but what would be the best way to connect
> it? i know some video cards have s-video connections, but wouldnt that
> look fuzzy on a tv that large? do they make component adapters? are
> there any other gadgets that might do the trick?
>
> simply, what is the best way to get the photos looking as good as they
> possibly can?
>
> thanks, and i apologize if i crossposted too much, i wasn't quite sure
> where this hybrid question would be best answered.
>
> eb
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital,alt.tv.tech.hdtv,rec.video,rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Yeah I was suprised when I looked at projectors that they only go up to
1024x768 which is considered puny for a computer monitor.

etonblue wrote:

> i have a friend who has a 50" pioneer plasma hdtv (768p). this friend
> has a couple thousand color slides that she wants scanned and arranged
> so that she can show said slides on a "slide show" on said 50" plasma
> hdtv. originally, she said she wanted them on DVDs- but, and correct me
> if i'm wrong, it is my understanding that this wouldn't be the best way
> to display them because of the DVD limitation of 480p (720x480).
>
> so what are the alternatives? i probably could convince her to buy a
> laptop with a good videocard, but what would be the best way to connect
> it? i know some video cards have s-video connections, but wouldnt that
> look fuzzy on a tv that large? do they make component adapters? are
> there any other gadgets that might do the trick?
>
> simply, what is the best way to get the photos looking as good as they
> possibly can?
>
> thanks, and i apologize if i crossposted too much, i wasn't quite sure
> where this hybrid question would be best answered.
>
> eb
>

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital, alt.tv.tech.hdtv, rec.video, rec.video.desktop (More info?)

etonblue wrote:
>i have a friend who has a 50" pioneer plasma hdtv (768p).
>this friend has a couple thousand color slides that she
>wants scanned and arranged so that she can show said slides
>on a "slide show" on said 50" plasma hdtv.

One thing no one has addressed so far is the issue of
"burn-in". These slides are all probably either 4:3 or
3:4 aspect ratio (the ratio of width to height). On a
plasma HDTV, this means large black bars on the left and
right. Plasma displays are sensitive to "burn-in" effects,
so it's important for the display to NOT always center the
image. By varying the image position left and right, it
will be possible to mitigate the burn-in effects.

Anyway, I'm going to assume "768p" is a mistake. It's
probably 720p, meaning a 1280x720 pixel display. However,
there are a number of other plasma resolutions--including
some weird ones. Some of them have low resolutions, even
as low as DVD resolution, essentially.

>so what are the alternatives? i probably could convince her to buy a
>laptop with a good videocard, but what would be the best way to
connect
>it? i know some video cards have s-video connections, but wouldnt that
>look fuzzy on a tv that large?

Do NOT bother with S-Video. You will be limited to DVD
resolution, at best. It will also involve a lot of extra
video processing which will probably limit you to much
less than DVD quality.

>do they make component adapters?

Yes...sort of. You are correct in guessing that a computer
of some sort is the best option, at the moment. However, a
laptop is a BAD idea because their video display hardware
tends to be difficult or impossible to configure properly.

You want a desktop computer with an Ati Radeon video card.
Make sure to get the "Ati dongle", an adapter which attaches
to a Radeon's video output and adapts it to component output.
This is different from a device called a "transcoder", which
will actually translate VGA signals into component signals
(they're different). Instead, it's just a simple hardwired
adapter specific to a non-standard display capability of
Ati Radeon cards.

Assuming you're using Windows, the dongle lets you choose
a few special HDTV modes. The one you want is 720p mode,
or 1280x720 pixel resolution. This is the correct output
mode which that plasma HDTV will be able to receive.

Do a web search on "Ati Radeon HDTV dongle" to find out more.

Of course, since we're talking about a computer there's a
question of how to actually set up the slide show software.
I suggest trying out Windows's "My Pictures" screensaver.
This screensaver has various easy to understand settings.
Not only will it display the pictures, it will do so with
random image placement. This will prevent "burn-in" problems.

Now, if I were doing this I'd do it with Linux, but then
I'd be slapping together a custom computer and avoiding
Windows would save me quite a few bucks. If you're not
into custom building a computer, you're probably just
going to get an inexpensive computer with Windows packaged
along with it anyway.

>are there any other gadgets that might do the trick?

The Roku set-top box is an option, like all other current
set-top media players, it's not yet really "ready for
prime-time". IMHO, a cheap computer with Ati Radeon card
is a much better option because it doesn't really cost any
more and it's capable of much more.

Isaac Kuo

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital,alt.tv.tech.hdtv,rec.video,rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>>>>> "etonblue" == etonblue <etonblue@gmail.com> writes:

etonblue> i have a friend who has a 50" pioneer plasma hdtv
etonblue> (768p). this friend has a couple thousand color slides that
etonblue> she wants scanned and arranged so that she can show said
etonblue> slides on a "slide show" on said 50" plasma
etonblue> hdtv. originally, she said she wanted them on DVDs- but,
etonblue> and correct me if i'm wrong, it is my understanding that
etonblue> this wouldn't be the best way to display them because of
etonblue> the DVD limitation of 480p (720x480).

etonblue> so what are the alternatives? i probably could convince her
etonblue> to buy a laptop with a good videocard, but what would be
etonblue> the best way to connect it? i know some video cards have
etonblue> s-video connections, but wouldnt that look fuzzy on a tv
etonblue> that large? do they make component adapters? are there any
etonblue> other gadgets that might do the trick?

I have a Pioneer 503CMX which has a DVI connector (on the PDA 5002,
actually). I am running at 1280x768 native resolution using a small
Linux box with MythGallery (http://www.mythtv.org). I down sample my
digital pictures (Digital Rebel) to 1536x1024 from 3072x2048 (to speed
up transferring over wireless) and MythGallery resize them to about
1280x822. So I'm losing about 27 pixels on the top and on the bottom.
The picture is so much vibrant than the full res images on my laptop
(LCD) or desktop (CRT) at 1600x1200. The only problem is that
vertical pictures are too small, but I have learned not to take them :-).

--

Rui-Tao Dong ~{6-HpLN~} <rdong@cox.net>, Mission Viejo, California