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 slides slows.
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 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 Hauppauge MediaMVP, 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. I'm in
the USA and am looking for a US-compatible product (e.g., in terms of AC
power requirements) and I know that this is a UK group, but I haven't found
other newsgroups that really seem to discuss these kinds of products,
especially the Hauppauge MediaMVP.

Scott

Scott Meyers wrote:

> I'm looking for an easy and inexpensive way to display on my TV the photos
> (primarily) and video (occasionally)
<sniped>

Find an DVD-player capable of displaying Kodak Photo-CD format? If I
recall correctly, Zooming was one of the features on that format when
the original players were launched. Whether this has survived on today's
multi-everything compatibles is something I don't quite know. Try one of
the photo newsgroups.

Also, to add to your media player list (but again probably orientated
towards AV rather than your application), have a look at products from
http://www.kiss-technology.com

Personally, I would just get a secondhand slimline PC (Dell or Compaq)
Pentium PIII for $50 US and do the necessary video conversion into your
TV. This will be better for networking with your other computers.

Pity you don't have the Netgem i-Player over there!!