Displaying photos in HD on television

Televisions with flat screen allow to display digital photos, via a HDMI port, with an image size which could go to 1920 x 1080 pixels (full HD). The rendering is magnificent and looks like that of a slideshow.

Naturally, digital photos with a very big size (4000x3000 pixels for example) can be directly shown on the screen, but they are automatically reduced, what slows down the display cadence without improving the quality of the rendering. That is why it is practical to use copies with reduced sizes.

We are going to cut this tutorial in 3 parts:
1) The preparation of the photos
2) The two possible solutions
3) The use of WD TV HD media Player

1) The preparation of the photos

Digital cameras allow to take large-sized photos (12 million pixels for example).

This possibility is useful to make large-sized paper prints, but it is not indispensable for full HD displays (1980x1080 pixels or approximately 2 million pixels) on a flat screen.

Personally I keep a copy of my source photos (10 million pixels) on DVD-R and I make, with GIMP, a smaller copy (of size 1600x1200 pixels for example) of each of these photos.

This smaller size allows me to manipulate easily my photos, to display them quickly on a Digital photo frame in format 4:3, on a flat screen in format 4:3 in high definition, and lets me the posssibility to print them on paper in a size 10 cms x 13 cms.

Naturally you can adopt a different size, which corresponds better to your needs. For example if you only want to display your photos in full screen on your television, you can adopt a size of 1920x1080 pixels. This size corresponds to a 16:9 format (full screen). She will allow you to avoid the appearance of black vertical strips on the left and right parts of the flat screen ( which appear on a 16:9 flat screen when we display a photo in 4:3 format).

2) The possible solutions

The format and the size of your photos being chosen, you have to set up the necessary equipment for the display on the flat screen.

There are two types of solutions to display digital photos in full HD on a television.

The first solution consists in connecting directly the camera on a HDMI port of the television. This solution is practical but it presents several inconveniences:
- The camera must have this possibility, what is not always the case;
- Photos must be on the memory card of the camera. It is not practical for older photos because generally we keep rather these on an external hard disk (and on DVD);
- The functions of displaying offered by the camera are often limited and without remote control.

The second solution consists in using a specific media player (multimedia hard disk or home player with an USB port). There is a big variety of materials more or less adapted, good and expensive. Personally I use the box WD TV HD media Player of Western Digital. This box allows, with a remote control supplied with the device, to display photos and videos in full HD on a flat screen and also to play musics.

The good key points of this device are the following ones:
- It is not expensive at the purchase ( less than 100 euros);
- It supports most of the file formats (audio, photo and video);
- It is successful and reliable;
- It is easy to install and occupies little place;
- It can, if need be, to be easily and quickly uninstalled after every use;
- It allows to display full HD via a HDMI port;
- It works with external storage devices (key usb, portable hard disk).

3) The use of WD TV HD media Player

The WD TV HD Media Player is designed for Western Digital's My Passport portable drives, but it works with other USB storage devices (not include in the package).

It allows to read the following media formats:
video : mpeg1/2/4, wmv9, avi (mpeg4, xvid, avc), h.264, mkv, mov (mpeg4, h.264);
image : jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp, png;
audio : mp3, wma, ogg, wav, aac, flac, ac3, aif/aiff, mka;
playlist : pls, m3u, wpl;
subtitle : srt.

The formats mpeg2/4, h.264 and wmv9 support up to 1920x1080p 24fps, 1920x1080i 30 fps, 1280x720p 60 fps resolutions.

The package contains:
1) The WD TV HD box;
2) The remote control;
3) The piles of the remote control;
4) The power block;
5) An interface for power bloc ( Asian standard);
6) A support for external hard disk;
7) An operating guide;
8) A CD;
9) A RVB cable.

The HDMI cable for connecting the box to the flat screen is not supplied. He must be separately bought. If you have a classic television, you can link it at the box with the RVB cable (9), but in that case the image quality is less good than with a flat screen and a HDMI cable.

The support for hard disk and the CD are not necessary to use the media player.The connecting of the box is easy. It is enough to connect:
1) In the USB port of the box, the USB key or the external hard disk containing photos, videos or musics;
2) The HDMI cable going towards the flat screen;
3) The power block.

With the remote control, choose the medias to be displayed on the screen.

Remark : In particular, the WD TV HD media Player allows to display in full HD on a flat screen the TNT and HD TNT recordings (TF1 HD, A2 HD, M6 HD and Arte HD). Cf tutorial How to record free TNT and HD TNT channels.