Apple TV for displaying photos (and a few other goodies)

[davidedric]

Not sure if this is really the right forum, but never mind.

I've been looking for a way to display photos on my (non-internet enabled) TV. Tried various things, such as using the TV's USB socket, but with limited success. Anyway, I was round at a friends house, and he showed me his Apple TV.

I don't own anything Apple, so I had never even thought about it, and if you do have an iPad or an iPhone you get extra goodies, but you don't need them to use the product.

All you actually need is a home network, a (switched on) computer, and iTunes running on the computer.

You buy the Apple TV box, at around £80. Plug it into an hdmi (has to be hdmi) socket on your TV, switch the TV to that channel and log the Apple TV on to your network.

What you then do is to tell iTunes which folders (of photos) you wish to share with Apple TV, and they then appear in the Apple TV menu, and display without fuss, either manually or as a slide show. For once, it worked straight out of the box.

Any music or movies that you choose to have in your iTunes library is also instantly available. Plus the usual huge list of internet radio stations, a pretty wide range of podcasts, and of course the ubiquitous YouTube. I have a soundbar attached to the TV, so the sound quality is pretty good. Of course, you can buy/rent stuff too, but I can't see myself doing that.

For me, it is a very useful addition to my home kit. Just thought it was worth mentioning to other Apple-phobes out there.

Dave

[LocalHero1953]

I took a similar approach a while back, but along the Windows route. I use a WD TV Live Hub Media Center (basically a hard disk with dedicated software), which connects by wifi to my home network. I then periodically sync a folder on the WD device with the picture folder on my PC using SyncToy. WD's software handles the display via an HDMI cable to the TV and a remote control. I'm sure the Apple tools are a lot more elegant, but it works.

[LocalHero1953]

I should add that the WD internet TV, radio or video streaming options exist, but are pretty poor. I use the system purely for photo display.

[Mike Buckley]

Tried various things, such as using the TV's USB socket, but with limited success.

I'm curious what the limitations are. The reason I ask is that I use an SB memory card inserted into my television, though I could use either of two USB ports. I seem to remember that the software built into the television has automatic slide show functions but I only use the manual controls because they allow me to control which photo to view next (forward, backward, skipping many photos, etc.) and when to view it. Were you looking for more robust software capability than that or is it that your television doesn't have those capabilities?

[davidedric]

I found that the SD card route was very slow - of course it may be that my TV is underpowered. I haven't had chance to properly explore the slideshow features, but it looks pretty good with a range of display and transition options.

This way also saves me having to make another copy of my images. I routinely create a set of images to show on my tablet, which means of course I have to export them from Lightroom, so I can just leave the folder on the desk top (they are only moderate jpegs) and link to that.

Unlike Paul's setup, the Apple TV box doesn't have any storage (well, I think it buffers the images). I haven't tried streaming video because my internet speed is only 2Mb, but streamed audio seems absolutely fine.

My wife likes it because she can find a YouTube of one of her line dances, and practice in front of the TV

[Mike Buckley]

I found that the SD card route was very slow

I wouldn't know if mine is slow. My wife always operates the remote control when we show photos, so I don't know what the response time is.

[Suzan J]

I too am relatively new to Apple TV. I really like this product. My husband likes to take my best photos and create slide shows in Aperture 3.0 which are then fully accessible on the big TV in my living room. (55 inch Samsung) The slide shows do look quite good on the TV, although not as sharp as on the Mac desk top. This is a great way of enjoying your photos, and boring your friends and relatives, as the slideshow templates are quite nice and adding music to a show really sets a mood.

As mentioned, it is also nice to watch You Tube on the big screen from the comfort of one's couch. We have been watching a lot of WW1 documentaries on You Tube over the last few months and this is the best way to do it.

I would highly recommend Apple TV or any other similar product. We live in an area with low Internet speeds. They tend to top out at 3.8 mb/sec but we still manage to have decent streaming with only occasional buffering.

[chauncey]

I an biased anti-apple kinda guy...have access to Netflix on my older big screen via this gizmo
http://www.amazon.com/Google-Chromec...nternet+for+tv
I can display computer photographs on that television.

[twahouston]

I've owned Apple TV's all the way back to their first generation units, which I currently own and operate 3 in my house. The older versions (like mine) were hard drives that you'd sync with your PC and then the PC could be turned off or taken out of the house. My oldest unit is about 7 years old and I use it all the time to display pictures as everyone has mentioned on here. It is just starting to show signs of wear and has to be rebooted from time to time. Absolutely love it!