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Among hardcore gadget freaks, nothing is more prized than a "wishsomeonewould." You know, as in "I wish someone would make a... In this case, make a unit that lets me take the memory card out of my digital camera and play a slideshow on my TV. Thus we prize SanDisk's new Digital Photo Viewer (street price under $60).
The black plastic unit is about the size of a paperback book and has slots for cards in the Compact Flash Type I and II, Smart Media, Memory Stick, SD and Multimedia Card formats -- which is to say the major camera memory formats for which SanDisk makes cards. The package is very complete, in addition to a standard video cable, the player comes with a cable for higher-quality s-video output. And there is a convenient remote control. Most, if not all, digital cameras come with a cable that allows you to show your photos on a TV. But cameras, frankly, make lousy A/V devices. To give your show, you have to juggle the camera, work its navigation buttons, and all the while protecting the lens. Changing pictures is a manual job. When you are finished, you then have to disassemble the whole setup so you can use your camera as a camera. The Photo Viewer, on the other hand, is small enough to be perched on top of your TV, cable box, VCR or where ever, and most users will plug in the power supply and video cable, and then just leave it there to use when needed. When you are ready for a show, you take the card out of the camera, put
it in the player, and turn the player on. The unit then starts playing your
pictures as a slideshow, with user-selectable advance times and transition
effects. A nice touch is that if a picture is in portrait format, you can
with a click of the remote rotate it to be displayed correctly on your
(landscape mode) TV. Photo Viewer does not make any permanent change in the
photo file itself. Instead it remembers the arrangement and aligns the photo
correctly if you go back to the picture so long as the card remains in the
player. I like that approach because typically digital cameras store photos as jpegs and there is a quality loss every time you alter and re-save them. Unfortunately, SanDisk did not carry this approach over into deleting items -- the delete button permanently deletes. I am not crazy about the possibility that an errant thumb on the remote could result in the loss of an image, although there is a confirmation dialog as a safeguard. It would be better if you could set those embarrassing images of you at the last party to be skipped without erasing. Other than that, this is a really nice way to share your digital photographs with others. Video output is clear and in testing the pictures scaled correctly on several TVs with different screen sizes. Those with wide screen TVs or home "media centers" will particularly like using the player. Of course, digital though it may be, this is pretty much the electronic counterpart of the old-fashioned slide projector. So remember, there is no technological solution to boring your audience with one too many "what I did on my summer vacation" slideshows. (c) 2004 Al Gordon. In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can reach Al Gordon at:
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