So we’re working on a video installation and we’re planning on putting up a big LCD TV, and want to be able to show photo slide shows and video on it.
Our first thought was, get a DVD player and connect it to the TV (behind the wall as the TV will be mounted flat or recessed to the wall) and we would then author DVDs and play as needed. This could work, but we’re then looking at the DVDs being standard definition versus high definition. So while this option is cheap, and somewhat easy, the quality would be low. (And burning HD or Blu-ray DVDs is not something we are currently doing.)
We also thought about connecting an old G4 to the TV. We currently have a G3 connected to an LCD monitor doing the photo slide show thing, and connecting a G4 might work, but we need to deal with actually connecting it to a TV, which would probably have HDMI but not VGA, and VGA would probably look like crap.
So, I’m starting to think an AppleTV, at $229 is the best option. It’s pretty much built to do what we want. We could manage the content through iTunes and the AppleTV interface, and make playlists that could loop, and… am I missing anything?
Update: It seem you can’t make playlists that loop on the AppleTV, which is a “WTF!?” type moment when people hear that…
Update See Video Installation (Part II)
5 replies on “Video Installation”
VideoVillain suggested the Roku BrightSign which looks like a nice solution. For a client site, it would be ideal, but for our specific need, the AppleTV beats it out in a few areas, including price.
The Wii can do decent photo and video shows from SD cards.
Pete, I’ll be giving you some tips later in the evening. This thing might work for you: http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore . Just put your videos on a USB stick or something.
It’s a little cheaper than the appletv, and it might work better standing alone, since the appletv is really designed as an accessory for a real computer.
Also, VGA works fine with HDTVs. Just make sure you match what the TV’s native resolution is. Lots of them are 1366×768.
I love the new Wii. Like the other guy said, it does do decent from SD cards so that’s what we use. Why spend more money if you don’t have to, ya know?
The Wii comments are interesting, but a Wii is way more expensive than an AppleTV. Also, I’m finding that looping a video on the AppleTV is a “maybe/maybe not” feature right now, which sort of sucks.