Viewing digital photos on large screen

[TeenSpirit]

More precise question than my current threads;

My Dad has an Olympus E500 and wants to view his photos on a new large tv in his 'music' room.

At what size screen would these photos not show their native format i.e. if the tv screen was above a certain size would these photos distort ?

Obviously the smaller the screen the better the image, but if he wanted to view with the best possible equipment at the largest size possible, what would this be ? Budget upto £1000

Any advice please

[senu]

Less precise answer..Im not sure there is a precise one

How does he want to view them?
Via CD, DVD, direct from camera, ect
And does he want to view them in their full size or less?

Most digital stills are pixel higher resolution far higher than the Displays ( which are max 1080p)
How the images display depend on how he intends to view them . Even if one setting appears to distort them (aspect) , there will be a setting which does not
If you imagine that even 3 or 4 megapixel images displayed in thier native resolution can be viewed clearly on a 60 ft projected screen.. that illustrates the point that it inst just the Display size but how it is " fed" the Image
Many displays will try to show an image at best resolution possible but are equally capable of scaling them very well even if they are small
Slideshows on DVD, CD are often made of stills which have been downscaled to video resolution but still look quite good
The best thing would be do do a bit of experimenting.
I have a display that actually has a media card reader,and can do slideshows without any other hardware or software. The images ( displayed as HD) look far better than a Video feed from the camera.
Depending on software used images from DVD slide shows vary in quality but none is "distorted"
Some DVD players also read imaged off optical disc and are responsible from scaling resolution and aspect to the Display
So there are quite a few variables which make a precise answer difficult

[Grahamhyde]

Using a 360 connected to the host computer via a wireless router works at treat. Depending on the connection setting of the 360 onto the display determines the resolution of images viewed.
I use it even on my Panasonic PWD7 @ SD format & the difference displayed is so noticible when comparing piccies from my old Fuji point'n'shoot to the new D80.

Even the lowly SD format picks up the difference in resolution/colours incredibly. We, as a family, review our pictures regularily and use the Xbox as a true media centre with background MP3 music playing as well.

In terms of distortion, 3872x2592 images are scaled down to 16:9 and yes they does look 'different' but I am certainly not spending time to alter my image library to a 'TV' standard.

What is displayed through the Xbox easily surpases what I can generate on DVD format but then is is it is only a Yammy S550 through component output whereas the Xbox is direct to the display via VGA with 720P output.

I'm sure there are more techincal reasons for using a 360 over a DVD player to display static images but I don't have HD screen or HD DVD/Projector with experience to confirm but I can imagine is may the best solution for this purpose.....and you can play Gears of War, as well.

Graham

[TeenSpirit]

Originally Posted by senu

Less precise answer..Im not sure there is a precise one

How does he want to view them?
Via CD, DVD, direct from camera, ect
And does he want to view them in their full size or less?

I have a display that actually has a media card reader,and can do slideshows without any other hardware or software. The images ( displayed as HD) look far better than a Video feed from the camera.

He want's to view them from camera/memory card straight away, or if he can prove that he doesn't lose quality, then copying them onto good quality CD to view.

Which display do you have, couldn't find one with a media card reader - he is looking at possibly above 24".

[senu]

Originally Posted by MrsSigns

He want's to view them from camera/memory card straight away, or if he can prove that he doesn't lose quality, then copying them onto good quality CD to view.

TBH Im not sure a large screen display is the way to "preview" quality . But as a means of viewing them it is fine.
There is no real way of saying how they will look unless he actually has a go . this is because there may be some upscaling, or downscaling involved and this may hide the true nature of the images Definition.
Generally, if it looks good at 100% on a decent PC monitor that should give a good Idea what it looks like.

Which display do you have, couldn't find one with a media card reader - he is looking at possibly above 24".

Its a Phillips Cineos ( with the ambilight ect..) but not all Phillips Displays have it and some other Tvs have an equally capable USB /media reader as do some DVD players
There are little gadgets which plug into a Tvs Video input which will display images downloaded to them via USB or card
It is however hard to say what the quality and resolution would be like by the time it gets to the display but bearing in mind the statement in my last post. Still image resolution is far more than needed for video so I imagining it will look good