Killer app that converted my wife to HDTV...

[ZyronEnder]

My story so far with my recent 46" LCD HDTV purchase has been one of ups/downs. But the one thing that has been a huge hit with my wife and entire family for that matter is this...

What many people don't realize is that the xbox 360 is able to play digital photo slide shows in 1080 using the digital pictures it finds on your PC. My family and inlaws have spent hours in our living room watching our collection of digital pictures on our big screen HDTV. Completely blows away any photo album you might put together.

I must admit that normally I don't enjoy looking through photo albums, but there's something about seeing huge pictures in brilliant colour and high resolution that is absolutely captivating.

This is a killer app-type feature that non-techy types really appreciate. In fact, this is the only reason my big new set has been allowed into the living room at all!!

[wheelzntoys]

Even better if your watching a slide show to music.

If we have a baby shower (example), before everybody leaves we sit and watch the day's event, you get people laughing and interchanging, from young ones to the elders.

[ZyronEnder]

[QUOTE=wheelzntoys]Even better if your watching a slide show to music.[/QUOTE]

Yeah - a good point I should have mentioned - the 360 will play your music or whatever playlists you have while you watch the pictures.

[fru1]

Yes, this is a great feature in a living room flat panel! Several people at a party can view digital photos together, but no one feels obliged to (like in the old days, if you'd gone to the trouble of setting up a slide projector, turned down the lights...). I wish more of the newer models had cardreader slots built in to the panel. My older Sharp has a PCI slot for this purpose, and it works great. A hi-res flat panel is the ultimate little accessory for your digital camera.

[ZyronEnder]

One point worth making about cardreader versus the x360<->PC connection for pictures is that since my PC has enough storage to hold every digital picture I've taken in the last 10 years (which is alot!), the variety of images that come up on my TV when on "shuffle" is incredible.

[PatMcNJ]

I believe I can do this through my Tivo, as well, since it is conencted to my computer thru a wireless G adaptor. (I have a Tivo series 2, connected to my plasma, for recording shows-- saving up for the series 3/high def Tivo)

[fru1]

Seems to me that this "killer app" also really helps to justify/exploit the extra resolution in a 1080p panel, given the pixel count provided by even a relatively cheap digital camera. The brightness and depth of the images--not to mention the size--is really striking in comparison to printed photos. Obviously one can also view slide shows on just a computer monitor, but this doesn't work so well for viewing in groups, and grandparents w/o email tend to miss a lot.