Photo playback for Grandma (please help)

[EyeOfThe]

Quest: Help me figure out how to play photos for Grandma.

Grandma has gotten too old to watch tv. She has been unable to work the remote for years and now can't even follow a tv program. So she just ends up sitting in the dark. I'd like to play family photos on her tv. I don't expect her to be able to operate the device, but someone at the assisted living facility can turn it on and let it run all day. She has a very old tv that only has the 3 RCA/composite/red-yellow-white inputs (and coaxial for cable).

I am very broke so I'm looking for the cheapest way to show her photos. A digital photo frame (large enough for her to see) and memory card costs too much. I have a DVD burner. I could get a cheap dvd player that will connect to an old tv and that will read burnt DVD's and display a slideshow when it finds photo files on the DVD. I want something cheap but not something that is a total piece of crap.

My googling and searching on amazon and newegg didn't work too well. I think many dvd/blu-ray players play photos off a DVD but don't list that as a feature.... right? It seems to me that is a stand operation but I don't want to assume that a player can do it without knowing for sure.

It seems to me the cheapest solution would be the dvd player but I am open to any inexpensive solution that will produce a photo slideshow on a screen large enough for Grandma to see.

Thanks for your help.

 

[abaez]

DVD slideshow should work on almost any DVD player as long as the DVD was authored correctly.

 

[EyeOfThe]

DVD slideshow should work on almost any DVD player as long as the DVD was authored correctly.

When writing the photos to the DVD as data files what things could be done incorrectly?.

 

[abaez]

I don't think you can just put the files on the DVD as data files and have them automatically show. It has to be authored correctly to play like a DVD. I'm sure some programs out there let you create a slideshow DVD that will do this automatically with a bunch of files.

For example here is Nero's way of creating one: http://www.nero.com/eng/show-tutorial.php?tut=MTI=

 

[EyeOfThe]

I don't think you can just put the files on the DVD as data files and have them automatically show. It has to be authored correctly to play like a DVD. I'm sure some programs out there let you create a slideshow DVD that will do this automatically with a bunch of files.

For example here is Nero's way of creating one: http://www.nero.com/eng/show-tutorial.php?tut=MTI=

I'm pretty sure you (often) can just put the files on the DVD as data files and they play. Just like some TV's do it when you stick in a USB drive. I think this is an old feature - so old they don't even mention it except on page 47 of the user manual.

 

[abaez]

Well sure you probably can, but who knows if all players can support it? Why not just make a proper dvd that will work no matter what.

 

[bobdole369]

Yup, some dvd players will autoplay a dvd created as a data disk with a folder of jpgs dumped to it. Not all of them will though. Willing to bet you can find a $30 one that does. Otherwise - as abaez said - just author the dvd that way.

 

[BurnItDwn]

http://www.videohelp.com/
This site used to have a list of dvd players and what features they supported ... might be helpful, I'm not gonna wade through it, but ... it should answer the question of which players support what ...