How to view photos on TV?

Photo viewer on TV

Today, large-screen TVs have been very popular. If you visit Best Buy or browse Amazon, you will see TVs with dozens of brands, different sizes, and fancy features laying around. However, one main feature of viewing photos, playing slide show and screen saver on your own photo collection is very rare. 

If you like to view your own photo collection on a large-screen TV in living room, here is a tip. Buy Sony’s Bravia that comes with photo viewer feature but the brand is expensive. Yet, there is a easy way out. We can use Photo Viewer for Android TV. Simply open Google Play Store on your TV and find this app. 

Thanks to birth of Android TV, we no longer just plug in cable and watch boring TV program around the clock. In Smart TV, not only TV program is made to be available according to our demands (Media On Demand), but also apps that provide games, music, video, and etc are also at our fingertip. 

CRT age

The evolution does not just happen overnight. As I recall, we used to watch traditional TV with big cathode-ray tube in the back. Everything was analog at that time, the 70s and 80s. If we wanted to share video and pictures with friends, we had to plug in camcorder or VCR via AV cable. Picture quality was not good compared to today’s standard.

Through media storage

Later in the 90s, Japan-brand TV manufacturers made TVs that came with memory card slots so users could view pictures off memory stick but it was not that convenient either. The reason is that we need to load files onto memory stick first somewhere else like from PC.

Hook-up with PC or hardware

Almost two decades ago, TVs built in screen dimension of 16:9 and in technology of plasma and LCD came out. More connectors, such as D-sub (still analog) or DVI (purely digital), were embedded than just UHF, VHF and AV cable. This is when PC or laptop could project screen onto TVs and we could use PC’s photo viewer application to view photos on TVs. In early stage, the resolution was still 720 and later progressed to 1080 5 years later.

Higher resolution

About 12 years ago, a standard called HDMI became widely popular. Almost 9 out of 10 TVs and monitors had this standard built-in. The common screen resolutions are 1080 and 4K. At these resolutions, video and photo transmitted from PC or other hardware to TV screen look very fine and neat. Incorporated the high definition resolution display technology with Android, we are able to handle photos from mainstream media source, such as more portable USB flash drive or card reader and show them on TV through Photo Viewer for Android TV.

The bottom line for large TVs to become a must-have member in living room is the dramaticc price drop in recent years. It has become so cheap that everyone can afford one. If you have not had one yet, go check it out and enjoy it.

Turn MI Box, Android TV, nVidia Shield into photo viewer or slideshow photoframe

Still view photo on small LCD monitor or cellphone?

As large LCD or LED TV becomes affordable, the chances of sitting in front of it has become much greater. Rather than viewing photos on cellphone or PC monitor, we can make viewing experience more enjoyable on large Android TV.

Turn Android TV into a slideshow photoframe

If you ever attend conference meetings or shows of any sort, you will notice that large screen TVs are everywhere and acting like photoframes playing slideshows. To achieve this at home on large Android TV, there are commonly two ways. One is connecting your PC or laptop to the TV and another one is using mirror feature on cellphone projecting slideshow from your cellphone.

How about on MI Box and nVidia Shield?

Unfortunately, there is no such photo viewer or slideshow photoframe feature on MI Box. On the other hand, nVidia Shield comes with a built-in photo viewer but this viewer does not provide slideshow feature. Yet, the picture quality is downgraded to lower resolution. So, it is not really recommended.

Photo Viewer for Android TV comes along

Here is a handy app called "Photo Viewer for Android TV" on Google Play Store. It is compatible with Android TV, MI Box and nVidia Shield as well as other Android set-top boxes. This app turns your big-screen TV into a photo viewer and slideshow photoframe.

How to install Photo Viewer for Android TV?

Here is a tutorial showing you how to get Photo Viewer for Android TV from scratch:

Once it is installed, you no longer need to hook up other devices and share pictures with others as well as having a screen saver showing your favorite photo albums rather than Android TV's default photos.