BIOS: Technology Means Business

The Digital Photo Viewer is a clever piece of kit that has many benefits, especially for non-technical PC users. It's pricey though, and rather large, but its main downfall is that it only supports JPEG images. Most modern digital cameras have TV-out ports too, so its cost-effectiveness is questionable.

Pros: Viewing images on a TV-sized screen is great; Slideshow and Zoom are useful functions
Cons: Supports JPEGs only; no RAW support; bulky; expensive

SanDisk's Digital Photo Viewer attempts to make viewing and sharing digital photos as simple as watching TV. Designed for the living room and a regular TV, the Digital Photo Viewer simply plugs into a TV using an S-Video or composite cable. Once setup you can browse images stored on a memory card using the supplied remote control.

There is something very appealing about the idea of looking at digital photos on a TV screen. Imagine, for example, you are on holiday and want to share photos among your friends and family on a screen large enough for all to view at the same time, or you want to make the most of the space on a memory card by viewing enlarged images in order to decide which are worth keeping. If you find this appealing, the Digital Photo Viewer may be right up your street.

The device plugs into a TV using either an S-Video or composite video connection. Both cables are supplied. There are slots on the front of the Digital Photo Viewer for all the major Flash memory cards, including Compact Flash Type I/II, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Secure Digital and MultiMedia Card. On the top of the casing are buttons which allow for rudimentary movement back and forth between images.

A big plus point is the remote control unit, which is powered by two AAA batteries. This provides far greater control over images than the on-device buttons, allowing you to navigate through images in sequence manually as well as offering rotation, zoom and delete options. There's also a Preview mode which shows multiple images on-screen at once, and a Slideshow mode with automatic delays of between 0 and 60 seconds between images.

A switch on the back of the main hardware box lets you select between PAL and NTSC technologies, which means you can take the Digital Photo Viewer anywhere in the world and use it with a TV (providing you have an appropriate adapter for mains power).

There are some downsides unfortunately. In terms of overall size the Digital Photo Viewer is fairly large, slightly bigger all round than two packs of playing cards laying with their longest edges together. It's not especially heavy, but when you add the power supply and remote control, travellers may find it a little bulky. Those using it in a single location will just have to think about finding accommodation for yet another remote control, of course. A more significant downside, perhaps, is that the Digital Photo Viewer only supports JPEG files up to 6-Megapixels, so RAW image files can't be read by the player.

Links:
Digital Photo Viewer Web site