Re: Updated 3Discover Info

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Kersenbrock offers:

>Ok, how's this for a quasi-practical product idea: Use projection TV's
>for slide-projection.

>What this would do is use one's TV set, including projection TV's, for 
>one's photo display.  Assuming that the mass market would also
>use a TV-display to show/look_at digital camera output in the future
>(possibly HDTV), my currently described device would integrate well 
>with that system as a legacy-converter-device.

>All the consumer then needs is yet-another-electronic-consumer-appliance
>to put in the living room near the TV.  No putting up screens, darkening
>rooms, etc, etc.

Mike, a company no less than Kodak already tried something very much like
this.  They called it "Photo-CD".  You get your pictures (negatives or
slides) scanned onto these Photo-CD disks which you pop into your Photo-CD
player and view on your television.  No screens, no projectors, no fuss.

But guess what?  The average consumer pretty much ignored Photo-CD, and
much to Kodak's surprise, it caught on among professional photogs who
were looking for a way to archive their work and distribute inexpensive
copies (among other applications).

>What makes this more realistic than one would perhaps like (in terms of
>quality) is the very high likelyhood that digital cameras will eventually
>take over the mass point-and-shoot market.  With all that digital information
>available, the mass market may go to using one's TV for the viewer, rather
>than prints (although I'm sure Kodak would fight that as hard as they can).

I agree with you that digital is the inevitable future for consumer
imaging, probably within 5 years.  Even Kodak has seen the writing on
the wall, and is investing heavily in digital technologies (like Photo-CD).

        -Greg W.


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