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Television Media Technology

Digital Art For Your Wall-Mounted TV 243

Posted by simoniker from the simpsons-also-work-of-art dept.
Makarand writes "According to the San Francisco Chronicle, if you own a plasma or LCD TV hanging on your wall, you could display high-definition video reproductions of famous paintings on your TV screen after watching your favorite sitcoms. Companies have begun selling devices that can display the work of world-famous artists and photographers on your TV screens. The art is stored on removable flash memory cards (sold separately) and is displayed onto high-definition TVs by electronics that cost around $500."
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Digital Art For Your Wall-Mounted TV More

Digital Art For Your Wall-Mounted TV

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  • Or.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Polly_was_a_cracker ( 718522 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:11PM (#7322707) Homepage
    You could hook your computer up to your tv, and use a slideshow with things you probably already own!!!

    • I hear they have these new things called DVD players that will so something like this.

    • Re:Or.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by starglider29a ( 719559 )
      ...get REAL art from a LIVING artist. I showed this article to a REAL artist, and her answer was, and I quote:

      "instead of wasting hard earned cash on a picture of a painting, that you could actually buy a real friggin painting"

      And I think her SIG says it all

      "www.wrosson.com [wrosson.com] --Support a living artist cuz the dead ones don't need money"

      My answer, as a geek, is that this would be a great usage of P2P sharing. We could get the EBSQ artists on eBay to provide art, formatted to fit the screen nicely. the

  • Probably not practical due to power consumption (Score:5, Informative)

    by mozumder ( 178398 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:11PM (#7322711)
    Plasma can draw up to 600 watts power.

    Backlit LCDs or OLEDs would have to be the way to go.

  • My definition of "Fine Art" (Score:5, Funny)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:11PM (#7322712) Homepage Journal
    I guess if you've shelled out $3k (more like $5-10k [plasma-tv-den.com]) for a freakin' television, another $500 isn't much more of a bite.

    But for crying out loud, I could buy an entire collection of truly fine art [junglewalk.com] for less than $500, and still have enough left over for the kids' room [junglewalk.com]!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:My definition of "Fine Art" (Score:4, Interesting)

      by egomaniac ( 105476 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @06:18PM (#7323405) Homepage
      I guess if you've shelled out $3k (more like $5-10k [plasma-tv-den.com]) for a freakin' television, another $500 isn't much more of a bite.

      By the tone of your message, I assume that you feel $3,000 (much less $5K-$10K) for a television is a ridiculous extravagence.

      Well, I have a $7,000 plasma TV. Of course, many of my friends drive nice cars -- BMWs, expensive SUVs, and the like. I don't. I drive a ten-year-old Camry with a hundred thousand miles on it. It's not flashy, and I could certainly afford a nicer one if I wanted, but I'm happy with it. And you know what? My car plus an unbelievably nice TV still cost a hell of a lot less than what my friends drive.

      Personally, I feel that I got a much better deal. To me, the quality-of-life difference between a Camry and a BMW is much less than the difference between a 32" CRT and a 50" plasma. I have personally met people who think that I'm crazy for spending $7,000 on a TV, and then they turn around and spend $40,000 or more on a car. It's all about what you want out of life, I suppose. Plasma TVs are well within the reach of many middle-class folks, if they were just willing to spend a bit less on the status-symbol-on-wheels (oops, I mean "car").

      Just my $0.02.
      • Personally, I think you're both crazy. Why are you wasting away your life in your car or watching TV when you could be doing something useful with your life ... like, say, posting more on Slashdot?
      • (Disclaimer: I manage a home entertainment store that is an authorized reseller of Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, etc.)

        Sounds like you got burned. For 7 grand I could buy a Sony 70 inch high definition XBR that would beat the quality of any plasma TV out there. The reason middle income families don't buy plasmas is because plasma TVs are marketed towards people whose primary concerns are aesthetics and the ability to hang a TV on a wall.

        I've said it once, I'll say it 1000 times more. Plasma technology was NO

  • ... and? (Score:3, Funny)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:12PM (#7322716) Homepage
    ... and I can get a poster of a Van Gogh for $15, right down the street.

  • Didn't Bill G. do this ... (Score:4, Informative)

    by burgburgburg ( 574866 ) <splisken06@nospAm.email.com> on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:12PM (#7322721)
    in his super-duper wired house of the future years and years ago?

    That's so ...90's man.

  • sony (Score:4, Informative)

    by ignipotentis ( 461249 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:12PM (#7322723)
    I hear sony's come with the memory stick reader built in for digital picture viewing.

    $500 for displaying pictures seems like kind of a waste.
    • Exactly. For $500 you could buy a decent digital camera, and make your own works of art, and with a $150 TV out card, display them to your Plasma TV from your computer.

  • Expensive much? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:12PM (#7322725) Homepage
    $500 seems insanly over-priced for this sort of thing. Most dvd players i know of will play picture discs burnded with jpgs, how is this better?
    • Most dvd players i know of will play picture discs burnded with jpgs, how is this better?

      I don't know of a whole lot of _good_ DVD players that have this. This is a fairly new feature and so far mostly used in the $100 class junk (their playback likely looks like junk on such a screen), although there are a few nice DVD recorders that have a built-in memory card slot.

  • One little problem (Score:2, Informative)

    by dicepackage ( 526497 )
    If a picture is displayed for too long on some of these Tvs then the picture becomes permanently engraved into the screen.
    • Otherwise i can see burn in being a problem, i don't know how much they've solved that problem, also plasma TVs are(maybe now were?) relativly short lived, and i think leaving it on 24/7 would be a bad idea. This seems like it would be better suited for a display technology that only requires current to change state, electronic inks are like this, and i'm not sure, someone verify or correct me, but OLEDs are too.

  • Maybe makes sense for LCDs.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mlyle ( 148697 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:13PM (#7322743)
    But plasma televisions have severe burn-in issues. If this is something you'd regularly do, it seems like the quickest way to turn your $8000 big screen into a $20 art print with lower resolution and a cheap-looking plastic frame.

    Not to mention that power dissipation/efficiency of plasma televisions is not -wonderful-.
    • "You are not our target audience."

      -Adam
      • "You are not our target audience."

        Damn good point... in the past months I've come to realize more and more that something might be really dumb, but if there is a market for it, it will be created.

        I don't know if creating a technology like this is "evil" or "bad"... on the one hand, you are creating a product that someone with 2 can see right though, but on the other hand, you can make a ton of money in a way that's still more legitimate than spamming.


    • You are absolutely right... I had the same first thought cross my mind. I'm waiting on getting one because many of the channels I watch [scifi.com] have those annoying little logos that burn the crap out of plasma...

      If some of you don't buy this, just google "plasma burn-in [google.com]"

      • Re:Absolutely... (Score:4, Funny)

        by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:28PM (#7322916) Homepage Journal
        many of the channels I watch have those annoying little logos that burn the crap out of plasma...

        Somewhere a lawyer reads this post
        His keyboard shorts
        soggy with drool
        as he sits mesmerized
        by two simple words
        "Class Action"

      • Re:Absolutely... (Score:4, Funny)

        by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:35PM (#7322982) Homepage Journal
        If some of you don't buy this, just google "plasma burn-in [google.com]"

        That Google search looked pretty useless at first due to spam, but I found a great FAQ from Gateway:
        Q: How do I correct burn-in on the 42 or 50-inch Plasma TV?
        A: Note: This function only works on part number 2800308 - Gateway 42-Inch Viewable Area Plasma TV R1.
        1. On the remote control, press the left arrow button for more than 5 seconds, and then release.

        2. Press the right arrow button for more than 5 seconds, and then release.

        3. Press the Favorite Channel (FAV. CH.) button, and then release.

        4. A bright white eraser screen appears. This eraser screen refreshes the Plasma screen and reduces the visual effect of burn-in.

          Note: The eraser screen needs to remain active for a period of time. The more severe the burn-in, the longer the eraser screen needs to be left active. A light burn-in can be taken care of in about 12 hours. A heavy burn-in may require up to 50 hours. The test can be tailored by running the test for a given number of hours, and then making a judgment. If the result does not seem good enough, run the test again until satisfactory results are attained.

        5. To shut down the eraser screen, press the Favorite Channel button, and then release it. If necessary, repeat this step until the white screen disappears.
        Great! Not only do the instructions sound like DDR cheats [ddrfreak.com], but Gateway is telling me to fight burn-in by burning in the whole screen for 50 hours! A few "masterpieces" later, and you've got a $10,000 night light.

        No wonder they call it the "bleeding edge"...
    • I've heard quite a few Mac users complaining about the top menu bar being burned into their expensive LCD screens. (Pre-OSX days). I've seen it myself while watching the Mac boot after being off for a long period of time.
    • You need moving artwork. Like this - http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/bill _viola/default.htm
    • Definitely, which is why you shouldn't leave a static image on it at all. Something more visually interesting [screengardens.com] is more appropriate for the medium anyway.
    • Ok, I had a plasma screen, and we use plasma screens and LCD screens, as well as projectors here at work, and I can tell you burn in is a HUGE issue, these people will be out of business after they get a lot of burn in screen issues thrown back at them, the easiest way to turn a $3,000-$10,000 plasma screen into junk is to display static images on it.

      Another issue is life of plasma screen issues, plasma screens as well as other video devices have a set life time before failure or unusability, to constantl

  • Plasma (Score:3, Informative)

    by SquiggsLDS ( 218802 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:14PM (#7322748) Homepage
    I've seen plasma burn-in (see "reason screen savers were invented:") on a $15k plasma TV. I'm not so sure that putting a static image on a plasma screen is anything short of lunacy.

    • Re:Plasma (Score:3, Informative)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )
      and this is another reason to be pissed off at the "network bug" in the corner of every damned channel.

      we have a mish-mashed shadow burnin at the Left hand lower corner on the display behind the receptionist because of the stupid networks thinking that viewers need to be reminded what channel they are watching.
      • Solution: Let the manufacturers know that there is demand for models with the ability to black out parts of the screen.

        That, or make them invent Plasma TVs without burn ins.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Screen Burn (Score:2, Insightful)

    by CPIMatt ( 206195 )
    Plasma displays are terrible about burn-in. I think this is a horrible idea. If you want a high resolution image of a famous painting, just get one on paper. It would probably look better too.

    -Matt
    • This gives me a great idea: The Artwork Channel! Get a few hundred famouns paintings and show each for like 5 minutes.

      1. Set up the Artwork Channel
      2. ????
      3. Profit!!!!!!

      Yes!!! I better patent this right away before anyone reads this...
  • don't they come with xscreensaver?
  • And if you attach a webcam with some facial-recognition software, you could set it up to display visitor's favourite artists when they enter the room! :)
  • Sony's XBR and WEGA TVs have Memory Stick slots and supporting hardware which means you can put up jpegs of what you consider to be great art.

    myke
  • ... it would have provided a constant view of Earth from space. While it was poohed by many as a propaganda excercise, it could have served to raise awareness of environmental and science issues in a way that weather satellite images don't.

    I'd love to have a device like this on the plasma TV I want to get some years from now, constantly showing an out-the-window video feed of the Earth from the ISS. I'll never go to space in my lifetime, but I can at least have an imaginary window on the heavens.

    It would

  • One use... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Craig Maloney ( 1104 ) * on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:20PM (#7322809) Homepage
    If they could figure out an RFID piece for this, this could possibly save many marriage squabbles. "Dogs Playing Poker" when he's in the room, and Anne Geddes photos when she's in the room. Just hope they're not in the room at the same time, or you might get fat kids in dog costumes playing poker.

  • Ok, or... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Crimson Midget ( 41436 )
    You could just grab an inexpensive print and maybe, I don't know, just turn the tv off when you're not watching.

    (Or you can do something like what I saw on an episode of Monster House. They had a plasma tv set inside a picture frame that can house a print on an automatic roller that will roll up the print like a window shade when you turn the tv on. Great geek project.)
  • hmm is that a game cube i see? here [sfgate.com]

  • $500? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NMerriam ( 15122 ) <NMerriam@artboy.org> on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:22PM (#7322833) Homepage
    I just bought a 32" LCD HDTV and even I think this is stupid expensive.

    Even an ancient Packard Bell computer can output a 1280x768 image to an HDTV. Heck, an old Palm Pilot with one of the Presenter-to-go dongles can put out enough pixels for still images!
  • Plasma TVs are especially prone to burn-in problems. Having a static image on the screen for many hours may cause problems. They may have fixed this with newer versions of the displays, but I've seen some Plasma TV's at the airport with horrendous burn in (screen was unusable).
    • What is even funnier is that I've been through airports where the BSOD was clearly burned in. How long was that system crashed before someone noticed?

  • Already on the market (Score:3, Informative)

    by jridley ( 9305 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:24PM (#7322862)
    Several companies already have these:
    http://www.delkin.com/news/press/Picturevi sion.htm
    http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/sand is k_dpv.html
    etc.

    These don't have HDTV outputs, but that shouldn't run the price from $80 to $500.

  • See it in SF (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MojoReisen ( 218327 )
    I don't know if it is the same product, but you can view something similar in the Clift Hotel's lounge (in SF). Each "print" is displayed for a few minutes before changing to a diferent "print" (Klimt last time I was in there), So each "print" rotates through the various screens. They look quite nice, and this probably prevents burn-in.
    Drinks are expensive, though.

  • Hasn't Bill Gates been busy buying up the rights to electronically reproduce works of art through his company Corbis [corbis.com]?

  • This seems like a great idea -- especially for galleries struggling to keep up with the latest artworks. They could own the service, and rotate in hundreds if not thousands of images for viewers in a contemporary wing, instead of just displaying one or two "originals" -- and what would that be exactly, if the works are digital to begin with?
  • In with my newspaper last week there was a catalogue called "Expert Verdict - A World Of Innovations".

    They sell a device that sounds like it would do this: Digital Card Media Player [expertverdict.com] for 99.95 UKP.

    - Brian
  • I having sticker shock. For That kind of coin you can slap together a Mini-ITX machine with a DVI port and do a hell of a lot more than display stills. And after having had access to a plasma display I have no desire to own one. They get burn in a matter of hours, making them pretty much useless for home video. (Almost all available content has black bars somewhere.)

  • so... err... ahh... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jjeffries ( 17675 )
    It's a screen saver. For TVs.

    Wow. Revolutionary.

    What's the patent number?
  • Now if we could just get some Hi-Res Webcams you could replace all the windows in your home with Digital Windows. Think of all the energy you could save with no glass windows. Your home could be more secure from weather and break-ins as well.
    BTW yes I am mostly kidding. People have talked about using the digital ink that always seems right around the corner to make digital walls that you could use as giant screens and or change the color of your walls with a remote. It seems to me as a strange waist of reso

  • My wall-mounted TV? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @05:36PM (#7322989) Homepage
    Exactly what tax bracket do you think I'm in, sir? :)
  • My dvd player will slideshow through jpegs on a cd or dvd. If I want a "screen saver" for my tv, I'll just let my little dvd player handle it. For the price of a blank disc I can go through hundreds or thousands of pictures.
  • Three thousand dollars???? Are you off your friggin rocker???!!!

    People who complained about the $500 setup probably never got down to the section quoted below....

    RGB's GalleryPlayer service, ... charges $195 per month for 60 to 100 different digital images of classic paintings and photography, ..... RGB customers also need to purchase a $3,000 company-provided computer- like box .....

    Emphasis mine.

  • The National Gallery in London has a exhibition on Plasma Screen art on at the moment.
    http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/bill _viola/default.htm [nationalgallery.org.uk]
  • OK, it can do art but... ...can it display flying toasters?

    (you may be too young to get this reference)

    Cheers!

    Eugene
  • Why spend $2k and super huge monthly fees when you could buy a Cisco/Linksys WMA11B [linksys.com] or an Xbox with XBMP [sourceforge.net] The Linksys box is wireless and plays tunes too!

    -Pat

  • Okay, I'm know, I'm slash-pimping my own work here, but it's directly relevant. You could also get a very, very cool interactive art installation [screengardens.com] from Irreverie Studios [irreverie.com] and run it on a large-screen LCD when you're not using it as your TV - it makes an awesome living room background piece for parties and social events.

    Yes, we do get a substantial number of people interested in doing this, and running our beautiful 3D screensavers on a 40-something inch LCD or plasma display looks absolutely amazing. We d

  • could charge upwards of $200 per month for digital collections of art by painters that have been dead for hundreds of years.

    What moron decided on custom $3000 boxes to serve media instead of and off-the-shelf DVD player with scripted DVDs? For 1/10th of the price, you could sell a nearly identical version of this at Best Buy. Thousands of historical paintings, licensed modern works or 10 min vid clips of easily obtainable things like the ocean, forests or everyone's favorite fish tanks.

    Personally, I

  • Some issues not mentioned before (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CrackHappy ( 625183 ) * on Monday October 27, 2003 @06:10PM (#7323327) Journal
    I just wanted to sum up some things that popped in my head as potential problems with this scenario, and why I think it will fail badly:

    1) Multiple thousand dollar equipment, easily breakable and STEALABLE in PUBLIC places.
    2) High month-to-month costs.
    3) Plasma burn-in/wear and tear.
    4) Why replace something you could buy for $100-$1000 potentially (prints, etc.) that will last practically FOREVER, with something this expensive, that will NOT last very long.
    5) Power consumption - some of these monitors consume a CRAP load of electricity.
    6) Cheaper and easier alternatives. Why buy this proprietary crap, when you can easily, and for MUCH Less set up your own system to display images / screensavers / whatever you want.

    Just my thoughts. Some of these are in the posts before, but some of them aren't.

    Any ideas or refutations on these?
  • Only those consumers who are smart enough to have bought a TRUE HD DLP projector can feel confident displaying art (if they don't care about bulb cost, that is)

    LCD and especially Plasmas suffer TERRIBLE burn-in problems. Also, 95% of the Plasma sets on the market are NOT high-definition; they can't even display the 720x1280 format used by HD 720P. For example NONE of the plasmas at my local "CostCo" are more han 820 pixels accros, yet consumer buy them thinking they're getting HD!

  • This story reminds me a project I've had on the backburner for a few months. I have four 14in. LCD screens that I got for super cheap, and instead of selling them, I wanted to make a display grid. I'd like to be able to control the displays of all four from a single computer, and ideally I'd like to have all four be able to function as a single display. I only want to display revolving static images on them/it.

    I have a spare computer that could be used for this if I could only find a suitable video display
  • I'm just thinking of how cool it would be to have the TV signal run in a picture-in-picture window with art works displaying during commercials. Its no commerical skip, but at least I could ignore them with pretty pictures.
  • I know, it's not Michelangelo, Donatello, or any of the other TMNT, but I get comments constantly when I use the iTunes visualizer on my plasma at parties while playing music.

    There's usually a group pretty amazed by it. Could just be the shrooms, but who knows...
  • It was called "Picture Picture" by its owner, Mr. Rogers. :-)

  • Don't get a flatscreen, get a projector! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Adam Wiggins ( 349 ) on Monday October 27, 2003 @08:52PM (#7324601) Homepage
    Seriously. I was looking at $3000 - $5000 flat TVs in the 40" range. I ended up going with a projector based on a friends recommendation, and now I will never go back to lame-o screen-based displays. $1000 for http://www.projectorpeople.com/hometheater/projdtl s.asp?itemid=1144&itmname=InFocus+X1 [slashdot.org]low end projector and now I've got a home theater to die for. Screw plasma - I've now got a 120" TV which disappears when not in use! Plus it's smaller (about the size of a thick hardcover book) and lighter (~6 lbs).

    Mount it on the ceiling and the thing takes up literraly no space in your living room (well, you do have to leave one wall blank of decorations). The picture is gorgeous and can be used for TV, DVDs, and video game consoles. Heck, it's got a VGA port too, I could bring out a laptop and plug it in to watch xmms visualization plugins.

    The only downsides are that it has no sound built in (that's okay, I prefer running it through my stereo better), and doing the ceiling mount was a bit more effort than just plunking down a TV or hanging a flatscreen on the wall.

    I highly recommend a projector - not this specific model, pretty much any one will do (though DLP seems like a better choice for watching TV than an LCD based projector, which most of the expensive ones are).

  • In other words..... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sowbug ( 16204 ) * on Monday October 27, 2003 @11:46PM (#7325843) Homepage
    For $500, you can turn your $5,000 TV into a $5 poster.

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