Digital Photo Viewer

The SanDisk Digital Photo Viewer allows digital photographers to view their images taken with a digital camera directly on a big screen. The storage card can be removed from their digital camera, plug into the photo viewer and instantly view the images on their television. The Digital Photo Viewer has several media slots that are compatible with the most popular storage cards including CompactFlash, MultiMedia, Secure Digital, SmartMedia and MemoryStick. The new xD-Picture Card media can be used if you have the xD to CF card adapter.

The Digital Photo Viewer is very compact, slightly smaller than a VHS cassette and will be easy to attach to most televisions or projectors. The Digital Photo Viewer comes with a remote control included to provide viewing multiple images in preview mode, delete, rotate and zoom functions. It also provides the setup for a customized slide show of digital images stored on the card.

The Digital Photo Viewer supports JPEG files, which are the most common form of image file used by almost every digital camera. The resolution of a JPEG file can be up to 6 Megapixels. For easy use, the viewer can display multiple languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese) and can switch between PAL and NTSC formats. The SanDisk Digital Photo Viewer includes a two-year warranty and has a suggested retail price of $79.99.

Connecting to a TV

The included RCA video (or S-Video) cable lets you connect the Digital Photo Viewer to a television's video in connector. The video out signal is selectable for either NTSC or PAL standards. Playback can be controlled by the buttons on top of the unit or with the included infrared remote control. You can run an automated slide show of any folder of images or manually control the viewing sequence.

After connecting the cables it's time to stick a card in the unit. Shown here are all the types it can read directly. As stated before, you can read the new xD-Picture Card media with the appropriate xD to CF adapter.

The Digital Photo Viewer handles up to 6-Megapixel JPG images but it takes several seconds to load them. Smaller, 640 x 480 size images load and display very fast. There is very little difference between high-res and 640 x 480 size images when displayed on a television screen. If you intend to only view your photos on the TV then save yourself a lot of space on your memory card and set your camera to record 640 x 480 (VGA) size images. If you need to print larger than 4 x 6" then you'll still want to shoot the larger resolution.

Pressing the MENU button on the remote allows you to select the desired memory card (CF, SM, MS, SD/MMC), display photo info (Exif data for time and date of capture, image dimensions and file size), set the delay between pictures in slide show mode, select true image or full screen display, adjust the display position and select the desired menu language.

The control buttons on top of the Digital Photo Viewer unit

Here's the Digital Photo Viewer's remote control; across the top are the Play / Slide Show, Pause, Preview and Power buttons.

In the center (grey area) are the directional buttons and the MENU / Select button. Alongside are the Next and Previous buttons and the Zoom+ and Zoom- buttons.

On the bottom are the Delete, Rotate 90° CCW and Rotate 90° CW buttons.

If you want to browse through your pictures in a visual manner press the PREVIEW button on the remote. The pictures will be displayed as small thumbnail pictures with the currently selected one shown larger in the center. Use the directional buttons on the remote to select and display one full-screen or jump to the next page of thumbnails.

If you have enabled the Display Photo Info option then you will see additional picture data for time and date of capture, image dimensions and file size.

The ZOOM feature lets you magnify the picture at the push of a button.

The ROTATE buttons allow portrait-oriented images to display properly.

Steve's Conclusion

The Digital Photo Viewer is an affordable and easy to use digital image display device. It is very similar to the Delkin eFilm Picturevision unit in function but it displays larger images faster.

I still suggest that you set your camera to capture 640 x 480 size images or if you have a computer and a graphic program you can shoot in high-resolution for making big prints and convert the ones you want to display on the TV to a smaller size. The 640 x 480 size images load and display very fast, and on my 42-inch plasma screen, I can't see the difference between the small images and 5-megapixel images.

If you've got a digital camera and you like to show off your pictures then I'd say this device belongs on top of your TV set. I noticed that it uses a 12VDC power supply so that means that you can easily use this image viewer in your RV or boat too. Stop making people squint to see the pictures on your camera's tiny LCD screen - put them up on the big screen today!

The Digital Photo Viewer
is available for $79.99USD from
Sandisk's Online Store.