Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

Someone should make:

A wallet insert that will hold two to four smartmedia cards.

A thin shirt pocket sized plastic case that will hold 2 to 4 smartmedia and/or compact flash cards.

A little (1" x 1.5") wrist band LCD that you can slip a smartmedia card into. If any pictures are on the card they will slide-show on the LCD. A neckstrap version with the LCD as a charm would be nice too. For a nickle more add watch/calendar functions to it.

A line of TVs that come with media slots built into them. My camera has a video port, but getting it's pictures on the TV would be easier if the TV had a smartmedia slot. They make printers like this. It shouldn't be too hard to add smartmedia/compact flash slots to a TV.

A line of TVs with an ethernet port or 802.11 access. Hook them into the home network where they'll access images to slideshow through. There are net-enabled music devices that will find MP3s on a home net. If they can do it with music, it should be easy to add picture access to a TV.

A LARGE (18x24 perhaps) high resolution LCD picture frame, with an ethernet jack AND media slots AND two video inputs with PIP ability. All for <$300. Hang it on the wall with your favorite frame around it. Have your favorite pictures cycle through on it. They've done it with small frames. Now I want a BIG ONE.

TV programming, no matter where you get it from should be free again. I remember when cable TV first came to my town. It promised "commercial free programming" in exchange for our subscription fees. Now we both PAY for programming and have commercials on every channel. I want my directv free! I want my cable FREE! I want my commercial laden internet FREE TOO! But I'll pay IF they remove all commercials!

OK, I'm done. If anyone knows of actual products that fit my above suggestions, please point me to them. Feel free to add your product ideas to this thread.

Dave

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Redwood City CA
Posts: 472

Re: Someone should make:

quote:

---

Originally posted by DBrown
A thin shirt pocket sized plastic case that will hold 2 to 4 smartmedia and/or compact flash cards.

---

Last edited by John Nowak on 07-21-2001 at 05:42 PM

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

I have a Taxi Wallet from Sharper Image that has an extra slot that would be great for SmartMedia or MMC cards.

__________________
James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

smartmedia musings...

Ok, I have a camera that uses smartmedia cards. It came with an 8meg one. 8 megs holds 16 pictures at the camera's default resolution, but only ONE at it's highest in TIFF format. So I "know" I need a larger card, mainly so if I'm on vacation and away from someplace I can download the images to I can take more than a few pictures. I get a 64 meg card.

The new card will hold 128 default JPG pictures. I've been playing with the camera some now, and taking lots of images with various resolutions and compression options. As it turns out the default resolution of my camera takes wonderful images, much larger than a single screen on my PC. They print out beautifully at 8"x10", although not quite "photo realistic". But I'm unlikely to print many at 8x10. I got that camera so I could snap a quick pic and post it on the web. Any picture headed for the WWW I reduce to <800x600 pixels anyway.

So far, I've gotten no where past a dozen shots or so before I could get to a computer to download images off my camera. I was assuming I'd have "collections" of smartmedia cards stuffed with pictures, but it hasn't proven to be an economical way to "store" images. My PC will hold thousands, and I can easily burn a CD or move then to a ZIP disk to get them off my PC.

Will I ever need more than one large smartmedia card? I'm beginning to doubt it. Maybe when I can stick them in my TV to view pictures there I'll create specific slideshows on individual smartmedia cards, label them, and file them like you would your old fashioned slide collection. I think we'll need OUTPUT devices like TVS, printers, LCD photo frames, etc., before smartmedia or compact flash become the photo albums of the future. OK, I know there are media-ready printers out there, and photo frames you can stick your media into. They need to be CHEAP, though. And frankly, if our TVs get ethernet or 802.11b wireless or bluetooth or home phoneline networking before they get smartmedia slots they will I doubt they will EVER get smartmedia slots.

Dave

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NC, Indiana
Posts: 465

Most digital cameras come with video out cables I thought? Just plug your camera into the set and let the good times roll!

__________________
-Vincent

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

Vinny,

You're right. My camera did come with a TV out. It's just not convenient. To actually use the camera with the TV, I need to:

- locate the video cable.
- locate the AC adapter for the camera, since using it as a slide projector drains batteries FAST!
- plug the video cable into the camera
- plug the video cable into the VCR's front video input. All other inputs are in use.
- reach behind the stereo rack and hope I can blindly find a free outlet on the power strip to plug the AC adapter into.
- plug the AC adapter into the camera
- turn on the VCR, set it to it's front input.
- turn on the A/V amplifier. Video passes thru this to the TV.
- turn on the TV, and set it to it's Video2 input. No front video input on my TV.

Now if the TV had a smartmedia slot, all I'd have to do is:

- take the SM card out of my camera.
- put the SM card into the TV's slot.
- if the TV was designed properly, the simple presence of a card in the slot should switch it to accessing and showing any pictures on the card.

Perhaps some smart TV company will read this, and build media slots into all HDTV models they produce from now on. Sony can even put a memory stick slot in theirs! I can hope, can't I?

Dave

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

If what you're saying is that you would buy a new TV, just go out and get one with front inputs.

__________________
-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

Someone should make:

Front A/V inputs, particularly when in use, make a TV look cluttered and tacky. It's an aesthetic insult. But yes, I could get a TV with front inputs.

It wouldn't change my desire that manufacturers start designing their TVs with smartmedia, compact flash, and perhaps memory stick slots on them. For that matter, Home theater amplifiers could have the media slots. They'd scan the data on whatever media card was inserted, then play or show the files they found. Video and pictures would be routed to whatever video monitors were attached, and music files could simply be played thru the speakers. A playlist for the music files could be shown on the monitor (TV) and you could select and arrange the songs you want to hear with your universal remote. Gee, now that I think of it, a home theater amplifier might have a printer port too. Once a playlist is created you of course can save it to the media card the files exist on. Then you could print a hard copy of it to put in a notebook or simply have to read or share. Digital images could not only be shown on the monitor, but printed out as well.

OK, that's what I REALLY want... a new A/V receiver/amplifier. It should have USB (for printers and perhaps media card readers), ethernet (to access media files on your home network), smartmedia, a compact flash, and memory stick slots, (or perhaps a single generic media slot, that you could plug your specific type of media reader into). There would be some smarts to it, such as the ability to read all the different media types and formats and find media files to play or show. It would all be truly "plug and play", and unlike microsoft's concept of that strategy it would not require new drivers anytime a new media type was installed. Info on how to interface with the media would be hardwired into the individual media reader units, much like hard drives contain their own controllers now.

I can dream, can't I?

Dave

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Re: smartmedia musings...

quote:

---

Originally posted by DBrown
...Will I ever need more than one large smartmedia card? I'm beginning to doubt it....Dave

---

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

Re: Re: smartmedia musings...

quote:

---

Originally posted by briker206
What we need is broadband everywhere so I could hook up to the net and download pics from Disneyland......

---

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 714

Yeah, and I think I should be provided with a free car...top of the line computer (replaced monthly)...and be able to eat nothing less than 5 star resteraunt food at home....

DBrown, back with his crazy ideas again!

I don't see the big need to view slide shows on a TV, how many people will use this for that? I'm not going to leave my TV on all day to show slides. I guess it would make sense for offices, but there are devices that already do this fine. I just really think the concept is stupid, you draw out the process as if it were so difficult. Also, there are devices for doing this - which I'd much rather have, I believe Zip makes one.

__________________
Matt Nichols
[email protected]

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matthew Nichols
DBrown, back with his crazy ideas again!

---

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matthew Nichols
I don't see the big need to view slide shows on a TV, how many people will use this for that?

---

__________________
The light at the end of your tunnel has been disconnected due to non-payment. Please remit funds immediately for restoration of hope.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

Someone should make a COLOR visor using the platinum case size.

And (oh yeah) it should have a smartmedia slot built in to it.

Just wishin'

Dave

__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.