Broadband-connected TiVo units can now access Picasa Web Albums (Google) and Photobucket images. From the press release:
âBy working with these well-respected and popular photo-sharing partners TiVo enables families to share their pictures in new, fun ways. TiVo continues to show our commitment to differentiated product offerings by allowing subscribers to share their memories on the best picture frame in the house – – their television.â? Photos will be displayed at the highest possible resolution on each TiVo box, meaning TiVo Series3⢠and TiVo HD subscribers can see their memories in full high definition.
The original (and now dead) Yahoo Photos widget is still listed within the Music, Photos, & More menu, though it remains to be seen if it will ultimately be replaced with a Flickr stub incorporated into this new Photos and Slideshows widget. I haven’t really put the photo apps through their paces yet (I’m on the road this week), but did notice some of my pics appear as broken images (shown below) and wonder why the new HME app is buried so far down the menu. However, I do prefer accessing already-organized online photos rather than keeping a local computer running to feed the TiVo (via TiVo Desktop software).
Click the thumbnails for a larger view:
I tried out the Picasa viewer app last night and was impressed at how good the photos looked on my Series 3.
I do have a couple of gripes, that hopefully they will fix/tweak.
Slideshows are only available for albums. It is not possible to do a slideshow for all of your albums at once.
Picasa lets users pick the photo that is the “cover” of the album. It would be nice if the HME app displayed the “covers” when browsing the albums.
Is there a way to make th slideshow randomize the photos? I didn’t see anything but I didn’t play with it that long.
OK, lemme get this straight: “Photos will be displayed at the highest possible resolution… meaning TiVo S3 and HD subscribers [get] full high definition.”
However, if I’m viewing my own pictures from iPhoto using TiVo Desktop, I’m still limited to crappy standard-def resolution?
I guess that means I have to first upload my photos to Photobucket or Picassa if I want to see them in HD? :-/
Anyone else want to see HD versions of pictures shared *locally* from TiVo Desktop (or even other photo sharing sites like, say, SmugMug)?
Didn’t TiVo sent SmugMug a cease & desist letter for their thumbs up/down functionality and/or look? Hmmm…
i tried to set this up through my sling box and gave up. i did set it up when i got home though, its pretty cool. i wish you could set the quality of the images, not have it depend on S2 or S3. on the other hand, i need another excuse to get a S3…
FYI, the new “Photos & Slideshows” menu item should now be listed second on your Music, Photos, Products & More menu (right below the Rhapsody Music Service item).
Hey Stephen: Any status update on when we’ll get HD photos from Tivo Desktop (Mac/iPhoto in particular)??? I’m pretty sure that (over a year ago) when we, the TiVo faithful, paid top dollar for our S3 (e.g. twice as much as the new HD) HD Photos was a promised “coming soon” enhancement… :-) Thanks in advance, and let us know if you need beta testers!
Thanks, Stephen – I did notice the improvement. When can we expect better organization in that menu? Let’s stick all the games in a folder for example.
Hi – just stumbled across your blog looking for an answer…
I’ve created a web album in Picasa. I’m able to access by signing in on my TiVo. However, the photos are static – I’d like to play all the photos in the folder as a looping slideshow.
Help please! My mother-in-law’s 70th birthday party is here next weekend and we want to have a show playing for her during the party.
Thanks!!
I played around with this at my brothers house yesterday, and while it does have a few issues to work out, I think the interface is outstanding.
Looks good to me – hopefully Tivo will keep adding these types of new features so it can become more of a media sharing option.