Turn TV into large digital photo frame through the HDMI port

Question

I would like to turn my TVs into large photo frames that shows my pictures and/or plays my videos when I'm not using the TVs otherwise.

I need:

• The files to be read from a PC / NAS / external hard drive.
• An easy setup with a random or by date interval display of files.

It should be powered by an app running on an Android phone or on an Apple iPhone / iPad / Apple TV or alternatively on a computer connected to the TV through HDMI, USB or similar.

Ideally I would like to use my Apple TV (4th gen) connected to my TV to get the files from a Windows 10 computer through my network and display them on the TVs.

Alternatively I could connect my old Samsung S7 or iPhone 7 to my TVs and use them to get the files from a Windows 10 computer or a NAS.

Any solution that can turn all my TVs into large photo frames and that can get the files it has to display from a PC or NAS on my local network would do.

I don't know if Plex (https://www.plex.tv/your-media/) is a solution that will work or not.

Any tips anyone?

Answer 1

The TV part is easy - just connect it to a device that has HDMI output and can connect to and read from the NAS and the switch the TV input to HDMI. Personally I would suggest a Raspberry PiZero W - HDMI output & WiFi + Bluetooth: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/

Even with a case you are looking under £20.

Then you are just looking for a slideshow application that can run on the PiZero - A google search gave over a million results but this article gives one set of options or slide-pi-stretch could be a nice option. Note that both the above assume a Pi 3 but should run OK on Zero.

If you are looking to customise the selection rules then py-slideshow could be a good starting point.

Of course you could also look at a sligthly more powerful Pi running RasPlex.