Making a digital picture frame from a spare 7" LCD?

November 24, 2007 5:32 PM

Any way to make use of a 7 inch LCD screen with an RCA input to make a cheap digital picture frame?

I’ve got a 7 inch LCD screen with an RCA input. I want to mount this on my wall to either playback photos or short videos (on loop). I was wondering if there’s an easy and cheap way to make this possible without a dedicated computer outputting to this.

On one of my home PCs that is always on, I have a video card with an RCA video out. Maybe this could be used if it’s possible to output content separate from what’s being displayed on my PC monitor. Or is there any kind of cheap video playback unit I could purchase that would be dedicated? Is there possibly a way to read content from an SD or CF card and output to the screen? I’m really open to any suggestions... Clearly I have little experience in creating custom electronics.

Thanks.

posted by evanm to technology (7 comments total)

Lots of MP3-type 'video' players have RCA out, either built in or from an adapter of some kind. If you had one of those that used CF or SD cards for storage, I think you'd have it made. Lots of old ones are under $100 now, and some of the cheap Chinese type are under $100 new.
posted by rokusan at 5:43 PM on November 24, 2007

Interesting question. I'd look for an old, possibly broken, digital camera that has video-out. Here's an example of a camera with a broken lens going for $10 that can probably still connect to a TV. You could strap this on to the back of the frame, plug in the camera (or use batteries) and insert a memory card containing the pictures you want displayed. (The camera linked also plays back video, but I'm not sure which formats are supported).
posted by null terminated at 6:31 PM on November 24, 2007

Lots of MP3-type 'video' players have RCA out

Or an old (cheap) digital camera.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:44 PM on November 24, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

This DVD player is under $30 and plays JPEG image CDs.
posted by specialfriend at 7:07 PM on November 24, 2007

Easy. Just get a memory card reader that hooks up to a TV, like this one.
posted by O9scar at 9:22 PM on November 24, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

I second the DVD player idea.

I also have modchiped Xbox that does nice slideshows, although that might be a bit pricey.
posted by sycophant at 11:06 PM on November 24, 2007

O9scar for the win. There's even an instructable on how to do this with the exact item he referenced. They're still somewhat available on ebay.
posted by datacenter refugee at 11:14 PM on November 24, 2007