USB device with LED TV?

[vanlassie]

Help. My boss purchased a bunch of big flat screen TVS to be used in our agencies for showing our classes, which are largely on PowerPoint. I had recently hired on and I created a PPT with an embedded video clip lasting about 3-4 minutes. The boss was (and I think still IS) under the impression that we can ELIMINATE the use of some of our laptop computers and show our presentations using JUST the USB port with a memory stick. The PPT seeems to have to be converted to JPEG, and the video (and some other little animations) no longer work

I am under the impression that a memory stick needs a brain (like a computer?) to be able to do anything beyond the most rudimentary- like showing slides and such. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Vanlassie

[RoyGBiv]

1. A USB stick is just storage ...

...it's like a small hard drive. Any files stored on it will have to have some sort of software to access them.

I've seen televisions that can display image files, e.g. JPGs, but in order to display PowerPoint files, you'd need PowerPoint, and your television is not going to have PowerPoint.

The video files, likewise, must be decoded by software that can do so. Some televisions have integrated DVD players that will themselves play MPEG compliant video, but that's not what you've got there. Perhaps they are making displays now that include video playback software that can read certain formats of data from an external storage device, but that would be specialized equipment, and you should know if you have it.

[vanlassie]

2. Thanks....thought so. I'll break it to her gently!

[RoyGBiv]

5. A thought ...

Is it *just* a tv that you have? (And as canetoad said, a model would let us tell you more.)

I ask because there are display systems that have television monitors that can be placed in various locations and are controlled by a single central computer. I work with one of these called the AxisTV system. If I remember the sales pitch correctly, the sales guy actually used that line about lowering IT costs by ridding us of the need for more laptops, etc. That wasn't why we got it, so we didn't care that he was exaggerating.

Anyway, just curious if there was more to this than just a monitor/television.

[MyNameGoesHere]

3. LED tv? If I am correct most of the LED tv's have WiFi/LAN built in

so you could stream it from just about any source really. Now maybe you mean LED back-lit tv?

[canetoad]

4. Any chance of posting

the brand and model of the TV? It's possible, as Roy said, that you may be able to plug in a USB stick and playback standard-type media, such as .avi, mp3. I doubt if you can make it play PPT without being hooked up to a computer. Maybe your boss needs to look at producing your presentations in a different form such as mpeg or avi if the screens are to be useful.

MyNameGoesHere - I know that high end lcds come with wireless lan but they are very, very expensive. It's not standard on most LCD screens.

[pokerfan]

6. If it can handle jpg format (as many DVD players do)

one could convert the ppt slides to jpg and set up a slideshow.