5. In Use

The ability to display my growing digital photograph library on the family room TV was one of my desires and the LinkTheater did a pretty good job. I ended up running wizd on one of my NAS devices, and I configured the device to export a network share that equated to the wizd photo library. So creating a new slide-show was just a matter of copying the desired pictures from one of my networked computers into a folder on the shared network drive.

A music track could be added to the slide show using wizd configuration screens. I still use iPhoto on my iBook for managing and editing my photo library, but for running slide-shows the LinkTheater has found a place in my family room and it's easy enough to use that my kids can create their own slide-shows.

The LinkTheater has the ability to play music across the network from the server running on my NAS, but I don't find myself using it much. As described in my first article, I find the combination of iTunes, mt-daapd and the AirportExpress hard to beat for ease of use and powerful searching. With the LinkTheater, the TV user-interface has to be used for scrolling through long lists of songs, and doing an alphanumeric search using a remote isn't pretty.

It all works, but it's not nearly as convenient as the AirportExpress combination. I do use the LinkTheater music feature for adding soundtracks to my slide shows. The only drawback to this, is that it can't be used with protected music purchased through the iTunes music store.