Gallery Player Review

Gallery Player is the number one company in the world in providing high definition digital images that will transform your flat TV into a stunning showcase of fine art, sports, travel, nature, science and all other types of breathtaking photography. The main idea of Paul Brownlow, who Founded Gallery Player in 2003 and is now its current CTO, was to provide high quality digital content to the people with HDTVs and PCs.

Gallery Player has an extensive library full of rights-protected, high definition imagery from world class museums, leading publishers, artists and photographers. At the moment, there are more than 150 HD image galleries, containing some of the greatest images in the world. The range of genres is quite extensive, as you will be able to find everything from fine arts to sports and science. This is due to the fact that Gallery Player has an agreement with some of the world’s best providers of imagery, including: New York Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, American 24/7, Art Resource, The Time Life Picture Collection and other major museums and collections.

Now, the most important fact about the images from Gallery Player is that, those are not just the regular low quality files you can download from the web. Here we are talking about images with 1080P, stunningly high resolution, even on a 65-inch screen. To tell you the truth, those images look even better than the real thing. The guys at GP have also overlaid music over the images and added a very classy metadata bar that pops in and out to give you some info on the given photo. So, in addition to getting a visual experience, you also get educated.

The concept of image playlists is also very interesting. You might want to have shots of nice beaches or waterfalls, or sunrises in the morning, and then switch to destinations or travel at dinner, with some nice soft music in the background. If you are having a gathering, then why not display fine arts.

The technology behind Gallery Player:

What’s interesting about the GP is the innovative Smart HD Display Technology, which automatically sets the size on every image displayed, depending on the TV screen. In addition to that, Gallery Player’s technology also displays some interesting info (background information, credits, music) regarding every image.

The GP company has developed its own systems and tools to scan pictures, develop them, build and deliver them in High Definition format. Apart from all that, the whole technology allows for one gallery to be distributed to various different platforms, such as:

-Internet – it’s easy to download galleries from the Internet, simply enter http://www.galleryplayer.com/download.html in your web browser. The system requirements for GP’s PC version are not much: Pentium 3 500MHz CPU, 256 MB of RAM, 64MB Video Card, high-speed internet connection. Of course, if you got your HDTV connected to the PC output of your Video Card, you can watch those images right on it. In 2006, GP agreed with Google to be a part of the Google Pack software offering, as a result of which, Gallery Player has been included at http://pack.google.com

-DVDs and SD cards – In January 2007, Gallery Player signed an agreement with Panasonic to embed its technology into every Panasonic HDTV manufactured from 2007. This new system is called Gallery Player Ready To View and it’s integrated into an SD card inside the TV.

As of July 2006, Gallery Player has been producing DVDs for the mainstream, containing separate collections from GD’s comprehensive image libraries.

-Cable, satellite and private networks – Gallery Player also delivers content to certain cable TV operators in America, through its HD-VOD service on Comcast. People can buy whatever galleries they want, something like the Pay-Per-View system, but for video galleries.

Gallery Player version 3.0:

Version 3.0 of the GalleryPlayer software makes it easier for user to purchase, organize and export to their TVs some of the world's most fascinating views captured on High Definition. The latest feature introduced in GP 3.0 is the ability to export to Secure Digital Memory Card, compatible on Panasonic HDTVs manufactured in 2007 or after. Something else that's new is the Media Center Integration, allowing you to import the images you have purchased into your Windows Media Center playlist.

A glimpse at the interface will let you know that there are five buttons on the menu bar:

- Store – to buy and download images from the central server. Internet Connection is a must for that option. The central gallery server is constantly being updated with new images, so check it out on a regular basis

- Library – to view the collections of images that you have purchased. The library also allows you to create your own playlist of images – they will go one after another without your intervention. Since all images you buy are downloaded onto the PC’s hard drive, you don’t need an Internet Connection for this feature

- Account – use it to change your personal information, like address, username and pass, and CC info.

- Messages – from time to time, you will receive certain informative messages

- Export – for exporting galleries to a SD Memory Card.

On the left side of the application window you will spot the Navigation Menu, containing expandable lists of your collections and playlists. On the top right is the List Pane with thumbnails of all the pictures from the selected collection. Bellow the List Pane is the Detail Pane featuring detailed information regarding the selected image. The Message Bar is at the very bottom of the dialog, displaying messages from the library and some system messages.

Buying images from the online store:

The online store allows you to buy complete collections or just certain images from the thousands of HD photos available. Be on the lookout for special promotions or free collections. To access the store, click on the Store button from the main menu or select Go -> GalleryPlayer Store.

As you can guess, all images are arranged in categories which currently are: New, Featured Brands, Most Popular, Fine Art, Classic Photography, Travel, Scenic, Nature, Science and Technology, Lifestyle, Kids, Drawings and Prints, Free Images. The price for a single image varies from $.099 to $2.99, but usually there is a discount if you buy the whole collection.

When you spot an image that you like and want to buy, just click on the 'Add to Cart' button, at the end press 'Checkout' and you will see the contents of your shopping cart. To purchase the items in the cart, you must have a GalleryPlayer account, hence you will prompted to use an existing one or create a new one, by providing your email address and password, and billing and payment information. Payments are made via Credit Card. Once you are satisfied with your selection, press the Submit Payment button to complete the purchase.

Once you have submitted your payment details, GalleryPlayer will automatically download the selected images (you can see the progress bar on the lower right corner) and adds them your GP Library. You are free to display the images you have purchased for as long as you want, but only on the computer on which you downloaded them, you can’t copy and transfer them to other machines. To display those images at commercial establishments, like bars and restaurants, you must have a license agreement with GalleryPlayer. Check out www.galleryplayer.com for more info on that.

Viewing your images with GalleryPlayer:

With GalleryPlayer you can view all the images on your Library and also customize the way they get displayed. You can view any image on demand, or set it as a screensaver, but viewing can be done only trough the GalleryPlayer. You can’t locate the images files, manipulate them, move them to different folders on your hard drive or set it as a Windows Wallpaper. This is a big drawback, but it’s done in order to protect the images from being illegally distributed. For the very same reason, you can’t print any of the images you’ve purchased.

There are a number of options you can use in order to customize the viewing experience. Start by opening the settings window from Tool -> Settings. You will immediately notice the four different tabs on the left - Play, Credits, Advanced and Export.

-The Play tab contains options allowing to configure the playback settingts. The Duration field allows you to specify the length of time each image appears onscreen - from 30 seconds to 25 minutes. The Shuffle Play determines whether the images in the list get displayed in random order or not.

-From the Advanced you can setup and configure your advanced settings such as Cropping, Fitlers and Primary Display. The Cropping option is related to the size of the image being displayed on the screen. Often images are cropped to fill the entire screen. If you turn it off, the entire image will be shown. With the Filters menu you can filter out certain types of images, so that they don't get shown during playback. Put a thick next to the one you wish to exclude, like Alchohol, Political Content, Violence/Weapons, Nudity. From the Primary Display option, you can set the display that should be used when viewing GalleryPlayer images. That's of course, if your PC is connected to more than one display device. GP can display the gallery only at one monitor at a time, the rest will be blacked out.