Setting Up a Screensaver Using Your Personal Photos
Setting up a random slideshow using your personal photos is a great way to put something up on your TV screen after a few minutes of inactivity. And it’s simple, too!
Whether you want to use photos from your last vacation, or other art or graphics, the process to set it up is the same:
Setting up a random slideshow using your personal photos is a great way to put something up on your TV screen after a few minutes of inactivity. And it’s simple, too!
Whether you want to use photos from your last vacation, or other art or graphics, the process to set it up is the same:
- Navigate to System > Appearance and scroll to the bottom section that says “Screensaver,” then click to the right and choose the top option which is “Screensaver Mode”
- Click to the right to select “Get More”
- Now you’ll see a list of slideshow add-ons that can be installed. You can choose whichever add-on that has the options you’re looking for. For use with a local photo gallery, there are currently two options: “Multi Slideshow Screensaver” or “Slideshow.” For this example we’ll select “Slideshow.” Both options get set up the same way, but the “Multi Slideshow Screensaver” has more customizable options that you can set up.
- On the next screen, click “Install” – this may take a few seconds, but then you’ll see a screen indicating your Slideshow add-on is enabled
- Go back one level (click the two dots at the top of the list), and you’ll be back at the same screen you were at for Step 1. Click on “Screensaver” again and you should now have the option to use the Slideshow add-on. Click on it to activate it.
- Scroll down to “Settings” to choose your photo gallery
- In the first tab (Basic), you’ll need to set up some basic settings, here’s what’s needed:
- Source of Slideshow Images: You can use your video or music fanart folder. If either of these are selected, the slideshow will consist of random movie/tv/music backgrounds. Set this to “Image Folder.”
- Folder: This will only be available if “Image Folder” has been selected. Click and navigate to the folder you want to use for your slideshow. Once in the root folder, click to the right and select “OK.”
- Amount of Seconds to Display Each Image: Choose how long you want each image to appear on the screen
- Dim Level: Adjust this to whatever level of brightness you want your photos to appear. This is helpful in avoiding “burn in” on your TV screen. The lower the setting, the less bright your image will appear.
- Effect: Pan & Zoom is the default setting, but you can also choose Slide (images slide from left to right) or Crossfade (a transition that will blend one image into another)
- Once you’ve customized your settings, scroll all the way up so you’ve highlighted the “Basic” tab, then move to “Additional”
- Display Images in Random Order: This will enable your photos to be displayed in random order
- Scale Images Full Screen: Images will be scaled to use the full-screen dimensions – this could cause some image stretching
- Display Image Name: If enabled, the name of the image file will appear on the screen
- Display Picture Date: If enabled, the date and time stamp of the image file will appear on the screen
- Display Additional Picture Tags: If there is any exra EXIF information for the file, it will appear on the screen
- Display Music Info During Audio Playback: If your system is playing music while your slideshow is playing, the music info will be overlaid onto your slideshow. This can be useful when listening to music from your library, but not as useful when streaming live internet radio.
- Advanced Settings: If your device doesn’t have a lot of storage space, you may want to disable image caching. Otherwise, your device will store cached images, resulting in faster subsequent image load times
- Once you’re happy with your settings, click “OK” to save everything – don’t forget this step! If you don’t click “OK” here, all your settings will be lost!
- You’ll then be taken back to the same screen as Step 1. Here are the remaining options:
- Preview: After making all your changes, you can preview what they’ll look like by selecting this option
- Screensaver Time: Select the amount of time you want to elapse before your Screensaver is activated. The default is 3 minutes.
- Use Visualization if Playing Audio: If this is enabled, and you play audio, your screensaver will not override the visuals that accompany the music
- Use Dim if Paused During Video Playback: If you pause a video, by default your system will dim the screen after a certain period of inactivity. If you disable this option, the screensaver will activate instead of the dimming feature.