Using AppleTV as a kiosk display

Question

Hi, all -
I know others have asked about this already, so please forgive the double-post, but I haven't yet seen a satisfactory answer to the question.
Can AppleTV be used as a stand-alone device to drive a display for public information signage? I recently attended an event at a banquet hall and saw a plasma display with a very conspicuous AppleTV box mounted next to it. The display was off, but the next time I passed by, it was on, and showing the names and room locations of the day's events. There was a music bed underneath, and the style of the text-only slides was very Apple (it looked like it came from Keynote). Simple show, just white-on-black text and simple dissolves.
I work at a high school district and we recently installed three 16x9 LCD displays in each building, and I connected retired WinXP machines to each one (locked in cabinets nowhere near the displays - we used long VGA cables so the PCs could be kept secure) and created a simple hack allowing the PowerPoint author to just remotely drop revised PPS files onto the computers, which restart at 3 am and launch the updated projects. That way, each screen can have its own slideshow.
After seeing the AppleTV unit in use at the banquet hall, I decided that would be a better way to go since it already has built-in capability to play high-quality video in addition to mere slideshows (my current setup uses PCs that are a few years old, I wouldn't burden them with video playback). I did have the forethought to install long component video cables on our displays, too, so we'd be ready for some future playback device such as a DVD player or other STB.
From what I gather, the closest I might be able to do right now would be to load slides as photos for the screen saver mode on AppleTV, or maybe switch to using Keynote (or Final Cut) to create QuickTime slideshows which can incorporate both still slides and video clips... but the latter would presume that AppleTV can play videos within its screen saver OR be set to loop a playlist or single video continuously.
I point out that the display at the banquet hall was off one moment then on the next to indicate that I didn't see if the displays came on to an already-running show, or someone from the venue turned them on then hit "Play" on an AppleTV remote to get them going.
Anyhoo, if anybody has new info regarding looping, or mixing stills & videos in a screensaver playlist (and if that playlist can be altered remotely without stopping AppleTV from playing it), I'd love to hear about it.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
Dual 2.5 GHz G5   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

Answer 1

Hmm, sounds like it should work. You only need ATV if you can't connect a computer directly to the monitor. If you can, you can probably accomplish what you need via QuickTime exports out of Keynote.
I don't have any direct experience with Keynote but in a demonstration I saw that you could export Keynote to Quicktime movie. And yes, QT Pro player allows looping.
You could also export static content be it photos, graphics, or image exports of Keynote slides to your iPhoto library and push that to the ATV to create the loop.
If you want a combination of static images and motion video, doing it all through Keynote and exporting as a QT file should work. Try it!
Hey, maybe you can make a QT movie test and take it to an Apple store on USB memory stick and see if they'll let you try it out? Bring your credit card in case you fall in love with it
- Jeff