Roku is about to transform your TV into a stunning digital art display with its new Backdrops feature for Roku TVs and streaming players. Like Samsung's The Frame TV and other new picture-frame TVs, Roku will showcase artwork and your own pictures when you're not watching TV.
What's exciting about Backdrops is that Roku is democratizing the concept of TV as art. Instead of buying a pricey picture-frame TV, your existing Roku player can turn your current TV into an art display and digital photo frame at no extra cost. And if you don't have a Roku player, they start at $29.99.
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Once available, the Backdrops feature will appear as an app in your home screen grid. From there, you can choose from Roku's free collection of art of your own images to display. Backdrops integrates with Google Photos, so you can load albums you've created in your Google Photos account, making it simple to keep your TV display updated with your latest snapshots. Once your pictures are loaded, you can adjust brightness, set image duration, and even schedule a daily stop time for your TV to go dark to suit your preferences.
The quality of the displayed images largely depends on what you upload. I recommend using high-resolution images – at least 8.3 megapixels to match your TV's 4K resolution. And if you want a curated look, pick wide shots or edit your photos to match your TV's 16:9 aspect ratio, so your photos fill the screen.
I like the fact that Roku has made voice control available for Backdrops. Instead of having to find and open the Backdrops app, you can start or stop a slideshow of your family vacation photos with simple voice commands.
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Roku is rolling out Backdrops over the next few weeks to Roku-branded TVs and partner TVs running the Roku OS. When the feature is available, you'll see the Backdrops app on your home screen. Later this fall, Backdrops will expand to Roku streaming players and soundbars, enabling virtually any TV to become a digital picture frame.
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[Image credit: Roku]
For the past 20+ years, Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra has been exploring and writing about the world’s most exciting and important science and technology issues. Prior to Techlicious, Suzanne was the Technology Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Senior Technology Editor for Popular Science. Suzanne has been featured on CNN, CBS, and NBC.
