System Requirements: Broadband Internet connection
Rating: 4 out of 5 apples

As Macintosh users we have iLife which comes free with every new computer. It allows us to have many ways of sharing our photos and movies. And if you have a .Mac account for $99/year, you can publish them for viewing online. But if you don't have a .Mac account, you can use One True Media (OTM).

One True Media has found a very easy way to share your photos and movies with friends and relatives. It does it all without any software. It is also an easy way to integrate with YouTube, MySpace, blogs, Yahoo Groups, and GoogleVideo (Beta). You can also create photo books, email, download for iPods and iTunes, and DVDs.

What I was most curious about was sharing via TiVo series 2 or 3 box. I began with a series of photos taken during our group's latest annual picnic, organizing them on my Mac. I then followed the steps at the website to create a slideshow. Uploading the photos to OTMs site was fast. I looked at the many templates and decided on the default one. It's pretty nice and very different from many others I've seen. The next step was to select how I wanted to share my montage. I chose to do it via TiVo. I contacted a friend so as to get her comments about her experience at her end. I also sent a URL to another friend to view the slideshow using a browser on their Mac.

The steps to share via TiVo were not as simple as I wanted. For starters, the browser OmniWeb was not compatible with One True Media. The fine print stating this in RED above a very busy window was not that obvious to me and at first I ignored the warning. Creating a channel was simple, and sending an email to my friend was also easy. But I didn't receive a copy of the email, which went to her, so I had no idea what it said other than my additional comments permitting me to personalize the form email.

I kept going to my TiVo to see what was happening. In a very few minutes I was able to create my channel without a problem. But there was no slideshow to view.

I decided to send myself an email pretending to notify someone about sharing my slideshow on their TiVo. The email said that it might take up to 24 hours to send the video or slideshows to the TiVo. I waited the allotted time but nothing happened.

My next step was to go to the One True Media website and view my account. My slideshow was still there but no activity was visible. I retraced all my steps and read the RED print again more carefully, I then switched to the Firefox browser and followed all the steps again especially sharing via TiVo. This time I saw the upload menu and saw some activity occur.

When I went to my TiVo, I saw that my slideshow was there with a notice indicating how long it was and when it would be available on my Now Playing List. All this occurred in minutes. The length of my slideshow was 51 seconds, not very big. It was all ready within an hour of this second attempt. This was more like it.

My slideshow played beautifully on my Mintek 23" HDTV with music selected from the One True Media site. I was very pleased with the experience. Once I overcame the problem with the browser it was easy, fast, and fun.

My friend's experience was most enjoyable and she was able to view my slideshow without any hassle.

For the free membership you get 200 photos and/or 1015 minutes of video (up to 200 MB), in your storage space. Song Limits are 3 per Video Montage.

For the Premium Membership you get virtually unlimited photos and video in your storage space. Unlimited songs, premium special effects and transitions, premium music, personal TiVo Channel/Two Anytime TiVo sharesand no ads. Five monthly TiVo shares. Custom embeddable online players. Download to your PC/MAC or video iPod.

The $39.99 subscription for a full year includes credit for a free DVD up to $24.99 value! Or you can pay $3.99 a monththe free DVD offer does not apply but you may still put a DVD at the standard price.

One True Media has found a simple, yet elegant way to share photos and movies with friends and family at a reasonable cost.

2007 Maria O. Arguello. Maria is the vendor liaison of the Main Line Macintosh Users Group (MLMUG). To see more reviews go to <http://Mlmug.org/Reviews.html>. Maria is also a member of NCMUG, PMUG, CCPMUG, MUGSNJ, PPUG, and SJAUG. She is the Apple User Group Regional Liaison for the Northeast United States (CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT).