[ZoneV]

This is probably going to get confusing fast so I'll apologize up front right now. The secret to great display presentations is to optimize the image to the display device pixel for pixel. This resolution is always established by using the native resolution of the display device (projector, CRT, Plasma, LCD or Monitor). If there's a computer in the chain the video card is set to the same resolution as the display resolution and your photo images are cropped and scaled to that exact same resolution too.

The confusion comes from the fact there are five TV resolutions and literally dozens of computer display resolutions available. I'm not going into all the different flavors here, it sounds like your using a standard definition television (the same one grandma fell asleep in front of watching Lawrence Welk).

Use a 4:3 landscape crop ratio for all of your images. Once you have your crop then adjust resolution to 640x480 (In CS2 use Bicubic Sharpener). Sharpen, over sharpen and sharpen again to taste.In case I didn't explain that very clearly, you might need to sharpen. That's it, that's all an SDTV can display. Everything else is getting thrown away.

Of course, if I'm wrong and your using one of the HDTV models all bets are off and you'll have to size for a different resolution, but the basic principle remains the same. Oh, BTW, good for you for helping a friend and being nice to someone. We all need to do more of that. I think I'm supposed to bestow some sort of caramel apple or something your way. I'll send some if I can figure it out.

Cheers and good luck
-kb