How can I see the captions for each painting?

Each painting in the BillionDollarArtGallery has a file name like this: 030Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute-Joseph Mallord William Turner-1835-The Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC. The file name contains the number of the painting (this is the 30th of 500 paintings), the name (Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute), the name of the painter (Joseph Mallord William Turner), the year it was painted (1835) and the museum where you can see the painting (The Met in New York City). 

Most people find themselves wondering, “What is that painting?” BillionDollarArtGallery has provided three paths to help you learn more about the paintings in our collection.

Play the video including captions and music.

Because TVs are not standardized – each has a different image presentation system with different buttons that can be confusing – BillionDollarArtGallery includes a video that makes it easy to play the paintings, captions and music with a single selection. After displaying the painting for 5 seconds, the video displays the name of the painting, the name of the painter, the year it was painted, and where you can see the original. By seeing the painting before the information, you can test your knowledge, and begin to learn more about the paintings. 

The BillionDollarArtGallery video is called 0000 Video to make it easy to find: the “0000” causes the video to sort to the top of your file list. Depending on your TV, you may need to tell your TV that you are looking specifically for video files. The video is an MP4, which plays on most TVs. Some older TVs do not play videos, and some, like the Insignia TVs from BestBuy, do not support video from USB ports. You can also play video on your TV from peripherals such as DVD players with USB ports, the Roku Ultra with a USB port, or a media player like the AGPtek, available for about $40 on Amazon.

Sample painting with caption in the video

Play your TV's photo show and use your TV remote.

Many, if not most TVs, can display the file names when you press the INFO button or another button on your TV's remote control. Some TVs cannot display captions, and other TVs may only show half the caption on the screen; this is another reason why BillionDollarArtGallery provides the video with captions that display over the videos. 

Search the Guide to Paintings on your phone.

• In your phone’s web browser, go to billiondollarartgallery.com and choose paintings from the menu on the upper right, or save this web address to your phone’s home page: 
  
  billiondollarartgallery.com/paintings 
  
  
• In the Search box, enter a visible feature of any painting – for instance, “top hat” – 
  
  
• and you will quickly see all the paintings that include “top hats.”
• Scroll through the choices, and tap on any painting. Tapping on a painting will display:
  The name of the painter
  The name of the painting
  The name of the museum (or if it is in private hands)
  The year it was painted