Slideshow presentation in a shop - equipment required?

[5tephen]

I have a little job to spec up, the company wants a TV (say 30" - 40", not HD) inside their shop that displays a series of screens indicating latest offers in their store while customers browse around.
I'm assuming this would be hooked up to a computer somewhere in the store - what type of cable connection would be required between the two? S-Video, composite or whatever? Does cable length affect the quality of output in any way?
In terms of software, Powerpoint is the only program I really know of that would fit the bill. It's between £150-200 from a very quick search, which is a tad steep but not the end of the world. I'll probably go ahead with using it, but are there any other programs dedicated to this type of thing that would be easy to use?
Suggestions appreciated.

 

[5tephen]

Thanks for the quick replies.
I might check out OpenOffice, I've been meaning to for a while. Impress, at first sight, does indeed look impressive
I've been looking around, 20m S-Video cables are pretty cheap and there is no indication of loss in quality but I will read into it more. Is the VGA input on a TV the same as that on a normal PC monitor? And the same question - does length affect quality of this type of connection?
Regarding "something to change the display mode on the PC" - would this not be provided in something like the ATi Catalyst software?
All questions questions here!

 

[5tephen]

Or why not simply use the Windows Picture and Filmviewer that is bundled with XP? It has a slideshow function (F11).

[J]

The staff in the shop will be making their own slideshows, I don't know how many different people will be doing so but that would still involve making pictures to show in the slideshow in the first place. E.g. actually using a separate imaging program, saving as jpg, ordering things... while cheaper it would be much harder for a noob to work with. Powerpoint or Impress will definitely be my choice because of that, they do what they do so well
Thanks for the suggestions people, an S-Video connection and Powerpoint/Impress at the software end should get things going.