We’ve recently added RSS feeds to the ad listings on the Ad Diner. This is a great feature for visitors who use RSS and want to keep an eye on new offerings, but only a small fraction of internet users actually know what RSS is. If you aren’t familiar with it though, it’s worth taking the time to give it a try. It might dramatically change the way you use the web.

The problem with the web.

Every now and then something comes along that solves a problem most people didn’t realize they had. People got along fine before the remote control was invented, but these days no one would buy a TV without one.

I follow dozens of websites, and each of them adds new content in varying frequency. Some of the more popular blogs update several times each day, and many of the smaller sites only update every few weeks, if that often. I could waste a lot of time checking all of these sites every day to see if they have updated, and even then the less frequently updated sites tend to get forgotten about. Often a lot of valuable and interesting information gets lost in the shuffle.

Some websites have tried to solve this over the years with email reminders and newsletters, but if you sign up for too many of those you’ll end up with a cluttered and unusable mailbox.

RSS helps solves this by providing a better way to check and read all of your websites in one place.

Okay, what is RSS?

RSS stands for either “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication,” depending on who you ask. An RSS feed is just a file on a website that summarizes the site’s most recent content, with links to the original articles on the site. An RSS feed by itself isn’t particularly useful—it’s just a list of recent articles on a website. It’s when you use an RSS “Reader” that feeds become indispensable.

(Above: The front page of CNN.com and the contents of the accompanying RSS feed. Notice how the RSS feed offers the same information as the links on the front page. I actually prefer not to use RSS to follow major news sites like this because the sheer volume of content tends to overwhelm everything else I’m following, but they all offer RSS as a way to follow the news as it happens.)

An RSS reader (sometimes called an “Aggregator”) is a computer program or a website that checks all of the RSS feeds you tell it to and combines them together in one list. It keeps track of what you’ve read, and lets you know when something new is added. All in all, it’s a lot like using email—you have an inbox, you can sort articles by author, title, or date, you can flag stories you want to read later, and if you fall behind and just want to give up, you can mark everything as read. You no longer have to check to see if sites you read have updated, because the reader checks for you.

What do I need to get started?

First, you need a reader.

There are lots of different RSS Readers available, although most function fairly similarly. On the Mac, NetNewsWire, Vienna, and NewsFire are all good options. More recent versions of Apple’s Mail program also function as an RSS reader. On Windows, FeedDemon is a popular choice. There are quite a few cross-platform options as well, such as RSSOwl and BottomFeeder.

For people like me who have multiple computers they use on a regular basis, a web-based option might be better. Bloglines is a fairly popular web RSS service. For people who already use Google services such as Gmail or Google Docs however (and who doesn’t?), Google Reader is an excellent choice. Google Reader uses the same user account as the rest of your google services, and is available anywhere you have internet access. There’s even a special version for the iPhone and other mobile devices.

Some of the non-web RSS applications such as NetNewsWire and FeedDemon will synchronize with a Google Reader account, so you can still check your feeds when you’re away.

Then you need something to read.

Take a look at your favorite websites and see if they have feeds available. Not every site offers RSS, but most do. Just about every blog will have one. On most modern web browsers an RSS logo will appear in the address bar of a page that has an RSS feed. If not, look for the RSS logo on the sites you visit:

Take a look through your bookmarks. You might find some sites that you found something interesting on, bookmarked, and then promptly forgot about. See if they have a feed and subscribe to it. Most bookmarks are clutter you’ll never look back at, but a feed is a potential source of new information.

Some sites do interesting things with RSS. Craigslist doesn’t just offer feeds for each of the category listings on the site, you can also subscribe to a feed for a particular search. If you listen to podcasts on your iPod or other MP3 player, you’re already using RSS in a specialized way. Podcasting software just uses RSS feeds with links to audio files to handle updates.

Adding a feed to Google Reader is simple. (see below) Click the “Add a subscription” button, and enter the page you want to subscribe to. Reader will try to find the site’s RSS feed. Most other readers are similar.

Our ulterior motive:

Obviously we hope you’ll subscribe to the Five and Dime RSS feed, and if you’re reading this coming from the Ad Diner, subscribe to one of our feeds there.

On the business side, people who use video are wondering about HD and how to make it work in their television commercials, on their website, and for long-format video.

Resolution Basics

Most people understand that better picture quality is primarily created by more lines of resolution. (We’ll explain lines of resolution later on.) But there’s more to the story than just that.

There are actually two resolutions that come into play with HD. There is the source resolution–where the video is coming from (cable, broadcast, DVD, BluRay, etc.) And then there is also the monitor’s resolution.

(Please note, when we refer to monitor, you can substitute the word TV. When we’re talking about resolution, there is no difference.)

The Monitor Resolution

A pixel (picture element) is a dot on the screen that is actually made up of three little lights, one red, one green, and one blue–that’s where the acronym “RGB” comes from. In theory, by changing the intensity of the three different colors, practically any color can be made.

If you count the number of pixels per square inch (PPI), you get a number that indicates the resolution of the monitor. Most monitor manufacturers do not prominently list their PPI, instead they translate that into a number referred to as “native resolution”. This is the number of pixels in width multiplied by the number in height on the entire screen.

The larger the number of the native resolution, the better. For example a monitor with a resolution of 1440 x 900 is higher resolution than a monitor of 1366 x 768.

Source Resolution

Now to try to make things more confusing, you have a completely different resolution to contend with. This is the resolution of the source video, often known as the video feed.

The source video is made up of lines of resolution. Common lines of resolution are 480, 720, and 1080. The resolution number is determined by counting the number of horizontal lines. (A line being a string of dots across the screen.) To get the number, you simply count how many lines you have stacked up on top of each other.

So if you have a 720 source feed, you can count 720 lines up and down on the screen.

Upconversion and Downconversion

The signal, the video information supplied to your monitor, is coming from your source, typically your cable or satellite feed, your DVD player, your computer, or the signal broadcast over the air.

Even if you have a high definition monitor, if your source is broadcasting in standard definition (SD), you won’t be getting that high resolution picture. (Recent studies have shown that 50% of consumers who own HD TVs aren’t even sure if they are watching in HD format!)

There are devices that can take a standard definition signal and “upconvert”, where it will interpolate the image to make it look better on a high definition monitor. It won’t be true high def, but it will help sharpen an otherwise blurry image. You will probably want to upconvert the signal when watching old DVDs on a newer, larger HD monitor.

If your monitor is lower resolution than the source, it will automatically downconvert a higher resolution source.

For optimum picture quality, a source and monitor that are the same resolution will provide the best results.

Mind your “i’s” and “p’s”

So we now know that there are different monitor resolutions, and different source feed resolutions. So what are those “i’s” and “p’s” that you see after the numbers? To understand that, we need a quick TV history lesson.

TV video signals are really still images flashed onto the screen so fast that they give the appearance of moving. On a standard TV, for every second of video there are 30 pictures, or frames, that are flashed up on the screen during that second’s worth of time.

But, these images are “interlaced”. (That’s where the “i” comes from.) Interlacing means that you divide the picture’s image in half into what are called fields. Each field is made up of every other line of resolution. Counting up and down, every odd numbered line is one field, every even numbered line is another field.

By taking the 30 frames, you actually show one frame in the odd fields mixed with the next frame in the even fields. In this way you are actually showing only 50 percent of the image, which gets mixed (interlaced) with the next image.

Why this is important is that, if you think about it, at no point in time are all of the lines of resolution being used for a single image.

So what would happen if you could flash each frame up using the entire screen? It obviously would show more information on the screen, which would in turn create a higher resolution image. (Remember with interlaced you are only seeing 50% of that same information.)

The newer digital technology allows us to do exactly that, and it is referred to as “progressive scan” –that’s where the “p” comes in.

(And to be technically accurate, as progressive scan indicates, images are “scanned” in on the screen a line at a time, but this happens so fast that for our purposes saying that they are “flashed” on the screen is easier to envision.)

So if you compare a resolution that has an “i” in it, such as 1080i, and one that has a “p” in it, such as 1080p, you can easily figure out that for every second of video that you watch, the “p” version has twice as much information being flashed on the screen. (And along with that, a much clearer picture.)

So what is better, 1080i or 720p? That’s a toss up, since the 1080i has more lines of resolution, but the 720p has the advantage of progressive scan. To a majority of consumers, this won’t make much difference at all. There may be a slight advantage to the 720p image for high speed action, like sporting events, because interlacing of a fast image won’t be as sharp.

What to stay away from

Manufacturers came out with what they called ED sets–Enhanced Definition. This is the same thing as your Standard Definition (SD) TV but it is progressive scan technology instead of interlaced. (It’s 480p instead of 480i.) When you see them on display in the stores, they are going to look better than your regular standard definition TV when playing from a progressive scan device.

But if you later switch over to a broadcast HD signal, the ED sets are not going to show the higher resolution picture. Our advice is to stay away from ED sets. The good news is that they aren’t as prevalent out there as they have been over the last few years. But beware, there are still ED sets being sold and they really aren’t true HD quality.

High Def “DVD” Players

So if you have a high definition monitor, you also need a high definition source. Your regular DVD player won’t supply that information, although you can find some that will “interpolate” the lower resolution to look better on an HD screen. (Once again, this is referred to as upconversion.)

Anybody remember the VHS-beta wars? There are currently two formats that are fighting it out to be the standard in high definition to replace your old DVD format. Those are BluRay and HD-DVD. Since Sony is a motion picture company and one of the owners of the BluRay technology, you will find their movies exclusively on BluRay.

The good news is there are devices out there that will play both formats. The bad news is that these devices are extremely expensive. (At least right now they are. Like every other electronic device, they should go down in price in time.)

Broadcast in HD

As far as broadcast signals, the cable and satellite companies will both sell you a package that will broadcast channels in the HD format.

But you can also receive HD signals with a basic set of rabbit ears. Since the networks are broadcasting HD digitally, it is very common to be able to get a good looking HD signal with a simple antenna where you normally would only get a snowy picture with the analog signal. For those of us who live out in the country, that is really nice.

Pillarboxing

As one more note on HD televisions, there seems to be a preponderance of stretched images. (As I have observed in quite a few stores that sell wide screen TVs.) What we are referring to are ‘aspect ratios’ and how people evidently don’t know that they can simply change their television to adapt to the different sized images.

A typical standard definition screen size is a 4:3 ratio, which means that the height of the screen is 3/4ths its width. A typical wide screen image has a 16:9 ratio. (14:9 and 16:10 ratios also show up at times, although less common.)

When you have a widescreen television and you are watching a image that was originally created as a 4:3 ratio, you can either stretch the image across the screen, distorting it into unnatural shapes. Or you can click on the ‘aspect ratio’ button on your remote to fix the problem. Pillarboxing simply centers the original 4:3 image in the middle of your wider screen, creating black “pillars” on either side of the image.

Digital Broadcasting in 2009

As you are probably aware, the United States is switching over to a digital broadcast signal in 2009. But this isn’t an issue of standard definition versus HD. Many people are confused about this and think that their old TVs will be obsolete at that time. This simply isn’t true. (Although I am sure the TV manufacturers don’t have any problem if people believe that they have to go out and buy a new TV.)

This change simply means that the signal will be digital, not analog. If you have cable or a satellite feed, this is a total non-issue. Your current receiver/box already takes the digital signal and converts it to an analog one.

The only people that this will affect are people that watch old TVs with rabbit ears or an outside antenna. Those people will have to get a converter box. (Estimated price will be around $50.)

A government website has good information on this subject at www.dtv.gov.

HD in the business world

Let’s take a look at where HD fits into the business world. It seems that everyone is moving towards HD, as they should. It will be the standard in just a few years.

If you are considering a new video project, should you shoot it in HD format, even though you may not need it in that format right away?

In our opinion, any project that is being produced at this point in time probably should be shot in an HD format. The simple reason is that you can always “dumb it down”, making it lower resolution. But there is absolutely nothing you can do to take a standard resolution file and turn it into high definition.

In most local markets, it seems that a majority of television commercials are still produced in standard resolution, even on the HD channels. But we feel that will change as HD becomes more common and the fact that HD video equipment is coming down in price.

Prosumer equipment (named because both professionals and consumers who want high end equipment are targeted for these items) is coming out that makes it more affordable to capture high definition video.

On the editing side, faster computers and cheaper, bigger hard drives also make editing HD something where smaller businesses can now afford to compete.

Distributing the HD signal

As far as video projects go, the biggest obstacle for HD is the lack of true HD quality players. It’s one thing to have a HD quality video, it is another to actually play it for other people. Until businesses are equipped with BluRay or HD-DVD players, you may be stuck running it from your own playback device. There are hard drive solutions and you can also run the video from digital tape.

The other current problem is the expense of BluRay or HD-DVD equipment to burn your own copies for distribution. In time, as the technology develops and becomes even more common, these issues will resolve themselves.

HD technology is here today and will only become more prevalent. Isn’t it time that you made the jump to HD for your next video project?

Please contact Randy Gunter for reprint permissions.
randygunter@gmail.com
www.RandelGunter.com

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