I am thou helper

I haven’t really been doing that much lately. I’ve been abusing YouTube all day long. I’ve been getting numerous 404 errors. This is probably due to the DDos attacks. Oh, surprised. So, I’ve stumbled upon a lot of technically related questions that haven’t been answered. The major online “web stations” are too busy making shows, and not answering questions, so I’ve decided to answer them… without permission. EVUHL!

• · Hi! Is there are way I could connect my PS3 or my Wii to my LCD screen using a component cable? (DVI). And if so, how? Would I be losing any quality? What are the pros and cons? Thanks

Well sir, excellent question. I’m surprised that this hasn’t been answered, due to it being a very common question. Not very many geeks कैन afford big ass screen. Shocking, but true. Now, I doubt the quality would be very good. The Wii doesn’t support 720p, and with its lame graphics, so you won’t be enjoying your screen full capability. But it all comes down to the quality of the cables. (Let’s use that as a comfort). Now, I’m not saying that you should be heading off to the nearest radio shack to purchase monster cables. No, No! I think you should study very well. Read reviews, tips & trick online. From my personal experience, I’ve used a TV tuner card. It worked surprisingly well. I however used the very first Playstation, so I wasn’t expecting much. That said. You could experience as much as .5 sec delay using the Tuner card mothod. Which is much! I recommend you reading online, and talk to the sales people over at Best Buy or Costco. Try asking for HDMI TO DVI.

• · Is there a reason to get a 1080p TV, when all of my content is going to be 720i?

That’s a tough question. It depends on whether or not you buy/rent movies. Almost all blu-ray movies are made for 1080p. HD is often made for 720i. If you’ve been online at all these past weeks, you’ve probably read somewhere that HD is slowly stepping down from its thrown, and declare itself defeated. Betamax all over again. Back on topic. Some TVs have good “up scaling” chips, which allows you to view a 720i video in full 1080p. That great isn’t it? Yeah, it ought to be. Because it’ll pretty force you to take on yet another mortgage. But my suggestion is, if you’re going for a high end TV, and you own a PS3, or a blu-ray player -> go for the 1080p. Otherwise, it’ll work just as well for you if you choose 720i. (Cheaper as well, not a significantly humongous, enormous difference in the quality!^^)

• · Question regarding the iPod sound output. Is there a way for me to determen the sound quality of a podcast? And also, what are my options when it comes down to the audio codec’s?

When you’re editing your podcast, in your editing software you ought to have a “sound sequencer”. Press on that tab. Then you will see something called a master track. That’s the overall sound output and volume. When played, if the bars are green and sometimes yellow... that’s a good sign. But if they turn red, you’ll pretty much have a lousy and noisy sound track, making people not subscribing to your podcast.
When exporting the video, you should always export in .mov . It’s the Mac/iPod standard. Every version of iTunes can convert a regular .mov file into an iPod play-able format. You should put more effort in getting the sound to sound as “slick” as possible, while trying to save space and effort on the video part. Because the iPod’s have what? 2 or 3 inch screens. So, don’t worry about that. The resolution is the only thing you should keep in mind. Go to the apple’s iPod site, and check out the screen resolutions, and export the files to the one that has the biggest resolution. It’ll eliminate problems on your part, and you’ll only have 2 copies of your show. One master track that is hopefully hi-def ;), and one that is the “made for iPod”. (Tip, choose the iPod touch resolution. If it says “70x90”, then reverse the numbers place to “90x70”. Because the touch plays it wide)

• · I’m trying to hook up a mac mini to a 50 inch screen. I can’t seem to find the perfect resolution. It’s either too zoomed in, or too small for it. What can I do?

It can either be that your TV doesn’t “do” more than 2 different resolutions, or that you have to manually configure your TV, through Its settings. Usually “menu” on the remote, then head over to the “TV settings”, or “Incoming signals” preferences. I really can’t help you, because I really haven’t had problems with the mac mini. Must be because I don’t own a 50” screen.

• · Is there a free, or “moderately” priced video editing software that has semi-professional capabilities? With transitions and effects? Thanks

Avid Free DV is a free video editing software from the company that brought you such softwares as – Avid express. What else have they done? Never the less. There aren’t that many video editing softwares that I’m aware of. Most of them are high end. Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere etc.
Try Googleing “Open source video editing” and see what kind of results you’ll get.
Open source means that it’s free. The program is opened for people to modify as they wish, which broadens up its capabilities.

I hope you learnt something today. Email me over at bani.free@gmail.com if you’d like to get your question answered.