Do you have a 4K TV? Chances are more than good that you don’t. Meanwhile, the online video industry can already deliver content for it, and in some cases even beyond. The problem isn’t an encoding profile that can cram as many pixels through a wire as fast as possible, it’s delivering to an ever-splintering landscape of devices. While the most popular online resolution is still 1366 x 768, we are really still talking about 14" notebooks, 15.6" laptops, and 18.5" monitors. I’m writing this on a 2560 x 1440 monitor, and it’s no wonder I typically don’t watch video on it full screen, or that my eyesight is getting worse for that matter—nothing is really that sharp. At the time of writing this, the iPhone 6 hasn’t hit the market, and there’s all kinds of speculation about what the display will be—1704 x 960, 1472 x 828, 1332 x 750, 2208 x 1242...I mean really...

But we aren’t just talking talking about pixels here, or aspect ratios, device processors, and bandwidth, though they all certainly play a role in the video experience. At the real heart of the matter, away from the algorithms, is the business of delivering the best experience to the customer: face it, you’re selling content. As a content owner, you could settle on the most common resolutions, but with the speed at which new devices are hitting the market, that’s not a good business decison. When it comes to the coming generation, those who’ve been bottle-fed on screens, the latest is the best; if your content doesn’t look great on the newest devices, you can kiss your market goodbye. So how do you plan out your multiscreen strategy? Well, you don’t. You pay a tech company that has figured that out a system to do it for you, and you check their references. And that’s where this Superguide comes in. You’ll find contributions from companies who live and breathe this stuff, whose ultimate goal is to make sure all your content plays—and looks great—on all devices. We hope you enjoy what they have to say, no matter how you are viewing it.