How to watch a SadCAST
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[color=red][b]You don’t have to have an iPod to watch a video podcast![/b][/color]
Once you have downloaded the SadCAST mp4 file, you can play it using your iTunes client or – more likely one of the many media players.
Or, you may prefer to use the simplest method, VLC media Player. It plays just about anything and can be downloaded HERE:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/If you prefer to use a player like Windows Media Player, you may have a problem if you don’t have an MP4 codec installed. You can download 3ivx HERE:
http://www.free-codecs.com/3ivx_download.htmHope that helps. If not, just reply here.
perhaps the sadcast could be uploaded to somthing like google video to help people who just want to stream it off the net?
I find it difficult to upload to google video. The thing seems to time out or just stop me.
If I find a way for it to work then I’ll just upload an xvid copy (which will be compatible with most viewers).
So far though, only bonnee has had trouble playing the file (that I know of anyway) – he got around it by using the ‘juice’ video player.
the thing is your will loose alot of viewers if you have to say “you need this to watch this” it will put people off, just as looking at a forum and being told you need to sign up to use it will put most people off.
i’m not sure how compatable Mp4 is. but i know xvid is not the most widely used codec. if you have Mov and WMV that you should be viewable to just about everyone online without them having to go looking for new codecs or software.
Naa. I’d never encode to WMV, the quality is too poor. We already encode to mov files but there isnt the bandwidth to have both formats on the server.
xvid is the most compatible format for most players and if I ever get to upload somethimg to google video, it would be an mpeg.
Other video podcasters use a variety of formats (CommandN for isntance has about 5 or 6) But they have a lot more storage and bandwidth – we’re just amatures.
I’ve been releasing my work online for a few years now and i dont want to sound up my self or anything but in my experience for compatability and compression size WMV is probabley the best and in my experience runs circles around quicktime.
you can usually get a watchable file at 1mb per min and somthing above average at 2mb per min. i know Xvid will give you dvd quality at a fraction of the size but if somone dosent have the codec (as a lot of regular net users wont) they arnt going to hunt it out,
i of course appriciate that you only have a limited number of hosting space and theres a fair argument for just Mov.
i dont mean to sound pretentious or anything but i’ve been making and watching webvideos for a long time (as im sure you have!) and i just want to make sure you make the podcast in a way that it will be accessable to as many people rather than limiting your audience for the highest quality codec.
Once you update your QuickTime Player to a new version (like 7.0.4) you can watch MP4 format with no problem. QuicTime player and update are free.
Actually, I can’t dissagree with any of that. I’m limited though, to either .mov or mp4 for production and upload to the server (biggest audience of podcatchers is iTumes and they only support mp4 or mov).
So, from what you are saying, you would recommend .mov for the main podcast file and a re-encode to .wmv for upload to google vodeo to provide the right format for the most number of v iewers- is that right?
I bow to your experience, we’re very new to this and anyone with a blue screen in their bedroom commands a considetrable amount of respect!!
😀
[i]{No really, Faldor has a graphics blue screen in his bedroom – awesome!!}[/i]
[quote=”alnexi”]Once you update your QuickTime Player to a new version (like 7.0.4) you can watch MP4 format with no problem. QuickTime player and update are free.[/quote]
Yes, but I (and another) have had some problems with QuickTime – there seems to be a conflict with codecs, I couldn’t (and still can’t) get audio and a friend can’t get synchronised audio and video
yep, I had to get the VLC media player to watch it.
I couldn’t get audio through my quicktime. Downloads and all.
If you are going to be downloading a 100 meg file, getting a small program like VLC media player shouldn’t be a problem.
i would recomend keeping the main podcast feed mp4 as people will be able to use that on various portable devices with minimal fuss, and i assume it is people with such things who go looking for video podcasts.
use that as the only podcast release on your server. then see what codec gives you the best compression to size ratio to use for google video.
im not sure if theres a time limit on google video like there is youtube.com but i know they accept most formats, so when you work out the best format for getting the smallest yet viewable file (remember it wont be full screen on google) you can upload it there and it will convert it to google player so viewers wont need an xvid codec to watch it on google video.
but it has to be small, i dont know what the average connection speed is but mines 2mb. i know there are alot of people with faster ones and still people on dial up. so really i think you’d aim for a file size around 20mb – 40mb for a 20 minute cast.
i still find windows moviemaker the easiest compresser for things like this but see what works best for you 🙂
I find Windows Movie Maker to be the easiest plug and play video compression software. Windows Media also uploads the fastest, which is a good thing if it’s going to be converted to flash video on a site like You Tube anyway and you have someone else in the room who has a Warcraft Raid coming up in a few minutes….
However, more people have access to free software which plays m4v in one form or another, and I find, at least for me, that m4v has a sharper quality for the types of videos I make. My bro has a Mac and can’t find a good WMV player to save his life.
I would suggest that you consider using [url=http://www.feedburner.com]Feedburner[/url] for an easy “clickable” podcast. It will also give you stats on subscribers and what software most of them are using to view your feed. [url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/LokisPodcast]This is what one of mine looks like[/url]. Even my technologically challenged friends are able to figure out the “play now” button and the “Add to iTunes” link. 😉
Thanks Pet. I personally don’t like feedburner. I use libsyn to host and generate my rss feeds.
I didn’t realise that wmv was so hard to play on a Mac.
By the way, your animation will be in SadCAST 2 (hopefully up this weekend). Would you believe that I was so nervous I forgot to introduce it in the first show!!! 🙁
Mah, I have to go with WMF too as I have an Ipaq and WMF files play just fine with no extra software needed. [i](Though are you really telling me that MS Movie maker is the best program out there of WFM!?)[/i]
I’ve never liked the quicktime format but I’m glad it beat Real Player as a internet video format!
simply for compressing moviemaker is great!
anything else its terrible but for compression it does an amazing job!
[quote=”Faldor”]simply for compressing moviemaker is great!
anything else its terrible but for compression it does an amazing job![/quote]
Ditto. It’s easy to use because all the settings are ready to go. There are more options with Quicktime but therein lies the trouble. Mess up one setting and the whole thing goes haywire. Though QT7 Pro offers better default options than they did in the past– there’s a one-click m4v option. I’m still waiting for my Pinnacle 10 upgrade to see how well their m4v works. Their WMV compression is as easy as Movie Maker so I’m hoping it’ll be the same.
I use m4v for the podcast even though iTunes will play other formats because it doesn’t need to be converted for iPod video and I like to carry mine with me to show people.
(GARG! I resisted buying an iPod since that infomercial came out awhile ago about it. What did they call it again? Oh, yes, Blade III. But now they have video, so….)
[quote=”SadGeezer”]Thanks Pet. I personally don’t like feedburner. I use libsyn to host and generate my rss feeds.[/quote]
Ah! libsyn’s feed does look user friendly! Would you believe I skipped right over the link and just plugged in the rss to iTunes? Though I haven’t gotten a chance to watch it yet as I’ve been installing software to a new hard drive and cleaning out a (shudder) hog shed to turn into a studio and it just finished DLing while I was napping. I’ll turn it on in a few.
After my coffee.
[quote]
I didn’t realise that wmv was so hard to play on a Mac.[/quote]I only started hearing about it when people complained about the McGoohan clips. The WMP for Mac apparently is a program designed to make people curse, as one of them said, and the freeware alternatives work for some and not for others.
Some people refuse to use iTunes because it can be such a memory hog and has more ads than MySpace.
[quote]
By the way, your animation will be in SadCAST 2 (hopefully up this weekend). Would you believe that I was so nervous I forgot to introduce it in the first show!!![/quote]There’s no rush. If you have space, you can use it, if you run out it’s no big deal. It’s been on his own show so I’m not biting my nails waiting to see how it will be received by the public anymore, LOL. (His girl fans seem to really like that tux.)
Done babbling, getting breakfast. 😀
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