Having multiple media file types in one post

[Shawn]

It seems that one of the fundamental problems with podcasting is the fact that many podcast files are fairly large in size. Obviously, file size is of little concern to those of us with broadband connections. But there are still millions of computer users out there dialing up to the Internet. So, I had the idea to add an m3u file for each one of my podcast files, that way those users on slower connections could just go ahead and stream the 'casts and not have to worry about downloading them.

But I wonder, if the original weblog entry that points to the podcast contains links for both m3u and mp3 files, will this confuse podcast aggregators that are picking up the podcasts via RSS? Or, generally speaking, do podcast aggregators just ignore m3u files?

-Shawn

[SeanTubbs]

I am also having this problem. I want to be able to offer streaming versions of my podcasts so people with dial-ups can hear the programming. Unfortunately, it tends to make aggregators go a bit wonky. For instance, people can't download the files from PodCast Alley, for instance. Is there a way to trick the XML/RSS into not seeing .m3u files?

[johnandwayneshow]

I have two computers at home, one (my old one) is a dedicated shoutcast server streaming our latest show 24/7 in a 24k stream, I just stick a link on our "what's new" page.

It doesn't sound all that bad and allows dialup users to listen without waiting hours to get the show, and the best part is it's free.