Video Podcasters

[macpropodcast]

I was wanting to connect with other video podcasters out there . . .

What kind of content are you doing? How long have you been video podcasting? Did you switch from audio to video? How are you encoding your Podcast? What sort of file sizes are you dealing with? What are you using to shoot?

To answer my own questions:
• Mac tech content, centered around multimedia production - interviews, tutorials, news, product reviews, etc.
• Yes, switched from audio to video
• Encoding to Video for iPod 320x240
• Each week 8-12 minutes = 40-60 MB
• JVC GYHD100-U, shooting 24p

[Seth]

For Hear Me Now Brother I'm putting up small documentaries that show how we went about making a short film on a limited budget. From the outset I wanted our podcast to be a vehicle for us to not only discuss the media we like, but also to showcase our own work as well. Being filmmakers, videocasting is a natural fit...

For LearnOutLoud we plan on doing videocasts of lectures with prominent authors, speakers and experts in various fields. I've been pushing to upgrade to a better video camera for that eventuality. Right now we're just talking about it.

To Answer your other questions:

- Working with Audio and Video simultaneously
- Video to iPod 320x420 via Quicktime Pro
- Every Other Week 5-8 Mins 60 MB max
- Using a Sony Digital 8 for documentaries and an Arriflex 16M for the film we're shooting. I'm transfering all film material to HD and then transfering that to my laptop via Adobe Premiere.

Like I said, I need to update my video capabilities in the near future...

[Metaphore]

Well, My Vidcast is a Throwback to old UHF programming (or at least will be, ive only released episode one and most directories including this one dont have me listed yet.) I'll be doing skit host intros into shorts like betty boop, our gang and three stooges episodes. things like that.

I moved from a audio to video
Video to iPod in 320x240 using Videora ipod converter
Probably twice a month or monthly
Im shooting in a studio on a college campus but editing at home on premier (or will be, i used MSmoviemaker for the first episode)

http://cultofuhf.libsyn.com/

http://libsyn.com/podcasts/cultofuhf/images/Cult%20of%20UHF.jpg

[ElNacho]

i started as audio, and continue with audio
however, a friend came over for my episode 15, and at one point in the conversation, we brushed over the idea for a video
i remembered my dad's camera and ibook, and said...we'll be rite back for episode ferftern. we're gonna make Rambling Retard Rampage's first vidcast, ferftern point ferv.
so we did!
it was about 30 mins long, but low quality for easy downloading.
it was really fun, and before i finished ferftern, i released fourteen (i hadnt yet recieve a file needed to complete the episode). i started to record a new vidcast, and a few minutes in i needed a second part, my sister came on, and stayed on for the next hour.
i edited out the boring parts and such. the next morning we recorded the intro, which took over 3 hours to make, as each word (it's-el-nacho's-rambling-retard-rampage-starring-el-nacho) was a completely new scene. the 17 second intro turned out GREAT, though, and was worth the time. i uploaded the whole vid later that day
its a big hit for me and people have been telling me its absolutely hilarious. they're really fun to make, so more vidcasts are definetely in the future for rambling retard rampage.
switching entirely to vidcasts, though, i wont do. my favorite part of podcasts is that it adds a new layer to life...you can listen to one as you write, read, work, fall asleep, etc, provided you have enough concentration to pay attention to both. tv sux because you cant do anything but watch and listen. i can do my normal routine, but fill the senses im not using in with something else.
with a vidcast, you cant do anything else. it shuts out a sense, rendering you useless. that's why im stickin to mostly audio, as its a lot easier to fit in. u can cram an audio thing in nearly anywhere. a video+audio thing, however, takes up a block of time that you cant use for much else

[mfnoffice]

I'm glad someone started this thread! Lets start with the first question.

I moved from a audio to video - Now doing 1 Audio Show and a Seperate Video Show
Video to iPod in 320x240 using QT Pro
Starting a one show per week, per format
Shooting on a Sony PD170 - Editing on the Premiere Pro 1.5.

OK...Now my question to all of you. After you edit your story, what EXPORT setting are you using?

I have QT Pro on my Mac, but my PC is where I'm editing the video. So what I've been doing is EXPORTING the video as a QT File (.mov) then burning it to a CD, then uploading the CD to the Mac where I open it in QT Pro, then export it again as a .m4v file - Whew!

I don't allow my Premiere Pro 1.5 Computer to have access to the internet - It's strictly for editing Audio and Video. Too many problems associated with Adobe and the outside connected world!

So again, my question to the group - What Exporting Settings are you using when exporting your video. I'm sure someone's going to say, I'm using "----" Software and it allows me to export my video directly as an .m4v export.

Must be nice!

Jim Goetz
Firehouse Radio

[ElNacho]

what's the advantage of m4v over mov? besides being more high-tech and possible a more compressed format, is there anything else for it? can't mov's be played on a pod?
there are two reasons i go with mov
a)i cant export as m4v in imovie, which is where i do my editing. i have no mov to m4v converters
b)most players will play movs, but m4vs are still limited to pods, itunes, and QT

well i record on this sony mini DV handicam thing...the model is somwhere among the cluster of advertisements...i cant tell what it is though, too much crap blaring around it. i then use a firewire to import to imovie, edit it in imovie, and export it as an mov from imovie. i then may take up to a week in getting it on the internet, as my dad's ibook has no ftp compatabilities and times out almost every time i try to upload stuff.

[mfnoffice]

what's the advantage of m4v over mov? besides being more high-tech and possible a more compressed format, is there anything else for it? can't mov's be played on a pod?

I'm not the pro on this subject, however it's my understanding that only m4v files will play on the ipod video. The conversion is easy if you upgrade your QT Video player to QT Pro for $30. It will let export your .mov to .m4v and my video plays great on the iTunes and the iPod. This was my main concern as the VodCasting is the newest flover of the week.

Our web site will still have either the Flash Videos or Window Media Video available.

Jim Goetz
Firehouse Radio

[Metaphore]

As far as the format before you convert to .mp4 or h.264 (the two formats that will play on a 5g iPod) I'd try to edit and stuff with the least compression before converting to .mp4. You'll end up with better quality the less times you move your video through a compressor.

I guess best way would be edit in raw DV before conversion, but that takes up a lot of space and processor power. I convert and edit in Mpeg 2 before transcoding for the ipod. Works fine for me. (dont judge me by m first episode, there were issues that are now resolved)

As far as a free converter to h.264 or .Mpeg4 (its what I use) you can try this out if your on PC http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/ or I hear a lot of people prefer Handbrake over QT for the Mac.

The Right Rev. Chumley
Cult of UHF vidcast

http://libsyn.com/podcasts/cultofuhf/images/Cult%20of%20UHF.jpg

http://cultofuhf.libsyn.com/

[mfnoffice]

(dont judge me by m first episode, there were issues that are now resolved)

Rev,

It's not often I publicly critque a Podcast, but I have to say..It was one of the funniest I've seen in a while! It reminded me so much of a guy that hosted "Creature Feature" on our local UHF station back in the 70's.

Thanks for the info and I'm Looking forward to more UHF!

Jim Goetz
Firehouse Radio

[Metaphore]

Thanks Mfnoffice!

Im trying to get that cheesy hosted UHF feel. Glad its coming through. Up next week, the three stooges and a much better hosted section. I've finally figured out how to use adobe after effects.

Let the cheese fly.

The Right Rev. Chumley

http://libsyn.com/podcasts/cultofuhf/images/Cult%20of%20UHF.jpg

http://cultofuhf.libsyn.com/

[justSue]

It reminded me so much of a guy that hosted "Creature Feature" on our local UHF station back in the 70's.


You don't mean Bob Wilkins, do you? We had a show on local television here in No. Cal in the 70's called Creature Features hosted by him. He was a riot!!

I'm gonna have to start checking out these new-fangled video things :)

[Metaphore]

There have been a ton of "creature feature" hosts over the years in various areas. I've loved them all.

Some of my favorites

Dungeon Doug and Moahmar cadaver
Dr. Morgus the Magnificent
Elvira
Dr. Gore N. Gutz

The list goes on ... sigh. I miss them.

[Craig]

Slightly off-topic, but the latest edition of Behind the Scenes features a roundtable discussion on the merits and drawbacks of video podcasting that brings up some of the issues El Nacho mentions:

http://www.godcast.org/mp3/bts123.mp3

Craig

[rookiee]

MOV and M4V are two completely seperate compression formats...

MOV was made by Apple as their own answer to the movie formats war in the late 90's. (While others made MPG, RMV, WMV, etc.)

M4V is a movie format MPEG layer 4 file compression format created by MPEG. The compression itself can work for both audio and video. To distinguish different forms of media, they created two different file extensions: M4A for audio and M4V for video.

M4V is widely used with different codecs like DivX, Xvid, etc.

One important thing to remember (at least for me) is that MPEG-4 can embed DRM (digital rights management), which IMO is evil, evil, evil, (unless you're trying to make money.. does that make me a socialist?)

This article breaks things down nicely...

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/M4v

[richpav]

MOV and M4V are two completely seperate compression formats...

MOV isn't a compression format, it's a container. For example, if you open an MV4 file in Quicktime, you can resave it as a Quicktime file. All it does is put the video and audio data into a MOV container. Video compression formats are Sorensen, H264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, etc.

Is MV4 also a container for the raw MPEG-4 stream? That's where I get confused. If it can handle DRM, then I assume so.

I noticed someone mentioned Videora. Their iPod converter is terrific. It uses the open source X264 codec to encode H264 video, which is much, much faster than Quicktime. It's probably not as efficient, but at least it doesn't take forever.

Also, AVID has a totally free editing program for Windows that ya'll might want to check out. It handles two streams of video, which is good enough for most videocasters. Lots of tutorials for it too.

http://www.avid.com/freeDV/index.asp

[richpav]

I guess best way would be edit in raw DV before conversion, but that takes up a lot of space and processor power. I convert and edit in Mpeg 2 before transcoding for the ipod. Works fine for me.

I have 1.2 MHz CPU and 800 MHz CPU PCs I use to edit raw DV and both can handle it. With both I use a defragged 160GB serial ATA drive, either connected directly to a PCI card or through a USB2 doodad, and I haven't had any problems yet. If you use a really slow PC (less than 500MHz) or hard drive, then you'll start to choke on the bandwidth.

If you edit MPEG 2 then recompress to another format, you'll lose quality, but then again, after saving it at a low bitrate for download, it might not be noticable at all. I like editing in DV so I can save the final version back to DV tape for archiving, and eventually I'll transfer everything to DVD for posterity.

[ElNacho]

i have a question about mov...

I record my movies, then import them to iMovie. After i edit it, i export and have an MOV file that's the movie...
The last time i did this, for some reason, instead of exporting the movie, it just exported...the locations of the DV clips in the movie, in the iMovie file folder. When i deleted the file folder (to free up the VERY limited disk space) the movie became...empty. just references to where the clips where...now no longer in existence.

Is this mov completely useless? is the movie gone forever, except on the DV tape i recorded it on, and may have recorded over?

[richpav]

Quicktime allows you to save two kinds of movies. One is referenced, where the edits stay in their original location, the other is a fully-contained movie, where the edits are put together into a new file. You can tell the difference because it gives you the filesize of both selections, and the referenced movie is very small.

Yes, your movie is gone. Chalk it up to experience. Happens to everyone at least once.

[ElNacho]

nooo! ****! i seriously hope i didnt record over it...god...

how can you tell the difference? i just click file, export, full quality or whatever.

[richpav]

In the save dialog box there are two radio buttons to choose which flavor to save.

[stulger09]

i use Podcasts, but now Im wondering if there is an efficient way to alert and invite Podcasters to program a labels releases. We dont want to create our own podcast - merely alert others. What are people using?

[EmmaMadeleineMcDonald]

Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is used to distinguish between podcasts which most commonly contain audio files and those referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts.

[page21]

Thank you for that great explanation, I am a total newbie to podcasting so I appreciate all the info I can get for our website.

[johnstuman]

I have amd 5000+ and 1G CPU PCs,BOTH WORK WELL