iTunes 4.9 introduced support for Podcasts, but what most people don't know is that it also has support for many video formats such as MPEG4 and QuickTime. Yes, there were some RSS feeds linking to video files, it's not new, and it's mentioned in another hint here. What almost no one knew, though, is that streaming is also supported, and that's what the people from vodcast.nl found out. Instead of having to download dozens of large movie files you'll never see completely anyway, RSS subscription to streams offer instant access to all on-demand content that the publisher offers. It has a great future for PC and TV consumption of on-demand content.
Imagine you turning on the TV and see all your favorite (RSS) channels, updated with the latest episodes of your favorite shows. Play, pause, skip, rewind, forward, play it again at 3:00 AM or choose another episode whenever you want. Who needs a VCR? Who needs TiVo? No you can't sync streams with an iPod. But you couldn't sync movie files with an iPod anyway. Here's how to build a VODcast...
Imagine you turning on the TV and see all your favorite (RSS) channels, updated with the latest episodes of your favorite shows. Play, pause, skip, rewind, forward, play it again at 3:00 AM or choose another episode whenever you want. Who needs a VCR? Who needs TiVo? No you can't sync streams with an iPod. But you couldn't sync movie files with an iPod anyway. Here's how to build a VODcast...
- Encode your videos to MPEG4 streaming using QuickTime Pro. Use a high number of keyframes (1 per second or 1 per 2 seconds).
- Put the videos on a streaming server. Darwin Streaming Server is free, and QuickTime Streaming Server comes free with Mac OS X Server ... or find a hosting provider that supports these (or other, such as XL2) servers.
- Go to the iTunes Music Store, select Podcast, go to the Publish your own Podcast section, and download the RSS XML document. Adjust it the way you want. Use the rtsp:// URL instead of the sample http:// URL and fill in 1024 for the length value.
- Save your VODcast feed and put it on a web server. Let people subscribe to it with iTunes 4.9 using the Advanced -> Subscribe to Podcast menu.
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