MP4 Vodcasting (Video-On-Demand Podcasting)
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What is vodcasting?
A step beyond podcasting, vodcasting, also called video podcasting or vlogging, adds video to the downloadable sound files podcast listeners are used to. Download the video files is a simple matter of subscribing to a vodcast in one of the many freely available directory programs.
After downloading and saving them to a portable video player, users can choose when and where they want to watch the video, making them independent of television programming schedules. A number of vodcasting tools also exist to help turn people from mere video consumers to producers.
Video Podcasting is the combination of video files made available for download, a specialized xml file and software capable of reading the xml file. The xml file is known as Real Simple Syndication.
Each video Podcast publisher creates a unique Real Simple Syndication ( which is more commonly known as RSS ) file. The purpose of the RSS file is to describe the video, distinguish it from other publisher’s material, presenting the most current content available and allowing people to subscribe to individual Podcast “stations”.
Anyone with a Internet connection and access to a web host that allows media file and xml file hosting, is capable of distributing their own video content with Podcasting.
Peer to Peer data transfer can be used to distribute the video Podcast media files and minimize bandwidth requirements. Bittorrent and Dijjer are both open source software applications that can be used for Peer to Peer Podcast distribution.
Creating a video Podcast is very easy. Video can be recorded using free or low cost software. Web cams or digital cameras can be used to capture video imaging. The “raw” video can then be edited using open source or free software. The completed video can then be encoded using open source video codecs, such as VP3, Theora or Dirac, to compress the video and optimize it for Internet distribution. Free software can also be used to create the RSS files.
