Podcasting/Vodcasting Tutorial

In this tutorial I’ll try to explain how you can upload your own videos or mp3 files and podcast them with the conFusion blog.

What is podcasting?

Just in case you don’t really know what podcasting is, here’s a short explanation. Basically, podcasts are just a bunch of audio or video files that you can subscribe to download to your computer automatically using iTunes or other software.

Once you have subscribed to the podcast feed, iTunes (or your software of choice) will check if there are new episodes available everytime you open it and it will automatically download the file to your computer. You can even sync your iPod to automatically get the podcasts to your iPod every time you connect it to your computer.

How to convert your files to be podcast-friendly

First you need your file that you want to podcast. For our podcast it could be pretty much anything: a video diary, an interview of your mom, some artsy video you just made, an mp3 of you singing etc. The only limitations are the file size and the file type. Audio files must be .mp3 and video files .m4v or .mp4 format.

Audio

All audio files must be in .mp3 format.

Easy way to convert your audio file to mp3 in iTunes:

1. Open your file in iTunes
2. Select the file and go to Advanced->Convert Selection to MP3
3. Done

You can export mp3 also from Audacity, but you need to install the LAME MP3 encoder. Here are the instructions for that: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3

Video

All video files must be in mpeg4-format. The file extension must be .mp4 or .m4v

I would recommend that you keep the resolution at 320×240. If that’s not good enough for you, keep the maximum size at 640×480. If your video is 16:9 widescreen format you can use sizes like 320×180 or 640×360.

Once again the easy way to convert your video to mpeg4 is with iTunes:

1. Open your file in iTunes
2. Select the file and go to Advanced->Convert Selection for iPod
3. Done

If you want more control over your encoding and you know what you are doing or you just don’t want to use iTunes, here are some other ways to convert your video.

Mac
Excellent article showing you all the cheapest options for Mac.

PC
I don’t know so much about the PC-land anymore, but you can probably find tons of software if you google “video to ipod”. Here’s one free converter: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

There are also some websites that will convert your video online. Like this one: http://media-convert.com/

File size

The absolute limit you can upload inside the blog is 200 Mb, but try to keep it smaller than that. A LOT SMALLER. Depending on your internet connection, uploading big files might be really slow. If you have made a full length movie and really want to podcast it, contact me and we’ll work something out.

If you know what FTP means and you know how to use it, contact me and I will give you the FTP access to the upload folder, so you can upload the files faster.

How to Podcast and How to Blog it

1. Have your podcast file ready in the right format like described above
2. Log in to the blog http://confusionarts.com/blog/wp-admin with your username and password
3. Click the Write tab
4. Scroll down to the upload part, choose your file and click upload.



5. Please wait without clicking anything. Depending on your internet connection, uploading big files might be really slow. Once the upload is completed, you should see your file in the Browse tab. DON’T press the send to editor button.
6. Press the Save and Continue Editing button that is just above the blue Podcasting bar and below the thing where you write your blog text.
7. Now go to the Podcasting part



8. Click Add Media File
9. You should find the file you just uploaded from the Location list.
10. Click Auto Detect for both the Size and Duration. Don’t worry if it says Access Denied, that’s OK.
11. Copy this http://confusionarts.com/images/playerlogo.png to the Preview Image URL or use any other image you want.
12. You can control the dimension of the player in the Dimensions (WxH) boxes. This doesn’t affect the actual file size just the size of the player in the blog post.



13. Now write your blog post that describes what your episode is about and write pretty much anything else you want.
14. Check the podcast category box from the categories list and add all other categories you want. Categories are like tags in Flickr.
15. Hit Publish and pat yourself on the back. You’re all done.

Sorry about the huuuuuge post – Fouad might even call this gigantic – but I just wanted to make this as detailed as possible so you wont have any problems podcasting.

Get more information and ask questions in the forum