Filed under: iTS
Video casting support in iTunes
I found this link today at AppleInsider that demonstrates a "Vodcasting" feed that an industrious user has set up. Pair iTunes 4.9's video playback capabilities with an RSS implementation that syndicates almost any valid RSS feed, and you've got a vodcast waiting to happen.Users of iTunes 4.9 can subscribe to this feed as a podcast. I did, and it all worked just as it's supposed to. However, instead of loading a podcast into iTunes, the feed grabbed a video. Pretty cool.
Does this give credence to a potential video pod? Could music videos and/or movie trailers (both of which already exist in the iTunes Music Store) be distributed this way? I can certainly see the potential.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brandon said 9:12PM on 7-06-2005
This has been in iTunes since 4.9's release. The MAKE podcast is a video podcast, I found it in the iTunes catalog on the launch day.
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narco said 9:10PM on 7-06-2005
I really don't see any need for a video pod. Whenever I see that cellular commercial where a guy is watching the Batman Returns trailer in an elevator, I always wonder who would actually do that. WHY would someone do that.
I can understand music videos, or even using the iPod to store movies, but work like the iPod photo where you can hook it up to the TV and watch movies that way.
That would be amazing since I have a bunch of Twin Peaks (second season) AVI's that I want to bring to people's houses, but don't want to spend the time burning them to DVD. (They aren't available on DVD yet.)
Fishes,
narco.
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Azizi Jennis said 9:50PM on 7-06-2005
Rocketboom is a daily videocast that's been around since last year, and their Quicktime videos can be downloaded via iTunes as well.
http://www.rocketboom.com
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Kaegan said 9:56PM on 7-06-2005
That's why they're dropping all the prices. They had to get the top of the line ipod down to the lowest price possible, otherwise, there won't be a big enough gap between the price of a regular ipod, and the price of a video ipod.
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David said 1:01AM on 7-07-2005
The latest item on the Dawn and Drew show is a short video.
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Stef van der Ziel said 3:18AM on 7-07-2005
Hi, it's great to wake up, check my favorite blog and see our demo getting some unexpected attention. We posted it last sunday on the Dutch 'general' streaming mailinglist and yesterday on the QuickTime Streaming Users mailinglist. News travels fast?
About those rumors: We have no insight if Apple is going to use this technology (or when). We don't want to be involved in the rumor mill. It also isn't new technology. MPEG-4, RTSP streaming, QuickTime, video support in iTunes and RSS support in iTunes are all available Apple technologies, some of them brand new. We never intented the demo to project or announce the mentioned rumored ideas, we thought subscription to video would be very useful for many people and started to connect all available tools needed to do so, build a solid working demo and give it some attention in streaming focussed online groups, to discuss all great possibilities.
We think VODcasting can become as popular as Podcasting is, for both professionals and consumers, and get enthousiastic feedback. We have asked some clients to run trials with the technology, so we can learn and improve VODcasting.
We actually stream the videos right into to iTunes, instead of forcing the users to download large video files which they might not view at all. But downloads are still possible.
The Dutch describing page is at http://www.jet-stream.nl/samples/itunerdemo.html and the English Wikipedia is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodcast
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Joel Leo said 10:59AM on 7-07-2005
Rather than VODcasting, I think the makers of video "podcasts" are calling them vlogs, or vlogging. There is a great site called www.freevlog.com that shows you how to create them for free, any some other promotion, www.joshleo.com is a great vlog.
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Ryan Green said 1:33PM on 7-07-2005
RSS is one of the best ways for people to get at my new content for my short films that I help make. http://feeds.feedburner.com/TeamZakk i discovered works extremely well when you drop it into the podcasting window in iTunes. Subscribe now!
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nicholas frota said 7:04PM on 7-07-2005
i've been using itunes to watch movies before the 4.9 version (because of the fullscreen feature), and now it's easier than ever.
http://blog.nonlinearmatters.com/review/mac/of-podcasts-and-videoblogs/
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Wisconsin said 6:10PM on 7-07-2005
Technology demo?! The One America Committee Videoblogs have been working in iTunes 4.9 from day one.
The content is, although well intended, a little cheesy. Some pieces actually look like a comedy skid with the camera in exactly the wrong place, and a young female interviewer fawning over Edwards in his BACKYARD (emphasis her's...)
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Stef van der Ziel said 12:32PM on 7-08-2005
We put up a new website (in English) about VODcasting at www.vodcast.nl
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Espinoza said 12:56PM on 7-11-2005
Check http://www.vodcast.nl . I believe some are missing the point: this is a "technology demo" because is Video-On-Demand-casting, real video broadcasting on iTunes! You don't download the movie like with vlogs or when you watch movie trailers. That's the genius of this concept!
Best.. Mr.E.
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Stef van der Ziel said 3:15PM on 7-11-2005
VODcasting is moving fast :-) Today we started the VODcast for VPRO, National Public Broadcaster in the Netherlands. www.vodcast.nl We also added a demo movie showing VODcast features on a television.
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