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TUAW Video Podcast: iPod Edition

by C.K. Sample, III Oct 23rd 2005 at 7:45PM

So, I spent a good chunk of yesterday putting together our first video podcast for your viewing pleasure, and then a much larger chunk of time compressing and recompressing the video in an attempt to get it down to a tolerable size that would also play on any video-capable iPods out there. The subject matter of the video podcast is, of course, the new 5G iPod. To create the video podcast, I attached my iSight to a tripod, plugged it into my PowerBook and then launched QuickTime Pro and chose File—>New Movie Recording. Then I took the resulting video files and imported them into iMovie, did some basic editing, added a few titles, and then shot the whole thing out into the default h.264 iPod format defined by QuickTime. The result? A ten minute file that weighed in at 50MBs in size. Thus I began my compression quest.

I was chatting with Matt Croydon during all this and he pointed me to two useful links on compression: here and here. I managed to get one MP4 file down to 18MBs in size, but when I tried to load it to my iPod it didn't want to play nice (although it still plays fine in iTunes). I then referred back to this Apple document, paying close attention to all that information in small print at the bottom of the page. The result this time: a ten minute file that weighs in at 43MBs. Bah. The file should be embedded in our feed and show up in the iTMS sometime soon. In the meantime, here's a direct link to the file (right clickCTRL+click and save please). If you don't need iPod playability and just want to watch it on the web or in iTunes, here's a link to the smaller 18MB version.

If any of you happen to be compression gurus skilled in the dark art of codecs, please share your arcane wisdom with us in the comments.

Update: After some more investigation it doesn't look like the widescreen off mode actually crops (or at least it doesn't just crop) as the video appears a bit thinner and squished when that mode is employed on a widescreen file. 

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So, I spent a good chunk of yesterday putting together our first video podcast for your viewing pleasure, and then a much larger chunk of...
 

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James Longinotti

There is one quick way to convert video to iPod that I know of, working at Apple has it's benefits* There is a program called Videora which converts any type of video to Mp4 format. I have coppied 29 full length Movies to iPod. It is amazing, it actually does more than QuickTime pro. Signing off.

November 11 2005 at 7:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Charles

Does anybody know how to get screen snapshots and images into a vcast? I have some ideas, a Linux box and a couple of Macs, and I would love to be able to intercut my QuickTime iSight image, made on a Mac, of course, with screen captures from the other boxes, specially the Linux box which is my experimentation box on which I'm about to develop some interesting software which I want to make a vcast of, to share and show.

October 28 2005 at 2:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
C.K. Sample, III

Thanks icerabbit! I'll give it a shot, but the ums seem to grow back whenever I diligently trim them away. ;-)

October 24 2005 at 3:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
frank d

I didn't know you re-recorded certain pieces, so I apologize on that part. You're not the only one using stop-gap words/sounds ... I can catch myself on it too. All I can recommend - based on lessons in presenting & speaking in public - is day in day out making a conscious effort to simply take a brief pause when you're tempted to say "um/euh". With practice it'll get better. I've seen it first hand with some peers.

October 24 2005 at 3:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
C.K. Sample, III

Icerabbit, trhe ums are my curse. I rerecorded several times, but I am an "um" er. What are you going to do? As for the wash out, it had nothing to do with the framing. I tried getting up close etc, with actually more wash out. It seems to be an inherent problem with the iSight's recording capabilities. As I said, next time I will use a better cam.

October 24 2005 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ZeroZen

You said:"right click and save please". I'm a normal Mac user and my mouse only have one button hehehe!

October 24 2005 at 11:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
frank d

Good content & compression. Very watchable. One negative. Consider re-recording the sections in which you say "Euh" several times in one sentence. (you said it prob. 40x) Regarding wash out sections, try to frame the recording so you only cover the tv or iPod screen (cameras generally calculate brightness & contrast setting over the entire frame) so, ditch the tv frame, cabinet etc and it should do better.

October 24 2005 at 10:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
C.K. Sample, III

Sorry, Ben, I know how to crossfade fine, but I was rushing to slap this sucker together so didn't bother. Cross-fades and a better camera for the next one; I promise.

October 24 2005 at 9:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ben

Learn to use crossfades!! :) The constant sharp cuts were very off putting, crossfade the video and audio and it will look a whole lot better!

October 24 2005 at 8:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iFelix

...also how about adding some background music and/or music to the titles?

October 24 2005 at 6:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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