I managed to cobble together my first video podcast.

The trickiest part was figuring out what file type to assign to the  
video to make both iTunes and Movable Type happy.

The movies was assembled from several short (motion jpeg) video clips  
captured by my Konica-Minolta Dimage Xt digital camera. I perhaps  
needlessly lengthened the production pipeline by importing these into  
Apple iMovie (which necessitated transcoding from motion jpeg to  
iMovie format -- latest iMovie allows you to choose DV-NTSC or  
MPEG-4) to add some titles and transitions, then exporting using the  
new QuickTime 7.03 "Save for iPod Video" preset, which seemed to take  
ages to complete as it transcoded the video yet again into iPod  
compatible format (Audio AAC, Stereo, 44.100 kHz; video H.264, 320 x  
240, Millions; data rate 711.09 kbits/sec).

I uploaded the resultant 14+ MB file to my zoo public_html folder, in  
case I needed to set the appropriate mime-type to make it play right.

iMovie (and QuickTime Pro, if you prefer) saves these movies with an  
"M4V" extension. The MovableType "MT-Enclosures" plug-in, which is  
essential to making a podcast a podcast, doesn't recognize .m4v  
files. It took some trial and error to discover that the trick was to  
rename the files using the "mp4" extension. Then, I needed to edit  
the .htaccess file in the folder on zoo where I stashed the video so  
that www.uvm.edu would recognize the mp4 extension, too. Technical  
Services Group just updated this globally on xxx.blog.uvm.edu, so MP4  
files uploaded via MovableType should download OK (assuming that  
MovableType allows you to upload 14+ MB files_

So, I have listed my blog with the iTunes music store (search for  
skiing) and subscribed to it with my copy of iTunes. The video was  
automatically downloaded, and transferred to my iPod when I synched  
it up last. Plays great, on little screen or TV.

I dunno if this represents a new paradigm  in Educational Media, but  
it sure is fun.

http://waw.blog.uvm.edu/

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| Wesley Alan Wright <mailto:[log in to unmask]>                   |
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