Vodcasting, Step by Step

Even if your look is arguably better geared toward radio, a good video broadcast can be put together with a few easy-to-find tools: a Mac OS X or Windows-based computer, a video camera, a Web space that supports XML, QuickTime 7 Pro (available for a $30.00 registration fee for Mac and Windows) and iTunes 4.9 or later -- or a membership to other video distribution sites.

First, shoot the video footage you intend to use, and then import it into the computer via Apple's iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Once imported, you'll want to convert it to a format that allows it to stream over the Web.

To do this, start by opening the video file in QuickTime, clicking on the "File" menu, selecting "Export," then choosing "Movie to Quicktime Movie." After that, you'll open the "Options," click on the "Settings" tab and choose "H.264" format, which will convert it to a high video quality in a small file size. Finally, make sure the "Prepare for Internet Streaming" option is selected and save the file. The export will then begin.

From here, a small XML (Extensible Markup Language) file must be written in a text editor and uploaded to a Web space with the movie file to allow the streaming to function.

To do this, open either TextEdit on the Mac or Note Pad on Windows and enter the code found at this link, filling in the fields with your video clip's information where appropriate.

Once the file has been written, save it as a file with an .xml extension at the end of its name (for example, sample.xml). Upload the file to your Web space using an FTP client such as Fetch (for the Mac) or CuteFTP (for Windows). Create a folder on the Web space called "samplevodcast" and upload both the movie file and XML file you created to that folder.

This example assumes you'll use iTunes. To upload to other sites -- Yahoo Podcasts, for example -- the publishing information they provide lists similar RSS code that will need to be copied and pasted into a file. In most cases, loading the RSS code into any of the directories will allow it to be indexed by others, as well.

Next, you'll want to test for errors. Launch any Web browser and enter the URL of your newly uploaded XML file. If this loads without errors and lists the movie file, it's ready to be tested in iTunes.

For this test, launch iTunes, click on the "Advanced" menu and select "Subscribe to Podcast..." Enter the address of your XML file and click "OK." ITunes should subscribe to it, automatically retrieving new episodes as they're uploaded to the server for later viewing on your computer or video iPod.

To add additional episodes, shoot, encode and upload video files to the same directory and modify your XML file to include additional items. A helpful RSS tutorial can also be found at http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.html to help pull off additional tricks with the file.

Once the episodes are up, it's time to build a fan base. Give the address to everyone you know and before you know it, Internet video stardom will come.