Enhanced podcast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An enhanced podcast is a podcast multimedia format that allows images to be displayed in time with audio. This can be an effective way to present information such as lectures with a powerpoint-like slide show.
Enhanced podcasts also are able to present chapter markers in an audio file much like a DVD movie can allow users to jump to predetermined spots in a presentation. This can be helpful for longer audio presentations and audiobooks. The current drawback of enhanced podcasts is that they are not universally supported.
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[edit] Apple approach
The most popular approach is based on AAC and Apple's QuickTime. Playing these enhanced podcasts on a computer requires Apple's Quicktime Player or iTunes software. The only portable devices capable of playing these enhanced podcasts are iPods.
Authoring is possible on a Macintosh computer using applications such as Apple's GarageBand (part of their ilife suite), Podcaster, ProfCast and Apple's Chapter Tool.
The technical details of the mp4 format can be found in the references sections.
The MPEG-4 mp4 acc format mirrors the approaches that can be used for enhanced podcasts:
- Audio mp4a
- Audiobook format mp4b
- Video format mp4v (equals mp4 but takes much more space than mp4a or mp4b)
[edit] Microsoft approach
The wmv scripted approach is less functional and more difficult to implement. Other Windows solutions exist; these too often require several steps, for example the online Webpoderator uses Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2003 files which are uploaded to create Enhanced podcast http://www.celt.sunysb.edu/webpoderator/ jrlearnsmedia.com has a command line tool similar to Apple's chaptertool for creating Enhnced podcasts as well http://jrlearnsmedia.com/blog/archive/2007/07/29/enhanced-podcasting-on-windows.aspx The easy-to-use Profcast application for Macintosh is promising a Windows version sometime in the near future (2008?).
[edit] ID3v2 Chapters
An alternative approach is to use ID3v2 Chapters. This is a relatively new standard and is not widely supported as yet. However an authoring tool is available and a media player for Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile Smartphones.
[edit] External links
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