Articles on Podcasting | Topics: podcasting, podcast
by Gerald Jenkins
How to make Enhanced Podcasts (images, links and more with audio)
Apple's new iTunes 4.9, iPod color, allows you to view (and listen to) "enhanced podcasts". These are audio files that can have slideshows, URLs and some cool features we have discovered. Apple's included documents and a Wiki is all you needed to make your enhanced podcasts, but also a how-to. Here's how to get, make and all you need to know about enhanced podcasts! As a bonus, here are some fun ideas you might want to try to use.
First of all, if you are a technical person download all the files you need from Apple and follow their guide. This is to keep this simple and also show a few experiments that might inspire some interesting content. Also, if you are familiar with making enhanced podcast, skip to the end for some new tools and ideas. You might need to rename it so it only has the .m4b extension (some systems will add .txt). Or, you can also download the zip file and all the source files. Watch the album area as it plays. Double click the images as they play for a larger view. You can get carried away with the images and examples, but that is the point, so enjoy.
What's an enhanced podcast?
Enhanced podcasts are AAC encoded audio files (m4a or m4b, m4p) with new data inside them that can be time based, like an image or a URL to appear at a certain time. You can use Chapter Tool to create Enhanced Podcasts that work with iTunes 4.9 or later. Enhanced podcasts are podcasts that contain chapters. Chapters can be modified to display pictures or web links that can be displayed within the iTunes song artwork pane. On a color iPod the "chapters" can be skipped to and a new image will be displayed as the playhead reaches the time stamp you created and display the image you wish. In iTunes the listener can click on the image and/or the URL as the audio plays. There's also a new bookmark section / icon so you can navigate all the "chapters".
On a PC.
To make an enhanced podcast you'll need:
Chapter Tool Beta (Mac only at this time)
Mac OS X version 10.3.8 or later (Mac OS X version 10.4.1 or later is recommended)
QuickTime version 6.5.2, or later
iTunes 4.9
Text editor to edit a XML file
| Bit of History |
Our friendships hurry to short and poor conclusions, because we have made them a texture of wine and dreams, instead of the tough fibre of the human heart. The laws of friendship are austere and eternal, of one web with the laws of nature and of morals.
| —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) |
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A Music / Audio file
iPod color / photo if you want to see the pictures
Download the Chapter Tool from here and drop the folder in your Music folder inside of your Home folder. Here are ALL our source files, audio, pictures, and the XML file. You will now want to plan what type of enhanced podcast you will want to create. A slideshow-like how-to on making a USB charging cable for the PSP (Playstation Portable). It will have images and at the end a URL for more information. As the listener hears the content they can pause it or click the album art panel to get a larger view. They can also click the URL (link) to get to a page with more information.
Put all photos together in a folder called pictures...iTunes supports the GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIF picture formats. The preview app is a useful "script" ti read from, just click the down arrows as you read and record!
Record the audio
Next up, you'll need an audio file that will be the sound track. Record in
GarageBand.Some intro music, then just start talking.
Then sent it to iTunes.
Once you're in iTunes, you'll need to convert it to AAC (m4a format). Depending on how you iTunes is set up you might need to change the preferences to convert to AAC.To change the "import" settings to convert to AAC go to iTunes > Preferences - Importing. Select AAC and podcast for the encoding.
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