The Pod Transcoder automatically publishes your VBrick WM and MPEG-4 video as an "iTunes" video Podcast.
Features include:
Simply set your input and output directory. Any .wmv video placed in your input folder will be detected and converted to your Podcast. Each new video detected will be automatically added as an "episode" your existing Podcast. If the source file is .wmv, it will be converted (transcoded) to .mp4. If the source file is .mp4, it will be copied to the output directory unchanged.
Setup
You might start by creating two new folders on your PC as shown below. In this case, we have created a folder called "input" and another folder called "podcasts". Select "Start" to begin the transcoding of all files in the input directory. As each file is transcoded, the video will play faster than real time and the .mp4 file will be added to the output directory. Check "Automatic New File Detection" to check for new files every two minutes.
Select "Setup" to view the Podcast Details.
Your Podcast will have the title you enter, and each video in your Podcast will be titled using that video file name. For example, if your Podcast is titled "My Podcast" and you have a video file called "myvideo1.wmv", "myvideo2.wmv" and "myvideo3.wmv" then you will create a Podcast titled "My_Podcast" and it will have three episodes, "myvideo1", "myvideo2", and "myvideo3". Each episode will carry the same details as the Podcast.
Select "Delete unknown files" to automatically delete any file in the input directory that is not a .mp4 or .wmv file
Select "Delete source after transcode" to delete the file from the input directory after transcode
To publish your Podcast, you must enter your Web Server account information. Enter the Host/IP, Username, Password, and Remote Directory (commonly, your remote directory is the same as your username). The "Base URL" is populated automatically when you enter FTP information, but it may need to be adjusted depending on your web server configuration. Basically, the Pod Transocder will log in to your web server and FTP upload your video files and Podcast files to the entered remote directory (the remote directory must exist). The uploaded files must be available at the Base URL. You might troubleshoot the Web Server upload by logging in to your web server with a conventional FTP utility to ensure your files are uploaded to the location you expect.
Note that if you are not using FTP but are using local file paths (e.g. network shares), you do not need to enter any FTP information but you MUST enter the Base URL.
Select "Publish Podcast After Transcode" to automatically publish your Podcast.
Set the UTC/GMT Offset for your local time zone (for example, the US East Coast is -5 hours).
After upload, the "Podcast Subscription URL" shows the URL your subscribers must enter.
Recording
You can directly record your VBrick WM video by selecting "Record". Select a video from the Program Guide, or enter the URL. Press Record to begin and Stop to end (2-hour recording limit). During recording, you may select "Pause Record" -- this will suspend recording without closing the video file, allowing you to "take a break" and then continue recording to the same file when you again press "Pause".
Subscribing To Your Podcast
Open Apple iTunes, select "Advanced / Subscribe To Podcast" and enter your Podcast URL. iTunes will download your Podcast videos. When a new video (new episode) is available, it will automatically be added to your subscription.
Your subscription URL is: http://yourserver/yourOutputFolder/Title.xml (where Title is what you entered in your Setup screen as the Title. Please note that iTunes displays what you have entered as subtitle in the setup screen plus the uploaded file name as the "Description" as shown below
Working with VBrick MCS or NVR
The VBrick Media Control Server and/or the VBrick Network Video Recorder can record WM video using a web-based scheduler. The scheduler allows you to enter the path for recording. For example, you might schedule a file to be recorded to "./podcast/myvideo.wmv" and a new folder called "podcast" will be created and the video recorded in this folder.
Simply create a shared folder to where you will record (e.g. c:/Program Files/VBrick/MCS/Record/podcast). Then, on a separate computer, map the network drive (e.g. your computer drive "X") to display the recorded files. While the Pod Transcoder can run on the same computer as the MCS or NVR, it uses a lot of CPU during the transcoding and this could affect performance. It is best to run the Pod Transcoder on its own computer.
When working with VBrick MCS, you do not need to use the FTP function of the Podcast Transcoder. Rather, you can simply use local network file sharing.
Working With Web Servers
The Podcast Transcoder can run on your web server and provide user-generated podcasts. Simply create an FTP account for users to upload their .wmv or .mp4 video files. Typically, you would give the FTP user "write-only" permission (e.g. they can upload but they can't delete a file that someone else has uploaded). Create a folder on the web server and ensure that files placed in this folder may be accessed over the public Internet (e.g. the folder has "web sharing enabled"). Set your Podcast Transcoder to output files to your web server folder. Optionally set the Podcast Transcoder to delete source files after transcode, and to prevent users from uploading the wrong content, delete unknown files.
Using the approach, you can easily create a system that allows you, or potentially anyone, to upload video files to your server and make them automatically available as a podcast subscription.
You may see an online example of this at http://www.vbricktv.com/podcasts/index.htm
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