How to Create Video Podcasts on A Mac

The accessibility of video technology has given the common person the potential platform to broadcast stories -- if he or she chooses to use it. Use wisely. For the Mac-user, all you need is some equipment and a few programs, and then you are ready to start experimenting.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• a Mac
• Quicktime 7.0.3 or later
• Firewire Camera/ Firewire cable
• great ideas

1. Install QuickTime 7 Pro or update your current QuickTime software to version 7.0.3 or later
2. Connect your camera to your computer.
3. Choose your settings. Go to Preferences and click on the Recording tab. Select the correct Video Source, Microphone, and Quality settings, and choose the location where you want your podcast files to be saved.
4. To open a new document, go to the File menu and choose "New Movie Recording."
5. A viewing screen will pop up, that matches what is capturing from your camcorder. Point your camera and start recording. Click on the red Record button to start, the black Stop button to end recording.
6. Or, if you've recorded footage already, you can use that as well. First you have to compress it, which you can do through Quicktime Pro. Upload the footage from you camera to the computer.
7. When you're done, you can export it to an Ipod-ready format, by going to the File menu, clicking on Export, and choosing "Movie to iPod (320x240)" or "Using Quicktime Conversion" to export it as an mp4 file. Once the export is complete, it's ready to be published.

Tips & Warnings

• It's a good idea to edit your video podcasts. On a Mac, GarageBand is an easy software program to pick up and use.
• If possible, and if it doesn't compromise your material, it might be a good idea to try and keep your individual video podcasts episodes short (5-15 minutes), depending on what kind of attention span you're expecting your target audience to have.
• For better recording quality, go to Preferences/Recording and set the quality of the Microphone to "Device Native."
• After you're done, you can publish the video podcast either on a blog or a website, and you can also easily create an RSS feed with a provider like FeedBurner. You can also include your video podcast in the iTunes Podcast Directory, so iTunes users can search for it.
• Turn of your iChat AV and AOL Instant Messenger before you start, or it might not work.