| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
 Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:36 am Post subject: podcasting sermons? |
 |
|
Recently I realized how easy it would be to add a feature to our site, namely that of podcasting our sermons. (yeah, I'm a little slow, mainly because I don't use an MP3 player yet. I know lots of you have clued in about this quite a while ago 
Anyway, since we already have MP3s of our sermons online, this just needs one added RSS/XML file to provide another way for people to find and use them. Including research time on the format, it probably took me only 1-2 hours to have it up and working. So far it seems to be working well, though I haven't run recent stats reports yet.
Just wondered, who all here has been experimenting with RSS files and podcasting for their sermons?
What suggestions do you have for others? tools, places to list your feed, other tips? Any tips specifically for sermons as opposed to general podcasting?
Also, does anyone have a favorite editor or generator for the rss/xml files? I'm doing mine by hand so far but I'd like something cleaner. Perhaps even a php or ASP script to generate it from a form-based or database interface?
so, let the discussion begin...
thanks,
jeff
p.s. I plan to write this up in our webminfaq later, once I have some more experience with it. Your inputs will help others through that medium too.
p.p.s. here are some useful references I've come across so far.
articles:
O'Reilly: What Is Podcasting
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/20/WhatIsPodcasting.html
Wikipedia - Podcasting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
What is Podcasting? (good one for users, not webdevelopers)
http://www.podcastingnews.com/articles/What_is_Podcasting.html
Podcast logos
http://www.timmadden.com.au/podcast-logos.htm
How to Create RSS / XML Feed for Podcasts
http://www.podcast411.com/howto_1.html
Understanding RSS News Feeds
http://www.podcastingnews.com/articles/Understanding_RSS_Feeds.html
RSS 2.0 Specification
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Preach The Word - RSS and MP3 Podcast feeds of audio sermons
http://www.preachtheword.co.uk/rss.html
Podcasting: Hear What the Buzz Is About
http://playlistmag.com/features/2005/01/podcastinglisten/index.php/?lsrc=mwweek-0131
podcast directories/index sites:
http://www.podcast.net/
http://www.podcastingnews.com/
http://www.ipodder.org/
http://www.podcastalley.com/
feed & rss validators:
http://feedvalidator.org/
http://www.allpodcasts.com/Tools/RSSValidator.aspx
http://rss.scripting.com/
_________________
jeff wilkinson
webmaster for www.centralpc.org
See our CPC Web Ministry FAQ at http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
carrot
Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Sydney, Australia
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
Jeff, I must have missed your original post.
When we launch the new Toongabbie Anglican Church site, we will have an RSS feed for the Bible talks from each Sunday meeting. We will also podcast the Sunday Night Church Bible talks. In fact, the feed is already ready to go, the rest of the site isn't though.
The new site uses Expression Engine, which allows me to easily add (with a plugin) an enclosure to the normal RSS feed, thereby creating the podcast feed.
If you interested in seeing the feed, I could PM it to you.
One key directory you haven't listed is Apple's iTunes. Apple have extended RSS 2.0 to add some iTunes specific tags - makes your podcast a bit more useful in the directory. Although, for us Aussies, we don't yet have an iTunes store, and so can't add our podcast to the directory.
Odeo is another excellent directory (and more).
_________________
Personal Site · Toongabbie Anglican Church |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
hmm, thanks. I had noticed one feed that had those itunes-specific tags but I hadn't yet tracked down docs on them.
I'm not sure whether I want to go with their specific tags. I'm sure it'd be good to have the sermons listed well in iTunes, but how important is it to use their tag format vs plain RSS? Do you know anything about the pros & cons?
_________________
jeff wilkinson
webmaster for www.centralpc.org
See our CPC Web Ministry FAQ at http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
carrot
Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Sydney, Australia
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
It's not important in terms of getting listed. Just allows for a graphic and descriptions in the iTunes store.
Certainly not much good if every podcast directory wants to spin it's own RSS extensions.
Should also mention FeedBurner - they can take an ordinary RSS feed and turn it into a podcast.
Simon.
_________________
Personal Site · Toongabbie Anglican Church |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PjLguy
Site Admin
Joined: 24 Dec 2003
Posts: 352
Location: Syosset, NY
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks guys for these resources! It's really helpful!
_________________
Peter J. Louie
Assorted Christian Media! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bcouch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 44
Location: Kentucky, USA
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks guys. I just implemented it on our site. Very easy to do. I was able to subscribe to the RSS feed and download the sermons using iPodder, (I don't have an iPod) so I assume it is working ok.
I am going to have to work on getting the file size of our sermons reduced though, they currently run about 50MB each.
Does anyone know if adding a stylesheet to the RSS so that it displays nicely in a browser messes up the Podcast receivers?
Thanks for all the info.
_________________
-Barry
http://www.bigbonebaptistchurch.com
"Preaching Christ since 1843" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
50MB? ouch! What settings are you using when you save your files?
I don't know if the linked XSLT bothers podcast s/w yet, though I doubt it does. 4GuysfromRolla is a pretty reliable site, and I doubt they'd have written that if it caused problems. Easy enough to check though with some of the validators or software as we test. (I haven't added the XSLT yet myself, just found that article today)
_________________
jeff wilkinson
webmaster for www.centralpc.org
See our CPC Web Ministry FAQ at http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
carrot
Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Sydney, Australia
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
50Mb! ouch.
We're using a bit rate of 16kbps, although 32kbps will still produce a fairly small file. Sample rate of 11kHz, adequate for voice. Mono. So, a 20 minute sermon is about 2.5Mb in an MP3 file. Similar setting for Windows Media will produce a slightly smaller file. (Having said that, we haven't been very consistent in encoding yet).
Here's an example. This is on our assistant minister's blog, but will be podcast when I launch our new church site.
As an aside, the Sydney Anglican Diocese now has a podcasting service delivering some excellent talks: http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/indepth/
edit: oh, and the XSLT (style) for RSS does not effect receivers. It's only there for graphical browsers.
_________________
Personal Site · Toongabbie Anglican Church |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
I use settings similar to PJL. (using 18kbit recently for most)
WebMinFaq: Creating Sermon/Teaching Audio Files
http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm#create_audio
# For the MP3 quality level, we generally use mono, 22kbit, 16 or 18 kbps. Some voices sound very odd unless I bump it to 18kbps. This is pretty low quality level since there is a tradeoff of quality vs file size. Users seem to think it's fine. I'd suggest when you start doing audio files that you test different quality settings to see what you prefer to use.
# If you need a size estimate for audio files, at our level of 22kbit, 16 or 18kbps, mono, MP3, the files are generally between 2.5MB and 5MB each, with most around 3.5MB. Sermon length is generally in the 15-20 minute range.
_________________
jeff wilkinson
webmaster for www.centralpc.org
See our CPC Web Ministry FAQ at http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bcouch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 44
Location: Kentucky, USA
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| carrot wrote: | | 50Mb! ouch. |
I just realized my settings somehow got changed from 64KB to 128KB! I was using 64KB because that is the lowest setting in my ripping software without doing a custom setting. They claim the 64KB setting is FM quality and the 128KB setting is CD quality so I didn't think it would be too good to go lower than FM quality but I am going to play around with some other settings and see what I come up with.
| carrot wrote: |
edit: oh, and the XSLT (style) for RSS does not effect receivers. It's only there for graphical browsers.
|
SWEET!
_________________
-Barry
http://www.bigbonebaptistchurch.com
"Preaching Christ since 1843" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Your decision on quality vs file size is up to you, but I'd suggest you find software that lets you go below 64k and try the same sermon at various compression settings. See how the file sizes come out for each quality level and listen to them to see what you are willing to tolerate for file size.
It's speech, so you can go lower than FM and still have it be quite clear and without too much distortion of the vocal tones... but it's up to you where you make your own trade-off.
And remember to make it mono. No need at all to be stereo for sermon speech and that just doubles the data to store for no reason.
_________________
jeff wilkinson
webmaster for www.centralpc.org
See our CPC Web Ministry FAQ at http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bcouch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 44
Location: Kentucky, USA
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
That brings up another question. What software are you all using to rip CD's and convert audio files? I use Musicmatch to rip the CD's. I am using Audacity to go back and convert the ones I wrongly ripped at 128KB to 24KB Mono. At 24KB Stereo (I forgot to change it to mono) I was down from 50MB to 8.24MB so I am hoping to decrease by about 50% again to roughly 4MB. This is a 48 minute sermon. Our sermons typically run 40-50 minutes. I downloaded iTunes so I am going to play with that to see if the conversion is any quicker. Audacity seems to be so slow.
_________________
-Barry
http://www.bigbonebaptistchurch.com
"Preaching Christ since 1843" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jwilkinson
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 161
Location: MD, USA
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I have an older version of SoundForge studio, but I also use and like GoldWave. We convert from tapes to WAV to MP3, so I tend to use soundforge for recording and editing except that I use Goldwave's noise reduction for light hiss removal as needed. For the price, I highly recommend Goldwave, but it's shareware so you can try it first.
_________________
jeff wilkinson
webmaster for www.centralpc.org
See our CPC Web Ministry FAQ at http://www.centralpc.org/admin/webminfaq.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
