A Podcast for everyone

Podcasts are a new way to distribute good quality media on the internet, which users are then able to enjoy either on their computers or on a variety of mobile devices, such as mobile phones, MP3 players, iPods and PDAs. Podcasts come in a few different types. Here are a some examples.

MP3 Audio Files

These make up the vast majority of available content. They can be just about any audio file, from a recording of a radio programme, to a personal audio blog. They will play on all MP3 players, PC, Macs and most modern mobile phones as well.

Vodcasts or Video-on-Demand Casts

These are ordinary video files, optimised to the average screen size of a media player such as an MP4 player or one of the latest iPods. Vodcasts are great, but they are about 3 to 5 time bigger that an audio podcast. If you expect a lot of people will be subscribing to your vodcast, be prepared to provide a lot of bandwidth!

Podscrolls or enhanced podcasts

These are audio podcasts that have been split into sections or chapters. Each section is then linked with an image. When playing the audio file on the iPod, images appear on the iPod screen at set points. Enhanced podscrolls use a file system called m4a/b. This is a proprietary apple encoding, and is only compatible with iPods and within iTunes. Enhanced podcasts will not work in other players.