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Galactica Commentary Podcast Available
Kichigai Mentat writes "Apparently SciFi channel is pushing the bounds of your average TV viewing experience with "Battlestar Galactica." First came a full, uncut stream of the first episode, now a full episode commentary podcast available as a Podcast stream, episode-length MP3 file for download, or invividual MP3 files for each "Act." The podcasts are released a week in advance, and listeners are warned about spoilers."
Wtf is a podcast?
Ah, Wikipedia to the rescue!
Slagborr
It's a term coined by Adam Curry of iPodder. He developed the technique for downloading webcasts/interenet radio shows into iTunes and subsequently onto his iPod for later listening. Of course, the casts are not limited to iPods.
See Wired's article.
And re: the first person's comment, this isn't a webcast. A webcast would be the idea of something broadcast over the web. The "unique" aspect of the podcasting stuff is supposed to be using the iPodder software to automatically subscribe to podcasts and sync them up to your portable mp3 player to listen to whenever. Which is different than just listening to a webcast online.
-Tom
It's not streaming, so webcast really isn't the right term for it. Podcasting is RSS with downloaded MP3 enclosures. IMO, podcasting is a fine term, much better than "blog", at any rate.
In any field.
Have you even the faintest idea what joint stereo is? The difference between left and right is encoded seperately, and last I checked, zero compresses quite well.
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
Yes, webcast could be used to describe these audio RSS enclosures but that term is really too broad. There are distinct properties of something labeled a "podcast" which make the term useful. Podcasts are always downloadable in a format you can use on most MP3 players. Webcasts are usually streamed with in a format to prevent you from downloading them. It's difficult to listen to a webcast if there isn't a computer nearby. Webcasts are often low quality audio due to bandwith constraints. Podcasts currently use higher bitrates more often. Podcasts have special RSS feed reader software that automatically downloads the 'casts and adds them to a playlist on a digital audio player. The 'casts are always waiting for you so you don't have to visit a bunch of different sites to listen. The best podcast clients manage disk space like a Tivo. They delete older files according to rules like max number of files or max drive space. Podcast is handy shorthand for these properties. I would hate to have to wade through hundreds of webcasts to try and discern which could easily be added to my RSS MP3 enclosure feed reader.
On topic -- The Battlestar Gallactica commentary feeds are a great use for podcasts. I'd love to see someone add support for these to Tivo and MythTV. I eagerly look forward to someone using this to add MST3K type commentary to state of the union addresses.
Here is a torrent of the Full PodCast. It's 20MB.
bsg_ep109_FULL.torrentit is called a webcast.
Um, no. That's not what this is. A podcast is an encoded audio file, MP3 or similar, that's delivered via an Atom feed as an enclosure. Your client program, if you choose to use one, downloads it straight into iTunes for syncing to your iPod. Hence "podcast." It's a very specific thing.
Actually, they give you a choice, Tony. Download MP3s or subscribe to the Podcast. Nice to see you being so diligent.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.