Direct Upload Video to Blogs.

Blogger has now enabled Direct Video Uploading to your blogs. There is now no need to first upload video to Youtube and all the hassles of pasting the Embed code in your blog post.


You can directly upload videos without leaving your Post Editor in Blogger and the videos are uploaded to Google Video and the code placed in your blog post automatically............



This is a birthday present from Blogger. Yes Blogger celebrated it's eighth bithday Blogger Buzz: Happy Eighth Birthday! on 23 August and unveiled direct video uploads the next day. Previously you may have noticed Blogger testing it out in Blogger in Draft.



Now you need not worry any more about creating an account at google Video and uploading video there and then all the problems with getting the video to show on your blog by arranging the code in a continuous line. Blogger does it all for you.
Morever after uploading the video it is automatically converted into a video podcast! It will help if you enable the enclosure links for podcasting.

However if you don’t have the enclosure links visible (i.e. “Show Link fields” is set to “No”), we auto-add and auto-delete the enclosure links for your video uploads. If you do have the enclosure links visible, we’ll auto-add but not auto-delete.

To turn on enclosure links, just go to Settings > Formatting and set the “Show Link fields” option to “Yes.” This will add the enclosure link fields to your post editor. From there, just paste in the URLs of your recorded media, and your blog will instantly become a podcast.



To add a video to your post login to Blogger Dashboard and click on +New Post link. Then in Post Editor click the new square 'Add Video' icon in top frame. This is what it looks like --->
To see a video go to Blogger Buzz: 3, 2, 1, Action!

Some points to note as quoted by Pete in Blogger in Draft: Enclosures and Video Podcasting:

1. Videos are provided for download in MP4 format.

2. Blogger supports adding multiple enclosures to a post, but for maximum compatibility with popular podcatchers, you may only want to include one enclosure per post.

3. By default, Blogger feeds are in Atom format. If certain podcatchers require RSS 2.0 format, have them subscribe to http://yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml.

4. The MIME Type is auto detected for common podcasting file extensions.

Now to figure out how we can use a Playlist Video feature here, or perhaps it is to be eagerly awaited.

Podcast in Blogger.

Here is a very easy method to deliver your podcasts through Blogger feeds. There is no coding required. You will have to switch your blog feeds to full to take advantage of this method. Blogger does not allow you to edit your feeds but with Feedburner Smartcast you can overcome this difficulty............

A Podcast is a feed containing a audio/video/pdf file which you have published in your blog posts. The feed delivers these files to a client like iTunes which then starts downloading the file to your PC. You can then transfer them to your iPhone, iPod, PDAs, Cellphones so you can listen to them on the move.




The first step is obviously to have your media file ready. You can create one using your PC's multimedia capabilities or even online at some sites over the telephone. After creating such a MP3/video file you have to upload it to a freehost and copy down it's link.



The second step is to create a new blog specifically for podcasting or use your present blog itself. After creating the blog go to Settings------>Site Feed and Enable feeds to Full. Also in Settings----->Formatting enable title Field and Link Field. Next you have to burn your blog feed at Feedburner and copy down the new feed url. Feedburner connects to your Blogger feeds and modifies them and sends them out with a new URL.

Blogger does not give Feed Statistics or allow any Feed modification which is the advantage of using Feedburner.

Since Feedburner has been acquired by Google it has made some features like Feed Stats and Feed Branding free. More of that later. With Feedburner you can even display how many people are reading your blog feeds.




In the Third Step you have to enable Smartcast. For this login to your Feedburner Account and click on your blog name. Click the Optimize tab at the top and then the Smartcast option in the sidebar. See picture below :


In this select what type of files you have and what category do they fit in. Type a description you would like potential listeners to see when viewing your podcast listing in iTunes. Also enter keywords for your podcast so that it can be searched from iTunes. Lastly activate Smartcast and save your settings. You do not have to copy and paste any code.




In the Final step insert your media file in your blog post's link field and then add your feed url obtained from Feedburner (in the second step above) into your podcast aggregator like iTunes. To put your file in the post paste the link obtained in the first step in the link field below the title field. Publish the post.

Also click on "Show Enclosure Links" link next to the Link Field while creating your post. Copy and paste the link to your audio file in the URL field and click "Add enclosure Link" below it. Then publish post.




As an example I have added a MP3 file here. You can add this url to your iTunes/iPodder/Juice. The file will start downloading immediately.