Youtube to iTunes podcast - Possible? 2014? and the infamous: "we had difficulty downloading..."

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Youtube to iTunes podcast - Possible? 2014? and the infamous: "we had difficulty downloading..."

I would appreciate the final verdict on using a youtube channel with h.264 videos to iTunes podcast. Not possible? Should I just create a

new website (non-youtube) and just upload videos there? And try again?

Here is my first attempt steps:

Found "feed" for YT website:

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/CSUTelevision/uploads

Next, itunes page and listed the feed and then......

of course....."We had problems downloading your videos...."

Nothing else. That's it. Stuck.

Okay. So I have a few basic questions:

1. This elusive .xml file. Do I upload it to my site? I know the structure thanks to Wilmut, but don't kow what to do after that.

2. After testing the original YT feed with a validator, say okay...with issues and suggestions for the huge text file. Seems overwhelming! What to do?

3. Would a simple website with just videos on my hosting server work better?

Thanks for reading and helping. I'm at a loss.

.TV

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 3, 2014 5:52 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 3, 2014 6:09 PM in response to CSU.TV

Plain and simple - you can not host your video files on Youtube and get them in iTunes. The feed does not work and the files hosted are not supported.

You need to find a podcast host that supports video files and RSS feeds for iTunes. Such as libsyn

Which for full and fair disclosure is where I work.

But 100% you can not use Youtube to host your podcast for iTunes. I think there was a really bad article on lifehacker from May that made it look like you could - but the person that wrote it did not know what they were talking about. If that is what you read - check out the comments at the bottom. Sorry

Rob W

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Answer 2

Jan 3, 2014 11:34 PM in response to CSU.TV

The acceptable formats for podcasts in iTunes are .m4a, .mp3 (audio), and .mov, .mp4, .m4v (video).

FeedValidator is a useful tool but it validates the XML coding, not whether the feed is compliant specifically as a podcast.

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Answer 3

CSU.TV Author

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Jan 4, 2014 4:00 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Gentlemen,

Thank you. Being new to this, it's good to clear out the YT issue. I have hosting on several sites and now wondering if I can simply move .mp4 files to a site and folder and create the RSS feed from there? and get that working?

So, since I'm starting from stratch, what might you recommend with a blank hosted site and the correct formatted videos? I'm still confused a little about the xml file and where it goes...

Again, thanks for your help.

.TV

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Answer 4

Jan 4, 2014 4:09 AM in response to CSU.TV

I gather you've seen my page at http://rfwilmut.net/pc - this will show you how to construct the feed if you really want to do it by hand (personally I wouldn't - you have to be absolutely exact throughout or it won't work).

These are the 'type' attributes inside the 'enclosure' tags for the different file types -

.mp3: audio/mpeg

.m4a: audio/x-m4a

.mp4: video/mp4

.m4v: video/x-m4v

.mov: video/quicktime

Once created you upload the feed to your server and the URL by which it can be located is what you submit to iTunes. Before doing this you should subscribe manually in iTunes (from the File menu) to check that it all works and the episodes download and play.

The alternative is to use a service such as Blogger or Libsyn, or a program which can create a feed.

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Answer 5

CSU.TV Author

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Jan 4, 2014 5:52 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Thanks, Roger.

So, on my server, I create a site, upload the video/mp4 files, make a 1400x1400 image, create the xml file with the correct syntax and upload it.... and create a feed url. I am going in the right direction?

If that was somewhat correct, to add more episodes, I edit and re-upload the xml file each time?

I would like to maintain control and not pay a monthly fee for the services if possible. With that said, I'm also wondering if that is a stand-alone product (w/o fees) that could streamline this process?

Thanks again for entertaining a newbie with too many questions... 🙂

.TV

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Answer 6

Jan 4, 2014 6:18 AM in response to CSU.TV

Basically, yes. When you add an episode you simply add it to the feed and re-publish it: you don't have to re-submit it.

Obviously you need some webspace, and you will probably have to pay for that (though the firm which provides your internet connection may very well include some webspace).

Blogger is free, and works moderately well (I hate its feeds because they are all on one line and almost impossible to read as a consequence when you're trying to troubleshoot, but it can work). It will construct the feed for you, though I'm not sure whether it will host media or you have to do it elsewhere.

RapidWeaver is a website creation program which can make a blog and podcast, including the feed - I've not tried it but it seems to work though it may be a bit limited. I don't know what other programs there are - I used Podcast Maker which worked very well but it doesn't appear to have been updated for quite some time and I'm not sure it will work with Lion and above.

Libsyn is geared to podcasts and has good support, but there is a regular cost.

WordPress is very powerful and can make podcasts, but it's also complex to use and causes more issues in this forum than any other single method because people have difficulty using it.

Writing your own feed using the template I provide in my site can work perfectly well, but you can't afford any mistakes at all. It's easy to wreck the feed completely by making a simple error such as a missing or additional slash, or and ampersand by itself - or using 'curly quotes' because you've copied text from a word processing program - all those will render the feed unreadable.

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Answer 7

CSU.TV Author

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Jan 4, 2014 8:05 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Excellent. I will experiement over the next days and see what happens.

Grateful for the positive assistance.

I did find FeedforAll a one time purchase, but I'll have to dig in more on that.

It does seem there are a number of ways to get this iTunes podcast going. I do want a good workflow, so that

as we build more video episodes we can "easily" update and add the latest ones. In my imagination and after setup, a process that one could upload the video to the site and add the new data to the xml (hopefully, with a user interface that anyone could add to) (description, other information) and it gets added. Simple.

However, anything worthwhile requires all the behind-the-scenes work that we don't know until we invest the time. I will keep working on this and won't quit until its done.

Thanks again.

.TV

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