Filed under: In the Autoblog Garage, Podcasts, Convertibles
Autoblog Video Podcast 1
In this first edition of the Autoblog Video Podcast, we review Mazda's 2006 MX-5 Miata. This is the first crack at the video podcast thing. This one is a little bare bones, but give us time and we'll have elite animations and maybe even background music. Keep on the look out for future editions of the video podcast! Enjoy the video, and let us know what you think.
The video can be downloaded directly here. You can also use iTunes to subscribe to our podcasts (both audio and video versions) or if you prefer your own flavor of podcast collection tool, the RSS feed for Autoblog podcasts is here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Speed Racer 12:17PM (1/21/2006)
Guys: You need to set a MIME type for M4V files.
You Pal,
Speed
--
VOD Cars
The #1 Auotomotive Video Podcast
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Matthew Shaw 12:32PM (1/21/2006)
Awesome job guys!!! Maybe for the next one you could get someone in front of the camera? Sometimes a tripod is a good thing too
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bogey 12:34PM (1/21/2006)
Umm... this is the internet. I come to your site with the intention of viewing your content ON the site. What's up with the podcast crap? I don't have iTunes, nor do I intend to get it. The .m4v format is not a native video format for anything that the AVERAGE internet user has available to them. How about a .mov or .mpeg4 please.
Thanks.
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Matthew Shaw 12:48PM (1/21/2006)
@ bogey: Nobody said you had to download itunes. They posted a direct link to the download. Also the new quicktime plays .m4v, so stop complaining.
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jm 4:39PM (1/21/2006)
Not bad but I concur with the tripod recommendation. More dramatic shooting would be nice too. Walkarounds, pans, drivebys, some agressive driving. I would suggest watching some TopGear car reviews and immitating some of their techniques. They've mastered the art.
A great first try though!
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JayNorth 4:40PM (1/21/2006)
Well Mr. Shaw, he is half right. Puttin it in Windows Media format would make it more universally playable. Anyone using iTunes or an iPod could easily convert it to spec.
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Johnny B 6:37PM (1/21/2006)
m4v files....I don't think so...
anyway quicktime sucks!
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NoApples 7:08PM (1/21/2006)
For camera stability, you can forgo the tripod by making your own Fig Rig:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000800073487/
(The pictures are gone from the actual article due to bad choice of free hosting. The Hackaday story has the one pic.)
The somewhat expensive original:
http://services.manfrotto.com/figrig/
Or build your own steadycam rig:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/
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Ferguson McSqueege 7:28PM (1/21/2006)
Good job, guys! It was mostly good for your first time. Some notes:
- Background music would certainly be nice, but don't drown out the sound of the engine. I find that to be a big problem with American auto TV shows. They blare this loud music, but it totally blocks out the sound of a cars engine.
- A tripod is a good idea
- I liked the body mount view you guys used on the passenger door. Now add that camera shot with some fast paced twistys and engine noise, and you're set.
Can't wait for your next video podcast!
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Bryce 9:11PM (1/21/2006)
More action!
And I'd suggest using Google Video for distribution. Most people have Flash, it's easily embeddable within a page, and the CPU requirements are low. H.264 is not usable on PIII-class CPUs.
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Matt H 1:24AM (1/22/2006)
I agree I do not own that ipod/itunes trend whore crap, please use flash or put it into mpeg format. I say mpeg because the ipod isn't the only mp3/video player out there and transcoding my video casts isn't appealing at all. By the way ever hear of the Creative Zen Vision:m or the Toshiba S series? Yea... neither support M4V.
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OLivier 10:00AM (1/22/2006)
Great stuff AutoBlog.
Could you by anychance provide a separate High(er) res file for those of us who would also like to see this in all its glory on computer monitors?
A good 480p file would sure do the trick.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
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McGruff 9:03PM (1/22/2006)
Meh why would I watch this when there's (Autoweek,Motor Trend,Car and Driver,CNET.com, etc etc )?
This looked like a knock off homemade AUTOWEEK segment with little or no technical aspects of the vehicle, just you driving on the highway and opening the soft top.
IMO stick to Blogging.
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Josh Wardell 2:22PM (1/23/2006)
Nice job overall, Randall.
Why .m4v? Because firstly it is a podcast, and that is the spec. Secondly, it would not be a nice small 18MB or it would have horrible compression in other formats.
I agree on the sound--background music would help over the slideshow, but no need for music over video, use the ampbiant sounds instead. (you could barely hear the engine or exhaust for example)
And I don't think you are correct in saying there has been no other drivers' car that lets you feel one with the road for this price in years--everything you have said sounds like many other descriptions of the MINI. And I'm sure there are a few others.
And need I say it? There should be at least some mention of the Solstice.
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WheelsTV 10:22AM (1/25/2006)
My company has test drive videos called "Top 200" available for free at www.vehix.com and at our own site. Enjoy!
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Ekow 8:48AM (1/30/2006)
Very Dissapointing guys - I really enjoy your podcast & listen to it every week. I thought that the video podcast would be similar, but A video-short really isn't very useful or entertaining.
My recco is that you guys do something similar to Diggnation (it's available on itunes if you would like to check it out). Basically the video is exactly the same as the audio except that they add in video clips & pictures of what they are talking about. That way your core audience of audio-podcast listeners have something new to listen to each week, and if some people want to watch it on their computers/ipod-videos they get a little something extra.
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chris 1:51PM (9/04/2008)
M4v is bull.I cracked it with sp2.do not get sp3 or you will not beable to roll it back and then you are stuck,then it locks wmp11 to the m4v format and the conversion programs will never work again.I cracked a few .m4v files once with " drmremoval".But now wmp11 the new version is locked and all of these BS programs do not let you select a proper player,they all use wmp11 to play and decode the m4v format and none of these programs work,I have them all.Apple seems to have some realy good geeks with no life.I called apple and they said well it is like buying a video dvd,I told them that it is not,I cannot get the damn file onto a dvd and they did not care in the least so I said the hell with Itunes now.Use notecable,it can crack any music drm file from itunes without going threw the 5 step format to do it.No one yet has a good program to properly crack the m4v format even the softwares with their own players built in.Aimersoft just came out with a itunes program but I tried it and it does not work neither.Daniusoft media converter pro does not work either,neither does any other BS software,I guess we will have to wait till someone cracks this format,it will happen.Use Gspot and open up an m4v file and you will notice that it is compressed and scrambled both that is why it is so hard to crack.I say we all boycott itunes and not download any of thier stuff so they will get the message.What you buy on itunes is not really your own.If you want to watch it on your PC and not your dvd player then I guess it is ok.The new quicktime pro and play the .m4v format,I have tried this.Even tunebite platinum does not work.I tried that also.Stay away from windows xp sp3 stick with sp2.If you want a video goto Blockbuster and rent it and then get a program called"anydvd" and "dvdshrink" or "clonedvd2" and any of those work great.
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