Archive for the 'podcasting' Category
Listen to this as a podcast:
You may have noticed that at the top of my posts on this blog, there’s a blurb that says “Listen to this as a podcast” with a button labeled “Odiogo.” I received a comment from a reader asking me what it was for, so I am going to relink to the post I made in April about Odiogo, the text-to-voice podcasting service.
Previously:
Spinvox: voicemail to text service
Casting Words transcripting services
Jott’s potential to transcribe podcasts is unrealized
Earize Text Streaming for Internet Radio
Podcast transcripts for the deaf
Listen to this as a podcast:
In May of this year (yes, I’m a little behind, sorry) Apple updated their QuickTime media to include support for closed captioning. This is very good – the road to bringing captions to the online world has been filled with potholes, and Apple’s recent update has helped make the road a little bit smoother. There is still a long way to go, however. TV episodes and movies downloaded through iTunes still lack captions, although they have no reason to now.
The update includes separate versions for OSX and Windows.
Previously:
iTunes and closed captioning
Closed captioning on movie trailers
Casting Words transcripting services
Speche Communications: real time text streaming
Jott’s potential to transcribe podcasts is unrealized
Earize Text Streaming for Internet Radio
Podcast transcripts for the deaf
Listen to this as a podcast:
The LiveJournal blogging platform offers members the ability to do voice posts, and text transcripts are either made by the creator of the podcast or the readers; it’s a community-driven effort and works quite well – many people are willing to do this. Podcasts that are under three minutes are automatically transcribed by SpinVox.
Previously:
Spinvox: voicemail to text service
Casting Words transcripting services
Project ReadOn – free web captions
Speche Communications: real time text streaming
Jott’s potential to transcribe podcasts is unrealized
Earize Text Streaming for Internet Radio
Podcast transcripts for the deaf
Listen to this as a podcast:
Casting Words transcripting services are text transcripts made of podcasts and other MP3/MP4 files and are created by humans, not computers. Turnaround time is 3-4 working days and the cost is $0.75 per minute. If you need it done in 24 hours, the rates are $2.50 per minute.
Previously:
Project ReadOn – free web captions
Speche Communications: real time text streaming
Jott’s potential to transcribe podcasts is unrealized
Earize Text Streaming for Internet Radio
Podcast transcripts for the deaf
Listen to this as a podcast:
Due to my deafness, I speak with a speech impediment. Most people can understand my speech fine when they interact with me in person, but I think that if they could not see my face and listened to a recording of my voice, they might not understand me so well.
I wanted to be able to offer podcasts to accompany my blog posts to help make everything more accessible, but I don’t feel confident enough in my speaking pronunciation to do a podcast on my own. So I started googling for text-to-voice podcasting services, and came across Odiogo, which does this service – for free. From their website:
Check out our automated podcast “to go”: your site’s RSS feeds, text articles and blog posts can be converted automatically to iPod-ready audio files ready to download and play anywhere, anytime, on any device.
I registered with the service, and it immediately created podcasts of my text posts. I don’t have to notify the service when I update my blog; it’s subscribed to my RSS feed and finds new posts as they come in. I don’t have to install any software; I simply just keep on blogging, and Odiogo will provide podcasts of my blogs.
I had a hearing person listen to the podcasts for me, and he said that the voice transcription was very accurate and extremely understandable.
This is a good option for people with speech impediments to help their blog or news service reach an even wider audience. I’ve added the Odiogo icon to the top of all my posts; if you prefer to receive my posts as podcasts, simply click on the button and subscribe to my Odiogo feed – there’s no charge.
Listen to this as a podcast:
Project ReadOn is a standalone caption player that provides captions for online media such as videos and podcasts. They are funded by sponsors, ads, and grants. The captioners watch online videos and transcribe the spoken text into captions which are viewed online using an interesting web browser technology – there are no fees, and there is no software to download or install; users simply visit the Project ReadOn website and browse through the available selection of captioned videos, and a narrow, rectangular-sized window pops up automatically and positions itself over the video being viewed. As the user watches the video, they read the captions and watch the video simultaneously. I’ve captured a screen shot here:
Only one month old (the company just came to life in March 2007,) they’ve already captioned their 100th video and encourage people to contact them with suggestions and requests; they have a handy “submit request” field in the top right corner of each page on their website.
Listen to this as a podcast:
Speche Communications provides real-time text streaming over the Internet via their eScription service. A very useful service for providing captions for internet radio, podcasts, vlogs, and videocasts.
Listen to this as a podcast:
Jott, which I blogged about earlier today, has another feature where users can leave a short voice message that will be typed up and posted to their blog. It only allows about 30 seconds of spoken text, which is a shame; if the time was unlimited, this would solve the issue of a lack of text transcripts available for podcasts.
Listen to this as a podcast:
I recently asked Apple why the movies offered at the iTunes Store do not have closed captioning, and was told that QuickTime does not deal with CEA-608 Closed Caption data.
However, the sneak peek on Leopard accessibility says:
QuickTime currently supports closed captioning by including a text track alongside audio and video content. But improved QuickTime support will automatically display the CEA-608 closed captioning text standard in analog broadcasts in the U.S.
Hopefully when Leopard is released with its improved captioning features, Apple will start offering closed captioning on movies and television shows being sold at the iTunes Store.
Listen to this as a podcast:
I just discovered a new technology called Earize, which calls itself an internet text streaming service. From their website:
Earize is an Internet streaming text service. This service can be used exclusively for caption radio, and to assist deaf and hard of hearing people in meetings, telephone conferences, and seminars, to name a few. Audiences can be increased by 8.6% just by reaching the folks with hearing loss. The service is also a vehicle for additional advertising to this sometimes overlooked segment.
Users can read the text from a computer, PDA, or cell phone, and can customize the text by font size and color. Also, if something is missed, users can scroll back and read the transcript. Broadcasters pay a small fee to have their show transcripted; the service is free for the receiver.
