Audio Visual Podcasting

Explaining a podcast, Wikipedia describes it as, a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers. Though the same content may also be made available by direct download or streaming, a podcast is distinguished from other digital-media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added.

A podcast client is the software used to access and download podcasts. Podcast clients are also known as media aggregators, programs designed to automatically access an online file, or feed, and download the audio or
video file associated with it.

Hundreds of these programs exist, with names like Juice, PodSpider, IpodderX, and Nimiq. These podcast clients are easy to find, and because there are so many available for free, it is easy to find one that suits an individuals needs and style. These programs run on the users computer,
periodically downloading a small RSS file from sites that it has been told to monitor. The file tells the program about an audio or video file stored on the server, and the podcast client then downloads that file for the user to view or listen to.

The podcast client makes it possible for the user to view information on a wide range of topics from their computer, without even using a web browser. Just like blogs let people find writers they enjoyed for any niche topic they were interested in, podcasts let people do them same for audio and video. Its like having a thousands of radio and television channels created to serve every possible interest, and more are still being made every day.

Using the podcast client to access and download the files makes it as easy to keep up with the sites one likes as it is to publish the feed.