Astronomy Media Player
Over the past couple of weeks I've been playing with an idea I had. There are quite a few astronomy podcasts (and video podcasts) around these days and I thought it would be nice if they could be brought together and made searchable.
As a first step towards that aim, I've made a test version of an Astronomy Media Player (AMP) which is partly influenced by things like the BBC's Radio Player. The AMP currently features 20 podcasts and lets you play them within a web browser window using the Flash plugin (for the MP3s) and the Quicktime plugin (for the MP4 video). Each podcast gets its own page and the player will display the latest 20 episodes of each. Appropriate links to the media files and back to the podcast's homepage are also included. Eventually, I would also include a search feature to find content but this is just a test of the basic concept. Try it out:
Is it useful or was it a complete waste of my time? Are there any problems with it? Are there any good astronomy podcasts that I've missed out? Do you have a better name for it than Astronomy Media Player? I would appreciate any feedback good or bad (leave in the comments below), especially about usability.
Comments: Astronomy Media Player
Yes, it's fantastic. I've checked it on two different machines using both Firefox and IE6, and it works like a dream. Having everything in one spot makes it so easy to follow the numerous high quality podcasts out there. I haven't sampled all the podcasts (there are only so many hourse) but I've gone through a lot, and boy are they good.
Name? I like the current one actually. Can I make a link to it now?
Posted by Ian Musgrave on Monday 30th Oct 2006 (21:17 UTC)
Oh, hell yes. I'd like to add a button in my sidebar linked to the Astronomy Media Player. I already have a button made up.
Posted by Ed Minchau on Tuesday 31st Oct 2006 (04:44 UTC)
Hey, could you add The Space Show?
Posted by Ed Minchau on Tuesday 31st Oct 2006 (04:56 UTC)
Ed, I've had a listen to one of the shows and read the website and it seems to be mainly geared to the commercial use of space/tourism. That can be (and is) an interesting topic, but I would like to keep the Astronomy Media Player focused on just astronomy and planetary science.
Posted by Stuart on Tuesday 31st Oct 2006 (18:54 UTC)
Hi Tom,
Fantastic piece of work and though it may have been for your own convenience - thanks!! for putting it our here for us.
I'll follow up with its usability over time but, for now, it works like a charm with Firefox 2.0.
--peter
Posted by peter on Thursday 02nd Nov 2006 (02:12 UTC)
Peter, I assume that you mean Stuart rather than Tom ;-)
Posted by Stuart on Thursday 02nd Nov 2006 (10:54 UTC)
{red in the face}
egads! not once but twice.
--peter
Posted by peter on Thursday 02nd Nov 2006 (13:14 UTC)
;-)
Posted by Stuart on Thursday 02nd Nov 2006 (13:20 UTC)
Stuart, I have put together a sidebar button so that bloggers can add your AMP to their own blogs; the code is available here.
Posted by Ed Minchau on Friday 03rd Nov 2006 (08:54 UTC)
I've now added a search feature to the AMP.
Posted by Stuart on Thursday 09th Nov 2006 (00:45 UTC)
Hi. Could you add "MegaCosmos", please? My podcast is about astronomy and space exploration in spanish. My URL's www.megacosmos.podomatic.com
Feed: http://megacosmos.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
Thanks.
Posted by Jesus Gerardo Rodriguez Flores on Friday 11th May 2007 (19:34 UTC)