Hi there;

I was thinking about an enhancement of the new podcasting feature of b2evo. Now the only files we can podcast are mp3 files. What about video files?

I got this idea from the loudblog engine (loudblog.com). It's strongly podcast-oriented, and also it allows the blog user to upload really big files through cgi interface.

But anyway...

It would be enough for the script to detect the type of the file and render a specific player for it. JW FLV Media player is great for this purpose (as for me) since it can play both mp3 and swf/flv files (and not only them) and is released under Creative Commons license.

I would see it in this way: once the user selects "type - podcast", the javascript shows a form asking for input width and height of the player. That's all. :) That's the most basic implementation which would even not need any file detection. :)

If the enhanced podcasting was made as a plugin, then more settings could be entered. Like the splash image of the player, width and height of the player for each file types, etc. On the JW Player's website are all available features of this player:
http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?page=wizard
One guy used this wizard's script in his plugin for Wordpress. I'm but too weak to port it to b2evo. :/

... and I also made a veeeeeery basic plugin that renders this player. (really basic that surely has some errors in it... but at least works in all browsers (that have javascript enabled) and displays valid xhtml code :) )

This player also supports swfObject script: the one used by youtube, which allows for cross-browser detection of swf files (and eliminates IE "click to activate" thing).

What do you think?