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Truthcasting Is Now Free

14 Jan

Truthcasting Is Now Free

Several months ago, I wrote a post about TruthCasting.com and their streaming service for churches.  Several readers started using this great service.  The only inhibitor for some was the new equipment purchase of a Mac Mini for the cost of $700.00.   In reality, $700.00 for a one-time setup was extremely inexpensive compared to the monthly fees of other services.  Included in the signup was unlimited and archived streaming of sermon video and audio.   Now, the TC techs have put their heads together to get your message out on the web with no cost to you.

Let me give a quick refresher.  Basically how TC works is as follows:

  1. Record your sermon (no singing) on a DVD.
  2. Insert the DVD into your “TruthCasting Media Slingshot” AKA “Your Computer”
  3. Their awesome software rips the video and the audio and then uploads it to the TC servers.
  4. Within a couple of hours, your sermon is ready to view on your internet channel!

Once you’ve completed your upload, you can embed your sermon on your website.  You don’t have to purchase a new Mac Mini  all you need are the following system requirements for the free download.

  • Mac OSX 10.5 – Intel or PPC
  • Windows XP/Vista – Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz or Athlon XP 2500+
  • 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)
  • 40 MB for Application and 6 GB for video transfer

Go to TruthCasting.com and sign up for a channel.  It’s the easiest way I know of to get your content on the web and get your message to the world!  Don’t you love free?

TruthCasting.com

MP3 Merge

20 Nov

If you record your services on CD chances are the audio is broken up into tracks.  For those who don’t record digitally, this is a problem when trying to create a podcast. Now you can take all of those annoying little tracks and combine them into one with Merge MP3.  Grab it here. (via Lifehacker)

Broadcast your services for free!

8 Apr

tcheader.jpgSeveral months ago I stumbled upon what I think is the best solution for broadcasting your church service. For many churches, the technicalities of online streaming video is way out of their league and budget. Truthcasting is a phenomenal solution that brings simplicity and economy to the table. They offer free bandwidth, storage, and archiving of videos and podcasts of your services forever. The only cost to the church is the purchase of a Mac mini. The retail is around $700.00. This is a one-time fee that gives your church the hardware you need to get this running. You own the equipment and have a turnkey solution almost immediately.

The process is simple. You record your services on DVD (with no singing for copyright purposes) and you insert the DVD into the Mac Mini. The TruthCasting software rips your service into a streaming video and podcast MP3 and uploads it automatically to their server. The only thing your video person needs to do is title the sermon, and enter some other information about the service. Lastly, you post a link on your website to your very own TruthCasting channel. For more information check out their informational video here.  Also, check out this interview we received from TruthCasting.com  READ MORE

A few short years ago, the time and expertise it took to host video content on a church website was available to a few, technically saavy congregations. YouTube launched it’s video sharing site in February of 2005 allowing user generated content to quickly find it’s audience. However, the technical limitations (most video sharing sites limit video length to 10 minutes) and social ills associated with YouTube and other sites have prevented sermon content from taking advantage of this distribution platform. TruthCasting, a new place to view and store your full sermons online, offers a bold approach and an innovative solution. Mister Nifty took time to track down one of the founders of TruthCasting, Matt Frazier, and ask about the future of online sermon broadcasting.

Why would the pastor of a small/medium-sized church have interest in putting their sermons on the internet?

The same reason pastors spend hours to prepare weekly sermons for their congregation. If the prepared content is valuable enough to gather a group of 300 individuals every week, when given the chance, that same content will find it’s world wide audience. TruthCasting gives people ease of entry into this kind of distribution without the need of having video professionals in their community. Suddenly, the pastors of small churches will find their sermons consistently viewed around the globe where they never imagined having influence.

How does it work?

We provide a digital media converter and publisher we call a RELAY that will upload video files to a custom channel in the TruthCasting network. The RELAY will automate all the complicated steps to a simple process for the novice. Simply title, label, and tag the sermon for key search words and the RELAY does the rest. Within a couple of hours of the sermon being taught, it is available in video or MP3 format.

How much does the service cost?

The service is totally free. The RELAY will be shipped to you close to the retail cost of a Mac mini, and then there are no fees for storage or usage. We see value in the number of churches that make use of the free service TruthCasting provides.

Well, that is certainly different from other organizations that do the same thing you do. How else are you different?

Our primary difference lies in the service provided with the RELAY. For the first time, we have tied together, what used to be a time-consuming, 5-step process for professionals who know things like compression rates and coding ftp sides of websites. Now, the non-technical pastor can fill out questions in an online form, hit submit, and let the RELAY do the rest. No technical training, to valuable time wasted, and no service fees.

What about copyright concerns with music and graphics?

We want to work with churches to respect the copyrights of music and graphic artists. That practically means that churches should post video from where the pastor’s content begins, and not include traditional time of music. The nature of copyright law makes it difficult for anyone to provide blanket protection from infringement violations. So, we see ourselves helping in the education effort of what constitutes a copyright violation.

What equipment does it take?

For the church that is already publishing content to DVD, this is a no-brainer. They will plug the RELAY into their network and can begin filling their channel with archived or current content right away. For those who aren’t capturing their content on video yet, they can be broadcasting globally with a simple direct-to-hard-drive video camera, any computer to drag and drop the video file into the RELAY, and an online connection.

See TruthCasting for yourself at www.truthcasting.com

To get your church set up with a channel on the TurthCasting network, contact the team at TruthCasting by sending an email to michael.ames@truthcasting.com or by calling 214.440.4040

Create a podcast from your mp3 files.

19 Jul

Podbasket.com is giving away an absolutely free, no strings attached RSS feed service for your sermon MP3 files. All you have to do is upload them to your web host, and then login to Pod Basket to add the URL, Title and Description of your sermon. Post the Feed URL on your website so people can subscribe and you’re off! You are now broadcasting those MP3 files that were just sitting there collecting dust. It’s beautiful. Take a look at their very simple interface. podcast.jpg podcast3.jpg

Check out this feed from Christ The King Apostolic Church in O Fallon, Illinois. Subscribe by using Google Reader or your favorite feed reader. http://podbasket.com/feeds/ckac Here’s what it looks like in Google Reader: podcast1.jpgpodcast2.jpg

Get your own podcast site for free!

10 Jul

main_logo.pngI am really impressed at this absolutely free service from MyPodcast.com. For those who don’t know what a podcast is, it is basically a recording that is broadcast over the internet and played on a multitude of devices that subscribe to the broadcast site. With a free account, you get your own custom podcast site – check out mine at: http://mrnifty.mypodcast.com. You can customize your site however you feel, or just choose from one of over a dozen preset designs. Download their free software, record your podcast, or load your mp3 file into the software, login, publish, and viola! Go to your site immediately to listen to your podcast. Visitors can subscribe to your feed which means whenever you update your site, their feed software is updated.

This is a great way for churches to get the word out about events and emergency announcements, not to mention, put your sermons on this thing! You have unlimited storage and bandwidth. I’m simply amazed. Lastly, the price for all of this is one 10 second very tactful advertising clip added to your podcast. It’s a small price to pay for such a beautiful free service.  You can even embed the episodes on your website like this —->>> [audio:http://www.mypodcast.com/fsaudio/mrnifty_20070710_2347-47644.mp3]

Hate YouTube? Try GodTube

21 May

logo.gifMany pastors have qualms about putting video content on YouTube because of immoral content.  I have been on some church websites that will embed a YouTube video on their start page.  When the video finishes, YouTube grabs two “relevant” videos from its hugombous stash and advertises them.  Sometimes these videos are not what you want showing on your church website.  The answer is free and simple.  www.godtube.com  Host your videos for your image marketing on GodTube and never have to worry what YouTube is going to post after the video finishes.  On the flipside, I feel it would be good to put evangelistic content on YouTube since a huge population is attached to that site.  Church website – GodTube | Reaching People – YouTube