Frequently Asked Questions
What is Channels.com?
What's a "video show"?
What kind of shows are available in Channels.com?
What do you mean that I can "record" a Web video show?
How does Channels.com work?
What RSS formats are supported?
How do I export my existing video feeds? What is OPML?
Feedback...
What is Channels.com?
Channels.com is a free Web site where you can "record" web video shows. With Channels.com, you can add video shows to a personal Playlist and get regular updates as new video episodes are added to the video feeds you subscribe to. To find video shows, you can search and sample any video show in the Channels.com guide. As of this writing, the Channels.com guide includes over 150,000 shows from sites all over the Web.
What's a "video show"?
Video shows are like TV shows on the Web. Each show includes multiple videos and publishers normally issue new episodes on a regular schedule – usually daily or weekly. . We call them "shows" but they are also referred to as "video feeds" "video podcasts", "vidcasts", "vlogs", etc.
What kind of shows are available in Channels.com?
As of mid-2010, the Channels.com guide has grown to include about 300,000 shows from all types of Web publishers including big media companies, Cable & TV broadcasters, Web-only video publishers, video bloggers, and individuals who publish their own feeds. Our guide includes shows from over 120,000 publishers in +30 languages.
What do you mean that I can "record" a video show?
Like a DVR for Web video, Channels.com let's you select from thousands of video shows in our guide and add any of those to your personal "My Playlist" page on Channels.com. When you add a show to your Playlist page, it works just like a Season Pass on your DVR or on iTunes. The shows you select will get updated constantly as new videos are released all over the Web for the shows you have selected.
How does Channels.com work?
Thousands of Web sites publish their shows using a standard called "RSS". Channels.com maintains a growing database of video feeds that are published all over the Web (our goal is to include all of them). Our servers are constantly checking these video feeds to see if any new video Episodes have been added. As we find new Episodes, they are added to our guide and we update all of the individual Channels users’ Playlists.
Channels does not make any copies of any of the video Episodes, The videos play directly from the Web publishers' servers.
How do I export my existing video feeds? What is OPML?
OPML is used to exchange lists of RSS feeds. Our video shows are video RSS feeds. If you have a video application that can export the list of subscriptions, it can usually do so in OPML format using File->Export (File->Library->Export Playlist on iTunes). Select OPML as the file format. Once you've exported your subscription list from another application, sign in on Channels.com, and then click the EDIT PROFILE link at the top of any page on the Channels.com website. On the Channels "Edit Profile" page in the section labeled "Upload OPML", enter the file you've exported from the other application and then click the "Go" button.
Note: You must be a registered user to use this feature
What RSS formats are supported?
Web video publishers use lots of different RSS “standards” to publish their video feeds. We include shows in our index that use any of the standard RSS formats including RSS 2.0, MRSS, Atom, and iTunes. We also try to support lots of popular (but unofficial) variations on these standard formats. If you have a video feed that's not in the Channels.com index, you can add it here: http://www.channels.com/publishers
If you have trouble adding it, please notify us at info@channels.com and we'll check it out.
Feedback...
We love it. Tell us what you like and don't like about Channels.com. No topic is too small or too big. The best place to post feedback is on our Google Group:
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