Scroll Down

ABF MEDIA GUIDE
by Ron Brookman, ABF Website Editor
If you have questions about this website, please contact Ron

Navigating the MEDIA section of the ABF website can be challenging to those who are not familiar with the latest computer technologies.  It also may contain some surprises even for intermediate or advanced users.  Some computer owners may also need to add supplemental programs to enhance their capabilities.  We have thoughtfully put together a guideline to help you understand some of the capabilities that you have at your fingertips.  ABF has hundreds of media resources online for you to enjoy, learn from or review. 

 ABF AUDIO SUMMARY

-  TWO-CLICK PLAYBACK OF AUDIO -- You can play ABF audio programs directly and almost instantly on ABF's Audio Library webpage with just your computer.  And, since these are on the Internet, you can play them from any computer in the world that has an Internet connection -- when on vacation or for distant friends, relatives and missionaries in any country.  We have received feedback from several other states.  Many new ABF attendees made their decisions to attend ABF by first listening to one or more sermons using this online method.

-  Or you can download the ABF Audio MP3 files either manually or automatically to configure for your own use.  (This also applies to document and video MP4 files.)

 ABF AUDIO (MP3) LIBRARY
Location for online stereo audio playback and manual MP3 downloads

-  The most recent ABF audio program is conveniently located at the top of the ABF Audio Library webpage.  All ABF audio programs are listed on one webpage.  If you do not see a larger icon at the top, then you have not yet installed the Flash Player that you will need in order to play from this webpage.  The ABF Audio Library MP3 Player (the Flash Player) is embedded into the bottom of this large icon.  If you don't have this icon, you will see a link and words on the left that allow you to easily download and install the necessary Flash Player.  You will only have to do this one time.  From then on, you will always see the larger icon at the top instead of those words.  (This same Flash Player will also work in other parts of your computer for many other programs.)

When you click on any smaller icon below, in the long list of ABF audio programs, that selected icon replaces the active one at the top.  Therefore, any audio program on the page can be played with the MP3 icon player.  In this top position, you have instant stereo audio playback capability through your computer speaker(s).  Unlike Podcasts, which are automatically downloaded to your computer via a free subscription, this manual playback method allows access via our ABF Audio Library MP3 Player any time that you are online. 

-   ABF provides both methods:
     ABF Media Library (online download and playback from our Internet servers; no computer program required) 
     Podcasts (offline via your iTunes program, other program or browser RSS)

-  Each ABF audio file icon looks similar to this example.  Each icon includes Date, Title, Artist and Duration.

-  When hovering over the bottom of any selected icon you will see the built-in ABF MP3 Player.  Click on the > PLAY arrow to begin the downloading and playback of the audio program through your computer speaker(s).  This process is almost instant, but does depend somewhat on your computer processor power and Internet connection speed.  If you have a very slow Internet connection, you may want to hit Pause until the file completely downloads into the MP3 Player.

-  Hovering over the ABF MP3 Player bar will produce a small hand.  When the hand is visible, you may click repeatedly on your left or right cursor keyboard buttons to move the playback location backward or forward in precise 15-second increments.  This works great for quick review and search.  Holding either of those keys down will move the marker quickly (Fast Forward and Fast Reverse).

-  Once the file completely uploads into the MP3 Player, you may also click and drag the playback location marker to any spot on the audio play bar.  Otherwise, it will play from beginning to end.

-  The left time code is the Elapsed Time and the right time code is the Remaining Time.

-  Pressing the || Pause on the left will allow you to stop playback until you are ready to resume.  For example, if you had to answer a phone call.  Most computer keyboards can also shortcut this by hitting the space bar.

-  Clicking on the small speaker on the right side will Mute the playback. You may also use the Mute on your computer.  Muting does not stop the playback.

-  Clicking on any of the vertical bars of the Volume < arrow on the far right will change the volume. You may also use your computer volume control.

 ABF AUDIO LIBRARY CONTENT

-  MP3 is the format that ABF uses.  It is the only true universal audio file format that can be opened by every kind of computer.  ABF records our audio programs in CD-quality WAV format and then, after editing, we convert to compressed MP3, for much quicker access and universality.

-  ABF Audio Library: You may manually download any of the audio programs from ABF's servers by clicking "Download MP3" under the Title.  For example, you could save the file to your Desktop where you would then have it available to use for playback, burning to a CD or inputting to your external listening device.  Once downloaded, it requires no Internet connection to listen to or otherwise use this file.  This is called offline.

-  RSS or iTunes Subscriptions: You may automatically download using your own computer's RSS or iTunes programs with a free subscription.  This would transfer automatically any time that you were online.  This automatic method is called Podcasts.  (You may also manually download from the "RSS FEED" webpage, which contains all ABF media files on one page!  You may also Play these files using your own choice of audio / video player on your computer.)

 PODCASTS:  RSS and iTunes
Automatic MP3 downloads to your computer and personal listening devices
(The RSS page is also a very good source for downloading any file manually.)

There are literally dozens of RSS aggregators ("pod-catchers") that will automatically download and organize our ABF Podcasts for you.  Chances are good that you already have one on your computer.  

The RSS symbol looks like this:

RSS podcast feeds can be accessed using Windows Internet Explorer, Juice, iTunes, Yahoo, AOL, Mozilla Firefox and many more.  iTunes is listed separately on our drop-down menu because it is much more than just an RSS aggregator.

You may find a complete list here at this link:  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_feed_aggregators.

If you had previously subscribed and set it up correctly, clicking on these browsers' RSS or Podcasts buttons in their tool bars would already have every ABF audio program listed there on your computer.  The ABF audio program files automatically download from our ABF servers via the Internet any time that you are online, depending on how you have it set up.  For example, the Sunday Sermon would automatically be in your computer on Sunday afternoon, if your computer was online and if you had it set properly.  With Internet Explorer, for example, you can set it to automatically check RSS updates every 15 minutes to once per week and you can have up to 2,500 podcasts stored on your computer.  This is similar with iTunes.  iTunes is a versatile computer program and has its own tutorial Help topics built in.

TIP:  HOW TO CLEAR YOUR PODCAST MEMORY
-  Since we changed website hosting in January 2009, you may want to clear out all of your Podcast files so that they can be repropagated with the new audio programs and titles.  Just delete the files and they will automatically be re-downloaded.

OTHER WAYS TO LISTEN:  You can also easily transfer these audio MP3 files to your personal listening device, such as a cell phone, handheld PDA, iPod or any MP3 player.  Or even burn your own MP3 CD.  If you require a standard audio (WAV) CD, you can obtain it from the ABF CD Ministry located to the left of the multi-purpose rooms.  Some older CD players will not play an MP3 CD.  Since MP3 audio files are compressed, you can record many ABF audio programs on one MP3 CD.  If your vehicle CD player will play eraseable MP3 CD-RWs, you can record many sermons on one CD-RW and then erase the CD-RW to record additional sermons.  Most computers are equipped to do these functions.

TIP:  HOW TO CONVENIENTLY TRANSFER OR STORE YOUR ABF AUDIO FILES
-  Since these audio files are usually too large to e-mail, you may use an inexpensive 1 GB USB Flash Drive to easily transfer the ABF Audio file to another computer or MP3 player.  Sermons are typically 20 MB and Seminars are typically 40 MB.  So you could possibly store an entire year of Sermons on just one $9.00 (from Amazon with free shipping) 1 GB Flash Drive.

TIP:  FAST CUSTOM SEARCH FOR MP3 MANUAL DOWNLOADING
-  If you don't plan to automatically download the Podcasts for each and every ABF audio program, one of the fastest and easiest ways to find a particular ABF audio program is with the PODCAST RSS SUBSCRIBE drop-down under MEDIA.  It has every ABF audio program in reverse chronological order on one webpage.  You can manually download any ABF MP3 audio program from there. 

-  (Advanced Sorting will not work with Firefox browser)
You can also do advanced sorting by typing in your own user entries, such as the word "Faith" or whatever you wish, in the DISPLAYING window.  Typing that word instantly filters only the ABF audio programs that contain the word "Faith" in their titles.  You could also type in "Andy" or "Dale" or "Jon", as well.  "Andy Faith" would instantly give you every audio program by Andy containing the word Faith in the title.  You can also type in a certain Date to instantly find the audio program that was recorded on that Date.

-  You may change the title sort order to either alphanumeric or reverse alphanumeric by toggling the small arrow next to the sort word TITLE. 

-   You may change the reverse chronological sort order to chronological by toggling the small arrow next to the sort word DATE.

 ABF FILE CABINET
Location for viewing and downloading sermon outlines, seminar handouts, registration forms, policies, guidelines and flyers

-  For almost every ABF Sermon and Seminar, there is also an Outline or Handout document, located in the ABF File Cabinet under MEDIA.  The File Cabinet also contains church policies, guidelines and special colorful flyers that you may view, print or e-mail to a friend.  Some documents are in Microsoft's Word format.  But most documents are in Adobe's PDF format.  PDF is a document format that requires a special, free Adobe Reader program on your computer.  If you don't have it, the program can be downloaded and installed to any computer.  Most computers already have it.

-  Go to  http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/ to download the free Adobe Reader for all computer platforms -- MAC, Windows, Linux, etc.

TIP:  SERMON PREVIEW
-  BEFORE some Sundays, you can find the Sermon Outlines already posted.

 ABF PHOTO GALLERY
Location for online viewing of photo albums

-   By using the MEDIA drop-down, you can find the ABF Photo Gallery.  The upper part shows the most viewed photos and the bottom part shows each ABF Photo Album.  Click on any Photo Album that you want to view.  To find individual photos in the album, you can use the arrows or slidebar.

If you have any interesting ABF-related photos that you would like to have posted on our website, please e-mail them to me (Ron Brookman) or the church office (Nancy Angel) and she will get them to me. You could also hand me a flash drive or memory card and I can usually upload them within minutes and return your drive or card that day.

-   Currently, we have pastoral welcome videos online, summary video clips from recent events and presentations.  This Library will continue to expand in the future.

-   If you have a slower computer or Internet connection, try downloading the video file to your computer and playing it with your computer's video player (instead of streaming it from the Internet).  The easiest way to download an ABF video clip is from RSS FEED.

-  For your convenience, you may embed any of these video clips into your own applications by copying the code provided at the bottom of the video window.

WRITTEN BY RON BROOKMAN

Posted February 2009  -  Last revision: 9/4/2010