Podcasts without an iPod

[ChrisGreaves]

(Moderator: I'm unsure of the forum ...)
I want to start regular downloads of talks from news web sites (e.g. TVOntario) and while I have used the old right/click saveAs method to store the file (e.g. from Steve Pakin I'm beginning to think it might be smart to have each episode (5 per week) sent to me by email, perhaps as a link, or better yet, automatically downloaded and stored in the folder \\Bigbeigebox\BBB_D (D)\Talk\StevePakin\.

When I read the various Podcast help screens they seem to talk always about the iPod (I don't have one) or Twitters etc. (I don't have any one of those, either).

Will I have to join the growing number of people who expose themselves to the public solely to get MP3 talks, or is there a nifty way to get what I want done - unattended storage of a regular daily MP3 on my hard drive - automatically?

Six months back my neighbour gave me a practically function-less MP3 player (1 GB, next/prev track, volume; no display) and I've gotten hooked on listening to audio books and radio/TV talks while wandering across the face of this planet.

[Leif]

I believe you don't need to join anything - other than perhaps a 'subscription' list - see these help files about podcasts from the Beeb for example:

BBC - Podcasts - Help

BBC - FAQs - What are podcasts and how can I listen to them?

From what I can see, they are simply .mp3 files which you can listen to on your favourite player

[BobH]

Seems the function of managing podcast subscriptions would be perfect for a Firefox extension or add-on, but I've not been able to locate one. Am I over-simplifying what's involved? Seems to me to be a schedule checker, options retrieve, open link to site, download since last use sequence (with writing to the appropriate file while downloading, of course).

????

[ChrisGreaves]

Seems the function of managing podcast subscriptions would be perfect for a Firefox extension ...

BobH, you are winding me up, aren't you (grin).
Tempted as I am to dash of a bit of Word 2000 VBA, I have found Juice via the Choice Wizard at Podcatcher Matrix

Juice is d/l a gazillion MP3 files as I tripe, and once the laptop has cooled down (grin) I'm going to set up a schedule for new issues to be d/l each day.

[ChrisGreaves]

I believe you don't need to join anything - ... they are simply .mp3 files which you can listen to on your favourite player

Thanks Leif, please see also my response to BobH.

Canoeing with my buddy Fred will be changed forever once I start listening to Steve Pakin instead (Huge grin)

[ChrisGreaves]

... I have found Juice ...

Three observations:
(1) Last night Juice wouldn't start without reporting an error. I did as I was told and read the log. It made no sense to me.
I used RevoUninstaller to remove Juice, a level-4 (complete), reboot the machine and re-install Juice.
Juice locates my 4 subscription URLs, so it must have had them stashed away somewhere RevoUninstaller couldn't find.

(2) Including "Year" in my Windows Explorer column headings helps me select a small enough backlog to drag onto my my 1GB MP3 player.

(3) Juice seems to stall after about 50 downloads. Restarting Juice after the next boot lets it continue. I can live with 50 one-hour podcasts each new day (grin).

Make that four observations

(4) I started with two TVOntario series of podcasts.
This morning I realized that my old University has podcasts, so now I can learn arts and science AND enjoy Aussie accents.

I think I'll be doing some serious exercise walking up and down the apartment building's stairwells this winter now that the time isn't being "wasted".

[Don Wells]

I have found Juice

Thanks for this Chris. I think that you have saved me a pile of aggravation.

[ChrisGreaves]

I think that you have saved me a pile of aggravation.

Glad to hear it, Don.
Once you have mastered it, I'll start picking your brains ... (grin).
Today i was trying to find the forums.
I want to know how to inhibit the d/l of MOV files from podcasts.
If you find out, please let me know!

[ChrisGreaves]

(1) Last night Juice wouldn't start without reporting an error.

:Duh!:, if we have such a thing. (Where is Don Wells when we need him?)
I think I've tracked the cause of the error down to Crass Stupidity on my part.
I have Juice set up to d/l to a folder on a networked drive, so when I have Juice in my laptop's StartUp folder it looks for that drive, but if the network is still coming online, the folder can't (yet) be found.
I can get the error report if I haven't (yet) mounted the TrueCrypted drive on laptop machine, so presumably Juice is accessing data on that drive, too.

[HansV]

:doh: results in

[ChrisGreaves]

I have found Juice

Fifth observation:
Some web sites seem to recognize that Juice is on my system and essentially build a button for me, along the lines of "Add this to my JUICE subscriptions".

Very handy for an easily-distracted/confused old duffer like me ...

[ChrisGreaves]

I have found Juice

Sixth observation:
I tried setting Juice to poll every 12 hours.
When I load Juice it self-minimizes (I can see it in the task bar) but won't let me open it to re-configure.

I took the following steps:

• Shut down Juice.
• Open "C:\Users\ChrisC\AppData\Roaming\iPodder\ipodder.cfg"
• Changed "window_is_maximized = False" to be "window_is_maximized = True"
• Closed ipodder.cfg
• Ran Juice.