I have this funny niggling feeling that I did this more than once already. That I tried out a whole passel of rss aggregator with varying media enclosure capabilities, and that I found nothing worked sufficiently well to replace iTunes or Zune.
First off, my criteria. I want to be able to plug a feed in and have the media content found immediately. I want the option to determine how many files to download, where to store them, how long to keep the media, and one of my kickers, I want to be able to automatically change the ID3 information to match the feed and the fact that I am downloading PODCASTS!
Rant time. I am listening to podcasts and you are putting out podcasts. They are podcasts, not “blues” or “voice” or “audio drama” or whatever the frog else you deludedly put into the genre description. If you are Leo Leporte, then you can call it a “netcast” but that’s it. Other than that, it is a freaking PODCAST!! Why in the world is this so frelling hard for PODCASTERS to understand? HUH!?! Argh. Rant, off…
Still more criteria. I want to be able to control how many feeds are scanned for new content, how many files are being downloaded contiguously, and how much bandwidth is being consumed. And I almost forgot that it has to be able to import AND export OPML files.
That’s pretty much it for requirements, at least for now. I’ve got more items on my wish list, but since I cannot even find a single podcatcher/rss aggregator that can handle my criteria I should probably not be greedy.
Next time we’ll start with a look at Juice, formerly known as iPodder. Which is merely to say that is has a pedigree.
Requirements for the Podcatcher King:
- Ignore non-enclosure posts
- Configure number of stored items per feed
- Configure download location
- Configurable trash collection system
- Automatic ID3 editing
- Configure number of feeds scanned during sync
- Configure number of items downloading at one time
- Ability to set an upper limit on bandwith being used
- Import OPML
- Export OPML
3 Responses
This actually has a lot to do with what program you encode the MP3 with. If your using something like Audacity, it doesn’t have a Podcast setting, and doesn’t allow you to add additional types.
If you find they have it set to Blues, pretty good chance they are using Audacity to make their podcast. As its the first choice on Audacity.
Posted on September 25th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Of course, Windows let you edit ID3 tags, so that’s not an excuse. Also, with Audactiy 1.3 beta, I don’t have that problem at all, so it might have been fixed…
Posted on October 17th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Hey Moody, thanx for dropping in. I see what you are saying but I don’t buy it. Anyone who puts any care into their podcast can take the three seconds it takes to individually edit that particular field of the ID3 tags. Like Tosus says, you can use the file system on Windows to edit the tags. (I’m a Mac virgin, so it may be radically more difficult though I somehow doubt that.)
I suppose that it may be possible that no one else is trying to put both music and podcasts onto a non-iPod/Zune PMP. If you are using your PMP for podcasts only, then the need for sorting them from each other is obviated. I find it simplest to use the genre as a sorting mechanism, though someone else might make smart use of playlists instead.
(I appreciate and am amused by The Podgecast, which posits the genre ‘Porn Groove’.)
Posted on October 21st, 2008 at 10:51 pm
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