Listening To Podcasts PlaysForSure Style
By giving listeners control over what resonates their eardrums podcasting is causing a
fundamental shift in the way people consume audio. Instead of tuning in to whatever the
radio dial is offering, podcasting delivers on demand information targeted specifically to
your tastes. To take advantage of this new distribution method, you need software to manage
your subscriptions.
When I first figured out how to connect podcasts to PlaysForSure devices back in October
2004 no one had created an end-to-end podcast experience for Windows XP. At the time, only
one third-party application was optimized for downloading podcasts and the process. The process
of adding podcast files to Windows Media Player 10 and subsequently syncing to your favorite
portable device required too much user intervention. Flash forward a few months and several
Windows applications make the process of subscribing to podcasts almost automatic.
What can I use to listen to a podcast?
Most podcasts are available in MP3 format, making them widely available to just about every
PlaysForSure portable device and most Windows XP applications with audio support. Pocket PCs,
SmartPhones, and brands like Rio, Creative, iRiver and Dell fit this description. For a full
list of PlaysForSure devices with podcasting support, check out the PlaysForSure Website.
Which podcasting client should I use?
If you already use an RSS reader like NewsGator or FeedDemon, support for podcasting is just
a few steps away. If your current RSS reader doesn't support enclosures, a few free solutions
are available to get you started. For purposes of this illustration, I'll walk through the
process of subscribing to a podcast using
Doppler. The application automates most of the subscription process for Windows Media Player.
A variety of other apps is listed in the WMPlugins.com Podcasting directory.
http://www.wmplugins.com/ItemList.aspx?typeid=9
Receiving a Podcast
If you haven't done so already, download Doppler and install it in your favorite program
location. As part of the installation process, Doppler asks where you want to store downloaded
audio files. For simplicity, I typically create a folder called Podcasts in the My Music folder
(see Figure 1) because Windows Media Player automatically watches the My Music folder for new
audio content, although this isn't entirely necessary because Doppler does a decent job of
adding stuff to the library on its own. On the following screen choose Windows Media Player
as your default media player and complete installation.
After launching Doppler, you need to subscribe to something. Here's where I give a shameless
plug for the podcast I produce,
The Chris Pirillo Show. We primarily talk about issues faced by Windows XP users. On the
right hand side of our page, we have three RSS subscriptions: one for general text postings;
one for the MP3 version of the show; and one for the WMA version of the show. Right click the
WMA subscription link and choose copy shortcut from the menu. In Doppler, click the Add Feed
button and paste the subscription URL into the URL box shown below.
Click the Retrieve Now button, shown below, to start downloading the latest podcasts from The
Chris Pirillo Show.
Once Doppler lets you know the files are finished downloading open Windows Media Player.
Click the Library tab and expand My Playlists, to expose the view shown below. You should see
a playlist called The Chris Pirillo Show, which was automatically created by Doppler and Windows
Media Player.
If you right-click the playlist and choose Add to Sync List from the menu shown below, all the
tracks from The Chris Pirillo Show are ready to synchronize with your favorite media player.
With your portable player connected to your PC, flip over to the Sync tab in Windows Media
Player, click the Start Sync button and you're ready to roll with a collection of podcast
files awaiting your attention.
Automating The Process
Manual synchronization works when you only have one podcast subscription but quickly becomes
unmanageable with multiple subscriptions to sync on a regular basis. Subscribe to 10 or 20
podcasts and you've suddenly added several hundred megabytes of new audio content to your
portable player; sometimes on a daily basis. There's an automated way to manage the process.
A Windows Media Player Auto Playlist is the most effective way I've found to manage podcast
subscriptions. Back in the Library, right-click the Auto Playlists header and choose New from
the menu. After naming your playlist, add criteria by clicking the plus sign under Music in my
library and selecting More from the resulting dropdown list. Select File Name from the Choose
a filter dialog box, shown below, which defaults to contains. Set the Contains parameter to
<drive letter>:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\Podcasts. The easiest
way to do this is by browsing to the Podcasts folder in Windows Explorer and copying the path
from the address bar.
With only one criterion in your Auto Playlist everything in the Podcast folder and subfolders
is now in your Podcasts playlist. Back on the Sync tab, edit your portable player synchronization
options to download the latest podcasts every time you connect the player. Connect your player
via USB, display Properties and Settings and click the Settings button on the Synchronize tab,
as shown below.
Set your portable player for auto synchronization by checking the box then select the Podcasts
list from the dropdown list of available playlists shown below.
Ultimately syncing every podcast you download becomes unwieldy. It's complicated to figure out
which files you listened to, which track is the latest podcast for a given subscription and
information overload sets in. By tweaking the Podcasts Auto Playlist it's easier to keep track
of new shows and avoid overloading your playlist. Add the parameter: Date added To Library Is
After Yesterday to your playlist, just like the example in Figure 10. This limits synchronization
to podcasts downloaded in the last 24 hours. This has the disadvantage of loading the playlist
with every file from any podcast you subscribed to since yesterday, but at least going forward
you won't have the entire back catalog of podcasts cramping the music collection that takes up
most of the space on your player. Each time you sync the player, the playlist is refreshed with
the latest tracks.
You can change the Date added To parameter for a longer period depending on your listening
preferences.
Now you need to start building the playlist of podcasts you want to listen to. Some of my
favorites include:
About the Author: Jake Ludington is the producer of
The Chris Pirillo Show,
author of
Podcasting Starter
Kit and a Microsoft Digital Media MVP.
