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Topic: foo_podcatcher (Read 213904 times) previous topic - next topic
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foo_podcatcher

Reply #225
Hi there, I just tried Podcatcher and I like what I see, but I stumbled on a little problem (for the record: I use foobar2000 1.0.3 (regular install) and Podcatcher 1.7.4 on Windows Vista 32-bit).

On this site, in Firefox's podcast subscription interface, all episodes of the podcast are named Download.mp3 and when I try to download an episode after the first one Podcatcher asks me if I want to overwrite Download.mp3. Here, there is room for improvement because if I click "yes" the episode is overwritten (not desirable) but if I click "no" it doesn't download the episode. There should be an option to rename files with identical filenames (perhaps in preferences or podcast-specific preferences). When I had downloaded several episodes (overwriting the existing file) the podcast listed several episodes with the same duration and with the same title as the first episode, but when I deleted the podcast and added it again and downloaded another episode first the duration changed to the duration of that episode but the title was still the same as the first one. But here comes the funny part; when I download an episode from Firefox (directly to disc, bypassing Podcatcher) it renames the file to [name of episode].mp3 and when I open the file in foobar2000 the title says [name of episode]. I don't know if this is some evil voodoo that the site uses but if Firefox can catch the new filename then it should be possible for Podcatcher.

By the way, thanks for all your hard work and despite my issues, this plugin great.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #226
@nausea
Any news on this fabulous component?

foo_podcatcher

Reply #227
m_foo:
I had his problem too at one point. The download path in the location accepts title formatting, which defaults to something like S:\Media\Podcasts\%album%\%filename_ext%, but you can change it to something like to solve your problem:

S:\Media\Podcasts\%album%\$date(%date%)\%filename_ext%
or S:\Media\Podcasts\%album%\%title%.$ext(%filename_ext%)

You can do this either globally in the preferences, or on a per-feed basis by double clicking the feed in the Feed Manager, and then double clicking one of the listed properties.


Sebert: I've been working on v0.2.0 again recently. I've basically done the database integration, and am slowly bringing the feature list to parity with v0.1.7.4. When that's done I might release it to get it more widely tested before adding new features. No ETA yet though.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #228
nausea:

thanks for the tip!

foo_podcatcher

Reply #229
I have a problem - if I have "Download podcasts from All Time" selected, and quit foobar2000 during the first, full download of the podcast's history, it doesn't pick up where it left off. In fact, it refuses to download anything when I click "Update All".

How do I get the plugin to check what it's downloaded and download what's not there?

foo_podcatcher

Reply #230
Another feature request: A possibility to backup your subscribed feeds (just the info, not the files), I am thinking of something like a OPML export/import or something like that !
Reason: Foobar2000 just crashed and now all the feeds are gone, I have to look for the feed url for each of them and add them manually !

foo_podcatcher

Reply #231
Apologies if I've missed this in the thread, but I couldn't find an answer.

Is there any reason why some podcast episodes are downloaded and others are played from their remote location?  I'm pretty anal, and I like to have an archive of the shows I listen to.

NB: Episodes in question have the download and updated date of "1601-01-01 01:00:00".

Many thanks for this component, it's very useful to me.

Edit: Bah, just answered my own dumb question!  I assume this was because I had the automatic time range as "1 day".  This machine is my work machine, so if a podcast was released over the weekend it was deemed too old to download I assume.  I have updated now to "All time".  That said, it was showing up as a new podcast, but just not being downloaded. I'm still a little confused at the conflict between these two facts... and on checking again I guess I would be directed to the "Include only downloaded items in Podcatcher playlist" checkbox.  If I had this checked (which I didn't) presumably there would be better parity between the two.
I'm on a horse.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #232
...and of  course you can manually download any past podcasts.

Also a visual indicator showing(using a script)  if  a podcast is in a local location or not might help you reducing any  confusions.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #233
A playlist indicator is a very nice idea, and maybe a combination of both your suggestions would be a nice solution.

As it is I'd rather be lazy and use "All time", so I don't have to change my column script specifically for podcatcher, or do any more clicking than I have to.  I know, I'm lazy.
I'm on a horse.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #234
hi,nausea! thank you for such it's an excellent plugin!
but i met some problem when i subscribe to podcasts which need username and password, in itunes it will popup a window for you to type your username and password, i didn't find such a thing in the plugin.
it says: Unable to open item for playback (Authorization Required (401))
hope you can add the function in the new version!
thank you!

foo_podcatcher

Reply #235
hi,nausea! thank you for such it's an excellent plugin!
but i met some problem when i subscribe to podcasts which need username and password, in itunes it will popup a window for you to type your username and password, i didn't find such a thing in the plugin.
it says: Unable to open item for playback (Authorization Required (401))
hope you can add the function in the new version!
thank you!


Try this, it allowed me to use foo_podcatcher with subscription sites. Enter the podcast url in this format:


http://username:password@rss.rest_of_url.whatever.








foo_podcatcher

Reply #236
Is there any way to access the properties added by podcatcher (like Podcast Status) through queries? Something like %podcatcher_podcast_status% ? I'm especially interested in adding a column to my playlist view showing whether or not an episode has been played and/or downloaded. A list of all possible variables would be even nicer...

(Question has been asked before by others, but wasn't answered yet.)

foo_podcatcher

Reply #237
Again a question concerning the Genre - podcast tag.
Foobar properties only show the genre "Podcast" if I open the file at least once. If I just select the feed item and select properties the tag is still empty, if I open it, the tag is suddenly there. Why is this?
I was going to ask this same question.  I'm just trying to get myself together* with podcasts on my iPod, and I use foo_podcatcher and foo_dop.  The plan is not to listen to them in foobar, but use foobar to transfer them to my iPod.  If the genre tag is only set on play this won't help me.

* On a vaguely related note, I recenly discovered smart playlists which makes listening to multiple podcasts much easier (useful when running, and unable to mess about too much). Only relevant in the fact that my playlist looks for the "Podcasts" genre value.

I'm on a horse.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #238
hey. nice addon for foobar2000, i miss one thing, option to sort in foobar2000, a standard playlist can sort after date, bitrate, codec, album, artist etc but not  foo_podcatcher 

foo_podcatcher

Reply #239
First of all, thanks for that awesome component!
Have you any plans to make synchronization with google reader. It will be cool... I guess it is no so hard to implement.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #240
@wiak,  you could create an autoplaylist  to the folder podcatcher saves its podcasts.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #241
i miss one thing, option to sort...

I agree. I know this has been raised before and Nausea said it might be implemented in the future.  Just adding my support for this request.

Also, does the Podcatcher playlist work with Columns UI grouping scripts? I have some unexpected grouping behaviour, but I can't see anything in the metadata to explain it. Is this connected with the sorting?

create an autoplaylist  to the folder podcatcher saves its podcasts.

- Good workaround, this solved my grouping issues as well.

It would still be great if this behaviour was standard in the Podcatcher playlist though.

Tom

foo_podcatcher

Reply #242
Files and directories are being created without an Owner on Fat32 volumes in Windows 7.

Not all files and directories have this problem, but some do.

On a Windows 7 system set the Podcast directory to sit on a FAT32 volume.

Subscribe to some podcasts.

Download some shows.

This is easiest to see if you have it configured to show the File Size in the Playlist columns.

Notice that not all shows show a downloaded size -- even though the Podcast Status shows that they are downloaded (and the context menu switches to "redownload".)

In a CMD window, you can use "DIR /Q" to list the owner. In my case, I see "//Everyone" and "..." the files/directories. The files/directories that show an owner of "..." with "DIR /Q" show up as having no owner when I use the "Owner" column in the Windows Explorer. These files/directories can not be deleted.

Better yet, since this only happens on Fat32 volumes -- and Fat32 volumes lack the "Security" tab in the File Properties -- there is no easy way to correct the problem. Once I realized the problem I copied what I could to another volume and reformatted as NTFS.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #243
It looks like I was wrong.

It isn't limited to just FAT32 volumes. Also, I'm not sure if it is a Foobar2000 bug or a Windows bug.

The problem happens when you have filename or directory that ends in an ellipsis.

It appears that Windows Explorer -- and the CMD echo > FILE / mkdir will not let you create a filename/directory ending in an ellipsis.

I had logic in place to shorten directory names (and I may have used similar logic for the filenames earlier, but I am not sure) which resulted in an ellipsis if the directory name was shortened.

All of my directories with ellipsis in them show as not having an Owner in Windows Explorer.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #244
Hello

Thanks for the great plugin.

Just one question.

Is it possible to access the "Podcast description" tag that is visible in metadata and make it a column in foobar? Or retag it to another standard tag in the file? The automatic retaging uses only "Podcast Title" but not the "Podcast Description" where in my case is more important information than in "Podcast Title" tag.

Thanks


foo_podcatcher

Reply #246
Any news on this?

foo_podcatcher

Reply #247
I noticed that if you compare byte by byte the files downloaded by Podcatcher and the original file downloaded from the podcast stream with any other download tool, they are different.  Why does Podcatcher change its content (most probably the tags, but it looks like not only them).

foo_podcatcher

Reply #248
I noticed that if you compare byte by byte the files downloaded by Podcatcher and the original file downloaded from the podcast stream with any other download tool, they are different.  Why does Podcatcher change its content (most probably the tags, but it looks like not only them).

There's a bug in 0.2.0 where podcasts are always retagged on download. I expect this is what you are seeing.

I've posted 0.2.2 with a fix for this. Thanks for letting me know.

foo_podcatcher

Reply #249
I noticed that if you compare byte by byte the files downloaded by Podcatcher and the original file downloaded from the podcast stream with any other download tool, they are different.  Why does Podcatcher change its content (most probably the tags, but it looks like not only them).

There's a bug in 0.2.0 where podcasts are always retagged on download. I expect this is what you are seeing.

I've posted 0.2.2 with a fix for this. Thanks for letting me know.


Thanks!  Version 0.2.2 fixed this, indeed.

However, as an avid podcast listener (70 different podcasts at the moment), I encountered these problems:

1. I need to download all my podcasts in one Windows folder, then put every file from one podcast feed into a subfolder (alternatively, put all the podcast files into one folder, but rename them so that you can know what they contain).
However, every podcast producer has their own naming rules and you have to change the name of the folder in advance, otherwise it would be a mess.
When I changed all the download folders Podcatcher assigned to every podcast (it took me a while!), I noticed that Podcatcher rather created files with the name of the intended folders, instead of folders where to put every file (did I do something wrong, I don’t know, because there is no user guide for Podcatcher!).
Moreover, these files didn’t have the .mp3 extension, some had a partial name (it seems that the ‘ sign confused Podcatcher) and some files became almost impossible to delete from Windows (a file containing a space at the end, because Podcatcher created a partial name).  In other words, it was a bigger mess.
This means I still have to use FeedDemon instead of Podcatcher for now.

2. Another problem: it’s impossible to create custom playlists that fit my needs.
I listen to all these podcasts, but I have a selection to listen on foobar, another to listen on my smartphone.
So, I managed to create a selection of podcast feeds that are meant to be listened on foobar.
However, I have no control over this list: I would like to only see there new and downloaded podcasts.  If I listen to some, I would probably automatically delete them (except in some cases if they are really good and want to keep them) and I don’t want to see them anymore.  The problem is, Podcatcher would still put them into the list, so I’m never sure where I stopped and what podcast I have listened to or not.

I hope my descriptions are clear enough.
If these two problems were solved, Podcatcher would start to be usable, in my opinion.



As additional features, I would like to see:
1. The Podcatcher playlists not locked, so that I could manually add some old podcast files from my hard disk to listen immediately instead of creating a new playlist.
2. If you don’t assign a download folder to podcast files, you can still listen to them, but where are they stored?  Because I hope they don’t go to some obscure folder and accumulate on my hard disk without me being able to get rid of them.
3. Believe or not, Podcatcher is not easy to use for new users, even if you are a long time foobar user.  A user guide for Podcatcher would be absolutely necessary, in my opinion.
4. Let me add, as another user said, that accessing specific podcast tags like %podcast_downloaded% would be very useful.
5. Also, the new feature of importing OPML files, unfortunately is incompatibile with an OPML exported from FeedDemon.

Let me know what you think about this.