Is totally automated synching of Pod/Vidcasts currently possible? If so, how?

[Paladin27]

I have an Imate KJAM and since I got this wonderful little gadget I have discovered the joy of listening to Podcasts on my commute and daily driving. It's literally been months since I even listened to terrestrial radio.

HOWEVER, I have yet to discover a nice clean solution for synching all the various content formats up to my PPC without lots of time consuming manual processes.

Currently, I use iTunes to schedule my Podcasts and Vidcasts to download, and then I have WMP10 set up to sync my podcasts via an automatic playlist that is set to sync the most recent 500MB of audio files in the iTunes folder. Then for video (since WMP10 doesn't support AVC(h264), MOV and most of the other common vidcast formats) I have to manually do all kinds of steps to convert some channels with Lathe, while others are in a format that I can get playing on TCPMP so I just copy them over manually. This all amounts to lots of time in the morning dinking around with my PC to get all my shows on the KJAM.

I dream of.... a single program that is a Pod/Vidcast scheduler that downloads all my shows and has automatic playlists so I can decide how many megs of Vidcasts and Podcasts I want on my PPC and always converts where necessary (would be great if I could pick the target format for various incoming formats ie. AVC h.264 544x288 to MOV 320x240) and syncs the most current content whenever my PPC is connected. It would be even better if it did the iPod thing where after you listen to the content it gets automatically removed from the PPC, although that's probably a pipe dream. :)

Is there any conglomeration of software currently available for the PC that can update scheduled pod AND vidcasts, convert format where necessary for playback and then sync them via Activesync either via it's own plugin or some 3rd party, and support all the various pod/vidcasting formats including AAC, AVC, MOV, WMV, WMA, MP3? I just want to drop my PPC on the cradle in the morning and grab it 30 minutes later and have ALL the content fresh. Is that too much to ask?

[GSmith]

Instead of all the syncing that you're doing, why not just use your Imate KJAM to download and manage all your podcasts and videocasts directly?

FeederReader will help you manage your downloads and allow you to play then delete your podcasts without having to worry about syncing. And you can combine FeederReader with TCPMP, which is able to play most podcasts (both audio and video): you won't need to convert the video at all.

I maintain the FeederReader Forums to answer these types of questions for users of FeederReader. Check it out!

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcasts
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[Paladin27]

I KNEW that was gonna be the first response, although wasn't expecting the author of one of the PPC RSS readers to reply. :-)

The problem is, and no offense, but I've tried most of the PPC software including FeedReader and they either don't have enough functionality or in the case of your program, the interface is overwhelming with WAY too many choices and things aren't explained in simple English. Heck, I'm a web developer and I STILL couldn't figure out how to just get a couple feeds added and have them automatically download. It started displaying some garbedly gook at the bottom about parsing and after about 30 minutes of waiting for something to happen, I clicked something and a window popped up in the middle of the screen that had a bunch of technical junk but didn't have any close or X anywhere that I could find, so I got frustrated and gave up.

Even if I get past the steep learning curve on FeedReader, my biggest problem with the PPC only solution is that I have Tmobile and GPRS is SLOW so I don't want the feeds to download the Audio and especially not the Videos when I'm on GPRS, only when I have a fast Wifi/Activesync connection. After digging around in FeedReader a while ago i couldn't figure out a way to make it do that. Plus, it kept turning my PocketPC on and then my battery got drained.

If FeedReader can download only on AS/Wifi and not wake up my PPC all the time, I'll be onboard and even give you some $$$! Although I still have the problem that podcasts like DL.TV are in h264 which doesn't currently play on a PPC and some Vidcasts are in too high of a resolution and need to be resampled to 320x240 or smaller to play on the KJAM, so I need to convert them to WMV, XVID or MOV first. :(

I guess I'll have to take FeedReader for another spin.

[GSmith]

Thanks! I like hearing from potential users, especially if you've tried FeederReader in the past.

I can answer any question you have (and I've answered a LOT on the FeederReader Forums). Just tell me what you are trying to do and I'll tell you how to do it with FeederReader.

I clicked something and a window popped up in the middle of the screen that had a bunch of technical junk but didn't have any close or X anywhere that I could find, so I got frustrated and gave up.

You probably tapped the green Status Bar, just tap it again to have the "Large Status Box" disappear again. The "junk" you saw was FeederReader giving you the detailed status on downloading and parsing feeds.

they either don't have enough functionality or in the case of your program, the interface is overwhelming with WAY too many choices and things aren't explained in simple English.
I understand this completely. It's very difficult to design a program with "enough functionaity" and have the interface not be "overwhelming". I keep trying. Especially because different people have different ideas about what "enough functionality" is!

You're right that there is a lot of functionality in FeederReader. There's a 30-page manual that attempts to explain every detail in plain English. If you go to the "downloads" page on www.FeederReader.com, you can browse the online manual. There's lots of pictures and explanations. The current version of the manual was heavily influenced by a user posting suggestions on the FeederReader Forums ("add pictures! change the sections around! put the glossary at the end!"). If you have any suggestions on improving the manual, I'd love to hear it.

As far as downloading over WiFi, you can set it to NOT automatically download enclosures during feed updates, then manually select "Update All Enclosures" when you're connected to WiFi. This way, when you select "Update All Feeds" and you're on a GPRS connection, FeederReader won't try to download those big enclosure files.

I'm not sure why you're saying FeederReader woke up your PPC. It's possible that the queue was not empty and it was attempting to open a connection. It's probably best to make sure FeederReader is idle (nothing in the download queues) when you power down.

I'm here and if you need to know how to get something done with FeederReader or how to set it up for your situation: just ask! That is the way that I learn what people want. So if FeederReader doesn't quite do what you want it to, then maybe I can improve it so it does!

Which "vidcasts" are you specifically having problems with? I'd like to try them on my PPC with TCPMP to see if they work. Just give me the RSS Url and I'll test them out!

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcasts
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[Paladin27]

Alright it sounds like your interested in making this product work well, that's the best scenerio for getting to my nirvana of podcasting on the PPC! :) I'll install FeedReader again and give it another go.

[Guest979]

For a while, I was working on writing a plugin for The Missing Sync for Mac OS X that would sync video podcasts to my iPaq (while leaving audio podcasts for Mr. Nano). I have basically put this idea on the back burner because TMS is not reliable enough at transferring large files to the expansion card of an attached PPC, and it usually doesn't work even if done manually.

It is better, for me at least, to put the SD card in my card reader and copy them that way. Although this is not a huge hassle, it's not "automatic" like a lot of syncing is. If you wish, there are a couple of ways on Mac OS X to automatically run scripts whenever you mount a specific volume - I'm guessing there is something similar for XP as well.

[Paladin27]

Yeah, I've tried some automatic file sync programs designed to tag a specific SD card and remember what files are synced. But unfortunatly, none of them have bene very reliable, and by the time you involve iTunes for downloading, some video converter for batch conversions and a file sync program which is dependent on specific cards being inserted manually, there is a lot of complexity to the process with lots of failure points. :)

I need a solution that involves as few applications as possible and hopefully with everything as automated as possible. I think it's a pipe dream for now, but I'm gonna give FeedReader another go and see if I can make it work.

[isajoo]

i go to dl.tv to download the vidcast in XVID or WMV all the time... plus H.264 can play in tcpmp search the forums on where to download... u have to download a new version, install it, then download the add-on acc(audio) and ffmpeg(h.264 video) codecs , install them ,THEN THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART... download the .066 version of tcpmp, install it and THEN it will play H.264 files...hehe pretty weird way. but it works.
i even use a ftp program like total commander will play your vidcast, podcast and mp3 straight from your pc streaming the files over wifi

there are LOTS of podcast softwares like ppcpodcast and other rss readers that support podcasts out there. good luck.
:cry: