This is a component for subscribing to, downloading, and playing podcasts in foobar2000.

Get version 0.1.0b (beta) here: download foo_podcatcher

To manage your podcast subscriptions open the Podcatcher UI from the View->Podcatch Manager menu. Here you can add new feed URLs and create playlists. The component will parse RSS 2.0 and atom 1.0 feeds.

In the preferences you can set the download path and the time period over which to download from each feed automatically. The component will check for new podcasts 15 seconds after foobar2000 starts and then again every 60 minutes.

New for version 0.1.0:

• Podcatch Manager redesigned; now only displays feeds and uses the 'Podcatcher' playlist for items.
• New 'tile view' preference for Podcatch Manager which downloads and displays feed images.
• Title formatting support for download path.
• Per-feed preferences. Access from Feed Properties dialog from the Podcatch Manager context menu.
• Podcatcher playlists sorted to play in chronological order (rather than reverse).
• Playback of podcasts resumes from last listened point.

If you're upgrading from an 0.0.x version you will need to re-set your download directory for this new version. The option to download, remove, and see the properties of podcast items is now available from the playlist context menu.

Anyway, let me know if you find any problems, and post any feeds which don't seem to work.

It works!
I also like the ability of playing the files without downloading em, is sth I always needed.

Nausea, all the three pluigns of YOURS are AWESOME. Muchas gracias!

Great plugin!

A bug report: The podcatcher UI seems to have problems with umlauts (ä,ö,ü) and probably other special characters in podcast titles. Names are truncated just before their occurence. Example feed

Some feedback:
-The time you create the podcast playlist, the first song you ll play will have its seek bar disabled.
-If you remove a subscription you cant readd it.
-If oyu delete a track, you cant redownload it. On updates, podcatcher should check if downloaded files do exist.

And a little feature request although I undrstand this is just an alpha, an option to write published date in a file tag would be great!

how to delete the program list? I remove the feed,but the programs list of the feed on the right side still exist.

and I download the mp3 files,but it download the file only 50k,but the file is 12M.

It is so good. woo

u roxx mate!

the greatest plugin ever

a little feedback, to what i've just runed:
1) it started to auto download the episodes only after i've added a new feed
2) the url type feed:// isn't supported. i've changed it to http:// and it did work. (the feed is rss2, so it should be)

except these i have not found any bugs.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've released a quick update with a few fixes. More will follow!


Is this with all feeds? If not could you post an example feed which has the problem. Thanks.


1) I guess this was after the first run, when you had to set the download directory. The items are still in the queue so you can trigger the download by updating the podcasts. I'll make this more elegant at some point...
2) Do you have an example podcast which uses feed:// "protocol"?

This was because of the encoding of the feed. It seems to work for the example feed now. Let me know if you come across any others with similar problems. It's easy to not notice character encoding problems when everything you listen to is in English...

Yes, it was after the first run.


Sure, here are some: http://tilos.hu/podcast/
All of those are rss2, only the url type is different. Actually it works, if you change the url to http://

Great plugin! I just did what the author recommended, put the Podcast Path to the "Podcast" folder (I created) in my library (D:/Music/Podcast) and created an autoplaylist "Podcast" (* HAS podcast) and everything turned out fine I noticed the downloaded music files (I only subscribed to audio-podcasts) all have embedded art so I will try to display those in the Curacao elpplaylist ^^ Thanks for the great work!

Can you make it so that the plugin updates the playlist automatically even if not downloading podcasts? I would like to stream podcasts instead

Version 0.0.3 released. Main change is to the downloading UI. Now uses notification area to inform about new podcasts, downloads, etc. You can see the download progress of individual items in the Podcast Manager UI.

aliumalik: automatically updating playlists is on the TODO list for the next version.

predator29: I'll also look at the feed:// issue. As you say they work if you change the url to http:// so it should be easy...

Great. Would it even be possible to add ability to add an episode to the playlist after double clicking it in the list and even better navigating to the corresponding list item using keyboard and pressing enter key? Potcast manager window seems to be great it lists all the episodes. For me it would be nice to review that list and add to the playlist episodes I like. Or if playlist will be generated and streaming will be possible then I can let the plugin to generate the playlist and then remove the episodes I don't want to listen to.

thanks I love this plugin.

"remove selected" button removes only one item although selects many in podcatcher

few suggestions:
one more display column: <description> element
maybe sort columns if title column is clicked
access to information in columns, at least ability to copy

one note: i had to rename .m4b extension to .m4a to be able to play the file (but that has nothing to do with this component, although it stores the info about it as .m4b so when creating playlist it of course looks for .m4b)

thanks

i'm not sitting in front of my box, but i have a question. correct me if i'm wrong, but it came to my mind, if i delete a file in a file manager, does this plugin updates the status of the file to "not downloaded"? if it does, then pardon me but if it doesn't than i would like to see this feature

It updates it to "deleted", and you should be able to re-download it manually.

Something is seriously wrong here...

I set the download folder under Library->Preferences->Tools-Podcatcher, then ran View->Podcast Manager to load a podcast. I entered the podcast URL and clicked Subscribe... and nothing happens. The bottom panes don't get populated, nothing.

I tried with the following three URLs, same result. Restarting... nothing. Clicking every button on the page... nothing.

http://www.onthemedia.org/index.xml
http://pointofinquiry.libsyn.com/rss
http://carollaradio.com/feed/

What am I doing wrong?

#bellingsman
Alle three feeds works for me.
It might takes a few seconds after you click suscribe before a windows pops up asking you to confirm the suscription.

#nausea
I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong, but I can't remove more than one file* at a time. *all those files in the right column in podcatch manager
futhermore, when I click on a random place in the left column, I can see files from earlier deleted feeds.

Not for me. No matter how long I wait, nothing happens.

I see the problem now: it does not recognize my proxy server settings. When I disconnected from my corporate network it works normally.

So I guess this is a feature request: please recognize the proxy settings as set in Windows Internet Options and prompt for authentication (as iTunes does, for example) or add configuration fields for the proxy server address, port, and username/password.

Thanks.

Has anyone tried combining this with some kind of custom column which monitors whether you've played the track or not? One thing I like about iTunes is that it checks whether you've played the track, and it also picks up from where you've left off if you do happen to start it but then need to pause or play another track. I don't suppose a custom column which does the monitoring would be too difficult, but I'm not too sure about how to go about it.

I really like the component, but I think that the key in using it effectively is with a well-designed playlist.

Can anyone explain why this podcast wont work?

http://www.zen54064.zen.co.uk/Hospital%20R...Podcast%201.xml

Thank you.

The feed contains playlists (rather than mp3s or similar), and they aren't marked as type "audio", so the component ignores them. I'll have a think about how to handle this situation. Thanks for pointing it out.

Thanks alot, id love to uninstall iTunes and use this instead!

nausea did you get my PM?

Nausea, if you re gonna fix the above(not an issue really), mind you can register feed:// (or even itpc//) using new foobar versions.



Secondly I dont know how you plan to implement "Playlist genereting UI", but a simple quick n dirty one is like album's list will do just fine imho. Just a Generate playlist's name textbox with a default  tagz value sth like: "%_pcast_name% podcast". If the user wants a unified playlist just removes %_pcast_name%.


Thanks for your work many many kudos!!!

awesome plugin. I've been waiting for this..
A couple requests/bugs:

• Ability to automatically tag downloaded files f.e. - Genre: Podcast, maybe using title formatting too (album name - podcast name)
• Ability to disable tray notifications
  i use a custom tray icon and the notifications change it to default for some reason. Also, when it's finished downloading (showing tray notifications), the tray icon disappears completely. My settings are - always show notification area icon, minimize to notification area, use a custom icon.
• Separate autoplaylists for separate feeds
• When i select 1 music file in a feed and press download selected, it downloads the rest (under the first one in the list) of the files too.
  Maybe it's because I selected all and pressed download selected at first and later aborted the process

Small buglet.

I've XP set with Foobar in the quick launch area of the Task Bar.
Also, Foobar preference is set to minimize to notification area.

Foobar open but quiet [not sure yet if matters whether current status is paused or stopped]
Podcast runs one of it's 30minute updates.

Foobar will no longer respond to the notification icon to open. A mouse over the icon with show a pop up of "podcast" as current track.
Foobar will respond to the quick launch icon and appropriately opens the existing instance and all reverts back to normal.

just FYI

terry

Forgive my ignorance with using Foobar, I'm new to it. This is my first post. I am really impressed with Foobar's ability to convert 24-bit/96khz FLAC's to WAV's while maintaining their full integrity.

I'm trying to use Pod_Catcher to subscribe to the Burnout Paradise CrashTV podcasts. I'm not quite sure what exactly I should be doing to set up the podcast.

I'm having the same problem as bellingsman did. Except, I'm not using a proxy at all with either of these links.

http://criteriongames.com/podcast/

itms://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=282477732&ign-mscache=1
I have even changed that to "http" and still nothing happens.

My is E:\My Videos\Burnout Podcasts

If you'd look at the site, you'll see the "Subscribe to" link on the right side. When I click on that, Winamp launches and it cannot load the podcast properly. I'm wondering if there might be some sort of issue with the BOP podcasts that are causing problems?

Very new to podcasts with Foobar myself....but are not those Video podcasts?
Foobar is a audio program.

terry

Yeah, you've got a good point. I was just assuming FB had a video component like Winamp does. Even with the video option checked in Winamp they don't load.

No

terry

Updated to version 0.0.4 (alpha).

Implemented some of the planned changes, but not all of them yet.

Main change for this version are the podcatcher playlists which update as the feeds do. The notification icon conflict problems should also be fixed now, as the component now has its own icon. The icon does sometimes remain, which is a bug.

It seems to be stable, but let me know of any crashes or hangs.

Edit: quick release of v0.0.4b, which adds support for feed:// and itpc:// urls (including registering them in recent versions of foobar2000).

Why is the seek bar often disabled in foo_podcatcher playlists? (I think it's only disabled on first play of each track, not the second one.) This doesn't look like it's intentional, as the files are already downloaded, and seeking does work with keyboard shortcuts (just not with the seek bar).

halabund,
Umm are u sure those are downloaded tracks? I thought it played not dled tracks too... maybe i understood wrong...
EDIT: I checked, it seems to play tracks that are not downloaded in foo_potcatcher playlists. At first, when it's not locally cached, the seekbar doesn't work, which is logical as the file has not been downloaded fully. Additionally, it doesnt get the artist name when you haven't played the track yet. Downloaded tracks work all OK.
nausea,
anyway... great update but the icon is rather ugly. I've made a better one (imo) for u to use if you want.



also, it's weird but the podcatcher doesn't automatically download... i have to manually check and download every time...
and the last published/published column on all music files in the manager window is always the same - 1601-01-01 03:00:00

Yes, I am talking about downloaded tracks. The very first time they are played after having been downloaded, the seek-bar is disabled (the handle does move, but cannot be moved with the mouse). Despite this, seeking works with keyboard shortcuts.

With non-downloaded tracks, the seek handle does not move and cannot be moved---that is reasonable. But I was talking about downloaded tracks.

well maybe the podcathcer ignores the fact that the tracks are downloaded and streams *all* the tracks from the playlist. In that case, it's a bug and should be fixed.
EDIT: so the downloaded tracks behave different from the not downloaded tracks. In that case my theory is incorrect . I personally don't have that problem... i think.

That is only possible when you play the tracks in the autoplaylist generated by the podcatcher. If the downloaded tracks have the same problem globally, then it's probably not the components problem. It could be a problem with the rss feed you're subscribed to.

It would be nice to have tag mappings on the go. All podcasters seems to use different tagging scheme, which breaks grouping in foobar...

I started using this today. This is hot! Thanks!

Released version 0.0.5. Available from all the usual outlets.

Now at version 0.0.6.

This version has a fix for garbage being appended to downloaded files, which caused problems with playback of non-mp3 files.

I get object not found errors with both versions .5 .6. Although server responds ok (200, as I see sniffing it) pod catcher responds with object not found. None of my subscriptions works, is it only me, why noone reported sth like that yet?

Also there is a bug in the way it handles (I think the years in)dates, test case subscription: http://www.awaretek.com/python/index.xml. I get this "Podcatcher: Error in RFC822 time formatting (31 Apr 2006 20:19:00 -0400).", when I am trying to update the podcast subscription

I'm glad this useful component is still being developed

I've just upgraded to version 0.0.6. It seems that the seek-bar bug is still present: the seek bar is non functioning (greyed out and not moving) the very first time a track is played from the playlist (but it is possible to seek using the shortcut keys). This is about already downloaded tracks.

Also, in this new version the dates look a bit funny.

thecircusfreak:
I get the "object not found" error when the download location is not valid. Is that the problem you have?
Also, 2006 is ok, but April only has 30 days

halabund:
I can't reproduce the seek-bar problem. Perhaps there is a conflict with another component. As they are simply mp3s on your hard-drive after downloading (but perhaps not in your media library) can you reproduce the problem with some other unplayed file?
The date problem will be fixed for the next version. I was using superscript st, nd, rd, and th for the dates, but I guess not all fonts have those characters.

Thanks for the feedback.

Ouch, didnt think the feed was to blame!

Now as far as the object not found problem, I checked it before reporting it, and the download location is there. I also tried removing the subscription and readding it, but the problem remains. Check this for example: http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/audio.xml

Don't worry, it's still worth knowing about. I can add it to my test case list and at some point in the distant future when every other feature is implemented I can work on some sloppy date formatting code.


The next version should help to identify the point of failure more precisely, and we can try to work it out.

duh, it was the download dir at the local drive which was set at the wrong place.

...and now I also noticed that s exactly what you probably meant above. What I can say, maybe I'm a little on the slow side...

Thanks for all your efforts nausea.

nausea,

The seekbar problem seems to only be present when using Columns UI. I removed %appdata%\foobar2000, removed all 3rd party components (except podcatcher and Columns UI), and then tested it with both UIs (removing the settings directory between the tests).

I'll post this in the Columns UI thread too then, but still: I've never experienced problems like this, except with podcatcher's playist.

The strange thing is that the problem occurs only the very first time the (downloaded) track is played. If it is stopped, then played again, the seekbar is fine.

For the reference, here are the exact steps to reproduce:

1. Use a clean foobar2000 install (remove the settings files, %appdata%\foobar2000). Make sure Columns UI is installed.
2. Start foobar2000, choose to use Columns UI (the program offers the option on first start).
3. Configure the download dir for podcatcher, subscribe to a podcast feed, and download the first podcast.
4. Create a playlist using podcatcher.
5. Play the downloaded track from the playlist. Observe that the seekbar is greyed out and not moving.

EDIT: component versions: podcatcher: 0.0.6, columns ui: 0.3.8.0

EDIT2: link to post in columns ui thread

Cool. I'll see what there is that can be done about it. Just guessing, but it may be something to do with the track not having any length info associated with it before the first play. Neither the RSS or Atom standards include this, but I think podcast feeds formatted for itunes (i.e. all of them) have an <itunes:duration> element which I'll try using in the next version.

In the meantime v0.0.7 is out with a few small changes.

There's a serious bug in foo_podcatcher v0.0.7. Anyone who downloaded it should upgrade to 0.0.7b now: http://www.unkempt.co.uk/fb2k/foo_podcatcher.html

Apologies to anyone this affected, and no more late night updates I think...