Downloading Podcasts
Many people own MP3 players – which are small, portable, hand hand devices that play digital audio files.
However, not all MP3 players sit well with Linux: Apple iPods tend to be designed to work with their own computers and a lot of other manufacturers seem to assume everyone will be running Microsoft. If you're going to be synchronising your MP3 from your Linux PC (-and you should), then look for a device that, when connected to a PC, mimics a USB Flash Drive (-also known as a “USB Stick”). I use a player from PMP UK (http://www.pmpuk.com/, which does exactly that – although I believe the Samsung Yapp (YP-series) and others do this.
To connect an MP3 player of this type, simply attach the player to one end of the supplied USB cable and the other end to a spare USB slot on your computer. Linux will automatically detect the device as another filesystem. On Ubuntu, the new device will show up as an icon on the desktop as an icon as shown below:
Right click on the icon and select “Open”:
If you are using Fedora, the MP3/MP4 player will directly open up a File Manager window, with the player's files listed under an entry in the "Devices" section:
This should open a window listing all the files on that device (-Note: the example device is an MP4 player, hence it also contains video files) :
Next, we need to find where Rhythmbox or Banshee has stored the downloaded podcasts. If you are using RhythmBox then start it up, go to the "Podcasts" section and select the track you wish to transfer. Right-click the track and choose properties:
In the dialogue box that displays, click on the “Details” tab (-at the top) and note the “Download location” (expand the window if you can't read it all):
If you are using Banshee then start it up, go to the "Podcasts" section:
Right-click the episode you wish to download and select "Episode Properties":
The file location can be read off from the "Full Path" field:
By default, Rhythmbox/Banshee will download this under: /home/<user>/Music/<podcast series>
Open up the location using the "Places" menu, for example:
Navigate down to the display the file you wish to transfer:
Now, it is simply a case of left-click the podcast file, dragging it to the MP3 player window and then releasing the left mouse button to “drop” it:
When complete, this dialogue box will disappear – and you will see your new tracks in the MP3/MP4 filesystem window:
Once you have transferred all the video files you require, right click on the MP3/MP4 Player icon and choose "Safely Remove Drive". This will allow you to remove the player without any adverse effects:
Similarly in Fedora, simply right click the device in the File Manager window and select "Safely Remove Drive":
Once the USB connection is removed, power on your MP3/MP4 player and browse your music – you should see the new tracks listed.