I’m brand new to this whole podcast thing. Other than a podcast hosted by a certain SDMB regular, I’ve never listened to any podcast of any kind.
I’ve been on the hunt for some jazz podcasts. But unless I’m misunderstanding something, it looks like all I can do with them is listen to them on the website. I want to download the podcasts so I can sync them with my mp3 player and listen on my own.
Am I not understanding the whole podcast thing properly?
And can anyone recommend any good (downloadable) jazz podcasts?
I think that you may be missing a piece of the puzzle, which is the podcast subscription manager on your computer. The website that hosts the podcast wil probably let you listen directly through your web browser, (or even download them one at a time, I suspect, if you’re at all clever about it,) but you want a different program, that will remember the podcasts that you follow, download new ones for you.
Itunes will work reasonably well as a podcast manager. There are some others - I’ve tried Nimiq, but I prefer Itunes for windows. Your mileage may vary.
I hope that this helps you, some other PodDopers will doubtless be along shortly.
Winamp is a program that will automatically download podcasts you are subscribed to (it will aid you in finding them), as well lots of audio functions.
The website might let you listen to their podcast from the site, but the “podcast” is a file that would be copied to your computer which you could copy to your mp3 player. I use Itunes to do the copying and syncing automatically, but I used to save-link-as from the website links and copy them later to my player.
Many of the podcasts I subscribe to come up in my RSS reader, and I download the mp3s through it. But usually websites have both iTunes and mp3 links, as well as embedded players, on each release page. Podcasts are one of those rare technologies which have been handled very efficiently and practically by all those who participate.
One thing that may occur in the future is finding a new name for them, since it’s originally based on the almost-obsolete iPod.
