| Arteis | 01 Jun 2009 1:17 a.m. PST |
I'm a recent convert to Meeples and Miniatures, but a complete tyro with podcasts and all that. I have no actual idea exactly what an podcast is or how to use one properly. The only way i know how to listen to the M&M podcast is to click on the MP3 link on the M&M website, and just listen to it through the computer. But looking at today's M&M file, I see episode 50 is two hours of listening, and I wonder just how a big a download that is – am I using up a huge chunk of my monthly limit? Is the download that is meant for iPods a lot smaller than the computer download (I don't actually own an iPod, so that is probably a moot point anyway!)? Also, if I stop listening half-way through, I have no idea how to save my place to carry on listening later – so if I get interrupted by real life, then I don't know how to listen to the rest of the podcast. |
| The Black Tower | 01 Jun 2009 2:08 a.m. PST |
This is a problem with most podcasts but the size of the MP3 is not just the length of the show but also the audio quality. If you look at the M&M website Neil does have a helpful index of what is in the show and how many minutes it starts. Some players allow you to "bookmark" a spot if yours does not just put the mouse pointer over the timer bar and hold the mouse button down then slide it to the place you last listened. The latest M&M is 27.5 Mb If you right click on the podcast link and select save link as you can download it to your PC then you can listen to it when ever you want or load it onto your MP3 player I have never used itunes but I think it is just a distribution portal and the size of the files would be the same. |
| Colin Hagreen | 01 Jun 2009 5:49 a.m. PST |
I just dump it onto my mp3 player and plug that into the car radio. Gets me through the journey to/from work for a couple of days… I picked up a cheap FM transmitter for about £15.00 GBP that plugs into the headphone socket of my mp3 so I can tune it in on FM radio. Colin
SL Warlords |
| kiwipeterh | 01 Jun 2009 6:44 a.m. PST |
Howdies Arteis – I know who you really are!! 8O) You should just splash out on an iPod, even the baby of the line – the shuffle, or some other MP3 player. I'm biased and would stick with an iPod but that's just me. You could download plenty of 'stuff' for listening to on the commute. Salute
von Peter himself
web.mac.com/nataliendpeter |
| jgibbons | 01 Jun 2009 6:57 a.m. PST |
I avoided IPOD's for the longest time – finally got one – and lik it a lot… Podcasts are my poison of choice and ITunes and and IPOD make subscribing and listening (including picking up where you left off) easy… James |
| The Tin Dictator | 01 Jun 2009 7:22 a.m. PST |
I avoided IPOD's for the longest time – finally got one – and lik it a lot… How does it taste? |
| bobstro | 01 Jun 2009 7:39 a.m. PST |
I prefer podcasts to even premium content like satellite radio, as I can pause a program to board a flight, attend a meeting or whatever, and then pick up exactly where I left off hours or days later. I've got an 8G Creative Zen MP3 player that is filled with nothing but podcasts. I use it on my travels, or whenever I'm going to spend time driving or wandering around. Get a good RSS aggregator (aka podcast aggregator) to automatically download the episodes to your computer, then use Microsoft Media Player or something similar to automatically sync them to your MP3 player when you plug it in. I've got mine set to remove shows I've listened to and top the player off with fresh content. - Bob |
| jgibbons | 01 Jun 2009 8:13 a.m. PST |
Crap – I spelled "lick" wrong while outing myself :-) James |
Jay Wirth  | 01 Jun 2009 8:44 a.m. PST |
I listen to a few different football (soccer) podcasts daily through the computers sound system. I like radiotime.com & podcast.com Radiotime.com will also have the option of listening to shows that are broadcast in real time. |
 Flashman14  | 01 Jun 2009 9:03 a.m. PST |
I love my iPod .. life changing … |
| Delthos | 01 Jun 2009 10:20 a.m. PST |
To answer his real question, it doesn't matter which way you download it, live streaming or file download, you will still download the same amount of data. You don't save your monthly bandwidth any by using one over the other. The advantage to downloading the mp3 is that you have it and you can listen to it anywhere or anytime, even when you don't have a network connection. As a matter of fact I suspect that a majority of people download the file then listen to it rather than stream it. |
| Farstar | 01 Jun 2009 1:15 p.m. PST |
"the size of the MP3 is not just the length of the show but also the audio quality." The nature of the recording also affects final size. Music recorded to MP3 at "normal" quality results in files about 1 MB in size per minute of music. Speech, punctuated with a lot more silence than most people realize, can pack several minutes into a single MB of file size. This podcast file is a good example, being only 28 MB for around 120 minutes of playing time. |
| Marshal Mark | 02 Jun 2009 2:27 a.m. PST |
Is there any reason why podcasts such as meeples & miniatures aren't split into separate tracks (like a music album) ? This would make it much easier to go back to a particular place in the podcasts if you stop listening to it and want to start again. It would also mean I could listen to it in the car on my CD player (can't at present because most of the shows are too big to go on a CD). |
| bobstro | 02 Jun 2009 6:37 a.m. PST |
Marshal Mark wrote: […] Is there any reason why podcasts such as meeples & miniatures aren't split into separate tracks (like a music album) ? This would make it much easier to go back to a particular place in the podcasts if you stop listening to it and want to start again. This is a function that is built into many listening devices these days. Any of the better MP3 players will let you either manually bookmark a file as you listen, or will automatically do so when the player shuts down. This is handy since I just need to power down the unit when arriving somewhere, then re-start it later at my leisure to resume without interruption. Most car CD players also seem to save the current position of a disc when you exit. The only downer is that these all seem to be based on the last file or track listened to, so if, for example, I jump around between podcasts, the bookmark is reset whenever I select a new one. Manual bookmarks can be used in that case. So far as recording podcasts as multi-file 'tracks', I know the preparation of these things is a lot of work, and adding another layer of complexity would probably put a lot of producers over the edge. It would also break 'shuffle' usage on a lot of players, which is nice for variety. - Bob |
| Thomas Nissvik | 03 Jun 2009 4:44 a.m. PST |
I'm with Delthos. I download a bunch of podcasts to my Sony PSP and listen to them on the train to and from work, mostly.
As has been said above, most new mp3 players come with a cable to plug into a USB port on the computer and show up as Portable Disc on your computer. Just right-click instead of left-click, choose to save to the player and it will tell you the size of the file. Most players will also remeber where you stopped so you will be able to resume listening at the right place. A cheap mp3-player does not have all the bells and whistles of an iPod but it is A LOT cheaper. Have a word with the folks at your local electronics store and they will hook you up. And when you're done with the 49 back episodes of M&M, go to thed6generation.com, thisweekinwargaming.com and link |
