Zen and Podcasts/Zencasts

[npcaughey]

I've decided to ditch ZenCast in favour of Ziepod due to the recommendations made on page 2 by Raster et al. I'll check back in a while to describe my experience with Ziepod.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by npcaughey

I'll check back in a while to describe my experience with Ziepod.

Yes, please do. I'm sure your feedback will be helpful for others.

[Addie_Goodvibes]

I have a question for all you Webcast/zencast users

I download a regular weekly webcast from Twit.tv

"The Tech Guy" www.twit.tv/ttg it's a 2 hour long zen cast.
By the way I highly reccomend this webcast, actually the site has several very good webcast that are availble for free. anyway...

I actually save the file as an Mp3 and it shows up in my MUSIC playlist

The question I have is How can I pause the webcast turn off my player and resume from the point I left off?
I listen to the webcasts while driving, my commute is only 35 minutes so a typical pod cast will take me to and from work and back the next morning.
The only way i manage to be able to do this is by shutting the player off, is there another way to do this.

Should I save the file in my video section of th eplayer so yhe player will treat it differently?

[BobbyRS]

Merged with main thread.

Resume playback should be working when you power off the player. Make sure you are running the latest firmware. With it, you should be able to either just power off or pause and power off, then power back on for the resume playback to begin. You can also use bookmarks to help as well. See this post.

[npcaughey]

Originally Posted by npcaughey

I've decided to ditch ZenCast in favour of Ziepod due to the recommendations made on page 2 by Raster et al. I'll check back in a while to describe my experience with Ziepod.

So I've had some time now to evaluate my experience with Ziepod. First and foremost, before I explain any other problems I've had integrating Ziepod with my Zen, it should be said that the Ziepod programme works very well on its own - it runs smoothly and it makes managing podcasts a simple process. I recommend it.

I have set up my Ziepod programs to be sent to the Zen through Sync Manager (as Raster suggests.) I delete files from both the hard drive and Zen separately as I finish with them.

In terms of organisation of podcasts on the Zen, my experience has not been as straightforward as Raster suggests. Ziepod seems to have no problem organising some Podcasts in the manner I want through its manual "override" function on naming files, but strangely it does not always work. Anyway, I've been using the following format to organise my files:

- change the title to 'Title' of it's associated post. I'm not sure why I do this one but that's how I have it set up. (worked)
- change the artist to '-Podcast' (Didn’t always work)
- change the album to the feed name, eg. for CNet's Buzz Out Loud podcast, I have the album set manually as 'Buzz Out Loud' (Didn’t always work)
- change the genre to 'Podcast' (Worked)

Overall...
The original problem of the Podcast dropping off at the last few minutes has been rectified. I now use Ziepod and therefore the "music player" function in the Zen rather than the "Zencast" function to play each podcast. The entire podcast will play. Halleiujah.

[bodotdot]

I, too, have had to adapt to the Zen's non-podcast friendly filing system. Podcasts and music are both treated as "Music," and unless the podcaster has a consistent method of titling each podcast, each can get alphabetized under "Artist" or "Album" any number of ways. Since you can't drag-and-drop the files once they're on the Zen, you're left to sift through all of your songs to find each particular podcast, since, unfortunately, they don't all get classified in the "Podcast" Genre. I'd like to try Ziepod, but Ziepod asks for a website to retrieve each particular podcast. I like John C. Dvorak's "Tech 5" show, but that's on Mevio, and their site gives you access to the MP3 of each show, but its Mevio show site seems to be just a site to listen to it. Is there an easy way to find specific websites for each podcast? Is their something similar with every podcast address that tells me I'm using the right one? I don't mind complicated setups, as long as I only need to set it up once, but...is that possible through Ziepod, or will I instead need to directly download each individual podcast from its own indivdual web location, stuff all of the MP3s into a folder, and then transfer the folder through ZME?

[Jeff R]

I just purchased the Zen mp3 player (I still have the Zen V Plus but the battery on that is dying slowly).

I have a bizarre problem when I try to download podcasts onto my Zen using the Zencast organizer.

The last 30 seconds of the podcast won't play; the podcast automatically cuts off, and returns me to the Zencast menu of the player. I never had this problem before with my V Plus.

By the way, I downloaded the latest version of the firmware and also used the recovery tool on Creative's site. No change -the podcast plays until the last 30 seconds and then cuts off.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? Thanks.

[BobbyRS]

Merged with main Zencast thread.

[Burnt Toast]

Originally Posted by Jeff R

I just purchased the Zen mp3 player (I still have the Zen V Plus but the battery on that is dying slowly).

I have a bizarre problem when I try to download podcasts onto my Zen using the Zencast organizer.

The last 30 seconds of the podcast won't play; the podcast automatically cuts off, and returns me to the Zencast menu of the player. I never had this problem before with my V Plus.

By the way, I downloaded the latest version of the firmware and also used the recovery tool on Creative's site. No change -the podcast plays until the last 30 seconds and then cuts off.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? Thanks.

Short answer - I think you are out of luck.

I had the exact same problem when I purchased a Zen 8G just this past November. After many emails back and forth with Creative tech support, they finally sent this:

"Next, regarding the Podcast I have escalated to the advanced support team and they have found the same behaviour towards the podcast.

In this case, they have advise to uncheck the Convert Audio items and pictures items into the Zencast Videos and it will tranfer to the Music Library.

Currently they are still looking into the matter."

But when you transfer it into the Music Library you get the problems mentioned in previous posts: there is no consistent way it is labeled and organized so you have to sift through all kinds of lists hoping to find the podcast you are looking for.

In an earlier post someone said the issue of podcasts getting cut off was resolved, but I don't know if that was referring to Zencast or Ziecast.

It made me return the Zen player. I mainly wanted it for podcasts and it was nearly unusable for that.

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by Jeff R

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? Thanks.

Use the ZenCast organizer (or another podcast aggregator) to download. Then transfer the files using WMP (or other media player/organizer) that can auto-watch folders for you.

Or, copy and paste the files onto the Zen using Windows Explorer.

I haven't tried transfering files using the ZenCast organizer or any of the Creative software since a) it stinks and b) using multiple methods of transferring files seems to cause sync problems, but I've done all of the methods above and haven't had any issues playing podcasts.

[Spyder13337]

HI, I am new to this forum, but I am having problem my zencast organizer when I use the zencast to put podcast on my Zen, for some weird reason it decide to convert it to avi, and it take up more space then need to be. Another weird reason it cut off and random time between the last 2 minutes it cut of .I try to listening to my podcast in original form and add it as music and it synchronizes fine. I was able to complete the podcast until the end but if I used the zencast conversion it just take the last minute or so any idea how to fix this.

Thanx in advance

[BobbyRS]

Merged with main Zencast thread.

[Dave_C]

Originally Posted by npcaughey

So I've had some time now to evaluate my experience with Ziepod. First and foremost, before I explain any other problems I've had integrating Ziepod with my Zen, it should be said that the Ziepod programme works very well on its own - it runs smoothly and it makes managing podcasts a simple process. I recommend it.

I have set up my Ziepod programs to be sent to the Zen through Sync Manager (as Raster suggests.) I delete files from both the hard drive and Zen separately as I finish with them.

In terms of organisation of podcasts on the Zen, my experience has not been as straightforward as Raster suggests. Ziepod seems to have no problem organising some Podcasts in the manner I want through its manual "override" function on naming files, but strangely it does not always work. Anyway, I've been using the following format to organise my files:

- change the title to 'Title' of it's associated post. I'm not sure why I do this one but that's how I have it set up. (worked)
- change the artist to '-Podcast' (Didn’t always work)
- change the album to the feed name, eg. for CNet's Buzz Out Loud podcast, I have the album set manually as 'Buzz Out Loud' (Didn’t always work)
- change the genre to 'Podcast' (Worked)

Overall...
The original problem of the Podcast dropping off at the last few minutes has been rectified. I now use Ziepod and therefore the "music player" function in the Zen rather than the "Zencast" function to play each podcast. The entire podcast will play. Halleiujah.

I too have been converted to Ziepod for my Audio podcasts, but take a slightly different tack
1) In Ziepod, I change the genre to "Podcast" (on the ones that I download the rest are OK)
2) In Ziepod > preferences > download, I tick the "when an episode is downloaded export a copy to the following folder" I use "C:new podcasts"
3) Manually move (drag and drop) from "C:\new pdocasts" into the zen under the folder "podcasts". Then use Zen media explorer to set the podcast playlist. This is easy as there are only a few each week.
4) After listening to each podcast I delete it from the Zen.
5) Doing a sweep in Ziepod with the interval set at 7 days takes care of the PC end. There is an option to delete the file on the hard drive as part of the sweep.

Works for me!

Dave