User Manual

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The gPodder User Manual

[edit] About This Manual

[edit] Copyright Information

[edit] Disclaimer

[edit] Credits

[edit] Installing gPodder

Under major RPM-based Linux distributions, gpodder is easily installed using yum:
```
yum install gpodder
```
On Debian-based Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, etc..) you can use the following command:
```
aptitude install gpodder
```

You might have to be "root" (or use "sudo") to install packages onto your system.

[edit] Using gPodder

[edit] Introduction

We need a consistent vocabulary. Currently the user manual loosely uses terms like "podcast", "episode", "track", etc. Here we should define those terms.

[edit] Configuration (needs updating)

FIXME: The layout of the configuration dialog has been changed in SVN trunk and the 0.11.2 release branch. Please update this section so that the correct menu structure is reflected.
Configuration options are found under Podcast -> Preferences. Then you choose the appropriate tab to view and change your options. Alternatively, by selecting the "Advanced" button at the bottom you can directly manipulate the variables that store the settings.

[edit] General

the directory where downloaded podcasts will be stored
the programs that will be used to play back audio and video media on your computer.

[edit] Downloads

specify the number of days after which an episode will be considered "old" [need to explain how this matters]
how many simultaneous connections will be used to download podcasts, and possible limits on their speed ("throttling")
proxy settings for gpodder to use when it connects to the internet.

[edit] Player: Options relating to playing podcasts using a portable player (iPod or other)

what type of player it is and where it is mounted
which tracks will be synchronized
how tracks that have been transferred to the player will be flagged
whether the ftkpod extended database will be updated after synchronization [what does this mean?].

[edit] Rockbox Cover Art

Available in version 0.12.3 (any earlier?)

If you have Rockbox on your MP3 player, you can create cover art for your podcasts with the following options:

rockbox_copy_coverart - If set, the podcast's cover art will be transferred to your MP3 player. The image transferred is the one that appears to the left of the Podcast name in the Podcasts tab. The actual size image can be viewed in the Cover tab of the subscription editor. The file name for Rockbox cover art is always cover.bmp and the format is BMP.
rockbox_coverart_size - This is the size in pixels of one side of the cover art on your player, e.g. for an image of 150x150, set this to 150. If the podcast cover art is larger than this, it will be shrunk. If the image is smaller than this setting, it won't be enlarged. The original image in gPodder will not be changed.

[edit] Maemo OS2008 (Nokia N800/N810)

To have gpodder play "mov" files you need to install "mplayer" and set the following (advanced) preferences:

maemo_allow_custom_player (check)
videoplayer=mplayer

[edit] Unreleased features

[edit] Generic MP3 Player Cover Art

In an upcoming release, options to create cover art for generic MP3 players (other than Rockbox) will be available. This works the same as for Rockbox, but allows you to set a different file name and format. These options will be in the Advanced Preferences section.

custom_player_copy_coverart - If set, gPodder will copy the podcast's cover art to the directory where podcasts are transferred on your MP3 player.
custom_player_coverart_size - The size in pixels of one side of the cover art. For example, on a Sansa Fuze, set this to 176, which will create an image no larger than 176x176 pixels.
custom_player_coverart_name - The name of the cover art file on your player. For example, on the Sansa Fuze, this is folder.jpg.
custom_player_coverart_format - Set this to the format of cover art supported by your player, e.g. JPEG or BMP. Note: cover art in GIF format currently cannot be converted to JPEG.

[edit] Bluetooth

[edit] BitTorrent

[edit] Tray Icon

[edit] Extras

when to automatically check channels for new content, automatically download episodes, or delete old episodes
whether to update the "tag" field on each downloaded audio file with the channel name and episode name [what are the pros and cons of doing this?]
Website for import from web [what does this mean?]

[edit] Adding a Podcast

[edit] Podcast Types

[edit] Listening / Watching a Podcast

[edit] Podcast Housekeeping

[edit] Synchronising Podcasts

Here is how it works for an iPod. Do generic MP3 players work the same way?

Plug your iPod in to a USB port on your computer. The flashing "no entry" sign and the message "Do not disconnect" will appear.
The iPod may be auto-mounted to some mount point, typically in /mnt or /media. If not, you will need to mount it yourself: messages in the system log (/var/log/messages or similar file) will tell you what device it was detected as, for example /dev/sdb2. You can then mount it as root by typing:
```
mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/sdb2 /media/ipod
```
where /media/ipod is a mount point (empty directory) that you have created. To allow it to be mounted by users, you can add a line to /etc/fstab:
```
LABEL=IPODNAME  /media/ipod     vfat    users,umask=0000  0 0
```
where IPODNAME is the volume label for the iPod hard drive.
Check it is mounted: you should be able to list the content of the mount point directory, and it will contain subdirectories
```
Calendars/  Contacts/  iPod_Control/  Notes/
```
Start gpodder, and tell it the mount point: PodCasts -> Preferences -> Player
Synchronize the gPodder podcast database with your player: Podcasts -> iPod -> Synchronize.
Unmount the iPod. At the command line type
```
eject /media/ipod
```
(assuming your player was mounted on /media/ipod). This which will unmount the iPod and close the connection so that the "Do not disconnect" message disappears and the iPod changes into USB charging mode (you can use the iPod's menus in this mode). On older versions of Linux the eject command may not be available: you can type
```
umount /media/ipod
```
and then unplug your iPod. It is safe to do so, even though the "Do not disconnect" message is still present.

[edit] Scheduling gPodder to Automatically Run at Defined Intervals

[edit] Linux

If you would like to setup gPodder to run at predefined intervals on your linux box, then you can use cron to do this for you.

Open your linux terminal
Type in '/usr/bin/'
Type in 'crontab -e'
Enter your cron job. (example: 5 * * * * /usr/bin/gpodder --run --verbose > /home/{userName}/logs.log)
1. The above example runs the cron job every 5 minutes and outputs the verbose logging to the file specified at the end of the command. You will need to replace {userName} with your user name.
Type cntl+O
Type the enter key (overwrites the existing file)

For more information about using Cron, please open go to your search engine and type in cron.

You can also find out more information about cron by entering the following into your linux terminal 'man 8 cron'.

[edit] Windows

For Windows users you can schedule gPodder to run at defined intervals by scheduling gPodder to run through Windows Scheduler. Please note that you will need to append ' --run' as an argument to the gPodder executible in order to cause gPodder to run without user intervention.

[edit] Command Line Options

--run The '--run' command causes gPodder to run in a silent mode. In other words it causes gPodder to run without user intervention and will automatically download any new podcasts that it finds
--verbose The '--verbose' command causes gPodder to output additional logging information when combined with the '--run' command.

[edit] Feed list

gPodder episode list icons and their meanings: http://thpinfo.com/2008/gpodder/icon-meanings.html

[edit] FAQs

Please see the FAQs Wiki page for an up-to-date list of frequently asked questions and answers.

[edit] Glossary

Retrieved from "http://wiki.gpodder.org/wiki/User_Manual"