Un-podcasting

[fackel]

Hi there! I'm just on the consumer side of podcasting and ask myself if the following is possible: I'd like to keep some of my favorite postcast episodes in my media collection (iTunes, iPod), but don't want them to show there up as podcasts any more but as regular music/audio or videos--thus I could differenciate easier between "keepers" and the daily come and go of information. Can anybody point me to a (small) application that can do (just) that? Oh, and first I should have asked if there is a legal issue with doing such a modification to podcast files (I appreciate the effort the creators of podcasts invest and am willing to let my convenience stay behind their rights).

Thanks for any pointers,
FF

[etomorrow]

Hi there! I'm just on the consumer side of podcasting and ask myself if the following is possible: I'd like to keep some of my favorite postcast episodes in my media collection (iTunes, iPod), but don't want them to show there up as podcasts any more but as regular music/audio or videos--thus I could differenciate easier between "keepers" and the daily come and go of information. Can anybody point me to a (small) application that can do (just) that? Oh, and first I should have asked if there is a legal issue with doing such a modification to podcast files (I appreciate the effort the creators of podcasts invest and am willing to let my convenience stay behind their rights).

Thanks for any pointers,
FF

there shouldn't be any legal issue there.

try this: choose an episode of a podcast you want to keep. drag it from the podcast area to "my library" and drop it, i think that should put it in the library and then you can delete it from the podcast area

[WyethDigital]

there shouldn't be any legal issue there.

try this: choose an episode of a podcast you want to keep. drag it from the podcast area to "my library" and drop it, i think that should put it in the library and then you can delete it from the podcast area

And just to build on etomorrow's suggestion, once you drag the podcast(s) you want to keep to your library, open the library, find the podcast, and right click or (on a Mac) hit control-click and select "get info" from the menu that appears. A pane should come up that shows you all the info embedded in the podcast, including the genre. Simply use the options in that pane to change the genre to something you want to classify it as. This is especially helpful if you have a smart playlist that you want it to be a part of.

Oh, and like etomorrow said, I don't think there's anything wrong with reclassifying a genre once it's on your machine. That is not a violation of the license that most podcasts are distributed under. Still, thanks for thinking of us! And tell your friends about podcasts! :)

Eric

[fackel]

And just to build on etomorrow's suggestion, once you drag the podcast(s) you want to keep to your library, open the library, find the podcast, and right click or (on a Mac) hit control-click and select "get info" from the menu that appears. A pane should come up that shows you all the info embedded in the podcast, including the genre. Simply use the options in that pane to change the genre to something you want to classify it as. This is especially helpful if you have a smart playlist that you want it to be a part of.c

Thanks for the suggestions. But dragging the podcast onto "My Library" simply puts the podcast back into the "Podcasts" folder--is that different for you, etomorrow? And I already had figured out how to change the genre of the podcasts in iTunes, and actually already did that in some cases. Yet that's not quite what I wanted to find out.

Maybe I didn't make myself clear, so here comes a second try: Originally a podcast shows up in the "Podcasts" folder of iTunes. Now I'd like to modify the file in such a way that the file isn't listed anymore in the "Podcasts" section, but appears *only* in the "Music" or "Video" section respectively.

Changing the genre in the options pane doesn't really do the trick. Eg. when I change the genre of an (audio-)podcast to say "Comedy", the new genre shows up in the corresponding column, yet iTunes somehow still knows that this file was a podcast and keeps it under "Podcasts"--I would like to have it quit "Podcasts" and move to section "Music". Deleting the podcast from the library after the genre change and dropping it back to the library doesn't change the situation either.

Hope you have any suggestions for this.
Thanks, FF

[fackel]

Oh yes, just in case it matters: I'm running the Windows version of iTunes.

And I closely watched the drag&drop procedure in iTunes. I grabbed a podcast from the "Podcasts" section and held it over the folder "Music". Now the funny thing: iTunes didn't highlight exactly the folder I was pointing to, but it was "My Library" that was marked as drop target. So it looks like drag&drop isn't the way of un-podcasting in iTunes.

FF

[WyethDigital]

Oh yes, just in case it matters: I'm running the Windows version of iTunes.

And I closely watched the drag&drop procedure in iTunes. I grabbed a podcast from the "Podcasts" section and held it over the folder "Music". Now the funny thing: iTunes didn't highlight exactly the folder I was pointing to, but it was "My Library" that was marked as drop target. So it looks like drag&drop isn't the way of un-podcasting in iTunes.

FF

Hmmm... I see what you mean. You used to be able to do what we suggested and all was right in the world. I hadn't tried it since they updated the program.

You can create your own playlist and drop them in there, though. If that's still not what you're looking for, you can also use a separate aggregator (or podcatcher). Something like "Juice" (http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php). There are others out there, too. A good one should let you set up your own playlist and assign genres to your downloads (either separately or as a batch). That keeps iTunes' hands off downloading and tagging and makes it just the jukebox.

Eric