Topic: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

Because I've already made a few of Zurk's suggested alterations to various list files, I got to wondering if the CBS Podcasts might have an HTML document that tells it where to look for podcasts.  Sure enough, in the CBS folder is a file named "list" which has the names, descriptions, RSS feed urls, and urls for locations of the icons.  I plugged the USB drive into my laptop, opened the file in a text editor, pasted the information for my preferred podcasts over the info for the CBS podcasts, plugged the USB back into the Infocast, rebooted, and it worked.

I even went so far as to do a web search search for icons for all my podcasts, resized them to 75 x 75 pixels, and posted them to the web so they would have a nice URL where they could live -- and then pasted that URL in the appropriate place in the list file. 

With a little copy/pasting, I was able to set up 22 podcasts.  I'm sure it could handle more.

It still has the CBS eyeball on top, but otherwise, it's now a generic podcast aggregator.

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

By the way, the same trick works for the New York Times podcasts.

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

I've created a Google doc with my podcasts in it as an easy-to-use cut-and-paste for anyone interested. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-CS … -2sZI/edit

NOTE: Several of these podcasts use NSFW language. One even has a very naughty word in its title. Don't cut and paste this list if you're setting up podcasts for a kid or your grandma.

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

obviously you could store your images on the chumby itself in the images directory. should be faster to load if its on the chumby.

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

I've got the images stored in the thumb drive directory, but while I was experimenting, I didn't want to mess up the HTML code too much.  And I couldn't remember how to go to that directory, so I did a workaround.  (I'm not a coding guy, or even an HTML guy -- I really only know enough coding to format blog posts...)

So... how do I change that line of code to make it look for pictures in that directory?

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

replace the blogspot etc line with :
http://content.chumby.com/podcast/cbs/i … le.jpg/gif etc>
and put all the images in that directory

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

Thanks!  Works a treat!

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

Dan, this is a fantastic idea. I am going to rework my Chumote podcatching method to include the use of both the CBS and NYTimes lists as well has using the thumbnails when displaying the entries. This way you can use the same list for listening to the podcasts on the device or remotely.

9 (edited by dannysland 2012-07-08 10:31:37)

Re: Reworking the CBS Podcasts with Zurk Thumbdrive

Thanks, Tom.

I'm thinking of organizing the two the lists into categories, and then using the CBS aggregator for News & Science, and NYT for Comedy.  It might also be nice to change the CBS and NYT logos and to rename the two aggregators in the music source menu, but I don't see any easy way to do that.

I've found that it doesn't work well with RSS feeds that alternate links to MP3s with text blog posts.  The "Stuff You Should Know" podcast feed, for example, seems to try to connect, freak out at the unexpected text-based blog post, and then, rather than move on to the next MP3, simply displays "Idle".  I think if you caught it by chance when the most current post happend to be an MP3, it would work, but that's not a very reliable way to hear a podcast.

EDIT -- I take that back; I think it might be because it's looking for iTunes instead of an MP3 URL. They've got too many RSS feeds, those guys.