July 2007

Version 3.0.0 released

This release includes major feature enhancements and some minor bug fixes, as described below.

Download content directly to your media player device Previous podcatcher versions store downloaded content in the cache subdirectory of the directory specified by the --dir option. While this is still the default behaviour, this version introduces the --cachedir option which allows the user to specify another directory for content. For example, a Linux user might issue a command such as podcatcher --dir ~/podcatcher-state --cachedir /media/disk/podcasts feeds.opml. In this case, the podcatcher state (such as the download history) is stored in ~/podcatcher-state, but the downloaded content is directly stored on a media player device available at /media/disk.

Be compatible with Windows and media players The --restrictednames option makes podcatcher use content filenames that are acceptable for restrictive filesystems such as VFAT (used by Windows and many media player devices). You might want to use this option if you encounter filename-related problems.

Ignore old content The --horizon option makes podcatcher ignore content that is older than a given date. For example, a user switching to podcatcher on July 22, 2007 might use a command such as podcatcher --horizon 2007.07.22 feeds.opml in order to avoid re-downloading content that had been downloaded using another podcast client.

Select podcasts by language The --language option takes a comma-separated list of language codes, and makes podcatcher ignore podcasts whose language is not in this list. This option is particularly useful when using subscription lists generated by third parties. For example, a user who only speaks english and german might issue a command such as podcatcher --language en,de http://www.podcatcherstats.com/top_audio_podcasts.opml http://www.podcatcherstats.com/top_video_podcasts.opml.

Additional changes include a more robust handling of feeds that use the Media RSS module (in particular when a wrong namespace is specified for this module) and a bug-fix related to update checking.

FreeBSD port now available

I am happy to announce that this software is now also available as a FreeBSD port.