Armangil's vodcatcher

Merging with Armangil's podcatcher

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:48:56 CET

As of version 2.0.0, Armangil's podcatcher is capable of downloading any type of content, including video. For example, podcatcher --content '^video/' http://www.podtech.net/home/feed/ downloads video content from PodTech.net.

As a result, Armangil's vodcatcher, which is a clone of Armangil's podcatcher specialized in video, no longer has a reason of being. Version 1.3.3 is the last release of this software. For newer versions, please see Armangil's podcatcher.

Version 1.3.3 released

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 24:15:35 CET

This release includes a major new feature: search. This function generates a subscription list by querying a set of subscription lists/feeds. Here are some usage examples:

the command vodcatcher -F search "rocket tiki video" 'http://www.ipodder.org/discuss/reader$4.opml' > result.opml queries the iPodder podcast directory, and (hopefully) generates a list of video podcasts including Rocketboom and TikiBar TV,
the command vodcatcher -F search -f 22 video http://www.podfeed.net/opml/directory.opml | vodcatcher > latest.m3u queries Podfeed.net for video podcasts (22 at most), and downloads their latest shows.

The search function can safely be interrupted (through Control-C keystrokes on Linux): it still generates a valid subscription list.

This release also adds support for the XSPF playlist format, and adds the -p option for assigning a separate cache subfolder to each feed.

Version 1.2.0 released

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 17:22:09 CET

This release includes many feature enhancements and a minor bug fix. Changes:

M3U is now the default playlist type,
added support for RSS/Atom feeds as command line arguments,
added support for decentralized subscription lists such as the iPodder podcast directory,
added the -f option that puts an upper limit to the number of downloaded RSS/Atom feeds,
added support for Extended M3U and Extended PLS playlist formats,
added support for Atom feeds that do not list items in reverse chronological order,
added "cache" strategy which deprecates the -c option,
fixed a bug that sometimes caused an invalid Referer header to be sent in HTTP requests.

Vodcast test for videoblogs

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 18:34:50 CEST

Some videoblogs do not qualify as vodcasts, and vodcast clients such as Armangil's vodcatcher cannot handle them. Here is a quick (and geeky) test to determine whether a videoblog is a vodcast:

Does the videoblog have an RSS or Atom feed?
Does the feed list video files as enclosures? (i.e. does it contain elements such as <enclosure url="http://www.example.com/show.mov" length="2144275" type="video/quicktime" /> or <link rel="enclosure" href="http://www.example.com/show.mov" length="2144275" type="video/quicktime" />)

If the answer to both questions is yes, then the videoblog is a vodcast.

Finding vodcasts

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 17:57:56 CEST

Armangil's vodcatcher answers the question: "How do I receive vodcasts?". The next question is: "Where do I find vodcasts?". Here are some options:

A sample vodcast list is provided with this software; it is ready to use, although somewhat small,
The Mefeedia videoblog directory currently lists 850 videoblogs, many of which are vodcasts.

Version 1.1.0 released

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:30:05 CEST

The initial release is available here. This software uses the code base of Armangil's podcatcher, which has been in development for almost a year now. As a result, this first release is already stable and feature-rich.