Comments on: Insignia Sport, My Best Podcast Player So Far

By: dave

dave — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:17:10 +0000

Patrick, here is the script I use to create the .m3u. It's a ruby script although it could be duplicated in many languages with a tiny effort:

#!/usr/bin/ruby

print "#EXTM3U\r\n"

while ((line= gets) != nil) 
  line.chomp!
  line.gsub!('/', '\\')
  print "#EXTINF: 1,#{line}\r\n#{line}\r\n"

I invoke it like this:

ls -rt /Volumes/Insignia_SP/JuiceFiles/*/*.mp3 | ~/create_m3u.rb > /Volumes/Insignia_SP/podcast.m3u

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:49:26 +0000

Dave, Would you please post your scripts “…I wrote simple scripts to handle the moving of files from my podcatcher directory to the device and then write an M3U file to create a playlist of oldest to newest file.”

My only complaint with both of my Insignia players is my inability to create playlists. I’ve tried unsuccessfully with .m3u and .plp types.

TIA, Patrick

By: pj

pj — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:24:09 +0000

i went from an rca (God knows what) to the ipod shuffle, through 2 creative zens (a 2gb that was stolen, then replaced it with a 4b). as all zens do, it died a mysterious death. i now have the insignia 4g and am insanely happy with it (esp. at the clearance price!). however, do you have any tips on how a non-programmer can get podcasts downloaded easily? any other tricks would be awesome, too. one more thing, my phone bluetooth doesn’t seem to work with the device. did you have to buy a headphone bluetooth instead?

By: dave

dave — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:41:44 +0000

Rob, I haven’t used the Zune in a while. Unless the firmware has been updated recently having audio marked with genre “Podcast” meant that it went into the special podcast section and wasn’t able to be put in a playlist or played sequentially. That means navigating from episode to episode which is a drag and you can’t do while driving. I just want to listen to all my shows in order. The whole “Podcast” functionality on the device is worse than having them just recognized as songs.

The Zune is great as a video watching device, but as a podcast listening device I found the $60 Insignia 100X more usable.

By: Rob Greenlee

Rob Greenlee — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:07:27 +0000

Dave, Please explain why you think that the Zune is unusable as a podcast catcher and portable video/audio player. Have you used or seen the Zune 80 player with a 3.2 inch screen and an 80 GB hard drive? I work on it everyday and use it everyday. It works great for me and thousands of other people.

The Zunes WiFi support also allows users to wirelessly send/share video podcasts from Zune to Zune directly. Then the same user can subscribe or unsubscribe to that same podcast right on the device. The next time you wirelessly sync with the Zune Marketplace client software it automatically sends you new episodes. You don’t have to do anything else.

None of these other players including the iPod can do that. We will keep innovating with the Zune and will make it the best platform for podcasts available. Our content catalog is growing every day and getting better all the time.

Rob Greenlee
Zune Podcast & Video Programming Lead

By: Tom Deja

Tom Deja — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:03:46 +0000

You know–I still own a 2GB Insignia that works after almot two year’s hard service, and I bought the 4GB Sport on the strenth of that one….

It’s very, very wonky. It’s highly sensitive to static electricity, and I found mine had to be rebooted a LOT. And when the first real hot day happened here in NY. it literally fritzed out on me.

So just be careful with it, okay?

By: Ken Kennedy

Ken Kennedy — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:20:49 +0000

Excellent review, Dave. Thanks for doing that. I live in the cheap MP3 player world as well, and they all have their little weird pros and cons…this will be an excellent reference for the next time I’m in the market.

I probably should do a similar writeup.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:34:51 +0000

I continue to be impressed by how such a seemingly simple task is failed by the vast majority of devices out there. I think the biggest force keeping me on the iPod track for so many years has been that the entire lineup (outside of the Shuffles) has made for great Podcast and audiobook playback.

Knowing that there’s an MSC device out there that I can count on makes me feel better about loosening my grip on the iPod-per-year replacement cycle.

I’m not ready to give up my iPod Touch soon, but Apple could win a lot of loyalty back if they’d let me sync Podcasts over Wifi.