Download podcasts to PC and then transfer to Nokia E71

Question

I want to get podcasts (rss or something like that) to my PC and then I would like to be able to update my Nokia E71 phone, and choose what episodes I wanna transfer. Is it possible? What options do I have?

I have tried with iTunes and Windows Media. The Nokia Music Manager crashes on my PC so I haven't been able to test it.

I would like to find if there are other options to synchronize my phone with content on the PC (mp3 for music or podcasts, mobi-books, pdf, etc)

It would be nice also to find some solution that takes into account playlists, any help, hint or tip, would be greatly appreciated. besides, it will be useful to mention whether the product is free or has a cost.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Use a file synchronizer tool:

1. Run any old podcatcher software which will regularly download new podcast episodes to your computer.

2. Whenever you want to synchronize the downloaded podcasts onto your phone, attach the phone in USB mass storage mode and use Unison (or another similar tool) to synchronize the downloaded podcasts folder with a folder on the phone.

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While I run this under Linux (I use a command-line program called hpodder for downloading podcasts) the essential step of two-way synchronizing the downloaded podcasts between the computer and the phone should work independently of platform. Unison seems to be available for Windows, and I am sure there are other equivalent programs out there.

I like the following things about this setup:

• I can manage the downloaded episodes both on my computer and on my phone. I can for example delete listened podcasts on the phone, and at the same time prune the collection of downloaded podcasts on the computer by deleting old podcasts to keep the episode collection small enough to fit on the memory card on the phone.
• Since the downloaded episodes are just stored in a directory hierarchy on my computer, I can automatize some tasks on them like re-encoding non-supported audio/video formats to supported ones (or re-encoding with a smaller bitrate so that more files will fit on the memory card).
• This works nicely as part of a setup where I actually synchronize all files on the phone including photos, videos, documents, and not just podcasts. Among things which get synchronized are the .m3u playlists of the music player on the phone -- by running a script on the computer I can remove automatically expired podcasts from my playlists or maintain some playlists automatically, like generating a playlist of new episodes of my favorite podcasts.

Answer 2

I currently use Nokia Podcasting program on my Nokia phone which does this automatically for me over wifi.

I used to use Applian's Replay Radio 7 on my computer, to automatically download podcasts, encode them in my desired format, and transfer them to a folder, mp3 player or CD. Replay AV is the current product. Try the trial version and see if it will meet your needs.

Answer 3

Have you tried Winamp? It has a Podcasting service and it can sync with my Nokia N95 (don't know if it does with the E71, but you could give a try)...

Answer 4

I highly recommend J. River Media Jukebox.

The product page says it syncs to phones, however I only have experience with iPods. If Media Jukebox works as well for phones as it does for iPods, you will love this software.

Here are the points I like about this software:

• Very well designed UI
• Drag-and-drop media files to your device (both from within the program and Windows explorer)
• Very fast program; not a resource hog
• Excellent ability to (bulk) edit tags/filenames

A list of features (from the product page):

• Best file organization of any digital music jukebox
• Connect your iPod or PlaysForSure device
• Play all popular music files, and audio podcasts
• Rip, Burn and Encode to multiple formats
• Create custom Playlists and Smartlists
• Extensive Tagging capabilities
• Automatic CD, Album art and Track look-up
• Built-in music services, including the new Amazon MP3 store
• Full speed Ripping and Burning
• Powerful EQ, DSP and audio effects
• Print custom CD labels and covers

Answer 5

Check out doubleTwist by DVD Jon. The basic functionality is free of charge, but they plan to introduce some premium features that you will have to pay for.

Answer 6

If you have Nokia PC Suite installed on your system, it should allow you to transfer the MP3 files over to either your memory card or the phone memory via the File Manager menu. AFAIK, you should also have this available on Windows Explorer.