SynchPodcasts - A Python script to deal with podcasts.

This script has no user interface other than a terminal window printing out the names of
files it is downloading. There is no configuration utility or file, you simply plug the
values you want directly in to the Python code. It is intended be the lightest-weight utility
possible for downloading my favourite fiction and programming podcasts to the cheap MP3
player I bought in Sainsbury's. I find it fulfills that criteria nicly, it might not do what
you were hoping for.

This script works with USB memory-stick style MP3 players, not iPod type ones. It simply
downloads and stores a bunch of files (exactly how many is configurable) on to as many local
storage devices as you wish. In practice, this generally means a folder on your harddrive
and your MP3 player, although you can use whatever locations you like (a network drive,
even) and how ever many locations you like (1, more than 2, whatever). In each sync location
the script also generates an HTML view/play page with an embedded Flash-based MP3 player to
play your downloaded files, so this could be a handy way to play podcasts just on your
computer. The script will simply skip any locations not currently available, so if your MP3
player isn't plugged in or the network drive isn't connected you can download files on to
your computer for synching to other locations another time.

If an audio file isn't in MP3 format then this script can, optionally, use an external
application to convert to MP3 so your MP3 player can play it. I recommend, and use,
dBpoweramp, but there's no reason you can't configure the script to use whatever you like.
dBpoweramp is available here:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

Other than the external conversion application, which will need installing (and, probably,
paying for) seperatly, the script is pretty much self-contained. It uses the feedparser
library, distributed along with the script, see:

http://www.feedparser.org/

The HTML view/play page makes use of a Flash-based MP3 player, available here:

http://flash-mp3-player.net/

And the jQuery library, available here:

http://jquery.com/

Both the Flash MP3 player SWF file and the jQuery library are copied to each synch location,
along with an HTML file being generated in each of those locations.

--
David Hicks
November 2009

Bug: Bet you copied files aren't unlinked properly.
	Update: Yep, I was right.