I’ve been harping on and on about audiocasts and videocasts. Below is a list of the shows that I subscribe to (I’ll add links to each feed later on today). These are my main source of entertainment on the bus and at work when my music has bored me and when I don’t feel like gaming, which is most of the time. The below cover video gaming, D&D, and technology. The Adult Swim is still there even though they haven’t updated that feed in three months.

Audio

• 1UP Yours (site) :: video gaming
• Dungeons & Dragons Podcast (site) :: pencil-and-paper gaming (D&D specifically)
• EGM Live* - EGM Magazine’s Weekly Podcast (site) :: video gaming
• Engadget (site) :: consumer technology
• ExtremeTech.com Podcast (site) :: consumer technology
• this WEEK in TECH (site) :: consumer technology
• What’s New Now (site) :: consumer technology
• Xbox Live’s Major Nelson (site) :: Microsoft-centric video gaming

Video

• 1UP.com - 1UP TV (site) :: video gaming
• AdultSwim.com Video Podcast (site) :: Adult Swim-related cartoons
• Attack of the Show Daily Video Podcast (site) :: internet culture
• Cranky Geeks WMV Video (site) :: consumer technology
• dl.tv in WMV (site) :: consumer technology
• Microsoft 10 (site) :: Microsoft-centric consumer technology
• The Daily Feed Video Podcast (site) :: internet culture news
• The Daily Nut (site) :: videos pulled from various video-sharing sites
• X-Play’s Daily Videogame Podcast - G4 TV (site) :: game reviews

Update: I linked each ‘cast to their respective feeds and site, and a quick description of what they cover.

I just finished pissing and moaning about my ZVM’s limitations. Now I’m gonna talk about why I like it.

This is a big step up from my Zen MicroPhoto (ZMP) in a few ways. The ZVM has a lot more storage capacity, a much larger and brighter screen, and the ability to play back video. It is also twice the size of the ZMP, if not more. The weight difference isn’t noticable though.

After spending a couple of frustrating hours with various issues, I came to a few conclusions:

1. In order to have all of the freedom the ZVM affords me, in terms of online music stores and video formats that it supports, I have to give up some of the simplicity that I mentioned in my last post about the iPod. This means that two- and three-click solutions do not exist, and I have to deal with it.
2. My hp Pavilion dv1512us does not have the power to convert videos quickly. Nadia’s beast of an hp Media Center does.
3. Being able to move recorded TV shows from Nad’s Media Center to the ZVM with a few simple (albeit long) steps is a worthwhile replacement for buying TV shows from iTMS (point 3 from my last post).
4. ZenCast sucks. For reasons that defy all logic, every single video podcast that Creative’s software points to is in an iPod-compatible format, which cannot be converted to any of the ZVM-friendly formats using their included software. Instead, I have to visit the website that hosts the video podcast and hope that they have a WMV, Divx, Xvid, or MPEG-4 version, which they sometimes do.

Basically, I can’t have my one-program-does-everything solution. I think I can deal with that, since I have my four-programs-that-really-should-be-one -but-there-isn’t-anything-I-can-do-about-it solution:

1. Window Media Player 11: Syncs my music.
2. ZenCast: Checks my podcast feeds and downloads them.
3. Sync Manager (Creative): Syncs podcasts to my player when they are downloaded.
4. Media Converter (Creative): When I come across a video file that the ZVM can’t play.

WMP11 is supposed to be able to do the job of Sync Manager, but I find it to be extremely unreliable.

Okay, that’s it on digital audio players for a while.

It just works, that’s why.

Suppose you wanted a digital audio player (DAP) that plays audio and video, including TV shows, audio and video podcasts. Suppose you wanted to use a single program to get all this content and sync to your DAP. Suppose you wanted to buy music onilne and download it to your DAP. Only Apple’s end-to-end solution will meet all of those needs. iTunes Music Store (iTMS) + iTunes + iPod = a simple experience that will meet all of those needs.

However, I don’t want an iPod, and I don’t like iTunes. I do like the iTMS though, and have bought TV shows from there. I turned to Apple’s biggest competitor in the DAP market, Creative.

I wanted to do everything stated in the second paragraph with my Creative Zen Vision:M (ZVM), and I learned the hard way that this simply is not possible.

With an iPod, you are locked into iTMS + iTunes. That isn’t much of a choice. When you pick a PlayForSure-friendly player like the ZVM, you are thrown into the opposite situation; you have too much choice. With so much choice, you end up with a haphazard collection of programs to do what iTMS + iTunes can do.

Let’s tackle them one-by-one:

1. Play audio: Easy enough. I use Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) to sync to the ZVM. No issues here.
2. Play video: This is tricky. The iPod supports a very small set of video codecs, which generate files of extensions like .mov and .m4v. This looks like poor selection, until you realize that damn near any site that produces video has at least one version that is iPod-friendly. Finding video is no challenge for an iPod user. For everyone else, it can be difficult.
3. Buy TV shows: Yeah, it sounds crazy. Pay for TV? The TV I get for free? Yeah, well I’ve done it for Lost, and I don’t regret it. This option is currently only open for iPod users. For the rest of us, we have to turn to solutions that aren’t exactly legal. This has the benefit of being free, but also can be a pain in the ass. You can argue with me until you are blue in the face saying “it isn’t that hard to find a torrent, download the files, convert it to the proper format/size/whatever and copy it to your player,” but you will never convince me because that will not beat the iTMS solution: click to buy, download, sync to iPod. Simple and fast.
4. Audio podcasts: There are a myriad of programs that’ll download audio podcasts for you, like Juice or ZenCast. The problem with those programs is that I don’t want to use them. I use WMP11 to sync my ZVM. Since WMP11 is still in beta, I can only hope that they will add the iTunes-like functionality of downloading podcasts within it so I can uninstall the two programs I mentioned.
5. Video podcasts: This is my most troubling issue. It is really a combination of points 2 and 4, so there really isn’t a need to repeat myself.

To sum it up, I want WMP11 to be the center of my ZVM’s media library. I want it to download my podcasts and do video conversions on the fly to a format that my ZVM supports. I don’t want to be forced to use three different programs to do what iTMS can do by itself (I realize it doesn’t do video conversion, but so much of the video content on the web is already iPod-compatible so that is largely unnecessary).