How to get the MrSikhNet.com Podcasts

"Podcasting" is a way to get the MrSikhNet.com audio/videos automatically downloaded to your computer or portable audio player. This is a nice convenience if you have a portable MP3 player or if you have a slow connection. Once you have things set up, you will always have access to the most recent shows, as MP3 files on your computer or portable device, ready for listening!

Why Podcast?

If you like to listen to MrSikhNet.com, but you don’t have time to wait for downloads, then this solution is for you. It grabs the audio or videos for you, automatically whenever it is updated. And, if you have a portable MP3-playing device and you’re about to walk out the door, it’s ready to go!

For more detailed history and discussion of pocasting, check out the following resources:

• Podcasting Page at Wikipedia
• Engadget.com (How to get Podcasts and also make your own)
• iPodder.org – Information and links
• Podcast about Podcast

What’s a Podcast?

You may have heard of the term "RSS" — it stands for "Really Simple Syndication", and many recent web browsers like Mozilla FireFox have built-in support for RSS "Feeds". An RSS feed makes it easy for programs to check a web site and easliy find out when new stories or articles were published on a web site. A podcast is really an RSS feed that also contains information about an MP3 file or video that can be downloaded.

You need to install a podcast program on your computer, tell it about a podcast feed you want to subscribe to, and it will check to see when new information is available. When a new show is uploaded to the web site, the podcasting software will start downloading the MP3 file in the background to a directory.

Step 1: Get A Podcasting Program

To get started, you will need to install a podcasting program, a number of which are freely available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

• iPodder (Free Software: Windows, Mac and Linux). At the moment, this is one of the most popular solutions for receiving Podcast feeds. Recommended.
• iPodderX (Freeware
  “Lite” version” or $19.95 for the full version: Mac OS X). This is a
  popular program for Mac users, it is tightly integrated with iTunes, and
  the interface is a bit nicer than iPodder.
• BlogMatrix
  Jäger (Freeware:
  Windows, Mac). Jäger is a weblog reader that organizes news
  feeds (RSS) and pocasts together in a convenient “side panel” interface.
  It works with Podcasting and can automatically add downloaded shows to
  iTunes or Windows Media Player.
• iTunes (Freeware: Windows, Mac). This is Apple’s flagship music-playing program, which, starting with version 4.9, has support for receiving podcasts. Note that even though you go through the "music store" to find podcast feeds, there is, as always, no charge for receiving the MrSikhNet podcast.
• FireANT (Freeware: Windows, Mac). A popular option for downloading video podcasts (including ours), FireANT is also compatible with our audio podcast if you prefer.
• DTV (Free Software: currently Mac OS X only, Windows and Linux planned). A project of the Participatory Culture Foundation, DTV is a particularly good choice for receiving our video podcast.

Step 2: Subscribe to the MrSikhNet.com Podcast Feed

Once you have downloaded and installed a podcast program, you will need to add the MrSikhNet.com podcast feed. You can right-click any of the following links and select "copy link location". These links go directly to the XML file. Please follow the instructions on this page to "subscribe" to the feed in your software of choice.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MrSikhNetAudio

The standard audio MP3 podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MrSikhNetVideo

MPEG4 video broadcast (experimental; may not work with all computers or software)

Step 3: Start downloading

Once you have subscribed to the MrSikhNet.com podcast feed, you just need to tell the podcast software to start downloading. From then on, the program will occasionally check for new shows, and when they are available, it will download them.

If you have a portable MP3 player, you may need to tell your podcast program which one you use, or configure it to save the files in the correct directory.

Check the documentation or web site for your podcast software for details.

4 Responses to “How to get the MrSikhNet.com Podcasts”

1. Harjot says:

   February 23, 2006 at 1:30 pm

   SSA brothers and sisters,

   Just wanted to say SSA!

2. Anonymous says:

   March 4, 2006 at 7:07 pm

   Anoopinder Kaur Says……….
   Gurujot Singh who is sikhnet staff member is doing a great job!!!
   God Bless YOU.

3. Gurinder Singh says:

   April 21, 2006 at 4:11 pm

   Gurumustuk:

   You, our brothers and sisters from 3HO are great insipiration for my young cousins and my 6 year old son living in the western culture. I believe Guru has showered 3HO with his blessing…

   Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa,
   Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

4. Jag says:

   July 26, 2006 at 10:51 am

   this is fantastic… RSS feeds are great for viewing on the PSP.. with audio RSS and soon video RSS ..cant wait!