[mythtv-users] listen to downloaded podcast (mp3) under MythTV?

[James Miller]

Some questions about how to play, under MythTV (0.27 installed under 
Gentoo), an audio podcast I'm downloading on most days in the form of an 
mp3 file. I've managed to automate the log-in and download process, so 
that part of the equation is already in place.

I thought I should be able to listen to the podcast file using MythMusic, 
but my attempts so far are not meeting with success. Overall I find 
MythMusic to be very confusing and none of the attempts I've made to use 
it since about 2012 have been very successful. So I'll go ahead and 
explain why I think I am unable to do the task at hand with MythMusic and 
why it seems to me the wrong tool for the job. Afterward I'll ask for 
corrections of any misconceptions I may have, as well as soliciting input 
on using MythMusic and/or other strategies for listening to the podcast in 
question.

My rather sketchy understanding of MythMusic indicates to me that it is 
really geared toward those with extensive music collections that have 
associated, well-ordered, metadata. And I can see how integrating such 
collections into a database, such as MythMusic seems oriented at doing, 
could be a big advantage. I, on the other hand, have a relatively paltry 
music collection with very spotty associated, ill-ordered, metadata and, 
frankly, I rarely find myself listening to any of it anymore. It was kind 
of interesting to set up and play with that in my early days of MythTV 
experimentation, but the novelty soon wore off and I found myself using it 
less and less.

Fast forward to a few months ago when I signed up for the podcast 
mentioned above. Now I have audio on my MythTV system that I'm interested 
in listening to on a regular basis. But, unlike a music collection, these 
podcasts are nothing I intend to keep for very long: I don't expect any of 
them to remain on my machine for more than a few days and I will often be 
deleting them immediately after listening. So it seems to me inadvisable 
to take the step of incorporating the podcasts into a database. Rather, 
what looks to me the best solution for this sort of audio content would be 
some sort of file browser I could use to navigate to the podcast in 
question, hit the enter key (I mostly use a keyboard to interact with my 
MythTV system), and have the audio file play. Being able to delete it 
immediately afterward would be an added bonus. But I so far have not 
discovered any way, using MythMusic, to do something like that. So, have I 
overlooked something?

I've implemented a crude approximation of the sort of audio-player 
functionality I'm aiming for by misappropriating MythTV's "Videos" 
functionality. I've symlinked the directory containing the podcasts under 
the videos directory, then added a new file extension (mp3) under video 
settings > file types. I can then, in the "video list" view, scan for 
changes and the podcast audio files are picked up. I can also play them 
from there, albeit looking at a blank screen. But volume buttons and 
fast-forward do work--and I can even delete these files after listening. 
This is the closest approximation, using the MythTV interface, of the 
behavior I'd like to see for dealing with these podcasts, that I've been 
able to come up with thus far.

So, is this kludge really my best option? I tried adding these podcasts 
under "newsfeeds" but could not get that to work--I think because I'm 
using a site that requires entry of credentials to access the podcasts. 
Suggestions will be appreciated.