FeedDemon – Tools Menu (FeedStation)

Last time we left off with the Search Subscriptions options from the FeedDemon Tools Menu. Today we will pick up there and move on to the next tool, which is FeedStation. FeedStation is what they call a podcatcher and what it does is basically catch, or download video or audio files they may be received as a part of a post from a feed that you subscribe to. When you select FeedStation a new window will open that will give you the option to have FeedStation work automatically. It uses your regular NewsGator Online username and password. This is a nice feature because if you are like me you do not receive very much audio or video from your feeds so you can just run it when you want to. Or if you are more like my cousin, who is 10 years younger then I, you can have it on automatic and it will be packed full of audio and video each time you open FeedDemon. It is funny though if you do try to skip through the automatic setup there is a pop up message that basically tells you that you are lame and how to setup the automatic feature later, through My Podcasts in FeedStation’s Options.

Once you select OK a new window will open. This is the FeedStation window and if you have any multimedia feeds they will be listed here. I don’t have any because I am lame, but if you are cool and have some feeds that send audio or video they will be listed here. In order to test this out I added a new subscription. As I have said before I am interested in Linux so I added the Linux News Log Podcast. I know not very cool, but it gets the job done. I added it in FeedDemon thinking that it would automatically sync with FeedStation and the new feed would be in my FeedStation list. Turns out it is a little more complex.

In order to get my FeedStation list, or queue as they call it, to populate with the new feed, I had right click on the new feed in the folder tree in FeedDemon and open the Feed Properties. Then I went back to FeedStation and selected Queue from the tool bar and Add to Queue from the drop down menu. This launches another window that will have the url for the feed that you want to download. Then simply select OK and the new feed will populate to your list.

So you are probably wondering what the heck this tool actual does at this point because within FeedDemon you go directly to the feed’s website when you select a link or headline and you can see the video or hear the audio from there. Well FeedStation gives you the capability to download the media from the web and view or hear it in your favorite media player, such as iTunes or Windows Media Player. From the FeedStation Options screen (found by going to FeedStation and selecting Tools, then select Options from the list, OR you can select the little cog icon from the toolbar) you can tell FeedStation to copy your new multimedia feed over to either iTunes, Windows Media Player or another folder. This allows you to listen to, or view it later. Also, for me it is a little nice to watch the feeds in one of these multimedia tools then online anyway.

So that is FeedStation in a nutshell. Next time I will look at the Clean up wizard from the FeedDemon Tools Menu.