
How To Listen To Podcasts
What is a Podcast?
San
Francisco Opera is
now reaching a
worldwide audience
thanks to podcasting. You can access podcasts
through a podcatcher such as iTunes or a lot of people find them
through Google and click on them right from the web page.
Podcasts can be spoken word or music or both. You don't need an iPod
to listen.
How do I listen to Podcasts?
Many users listen from their computer. Let's say you see a podcast on a webpage
and you want to listen. If your speakers or headphones are
hooked up and you have a media player installed, you should be able to
click on the link and it will download then play. Some people
get confused when nothing happens, especially if they are on a slow
connection. This is because podcasts can be big files and it
takes time to download them before they can play.
I'm Having Trouble. Should I Download
the Podcast to my Hard
Drive First?
If you are having trouble, then yes, the
best way to get around difficulties is to download the file to your
hard drive before trying to play the file.
What are the Steps for Downloading
a
Podcast to my Hard Drive First?
1. Right click on the podcast link and
select "Save Target As." See graphic below:

2. Find a place for it on your hard
drive. Make sure it's in a place where you can find it.
See graphic below:

3. Find the saved file through Windows Explorer. Once you find it, you can:
A. Click on it to listen to it at your
computer. Most PCs will have Windows Media Player installed, if
not you should install
Apple iTunes or
Windows Media Player.
B. Burn it to a CD and listen to it in
your car, home stereo, computer, or portable CD player.
C. Upload it to an iPod. Apple
iTunes makes this process easy and seamless.
D. Upload and listen to it to an mp3
player, PDA, Smartphone, Treo, Blackberry, or MP3 enabled cell phone.
What are these
Buttons?

These buttons are a convenience for
advanced users. The instructions on this page are mostly for
users that want to download podcasts directly from the web page, which
can be cumbersome if you do it a lot. If you have iTunes
installed (no iPod required), you can "subscribe" to a podcast and new
episodes are downloaded as soon as they are available. Further,
if you have an iPod and it is in its dock, the podcast will be
uploaded your iPod automatically.
The "Add to iTunes" button is for users who want to subscribe to the
podcast using the iTunes one click button. If you are on a Mac
or PC and have iTunes installed, just click and you'll be subscribed.
The "RSS" button is for users who are using their own podcatcher.
To use it, click on the RSS button, which will open up a web page
written in XML. Ignore the page contents, but copy the URL and
paste it into your podcatcher and you will be subscribed.
Take me back to the
Podcast Page so I can try it!
San Francisco Opera Podcast is produced in association with MobileCast
Media. For more information, please visit
http://www.mobilecastmedia.com.

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