Downloading Blip.tv based video podcast episodes on Android

[TheWoodLab]

Hi everyone. Many of the woodworking video podcasts out there are using Blip.tv to host their videos. It appears Blip.tv has recently changed how they allow downloading of video podcast episodes. In certain cases, instead of downloading the video episode, it downloads a small file Potatono-OOPViews677.mp4. It's a short video file that explains that the content is viewable using their Blip player. I've noticed this on Android with two different podcast clients: BeyondPod and Doggcatcher. I'm not sure if this affects other mobile platforms. So far, I have not seen this in any desktop based podcatcher (i.e. iTunes, Miro, gPodder).

In searching around, there is a workaround for BeyondPod and Doggcatcher where you configure the "User Agent" to be iTunes. I tested both of these on the Galaxy Nexus w/ ICS (Android 4.x). This should then allow the episodes to be downloaded as expected.

For BeyondPod:

In app Menu --> More --> About BeyondPod --> Long press "BeyondPod <version number> --> Advanced Settings --> User Agent --> type in "iTunes/10.6.1" (without quotes)

For Doggcatcher:

In app Menu --> Preferences --> Miscellaneous --> User Agent --> type in "iTunes/10.6.1" (without quotes)

Hope this helps folks out. If anyone is aware of this issue existing elsewhere on other platforms or clients and know of a similar workaround, please let us know!

[TheWoodLab]

Hi folks, I received a recent update from Blip indicating they will look into adding BeyondPod and Doggcatcher added to allowed podcatchers. They did indicate though they are not sure where their final stance will be regarding allowing the download of podcast episodes. Not sure where this will end up, but hopefully it will be a workable solution.

[thewoodwhisperer]

grrrrrrr.........