Description: Videocatcher is an Internet television application powered by KDE. Videocatcher makes it easy to subscribe to video channels (RSS/atom feeds etc.) and download new videos. It works as a podcast client as well.
It is similar to Miro but is lightweight and powered by KDE.
Videocatcher requires KDE 4.4 for notification area (system tray) support. Thus there is no notification area (system tray) support in distributions which have KDE 4.3 or below.Last changelog:
0.1.8 Now with dynamic play menu! - Create dynamic play menu based on mime type of downloaded file - Icon now located in Internet category of Application menus - Under the hood improvements
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0.1.7 Now with episode information panel! - Added episode information panel (thanks to Omar Plummer for the patch) - Handbook now available - Major code cleanup - Bugfixes
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0.1.6 Now with automatic refreshes! - Automatic channel refresh - Channel list context menu - Removed "Refresh Channel" button from toolbar - Better (but still not perfect) recognition of already downloaded and deleted files - Bugfixes
Hi,
Thanks for making videocatcher, I really like it. A couple of feature requests: (1) it would be great if videocatcher could download and show the channel icon, and (2) be able to edit the channel's properties.
Thanks
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I'm currently too busy to work on Videocatcher, but adding feed icons is one of the top items on my list of stuff to add. I'm not so sure about feed settings though, since I'm trying to avoid unnecessary settings and popup dialogs. So except for changing the feed name and maybe URL I don't think there are any feed settings to change.
Thanks for your fast response.
Yeah! that was the settings I was thinking about, to be possible to modify the channel name to some one shorter or that you would like more, or recognize better... and to give the possibility to update the url when necessary, e.g. if podcasts moves their location
Hi,
I want to thank you for your work, the program is nice; it is the first time that I use a similar program. For the moment I have only one request: add a 'Stream Episode' button beside 'Download' in toolbar.
Thanks
Thanks for the feedback!
There should be a "Stream Episode" button to the far right of the toolbar. I also think it should be next to the download button, but unfortunately whether streaming works or not really depends on which program you are using for playback. With Dragon Player (the default) streaming often doesn't work, with VLC it's great. I don't want people to click the stream button and then think my program doesn't work :)
So the stream button is there, but the download button is much more visible and currently that's the best solution I think.
If you have any better ideas feel free to tell me :)
For toolbutton I mean one like kmail 'Check Mail'.
More requests:
* change order in "Channels List"
* context menu in "Channels List" for easy access to related operations: move, delete, add, rename, etc.
Regards
So you mean a download toolbar button which when held down has a drop down box that lets you choose between downloading and streaming? That's a good idea. I will probably add it to the next version.
I've been planning a context menu in the channels list for a long time but never got around to doing. I will add one in the next version as well.
I agree that channel list sorting would be nice. I just implemented channel sorting to test it. Unfortunately it puts an extra bar on top of the channel list and the only new functionality one gets it to be able to have the channel list in reverse alphabetical order. So I can't quite decide whether I should add it or not.
Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the late answer, I've been without Internet for a while!
Channel list context menu support is now in the Videocatcher repository and will be part of the next release.
Regarding channel list sorting, I figured out you probably mean more than the sorting that is already supported in the episode list. You want to be able to create a custom order for the channels. I will have a look at how hard it is to support that.
First, thank you for this really nice application. It does what it should without much ado.
One feature request:
1) Could you please add some support for miro or itunes links. I don't know whether this is much work.
Good question. I wanted to create a videocast client where the user can download videos and then play them with his favourite video player. I didn't want to create another bad media player but instead focus on doing one thing (downloading videos) well.
Back when Miro forced me to use it's built in media player I had lots of critical problems with the player, which made it almost impossible to use Miro.
Now that I have the external playback I'm thinking about maybe adding Phonon support as an option, but currently have other things that have higher priority...
Hello,
I like very much videocatcher. I would like to contribute to report a small bug :
When using for example this channel : http://www.arte.tv/podcast/rss/Court-circuit-off_f.xml
the status of all the episodes is marked as "not available". The link provided by "copy link location" is blank.
However, at first sight, the corresponding file seems pretty OK and the links provided therrein seems to work.
Thanks for videocatcher, and hopefully for your help in sorting out the issue!
Best,
M.
I really like the idea of a podcast catcher for KDE, I like how you use an external application for the video, which is the greatest reason to hate Amarok as a podcast catcher (I do not like the video widget needed). I see much potential for this. I had a problem building Videocathcher I am on Lucid and have the required packages and could not build, so I used the 9.10 packages. After doing "sudo aptitude install kdepimlibs5-dev libqt4-sql-sqlite libboost-dev" and then using the "make" command (cmake CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=.../usr/ .. /.. works) and get 0 % built.
I tried compiling Videocatcher on a fresh version of Kubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 and it worked fine.
Interesting that you're using it as a podcast client. I'm using it as a podcast client as well but I mainly had video feeds in mind while developing it. Maybe I should change that.
Ratings & Comments
29 Comments
Hi, Thanks for making videocatcher, I really like it. A couple of feature requests: (1) it would be great if videocatcher could download and show the channel icon, and (2) be able to edit the channel's properties. Thanks
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I'm currently too busy to work on Videocatcher, but adding feed icons is one of the top items on my list of stuff to add. I'm not so sure about feed settings though, since I'm trying to avoid unnecessary settings and popup dialogs. So except for changing the feed name and maybe URL I don't think there are any feed settings to change.
Thanks for your fast response. Yeah! that was the settings I was thinking about, to be possible to modify the channel name to some one shorter or that you would like more, or recognize better... and to give the possibility to update the url when necessary, e.g. if podcasts moves their location
Great. I have now added "Make it possible to change channel names" to the Videocatcher roadmap at http://www.zanoi.net/videocatcherroadmap
Nice! Thanks
Hi, I want to thank you for your work, the program is nice; it is the first time that I use a similar program. For the moment I have only one request: add a 'Stream Episode' button beside 'Download' in toolbar. Thanks
Thanks for the feedback! There should be a "Stream Episode" button to the far right of the toolbar. I also think it should be next to the download button, but unfortunately whether streaming works or not really depends on which program you are using for playback. With Dragon Player (the default) streaming often doesn't work, with VLC it's great. I don't want people to click the stream button and then think my program doesn't work :) So the stream button is there, but the download button is much more visible and currently that's the best solution I think. If you have any better ideas feel free to tell me :)
Maybe a toolbutton?
There is a toolbutton already :)
For toolbutton I mean one like kmail 'Check Mail'. More requests: * change order in "Channels List" * context menu in "Channels List" for easy access to related operations: move, delete, add, rename, etc. Regards
So you mean a download toolbar button which when held down has a drop down box that lets you choose between downloading and streaming? That's a good idea. I will probably add it to the next version. I've been planning a context menu in the channels list for a long time but never got around to doing. I will add one in the next version as well. I agree that channel list sorting would be nice. I just implemented channel sorting to test it. Unfortunately it puts an extra bar on top of the channel list and the only new functionality one gets it to be able to have the channel list in reverse alphabetical order. So I can't quite decide whether I should add it or not. Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the late answer, I've been without Internet for a while!
Channel list context menu support is now in the Videocatcher repository and will be part of the next release. Regarding channel list sorting, I figured out you probably mean more than the sorting that is already supported in the episode list. You want to be able to create a custom order for the channels. I will have a look at how hard it is to support that.
Unfortunately the toolbutton didn't make it into the release. I implemented it but it has lots of user-friendliness issues.
First, thank you for this really nice application. It does what it should without much ado. One feature request: 1) Could you please add some support for miro or itunes links. I don't know whether this is much work.
I'm glad you like it. I will have a look at how much work it is to support iTunes or Miro links.
Why don't you use phonon for displaying videos? Streaming would be possible, too.
Good question. I wanted to create a videocast client where the user can download videos and then play them with his favourite video player. I didn't want to create another bad media player but instead focus on doing one thing (downloading videos) well. Back when Miro forced me to use it's built in media player I had lots of critical problems with the player, which made it almost impossible to use Miro. Now that I have the external playback I'm thinking about maybe adding Phonon support as an option, but currently have other things that have higher priority...
Hello, I like very much videocatcher. I would like to contribute to report a small bug : When using for example this channel : http://www.arte.tv/podcast/rss/Court-circuit-off_f.xml the status of all the episodes is marked as "not available". The link provided by "copy link location" is blank. However, at first sight, the corresponding file seems pretty OK and the links provided therrein seems to work. Thanks for videocatcher, and hopefully for your help in sorting out the issue! Best, M.
Thanks for the bug report! I think this is an issue with the library I use to parse the feeds. Will try to fix it.
I have fixed the problem. The fix will be in the next release.
I really like the idea of a podcast catcher for KDE, I like how you use an external application for the video, which is the greatest reason to hate Amarok as a podcast catcher (I do not like the video widget needed). I see much potential for this. I had a problem building Videocathcher I am on Lucid and have the required packages and could not build, so I used the 9.10 packages. After doing "sudo aptitude install kdepimlibs5-dev libqt4-sql-sqlite libboost-dev" and then using the "make" command (cmake CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=.../usr/ .. /.. works) and get 0 % built.
Hi, great to hear that you like it. Strange that it doesn't work. I'm on lucid as well and it works fine for me. Is there any error message at all?
I tried compiling Videocatcher on a fresh version of Kubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 and it worked fine. Interesting that you're using it as a podcast client. I'm using it as a podcast client as well but I mainly had video feeds in mind while developing it. Maybe I should change that.
This is a great app. I was just wondering if it supports youtube. I added a youtube channel but it said not available
Unfortunately there is no Youtube support yet since Youtube doesn't support RSS. I hope to be adding Youtube support later at some point though.