re: Audible's Free Podcast Offer Not Supported by Zune?

I recently signed up for an audible account and in so doing receive a free audio version of the New York Times daily.  One option is to get this as a podcast which I chose to do.  The problem, however, is the Zune software says "Zune doesn't support this episode's media format"  Error Code: COOD1317. 

I should note that when you choose to receive the free version of the NYT Daily as a podcast it gives you an RSS feed to plug into your podcatcher of choice.

Anyone, have any ideas how I can resolve this?

What is the RSS feed?  Is it a public feed, or is it password protected?  Searching around nytimes.com website I found this one: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/ts-sample.xml  Is this the feed you're referring too? 

 

 

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Tom
Zune Product Team 

This posting is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights. 

 tmis wrote:

What is the RSS feed?  Is it a public feed, or is it password protected?  Searching around nytimes.com website I found this one: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/ts-sample.xml  Is this the feed you're referring too? 

 

Unfortunately that's not the feed I'm talking about.  I guess it probably is password protected as I have to log in to audible to see it.  It's advertised as the audio version of the New York Times on a daily basis that you get for free when you sign up with audible right now.  Otherwise I noticed they charge a couple bucks for it.

Ok.  I'll sign up for an Audible account and see if I can find the RSS feed. 

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Tom
Zune Product Team 

This posting is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights. 

 tmis wrote:

Ok.  I'll sign up for an Audible account and see if I can find the RSS feed. 

I think the issue is that the Audible Podcasts are NOT in MP3 format, they're in Audible's .aa format.  The Zune can play that format, but Zune Desktop cannot recognize it at all.  You would have to use the Audible Manager software to get them on your device. 

With any luck, the Zune Team will add .aa format handling into Zune Desktop in the next release.  Most Audible Ready devices do take one or two revisions before they properly handle .aa files, so I'm not shocked by this - disapointing as it is.

 

 

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_________________________
Mike Talon
 - Currently listening to podcasts more than music, so my Play Count is low =(

 NYCTalon wrote:

 tmis wrote:

Ok.  I'll sign up for an Audible account and see if I can find the RSS feed. 

I think the issue is that the Audible Podcasts are NOT in MP3 format, they're in Audible's .aa format.  The Zune can play that format, but Zune Desktop cannot recognize it at all.  You would have to use the Audible Manager software to get them on your device. 

With any luck, the Zune Team will add .aa format handling into Zune Desktop in the next release.  Most Audible Ready devices do take one or two revisions before they properly handle .aa files, so I'm not shocked by this - disapointing as it is.

Ah... that makes sense.  I still have to try it myself (it's been a busy week).  But you're right, if the Zune software doesn't recognize the file format, it won't download the episode, that's probably what's happening here.  I'll pass this on to the proper person. 

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Tom
Zune Product Team 

This posting is provided as-is with no warranties, and confers no rights. 

Thanks for the replies fellas, that does make perfect sense.  I'll just put them under my audiobooks when it's been a compelling news day.  Automatic updates are so much nicer and therefore I was really hoping to just place it under podcasts but...oh well.

Here Here! I vote for getting Zune Desktop to recognize .aa downloads.  I'd even be ok with them not playing in the Desktop system, just so long as it can shuttle them over to the Zune Player devices to facilitate auto-updating.

 

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_________________________
Mike Talon
 - Currently listening to podcasts more than music, so my Play Count is low =(

I guess I don't understand this issue completly. I have a subscription to Audible.com and I can download drm protected .aa files with Audible manager and sync them with my Zune and they play fine. If however I subscribe to the Audible podcast using the Zune software the download fails. You say it is because it is an .aa file, but the .aa file will play on the zune HD if I origially download them using Audible Manager? I subscribe to several daily, weekly, and monthly subscriptions form Audible and it takes several manual steps to check for new content and move it to the Zune so I can play it. When I was using my iPOD it was all automatic. I just plugged in the iPOD to charge at night and it ws loaded and ready to go in the morning.