Subscribing to the podcast is easy.  These media casts, sometimes called podcasts, are syndicated using RSS.  RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is made up of XML, and is used to “publish” or “feed” content so that software called “podcatchers” can automatically tell when there is new content, and automatically download that content onto your computer or other devices.  These publish points are called “feeds”.  From there, other software (sometimes the podcatcher itself), may load this content onto portable devices such as Zunes or iPods.  Some popular podcast software includes iTunes and Zune.

To get your podcatcher to “subscribe” to one of our feeds, you generally need the URL, or web address, that points to the XML that describes the feed.  We have three different feeds currently.  One for all content (I recommend this one for the simplest experience), one for a subset of this content that is only audio content (mp3 format), and finally another subset feed for only video content (mp4 format).  The address of the all content feed is here.  The audio only feed (again, same content right now) is here.  The video only feed is here.  These can also be found in the right navigation pane of this site, and are identified with orange “RSS” symbols under the “Podcast Feeds” heading near the top.  I will also show the whole URL here below, to make it easy to cut and paste into your podcatcher of choice.

All Content: http://studentpilotcast.com/rss   [RECOMMENDED]

Audio only:  http://studentpilotcast.com/spc/category/podcasts/audio/feed/

Video only: http://studentpilotcast.com/spc/category/podcasts/video-podcasts/feed/

An example of how this would be used, and the way I personally prefer to do it for my own subscriptions to content, is to use the one main feed (all content).  My Zune software and devices break these up for me easily into video and audio, so using two different feeds is unnecessary.  iTunes also handles this just fine.  Some people may prefer, though, to use two different feeds; one for video, one for audio.  We supply those as well if you wish to use them.  Some reasons to use two separate feeds include funkiness in mixing the content with some software (I don’t know if this happens, but it could) or simply the preference to subscribe to video on one device and audio only on another (maybe that has less storage).

iTunes Setup

If you are using iTunes, you can subscribe directly by choosing a feed above, and copying the URL (listed above).  Then, in iTunes, select the “Advanced” menu, and then the option, “Subscribe to  podcast…”.  When the Subscribe to Podcast URL box shows up, simply paste the feed URL into that box, and you are subscribed.  Alternatively, the Student Pilot Cast Audio and Video casts are featured for free in the iTunes store as well, so you can subscribe directly by using a search or by browsing the Aviation category in iTunes.  Note: The iTunes store currently ONLY contains the separate audio and video feeds; I have not submitted the combined feed to the store to minimize confusion due to the overlapping content.  If you want to use the combined feed in iTunes, follow the “advanced” procedure above.  In any case, to not miss an episode, we recommend that you change your download settings if you haven’t already.  Click on the “Settings” button at the bottom of the Podcasts section of iTunes, and in the dialog box that comes up, make sure that “Download All” is chosen next to the option, “When new episodes are available:”.

Zune Setup

If you are using Zune, simply go to your collection, then to Podcasts, and near the lower left you will see a button entitled “Add a Podcast”.  Click this, and paste the URL to the feed (listed above) that you want to subscribe to into the box, and hit “subscribe”.  With Zune software, you have more granular control over the settings of each podcast, how they download, and how they sync to a Zune device (if you have one).  To change download and subscription settings, just right click on the “Album Art” of the podcast along the left hand side, and choose “Series Settings” in the context menu that pops up.  From there you can choose how many episodes to download, what order to download them in (oldest first, newest first), and how to determine when and what to sync to a device.  If you want to change settings for all podcasts, you can change the defaults by using the “settings” link in the upper right corner of the Zune software, then choosing the “Podcasts” section.

Other Podcatchers

For any other pod catchers, please consult the documentation for that software to subscribe to podcasts.

Good luck, and happy listening.  Please don’t hesitate to drop me a line via the contact page, or leave comments on individual posts.  If you have comments or questions specific to subscribing to the podcast, feel free to leave a comment below on this page.