Maigret in Montmartre

Genre: Serie – Maigret 02- Detective – ENG(UK)
Main Character: Inspector Maigret
Broadcasted: 27/aug/76

Plot: The first case for the young Lapointe, in which he falls in love for the first time in his life, and finds for the first time a dead body – all this in one week of time. A young woman, who works in a club in Montmartre, comes to the bureau to tell that she overheard two customers talking about the “countess” which they intend to kill. But what countess? The young lady only overheard the names of the men: Albert and Oscar. But the next day, she is found dead…

Author:    Georges    Simenon
Director: x x
Actors: Maurice Denham (Jules Maigret) Michael Gough (Georges Simenon)

Length: 0:42
Appreciation: ****

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/maigret/maigret2.mp3 (14,67    MB)
Sound quality: *** (48 kbps – CBR)

Info: http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/im_.log.txt
Info: http://www.trussel.com/maig/radio.htm

What is the best MP3player for listening to a radiodrama?

What a blessing it is, those portable MP3 players – you can use them to listen to music, but to radiodrama in MP3 format as well. Such a player does not have to be very expensive, even the cheap players that you can buy at big stores such as Wallmart do the job. But if you are going to buy a player, and want to use it to listen to radiodrama, you should keep following requirements in mind – they make it much easier to listen to a radiodrama.

1. A must: a screen
Miniplayers such as the iPod Shuffle or other players without a screen are really not practical: you can’t see what you are listening to, you can’t choose the chapters (unless you make a playlist on your own computer with the plays in the right order).

2. Preferable: folders
It is preferable to choose an MP3 player which works with folders. That way you can arrange the different chapters of a play in one folder, and listen to them in the right sequence. Remark: some players allow you to make folders on the player and to arrange the chapters in these folders during transfer of the files, but you cannot view the folders on the screen or choose a certain folder.

3. A workaround: playing with properties
Does your MP3 player not support folders? Then there is a way to make sure the chapters get played in the right order. You just  need to play a bit with the “properties” of a file. To start, you make sure the “genre” of all plays is “radiodrama”. That way you can select all radiodrama files on your player. To do this, you have to open Windows Explorer, select the file, and right click on the file (you can select several files at once). Choose Properties. Under Windows Vista you will find a Tab titled “details”. Here you can change all details of an MP3 file, such as name, album, genre, etc.

Because most players support selecting by genre, this allows you to make a first selection and separate plain music from radiodrama. Furthermore, if you edit the filenames meticulously, they will appear in the right order on your screen. For example: for the Agatha Christie series “Lord Edgeware Dies”, you could name the files “Agatha_edgeware_1.mp3”, “Agatha_edgeware_2.mp3” etc. Yu can change the name of a file by right clicking on it, and choose “rename”.

4. A must: remember your position
When listening to a radiodrama of an hour long, you sometimes have to interrupt – unexpected visitors, children needing your attention, etc. In that case it is imperative that your MP3 player remembers where you were. Some do, and when you restart such a player, it will continue at exact the same location as where you had stopped. Other players don’t, and you have to start allover, and have to listen to the radiodrama from the beginning. But even when your player remembers where you were when you stopped the player, most of these players require that you resume listening to the play. If you don’t, and listen to other music instead, the temporary bookmark is lost.

5. Preferable: bookmarks
When buying a new player, we advise you to look for a player with support for bookmarks. With a bookmark you can mark a point in the MP3 file, which later can be found by the player, so that the radiodrama can be resumed at that point, whether you listen to other files in the meantime or not. Players who support bookmarks are, amongst others, Creative Zen Micro, Archos. A list of such players can be found in this article.

6. Not suitable: synchronization through proprietary software only
Listening to radiodrama is very different form normal music. When playing music on a portable MP3 player, you will listen often to the same song, but a radiodrama you probably listen to just once, and maybe in a year or two, you might want to listen to it again. So what is very easy for music (automatic synchronization between computer and player) is not ideal for transferring radiodrama to your player. Unfortunately several MP3 players only support synchronization through a proprietary music manager. Try to avoid this – it is better to go for a player where you can transfer files with copy and paste.

Unfortunately, most salespersons in an appliance store don’t know the details and specifications of all the players they sell in the shop. We advise you to look at the models they sell, jot type number and price down, and start up your computer when you get home, to look at the specifications. Consult the manual of the MP3 player when in doubt. It is not the most easy way to make a choice, but it is the only way, at least if you want to have the player that is the most suitable for you.

That is why we ask your cooperation: could you please leave a comment on this blog, mentioning the player you use, whether it complies with above requirements, its good and bad points, and of course the price. Thank you!

Our choice? The Archos 104 (now sold out): it has a screen, bookmarks, folders, transfer by copy and paste. The quality of the sound is ok, and there is an equalizer to adapt the sound.

How to listen to a radiodrama on your portable MP3 player?

Of course you could use your brand new computer as an old radio, and you could listen to a radiodrama through the loudspeakers which are connected to your computer – whether the play is in streaming format, or a downloaded MP3 file. But then again, you are confined to your computer, and you can’t do anything else in the meantime.

That is why we prefer to transfer the downloaded MP3 to a portable MP3 player. That way you can listen to the MP3 file whereever and whenever you like: during household chores, when cleaning or ironing, when gardening or washing the car, when walking or sitting in a lazy chair…

You don’t have an MP3 player yet? Well, it would be worthed to enter the era of the walking human who hears voices in his head! An MP3 player does not have to cost much money, and should not be very complicated to use. And no, you really don’t need an expensive iPod either – a cheap MP3 player that you can buy at Walmart can do the trick too.

So in the next chapters we will deal with the following subjects:
1. Which player to choose? What are the requirements of a player, to be able to listen to a radiodrama?
2. How to transfer the files to your player?
3. Help! My player does not play this file format. How to convert it?

Feedreader software for radiodrama podcasts: HappyFish

Although iTunes has a big advantage (the iTunes Store, where you can easily find radiodrama and other podcasts), the software just is a big heavyweight which uses a lot of memory and, to be honest, does not offer much possibilities to finetune the way your podcasts are managed.

We prefer however HappyFish (http://happyfish.info/blog/download.aspx?=CurrentRelease – 2,56 MB – Windows XP/Vista – freeware). This program has four panels, which you can keep open with the pushpin. At the left side you find a list with the podcasts you are subscribed to. When you click on one of these feeds, you will find a list of the available episodes in the upper right part of the screen. Underneath you will find more info on the podcast (if you have selected a feed in the left panel) or on a particular episod (if you have selected an episod in the upper right part). And at the bottom of the screen you will find a list of the files you are downloaded or have downloaded.

After installing the software you better adjust the settings via “Options / Settings”:
– Downloading: here you indicate to which folder the podcasts have toe be downloaded. You can choose a central location, where Happyfish will make subfolders for each feed. We however we prefer to choose the location of each download individually. We have made a system with “tech”, “radiodrama”, “music”, etc, each with its subfolders such as “Detective”, Science Fiction”, for the radiodrama, etc. HappyFish gives you a freedom of choice which you don’t find in iTunes, where you can only choose one central download location.
– Global Schedule: indicate how often the software has to check if there is a new episod.
– Notification: whether a certain sound has to be played when new episodes have been found.
– Updates and feedback: whether the software has to check automatically if there are updates of itself
– Proxy: in case your computer has to pass through a proxy to reach the internet
– Data storage: to indicate in which folder the data of the software itself has to be stored (the settings etc – best to be left alone)
– Other: just leave this as it is.

To add a new feed you click on the RSS-icon with the plus-sign, in the upper left corner. You get a pop-up window where you have to fill in the address of the feed. Furthermore you get several options: “Catalog enclosures on first feed check (Recommended)”. Check this option, because this will not only check the feed when closing this dialogue window, but it will also generate a list with all available episodes, without downloading them all. (This is a big disadvantage compared to other readers, who will download all the episodes at once, and make your downloadmeter rocket skyhigh!)

Please be patient while the list is retrieved. The podcast will appear afterwards in your list with feeds in the left pane, and you get a new dialogue window to finetune your settings:

– General / Feed Title: fill in the name of the feed, a name that you can choose freely. Enclosures: indicate the place where the downloaded episodes have to be saved. This is a big advantage compared to other podcast software, where all podcasts are saved on one central location, and you cannot indicate any submaps. However, if you click on the button “browse”, you should know that there is a bug in the software. When browsing, you cannot create a new submap – it only looks as if you have created one. You have to crate it in your Explorer, and afterwards you can browse in HappiFish to this folder, and select it.
– Feed Check Mode: indicate whether new episodes (new enclosures) have to be downloaded immediately, of just listed in the catalogue, for retrieval later.
– Automatic Deletion: indicate whether old items have to be saved or can be deleted. We advise not to delete old items.
– Schedule: choose a schedule – best use the same schedule you use for your other podcasts.
– ID3 tags & File Names: we advise to check the option “Change genre ID3 tag to: Match Feed”and “Rename files using item title”. That way you get clear, recognizable file names for your downloads.
All these settings you can change later, if you are not happy with the result: rightclick on the name of the feed, and choose Feed Preferences.

So you go on, adding feed after feed, till you have completed your collection. If you already had made a collection of podcastsin another program, you can transfer the whole list by importing the OPML-file via File / IMport. Later on however you will have to finetune the settings for each individual feed.

To check all feeds, to see if there are new episodes, you click on “check all feeds”. Be patient – depending on the number of feeds in your HappyFish, this check can take some while. And depending on your settings, all new episodes will be downloaded immediately or listed in the episode list. A list of the downloaded episodes you find in the bottom pane.

If you want to check one feed only, you have to rightclick on that feed, and select “Check Feed”. If you want to download one or more episodes of a feed, which are listed in the upper right pane, select the feed(s), rightclick on it and select “Get Enclosure”. And when you select an episode in the upper right panel, you will find the info on that episode in the lower right panel. Now, don’t you agree that HappyFish is a much nicer and userfriendly program than iTunes?

Well, if you follow these instructions, you will get the episodes of your favourite radiodrama podcasts on your computer. How to move them to your portable player, that will be the subject of a new chapter in this blog.

How to use iTunes as feedreader for radiodrama podcasts?

Some publishers offer a radiodrama as a podcast. This means that you can download all the episodes that have been published until now with just one click of the mouse, and that you will be kept informed of every new episode that will be published in the future.

To follow up on podcasts of radiodrama, you need a “feedreader” (or podcastreader). iTunes is such a reader, and it is very easy to use, especially because you can find an extensive list with radioplays in the iTunes Store, and you can subscribe to them with just one click.

You start bij doing a search for radiodrama in iTunes. Click on the iTunes Store. In the left pane, click on Podcasts. In the top right side you find a search form. Fill in a keyword such as “old time radio” or “radiodrama” or “agatha christie”. We take the keyword “detective”. The list with results contains as well movies, books as podcast. Refine the results by clicking on the top left button “all results” and choose “podcasts”. Now you get a list with various podcasts for radioplays, including the “Agatha Presents Mysteries”. This seems a very popular podcast, as indicated bij the “popularity column”. So we choose this one to explore it, and click on the arrow next to the title of the podcast. It opens a list in the lower part of the pane, with all the episodes, duration, release date, and a summary of the content. And of course the price…. which is free!

When you click on the title of an episode, it will be played in streaming media in iTunes. If you like the content, you can download the episode by clicking on the button “Get Episode”. But if you are confident enough that you will like it, then you can take a free subscription, by clicking on the button “subscribe” which you will find in the upper part of the page.The podcast will now be added tot all the other podcasts (if you had been doing some subscribing before, that is). You can download all podcasts one by one, and will be informed of all new podcasts which are published.

What to do when there is a podcast that you know to exist, and of which you know the address of the feed, but that you can’t find in the iTunes Store? No problem: you can subscribe through iTunes to the podcast, even if it is not mentioned in the iTunes Store. All you have to do is click on the button “Advanced” in the top menu, and choose “subscribe to podcast”. In the next window you copy the address of the feed of this podcast. Click OK to confirm, and the subscription is noted.

How do you find out the address of a feed of a radio drama? That’s easy: if there is a feed available on a blog, a radiodrama, or whatever website that offers new content on regular intervals, you can recognize the feed by the rss-symbol in the address bar (IE or Firefox). Click on this symbol, and you will see the webaddress of the feed in a new page. Copy this address to your favourite feedreader.

How to download a radiodrama podcast?

Nowadays numerous sites offer radiodrama as a podcast. Simply said, they offer you a way to download at once all episodes that have been published yet, and a way to be informed when future episodes are published, so that you can download them also. And then you can listen to them on your computer, or transfer them to your portable player, and listen to them wherever and whenever you want.

Podcasts work with “feeds” to which you have to subscribe. But don’t worry: “subscribing” does not mean you have to take your creditcard from you pocket! Most podcasts are free. But you need to have special software on your computer to follow up on these feeds, the “feed reader” (in a next article we will go into detail about those readers). And you need to put the address of this “feed” (the podcast) into the reader. That is all you have to do, and from now on the episodes arrive automaticly on your computer, in the folder of your likings.

So you need a “feedreader”, software to read the “feeds” which keep you informed of the new episodes; you need the address of the “feed”. Normally you can enter the address of a feed in almost any reader, but there is one exception: iTunes. Yeah, Apple again with its own pecularities… The iTunes store has a lot of addresses of drama feeds, but only in a special form, to be used for subscription through your iTunes software.

Fortunately most websites which offer feeds for podcasts, mention the iTunes feed next to the regular feed. In the various series of radiodramas we will discuss in this blog, we will try to mention as well the regular feed as the iTunes feed.

In a next chapter we will discuss the different readers, and how to subscribe to a podcast.

How to download a radiodrama in MP3 format?

On some sites you can only listen to radiodrama in streaming format, bur there are many sites where you can download radioplays in .mp3 format. Jjust clicking on the link however  would start up your mediaplayer (QuickTime, Windows Media Player…) and the file would be played in streaming format. And that was not what you intended!

If you want to download the .mp3 file to your computer, you should not simply doubleclick on the file, but you should click on it with the right mousebutton, and choose “save link as…”. This opens a window in which you are asked if you want to save the file on your computer. It suggests a name, and a location. You should check these data, and change them if needed. Some files are only named “1.mp3” or “chapter1.mp3”; you should at least add the name of the radioplay, and the chapter.

If the play consists of various chapters, it is advised to create a special map for the series (click on File / Organize / New folder). We also recommend that you make a special location on your hard disk for storing the radioplays – make a folder in Music, or Documents, so that you can build your own library with radioplays. We can assure you that, once you get bitten by the radiodrama bug, you can’t stop collecting!

How to save a radioplay in streaming format to your computer?

For some people the computer has become the radio of yesterdays: thanks to the intenret one can listen to radiostations from over the whole world. Many internauts will even connect their computer to the stereosystem, so that they can listen to the radioplays they find on the internet sitting in their lazy chair.

But what if you don’t want to listen to the play live, and prefer to put the play as an audiofile (MP3) on your portable player (iPod or other) and listen to it while you work in the garden, do some ironing or some household chores? Unfortunately, some of the radioplays are only available in streaming format, mostly because of copyright reasons…. But don’t despair: there are ways to save the stream locally on your computer, so that you can transfer it to your player.
1. RealPlayer
For this method it is imperative that you use RealPLayer to listen to the streaming media (.pls or .m3u). With RealMedia you can record the stream (audio or video) which is played in RealPlayer to your computer. You can start recording by clicking on File – Record. The stream will be recorded, and saved to your Realplayer Library, which you can find in the RealPlayer directory on your hard disk.

But maybe your computer is opening a .pls or .m3u file with another player? In that case you should tell your computer to use from now on RealPlayer. Do as follows (Windows Vista): Go to Start / Settings / Control Panel / Default Programs. Choose “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”. Now your computer needs some time to compose a list of all existing associations. Navigate this list till you find .pls or .m3u. Click on it, and choose “Change Program” in the upper right corner. Navigate on your computer to the RealPlayer directory, and click on real.exe. Confirm and close the dialog window. From now on the .m3u or .mp3 stream will be opened by RealPlayer, and you can save the stream to your computer.

2. Special recording software
For the second method you will need software which records everything that passes through your soundcard. Choose this method only for files for which the publisher has made the recording in RealPlayer impossible. This method has a disadvantage: àll sounds are recorded, including the system sounds (new mail, error, etc). This means that you cannot do any other work on your computer while recording the stream. One of the programs for recording via the soundcard is Freecorder (http://applian.com/sound-recorder/) -(Windows 2000/XP/VIsta – Firefox 1.5 of later, IE 5.0 or later)

How to listen to radiodrama on your computer in streaming media?

There are various ways to listen to a radiodrama on your computer, depending on the form in which it is offered on the website. Some radiodrama can simply be downloaded and treated as any other MP3 file, others can only be listened to in “live” (streaming) form, when visiting the website which is offering the radioplay. This is mainly due to regulations regarding copyright, and to bandwith problems.

Most modern computers already have a program installed for listening to “streaming media”. But if, when clicking a link to a “live” radioplay, you get an error, this means that your computer lacks the adequate software, and you will have to install it.

Which program to choose? This depends on the form in which the play is offered. Most often it is a .m3u file (move your pointer over the link to the file, and look at the 3 charachters long extension of the file). If that is the case, you can download one of the following programs:

* QuickTime
* VLC Media Player
* Windows Media Player
* RealPlayer

However, if it is a .pls file, you need one of these programs:

* iTunes
* QuickTime
* Real Player
* WinAmp ()

An excellent site with tips on how to listen to streaming media can be found here.

The reason for this blog

Listening for the first time to a radio drama, is like entering a new world. You hear adventures, drama, thrilling detectives, or very funny stories, just as if you were watching a movie, but then again there is no screen, only your fantasy. The actors provide the voices, you have to provide the faces, the landscape.

In the early years of radio, radio drama was the only form of entertainment for the common people. Yes, there were the movie theaters, but you had to pay for it. Radio was for everyday, and it was free. Radio brought drama and adventures, day after day, week after week. You could hear Dr. Kildare and Dragnet, you could hear Black Museum and Academy Award. People from over the whole world were admiring their heroes via the radio.

But then came tv. Radio was reduced to a medium that brought information and music – adventure was something that implied moving images, and that was suddenly something only tv could do. From time to time a new radio drama was produced, but only because a fan of old time radio believed in the survival of this medium. People with a visual handicap were the only loyal fans of the radio drama. But evidently their number was not important enough to convince the radiomakers to continue making radiodrama.

And then the portable MP3 player arrived. One was no longer restricted to listening to audio (music, e-books or radio plays) at a predefined moment, in a predefined format. One could download through the internet audio files in the preferred format, listen to it where and when one would like – on the computer, or transfer it to the MP3 player and listen to it while working in the garding, cleaning the car, or walking. Or, even, sitting in an easy chair, at night, with the lighs dimmed, through the headphones, without any radio. The magic of the old time radio transferred through time and medium, to the new generation.

We have felt the magic of radiodrama, of the old time theater plays as well as the new productions. We believe the time is right for a revival of radiodrama, a revival to which it is entitled. That is what we intend to do with this blog.