Escape Artists

Escape Pod => About Escape Pod => Topic started by: Praxis on March 25, 2009, 11:32:28 AM

Title: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Praxis on March 25, 2009, 11:32:28 AM
Help, please.

I use RhythmBox music player (runs on Linux, possibly other O/Ss, to download all my different podcast feeds but, with Escape Pod, Podcastle and Pseudopod, when they download what I *actually* get downloaded is "[filename].mp3?" followed by "sfsljlsfuoissjsSFWR234432sdfsdfs" or some other string of possibly meaningless numbers and letters added onto the filename.

The files themselves are fine, albeit that my computer doesn't know what to do with them until I rename the file manually and, so far, it only happens with podcasts from Escape Artists (same for normal episodes, flashes, giant, reviews - everything).

Does anyone else get this? 
Or know why it would be happening (especially just from podcasts from here)?
Am I being sent secret messages for world domination from some hideous fiction-loving cabal?
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Bdoomed on March 25, 2009, 04:19:30 PM
Am I being sent secret messages for world domination from some hideous fiction-loving cabal?
or something along those lines.
thats... weird as hell.  so what you're saying is you get lets say...
Escape Pod Flash_ Beachcomber.mp3?sfsljlsfuoissjsSFWR234432sdfsdfs
???? or something along those lines...
every time you download an mp3 file from EA...
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Praxis on March 26, 2009, 12:18:43 AM
Yeah, pretty much.
Except I sometimes get capital letters in there, too.

Also (this may, or may not, help matters) the ID3 tags and such are fine, so the tricksey 'casts look fine in the overall file library.

I think the cabal theory is most likely, tbh.
Though there was that guy last year who gave me some shiny shoes in exchange for rental of my soul.....
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Bdoomed on March 26, 2009, 03:44:11 AM
do they download automatically or do you manually do it?
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Praxis on March 26, 2009, 08:53:00 AM
Automatically.
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Bdoomed on March 26, 2009, 07:24:57 PM
WEIRD!  try unsubscribing and resubscribing, make sure the feed is right, etc.  i really duno, and i cant try out the program for myself because the file extensions aren't windows.
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Praxis on March 26, 2009, 10:41:12 PM
 :o

Le Gasp!

But, if I unsubscribe, won't you lot all disappear?
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Russell Nash on March 27, 2009, 12:53:00 PM
Yes, our entire existence is predicated on you being subscribed to the podcast.  If you don't listen for a while, we start to fade.
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Talia on March 27, 2009, 01:54:08 PM
:o

Le Gasp!

But, if I unsubscribe, won't you lot all disappear?

Nonsense, nothing like that could ha
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Heradel on March 27, 2009, 03:28:47 PM
Yes, our entire existence is predicated on you being subscribed to the podcast.  If you don't listen for a while, we start to fade.

I told you not to run the forums on a existentialist engine.

Edit: More seriously, it sounds to me like the hash is being appended to the filename after the download, so I think the problem's going to be with RhythmBox — Try updating to the latest version, or re-subscribing to the feed. If it doesn't work, hopefully it'll be cleared up once the eventual move off of podpress happens.
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Praxis on March 27, 2009, 08:39:21 PM
Should've used a solipsistic one, cut down on your running costs.

Heradel - I know what you mean, but why only episodes from EA feeds?
(go on, you can tell me.  Is it the literary cabal?)
Title: Re: Weird file name extentions after downloading podcasts.
Post by: Wilson Fowlie on March 27, 2009, 08:41:44 PM
The same thing happens to me with Juice.  Because I always remove the extra characters from the file name, I just re-downloaded "It Was Death By a Bullet" (chosen for the short download time) and reproduce the resulting filename herewith:

EPFlash_ItWasDeathByABullet_nvb_20090327201645_nva_20090328202645_t_0f82b44e5034ac407a767.mp3

In my case, the extra characters aren't all gibberish - I recognize, for instance, today's date (but not the download time, in any time zone, unless there's one that off by ten minutes ... or the server's clock is) after the letters 'nvb', and for some reason, tomorrow's date after the letters 'nva'.  The stuff after 't' is gibberish.

Also, unlike mentioned by the original poster, the extra characters are added before the extension.

Not all of the (few) feeds I get do this - the CBC feeds don't, nor SFFAudio or Start Cooking - but Escape Pod, Podcastle and (possibly significantly, since it's not an Escape Artists feed) Decoder Ring Theatre all do.

Also, it happens on at least two different computers connecting independently (i.e. not both at work or both at home, through common firewalls).

I've Googled a bit about this - a bit desultorily, I'll admit - and haven't been able to find anyone else mention the phenomenon.  Whether that's because it's not out there, or because my (usually adequate) search skills haven't been able to find it, I can't tell.

If anyone has any insight into this, if not an actual solution, I'd love to hear about it.

Quote

Quote
But, if I unsubscribe, won't you lot all disappear?

I told you not to run the forums on a existentialist engine.

Praxis is also the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast.