Using The Software
Logging In
Double click the PODDS Player icon on your Desktop. When prompted, enter the username (email address) and password chosen during registration.
If you're already registered but you don't know your username or password, submit a password request via the "Forgot Password?" banner on the right side of the PODDS website.
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Welcome Message
A Welcome message at the top of the screen indicates how many New Tracks have been posted on the Music Store in the past 2 weeks.
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Viewing the Music Store
Tracks that are available for you download are listed under the Music Store tab. The Music Store tab is our live Web Portal.
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Buying Credits
PODDS tracks are downloaded using a system of credits. One credit gets you one track download and authorizes 3 burns for that track. In order to download tracks, you must buy credits. This can be done ahead of time, or at the time of checkout. You can buy more credits than you will use in a single transaction. Once credits have been assigned to your account, you have them until they are used. Credits do not expire. Buying multiple credits in one transaction will get you a volume discount in a similar way that subscribing to PODDS CD Formats for a 12 month subscription gets you cheaper price per disc than buying individual issues
To buy credits, make sure you are logged in to the PODDS Player. On the Music Store tab, simply click the “Buy Credits” icon along the top of the page. Select the credits package, enter your information and credit card number. Then click “Submit Transaction”. Your credit card will be processed and credits added immediately. The official invoice will be emailed to you.
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Additional Track Information
To display additional track information, click the title. Click the Back Button Navigation Arrow to return to the previous page.
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Previewing Tracks
To listen to a 128K Streamed Audio Preview of the track, click the Play Button. To stop the preview stream, simply click the Stop Streaming icon. All streams are 30 second clips taken from 0:30 to 1:00 of each track.
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Downloading
PODDS uses a ‘cart and check out’ to facilitate purchasing and download. When you find a track you wish to download, simply check the “Add” box next to the track. The track is immediately added to the Cart. In the instance that you wish to download all the tracks of a particular list, just click the “Add All” box in the top header.
After tracks have been added, click the “Shopping Cart” button to review your selections. Then click “Check Out”. After a final confirmation of the transaction, downloading will begin and the Download Manager will be displayed.
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Download Manager
To view the status for any of the tracks, select the Download Manager, which is located under the View Menu. This shows the percentage completed of each track and all the tracks in the cue for download. To delete or cancel a download, simply highlight the track and press the delete key. Any remaining tracks in the cue will continue to download.
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Viewing The Complete Catalogue
The Music Store is divided up into different sections, however it is possible to view a single list of everything available. Just click the “Complete Catalogue” link at the top of the Music Store page. This will show our complete catalog sorted alphabetically. To resort, simply click the header of the column you want to sort by.
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Reporting Problems
While we’ve done our best to ensure the information about each track is as accurate as possible. Some of the data has been auto-generated by the system. If you see any incorrect data, wrong graphics or audio errors, please help us out by reporting it. Click the “Report Problems” link at the top of the Music Store and an email window will launch. Please try to be as specific as possible so that we can ensure it is corrected in the next update. There may be rewards given for problem reports. And certainly, if you notice a problem with something you have downloaded, a replacement file will be made available to you ASAP and credit given back for the original download.
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The My Music & Player Tab
This section is divided into three specific areas and functionality – My Library, Music Player, Playlist & Burn Area. This is the section of The PODDS player that allows you to work with tracks you have already downloaded.
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My Library
The My Library lists tracks that have been downloaded to your local computer. You may also sort your tracks by clicking on the various titles in each column. You may also adjust the columns width as required. Right clicking the column header allows you to select which columns will be visible. Clicking the Track Info icon displays additional information on the track.
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Playing Downloaded Songs
Once the track has been downloaded, you can double-click the song title to Play. The title of the song playing will appear in the Player window. The song may be stopped or paused using the Player controls. You can also Fast Forward or Rewind the track by moving the Progress Indicator bar of the Player. Users may also skip to the Next or Previous tracks by using Player controls.
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Removing Tracks from My Library
To remove a track from My Library, simply right click on the track. You can then choose to “Delete File from Library (Keep File)” or “Delete File from Hard Drive”. “Deleting the File from Library” will remove the file from your My Library window, but will not delete the file from your computer. Choosing “Delete File from Hard Drive” will remove the track from your My Library window AND will also delete the file from your computer.
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Playlist & Burn Area
Located in the upper right window is the Playlist & Burn area. You can use this feature to create and manage custom Playlists and Burn CDs. Each track downloaded from PODDS is authorized for 3 burns.
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Adding Tracks to the Playlist Area
Tracks may be added to the Playlist & Burn Area by dragging and dropping from the My Library track list. To move multiple tracks at once, use the Shift key to highlight the tracks, then drag and drop the group.
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Using the Add Button
When you click the Add button, you can import other audio file formats to your Playlist. You can import MP2, MP3, WAV and WMA files that you may have saved to your computer. Adding other music files to the Playlist window will also add that song to your My Library window. This is used for burning CDs that contain more than just tracks downloaded from PODDS.
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Saving Custom Playlists
Tracks that have been added to the Playlist area can be saved as a custom list by clicking the Save button. Simply give the list a name and save to your computer like any other file.
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Loading Custom Playlists
Custom Playlists can be retrieved and opened in the Playlist window by clicking Load. Simply select the desired Playlist and Open.
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Deleting Tracks from a Playlist
Click the Delete button to remove songs from the Playlist. Songs deleted from Playlists will not be deleted from your computer, only removed from this Playlist.
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Clearing the Playlist window
Clicking the Clear button clears the tracks from the Playlist area.
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Burning tracks to a CD
You can drag multiple Tracks into the Playlist & Burn area to create a full CD. As tracks are added, you will notice a Total Time indicator on the top right of the window. If you plan to burn tracks to a CD be sure not to exceed the time available on the blank CD. Once you have created your list of tracks to burn, click on the red Burn To CD button. A window will appear prompting you to choose the drive, select the number of seconds between songs and set the burning speed. For most computers, we recommend burning at a maximum of 8x, however faster computers should not experience any problems burning at higher speeds. Once selected, click on the Burn button to begin the process.
Please note that the PODDS application will not allow you to do other tasks during the Burning process. It is also recommended that you do not navigate out of the Player to other programs during the burn process. As with any burning software, this could lead to a digital error on the burned CD.
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Downloading ASPI layer
If your computer’s CD Burner is not recognized by the PODDS Player, it will not show up in the Drive window of the Burn To CD screen. Downloading the ASPI layer might solve this. You can download ASPI layer from Adaptec or Nero. ASPI is not required on Windows 2000 / XP, as it uses Windows' SPTI to communicate with the CD Writer
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