There are a number of ways to listen to a podcast on your TiVo. Each technique has its’ drawbacks. If you want, you could use TiVo’s new HME app that was released in November ‘05. One of the problems with this app is that if you want to listen to a podcast that isn’t in the list of available podcasts, you will be required to “type” the podcast’s feed url using your remote. If you’ve ever tried this before, you know what a pain this can be.
Instead of using TiVo’s app, you could also use Galleon to gather your podcasts. This is a good option however, if you have an older machine Galleon won’t run all that well. Galleon is written in java so you need to have a decent machine in order to take full advantage of the software. If you have a good machine, I would recommend giving Galleon a try.
For those people who don’t have a decent machine with a lot of processing power and memory, I would recommended that you try the setup that I am about to describe. This setup will allow you to subscribe to a podcast and then listen to it on your TiVo.
To start, you need to make sure that your TiVo is connected to your network and that you are running the latest version of TiVo Desktop. Along with TiVo Desktop, you are also going to have to install iTunes or a similar podcatcher. For the sake of this how to, I am going to assume that you are using iTunes.
Once all of the required software is installed (TiVo Desktop & iTunes), you need to subscribe to whatever podcasts you want to listen to. To do this, bring up iTunes and navigate to the podcast directory (screenshot below). iTunes’s podcast directory makes it easy for you to subscribe to a bunch of different feeds.
Once you’ve subscribed to a couple of feeds, the next thing you need to do is figure out where iTunes is saving your podcasts to on your computer. To do this, navigate to the Preferences screen via the Edit –> Preferences menu item. Once the Preferences window appears, click on the Advanced tab and note the “iTunes Music folder location”. This is the location where iTunes will store you podcasts. By default, iTunes stores your podcasts in My Music –> iTunes –> Podcasts.
Now that you know where iTunes is saving your podcasts, the next thing to do is configure TiVo Desktop so that you podcasts are accessible to your TiVo. To do this, open up TiVo Desktop and click on the “Music & Photos” button along the left hand side. From there you need to add the folder that contains your podcasts (determined above). You can either add the entire iTunes folder or just add the Podcasts folder. I prefer to add the Podcasts folder because it makes it easier to navigate when you’re using your TiVo.
Now that you have the podcast folder shared out, you should be all set to listen to podcasts on your TiVo. To do this, you must navigate to the TiVo Central screen and then Music & Photos. From there you should be able to browse whatever podcasts you’ve subscribed to.
In my opinion, this is the best setup for somebody who doesn’t have a machine that is capable of running Galleon. If you have a good machine, I would recommend going with Galleon. If not, I would recommend that you use a setup similar to the one I just described.
Good luck and let me know if you listen to podcasts on your TiVo using a different technique.
Is it just me or does it seem like TiVo HME development has come to a grinding halt?. Remember back in June ‘05 how TiVo sponsered a developer challenge? Well, ever since then it seems like HME development has slowed down considerably. Even the developer of Galleon? has said that he is discouraged with the lack of support and updates TiVo is providing. What’s going on with HME? TiVo hasn’t released an update to the API since 10/31/2005!
If you’re at all like me, then you are a little disappointed from 
Leon has released Galleon 2.1.0. Here are the release notes:
