Hi Chic, I have not noticed any change in the MP3 files. I use an old cell phone (Sam Gal S3) to listen to them and they play fine. Not sure what’s happening in your case.
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It works on my Android phone and PC, but not on an the Roberts Bedside Internet radio that I use. I’m an IT guy so I can recode it, so it doesn’t much matter, but it is different. I just had a look and the file structure is entirely different, and even though the audio quality remains the same (64kBps) the file size is greater, there is no ID3 tag information. It looks like it’s an mp3 only export from a Telestream video encoder, so it may have DRM on it.
I wonder if NPR are trying to quietly kill off Car Talk by slowly disenfranchising it’s listeners to the point where they can say it doesn’t have the audience
My cheapo mp3 portable player hasn’t had any difficulty playing any Car Talk mp3 podcast, including the most recent ones. Are you folks having difficulty with the podcasts downloading them from the NPR source? If not, suggest to try that source instead. That’s where I download from.
I did notice one difference, the comments/title metadata attributes were blank in the recent four podcasts, which wasn’t the case before.
Seems unlikely. I expect it is just some technical difficulty that has cropped up, likely due to problematic software revisions or using a different software vendor than before. As is often said “everything can now be done with software”; true, but that doesn’t mean it will be done correctly … lol …
@chicthomson … Since you live in Scotland, do you read Practical Classics magazine? Danny (the editor) recently sold off a bunch of his long-held cars and used the loot to buy his new “classic”, a 2000 Honda Incite. He found it in Scotland, and drove it back down south to the home-office, interesting article (May 2019 issue I think).
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Since you live in Scotland, do you read Practical Classics magazine? Danny (the editor) recently sold off a bunch of his long-held cars and used the loot to buy his new “classic”, a 2000 Honda Incite.
Occasionally, for my sins I restored MGs, the occasional Alfa Romeo and once or twice a frogeye sprite and a Lotus Elan, to get away from the keyboard. Retired a few years now, so much less time on the creeper!
Oh and I get my Cartalk MP3s via the NPR-One app.
I’m just a wee bitty concerned that others with less IT witchcraft might start missing out on the podcast and use that as a reason to ditch Cartalk altogether.
Chic, try this website: The Best of Car Talk : NPR
I have no problems with the MP3 files there.
I can’t see a way to download files from there these days.
Tha option seems to have ‘gone away’.
See that little downward pointing arrow below the description of the podcast? To the right of the “playlist” link? Click it and you’ll soon be downloading. I’m not sure why they make it so confusing, but that’s what you get from the hi-tech wizards these days.
Thanks for that, but I’m afraid it doesn’t work.
When I click that ( in Firefox or Chrome on PC) it simply plays the episode. It used to give me an option to download, until a few months ago.
I can game it by extracting the URL from the link and downloading that way, but just clicking the down arrow makes it play, in a new tab. ?
Chic, I know what you mean. I run into this at other websites sometimes. It does not happen here though for me. By “gaming” you mean right clicking the arrow and choosing “Save link as”.
More or less.
Save link as will save a ‘salted’ link, with a load of extra junk appended to the filename.
So, Right click, Save Link as, and then delete all the cruft after .MP3 in the filename, to make it D/L an MP3.
Just don’t try and play the MP3 on anything expecting a Lame encoded mp3 file!
OK, I just tried that, in preference to using the NPR One app as I usually do.
The file is twice as big (52M v 26M) but that is because it’s at twice the audio quality ( 128kbps v 64 kbps), and it plays on everything!
I’m calling that a result.
Big thanks to glasspilot for the steer, happy Scottish bunny today!
[quote] (chicthomson): Save link as will save a ‘salted’ link, with a load of extra junk appended to the filename.
So, Right click, Save Link as, and then delete all the cruft after .MP3 in the filename, to make it D/L an MP3.[/quote]
I don’t see any “junk” AFTER the .MP3. Just before. When I download any file I rename it and make sure the last four characters are: .MP3 so your MP3 player will know what to do with it.
(Edit: I screwed up the “Quote” stuff above, not sure what happened!)
Yah, I don’t know why you have all that stuff AFTER the file extension. So it works for you to delete all after the MP3? I just have to rename all forward of the “dot”. I make it simple: car_talk_7-6.mp3. (No dot after the “3”)
Yep works fine.
As i hinted above I suspect US providers are having to salt /record downloads to EU in case they get in regulatory strife.
But that’s just a guess. 
That’s possible. I’m in the USA & sometimes have trouble downloading BBC podcasts, getting a message saying since I’m out of the UK, there’s some issue or another with the podcasting rights. Not the case w/most of the BBC podcasts, but w/a few of them, definitely.
In case anybody’s interested in the 1969 Apollo 11 anniversary, the BBC has posted a series of excellent mp3 podcasts about that topic in their “science” area. Haven’t had any trouble downloading those.
Must be hard to find good help in the summer. No podcast today and the web site version won’t play
I attended a classic car show this past weekend, and one of the cars was a Frogeye Sprite. Guess what powertrain ? Remember, this is the USA. Can you imagine a Frogeye Sprite w/a 426 cubic inch Hemi engine, and Ford C4 automatic transmission ? … lol …
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Still having trouble?
My PocketCast downloaded.