Subscribe to RSS feeds with DivX Connected

Since the Connected Server 1.5 update now supports DivX Plus MKV files and since it's easy to remux a MP4 video into a MKV file, I decided it was time to bring RSS feeds (podcasts) to Connected.

Strictly speaking, this is not a plug-in. This is a script that quietly downloads videos and adds them to your DivX Connected library. You'll find your RSS subscriptions just magically appear under "Videos" (not under "Plug-ins").

First you'll need Python. It's a great scripting language and my RSS reader is about 200 lines of Python code.
1. Download ActiveState Python

Next you'll need MKVToolnix. It's a set of MKV utilities including mkvmerge that can quickly convert MP3 and MP4 files into MKV files that are compatible with DivX Connected.
2. Download MKVToolnix

Finally, you need my ConnectedRSS.py script. You can save it anywhere on your computer. (Try right-click, save-as)
3. Download ConnectedRSS

After you have saved ConnectedRSS.py, double click the script and (if you installed everything properly), it will start downloading files and convert them into MKV files.

The script will create a directory called "RSS" in your "My Documents" folder (on XP) or in your user folder (on Vista). In the RSS folder there will be lots of sub-folders, each correspoding to the RSS feeds you have subscribed to. It is pre-programmed with several examples from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, etc.

Open DivX Connected and add the "RSS" directory on the "Videos Settings" tab as one of your "Shared Video Folders". Now go to your TV, power-up Connected and look under "Videos" for "RSS".

You can manually invoke ConnectedRSS regularly to update your feeds but try Windows task scheduler instead. You can configure Windows to run the ConnectedRSS script daily to automatically update your RSS videos (and delete the old ones). I actually set mine to run every 4 hours.

If you want to add your own subscriptions, edit the ConnectedRSS.py file (Notepad works fine), scroll to the end of the file and it should be pretty self explanitory from there. You'll need the URL for the RSS feed like http://www.ted.com/talks/rss. You'll need a name like "TED Talks" and you'll specify how many episodes to keep on hand. The script will keep the most recent files and delete the old ones.

You may notice that this script even converts audio files (MP3) into MKV and that Connected has no problem playing them even though there is no video. The screen is just blank. While it's unfortunate that the screen is blank, I like this approach better than adding MP3 files to the "Music" folder list. When Connected plays videos it allows you to resume playback where you left off which is usually what you want. Audio files always start from the beginning, like it or not.

The script automatically creates EMD metadata files using information from the RSS feed. It also adds a number in front of each title so that when Connected displays the files alphabetically they will appear chronologically in order.

I've run into a few bugs and you'll notice several "TODO" comments in the script. Feel free to suggest improvements.

Frequently, the RSS feed itself is broken. It might contain bad XML or missing links or empty files. I've done my best to ignore such errors.

Sometimes I get MKV files that Connected refuses to play but usually everything just works.

Sometimes I need to manually command Connected to re-scan the RSS directory to update the metadata information.

The script only updates RSS XML files if they are over an hour old. (It makes for easier testing.) If you want it faster (or slower) edit the updateXmlFile() function.

Ideally this script would just run quietly and quickly as a periodic process. However, downloading media files can be kind of slow so it does display a progress indicator (0-100%) during downloads.

While mkvmerge is doing its thing, it spits out all kinds of information but MKV conversion never takes more than 1 minute per file.

Let me know what you think.