Easy access to vocabulary and sentence audio
aeriph
December 23, 2009, 09:22 PM posted in General DiscussionHi all
I was wondering if there's a way to easily access the mp3 audio for vocabulary items and sentences. CPod must have a huge quantity of these fantastic recordings but they only seem to accessible via lessons that use them.
Is it possible to search directly for vocabulary recordings, and sentences that contain them? I'd like to be able to put them into Anki for study. Currently I can only do this as I come across them in lessons, and even then I have to dig through the page's source code to be able to copy the mp3 into Anki.
I think this would be a really valuable feature if it doesn't already exist.
aeriph
December 23, 2009, 10:05 PMThanks, that does look good for making it easier to grab the audio files.
I'd still like to know if there is a way to just search for audio of any word or phrase in the database that CPod must have. For example, if I wanted a nice recording of píngguǒ I would be able to just type in the pinyin or hanzi and see what CPod has available.
Currently I'm stuck to chancing upon the recording in a lesson, or using Anki's audio-generator, which just knits separate audio files together without any fluency.
andrew_c
December 24, 2009, 12:37 AMAeriph, you might want to check out the glossary.
RJ, it's been downloading vocabulary audio from the vocabulary tab since Version 2008.9.14 (in addition to the audio review mp3 file).
hkboy
December 24, 2009, 12:57 AMRJ & andrew,
I have wondered how to get all the dialogues and reviews lumped together on my mp3. Do you need to use the wlcp software or is there something you can do in itunes to get it? I thought I remembered something about wlcp not working with chinesepod now.
andrew_c
December 24, 2009, 03:23 AMi'm not really sure what itunes can do.
WLCP wasn't working a few times, but Derek and Jon have updated it, and last I heard it's working.
RJ
December 23, 2009, 09:56 PMyes
http://code.google.com/p/wlcp/
will provide mp3's for expansion sentences bundled together however the audio review also contains all vocab for each lesson and the expansion sentences.
I keep a directory of the reviews in my mp3 and can play one after another to go through all the intermediate lessons one after another to provide hours of vocab review for example. It still requires storage of each lesson review. I am not aware of any way to grab all vocab files at once.
tiaopidepi
December 24, 2009, 04:03 PM@querido: WLCP doesn't give anyone access to content they don't already have. You need a paid subscription to use it. There's no way to "steal" from ChinesePod by using WLCP.
To my knowledge, ChinesePod hasn't commented about programs that programmatically log into their web site. When I wrote a game that hooks up to expansion sentences I sent a PM to John but never heard back. Silence, I suppose, gives consent : )
RJ
December 24, 2009, 04:12 PMcpod is aware of wlcp. They have never discouraged its use. You are only logging in as yourself in an automated way. As you say, it does not provide access to anything you havent already paid for.
RJ
December 24, 2009, 04:57 PMhkboy,
wlcp is indeed working now. Derek Chadwick is the current owner and in fact he has updated the program as recently as sept. I am still using the 3/22 version. Remember wlcp only works properly in firefox and each time you use the program you may need to re-set your cog wheel settings on the cpod site. It tends to leave them where you put them for the needs of wlcp. Not a big deal. The best thing you can do is experiment with it a bit and see if it is something useful for you. Its quite powerful actually.
tiaopidepi
December 29, 2009, 07:12 PMUpdate: have heard back from John. There's still no public CPod API but it's coming one day.
Zhaoyang
December 24, 2009, 04:18 AMWLCP doesn't do anything improper does it? Is it definitely O.K. to use?
simonpettersson
December 23, 2009, 09:43 PMI don't use it myself, but look for a Firefox plugin called We Love ChinesePod, or WLCP. I think it does what you ask for.