Download the 720p videos from YouTube and push the contrast up by 10% on your media player or monitor when viewing. Here are 720p videos that are about 250MB per episode.
For downloading from YouTube, you can use Miro.
The really crazy part is that no custom streaming service is needed.
There are open standards (vodcasting -- RSS plus a simple video streamed over http or whatever, including with bittorrent support) that have been around for ages.
Miro provided all the technology needed for a global, democratised, P2P video service about a decade ago. For years now, we've had live streaming of bittorrent-hosted video.
Developing anything else is just an attempt hold back humanity, for the sake of profit.
hmm it is all good and fine with your review of music players, but you did not read OPs post did you? :) he is looking for some app like itunes but mostly for video podcasts.I would suggest Miro http://www.getmiro.com/
It might be overkill for what you have in mind, but Miro is a really nice torrent manager/media player with built-in rss support.
I grab feeds from eztv.it all the time and manage them with Miro. You can set it to automatically delete the files after a week or so as well, which is handy for managing tv shows.
not personally used it.
for my style it looks like juice is nice and clean for automated offline downloading/cleaning up and combines well with VLC for actual playing.
i'd recommend just trying them out and seeing which works for you.
another possibility is "Miro"
While I don't listen to podcasts or use iTunes. I would personally suggest Miro. It is easy, quick. Most of all, highly trusted and liked from what I have read. My brother has it installed on his Windows 10 System. He seems to like it.
Long ago I used a program called Miro to do kind of what you're talking about. It's changed and I haven't used it in a while but it would download videos automatically so you could sync them with a mobile device like you would with podcasts. Might be worth looking into. http://www.getmiro.com/
You are just completely misinformed about the current state of bittorrent. Yes, it's true that there are uses that some governments regard as illegal. However, there are many that aren't. I don't know of a large list, although I'm sure they exist.
Miro is a great source for author-provided, syndicated bittorrent feeds. http://www.getmiro.com/
I personally download Democracy Now every day via Bit Torrent. Do you think that Pacifica has the capacity to stream, in HD, to the millions of people around the world that watch Democracy Now?
It's true, as you say, that they have a website and that the majority of their consumer base chooses to consume the lower definition stream provided on the website. However, for the (non-insignificant) number of individuals and public spaces that want to show it in HD, bittorrent is an ideal option.
Bittorrent is growing, and, although I don't think there are statistics on this matter, I surmise that completely legal uses of bittorrent are growing much faster than other uses.
Regardless, your first statement, "most people do not like bittorrent," is extraordinary. Do you have evidence for this claim?
Miro is a great open-source solution. Like VLC, it plays most file formats. Like iTunes, it manages both music and video libraries, syncs with iOS devices and is capable of converting files to MP4 if that's what you need.
Google is your friend. (Just kidding!)
Looks like everyone else covered most everything, but I have a few suggestions/comments. As far as Notepad++, uTorrent, and Rainmeter, you're in for a treat. The Linux alternatives to these are in my opinion much better than their Windows equivalents. Be sure to check out Deluge, Transmission, Sublime Text, Geany, and Gedit. For Rainmeter, check out Conky. Not as user friendly, but it is more powerful. (Pretty much what everyone else said)
I have a few recommendations that no one seemed to mention. The first is Kingsoft Office. The look and feel is very similar to MS Office and it has good compatibility with MS formats. (Also has a pretty solid Android version!) The other is Miro, which is a media player, podcast manager, (including video) video format converter, and torrent client all in one. It's heavier than VLC etc, but I found it helpful for transitioning away from iTunes.
Also be sure to checkout Pithos. It's an unofficial Pandora client that doesn't have ads or listening limits, so basically Pandora One for free. Much lighter than their shitty website too.
I have a program called Miro, downloads via Pirate Bay or anything, really. You can watch or listen to the movies/shows/music/anything you download on Miro.
So useful once you figure out how it works.
How abou Miro? I last used it a few years ago, but it is supposed to handle everything. Note that it looks like you have to explicitly decline the browser searchbars that it offers.
I subscribed to these and watch them through Miro
Though they're available on iTunes and YouTube.
He's on a bit of a hiatus at the moment, but will be back soon with the help of a production company.
Such a genius format!
Khan Academy got me through some tough classes without a doubt. If you're interested, you can use the Miro player to easily subscribe to and download the Khan lessons you want (as well as a plethora of other great content such as all the Revision3 content).
You can add a rss-feed of day9's blip.tv-channel with Miro. It's really easy, and as soon as Miro is running, it'll download the latest episodes for you.
Also after you watched an episode it'll get automatically deleted (you can change the time how long yo want to keep an episode).