I need an iTunes primer

[lonewolf32]

I am a Diggnation listener - and all this time I have been using Thunderbird's RSS feature to get Diggnation. I finally downloaded iTunes, I think that is a step in the right direction. Normally I burn the podcast to an audio CD using Nero and listen in the car. So I've subscribed to the Diggnation feed on iTunes, but there are some things I think I should be able to do in iTunes, and I haven't been able to figure them out yet. Thanks for any help.

- I have set iTunes to check hourly for new podcasts. But when I reboot my machine iTunes does not start. Where is this setting? I just want it to start minimized to the system tray on startup, so I don't have to manually load it.

- I was able to burn the podcast to a CD but only after I added the podcast to a playlist. Can't I just burn a podcast straight from the Podcasts window? Or is is mandatory to add it to a playlist first?

- Is there a way to tell iTunes to blank a CD-RW before writing, like Nero does?

- Is there some type of notification mechanism for when a new podcast is downloaded and ready? Normally I wouldn't have iTunes open on the desktop - so a nice systemtray icon and a system tray popup would be cool.

Thunderbird and Nero together can do most of these things except auto-download the podcasts. Which is the feature I really want.

Thanks.

[jjallday]

Itunes doesn't appear to have a "load on startup" feature, I would probably just add it to the startup folder in Windows or write a batch file to open it up...there may be a command line switch to open it as minimized but I have no idea what it is.

Itunes doesn't seem to like to export anything easily unless it's in a playlist so I'd say you're stuck there. There's no notification of new podcasts, other than in the podcast screen...there may be a 3rd party plugin that adds that feature though.

Also, the burning features in Itunes are pretty rudimentary and structured if you couldn't tell, if you're looking for flexibility, best to go back to Nero and an RSS podcatcher.

[lonewolf32]

What else do people use as an RSS catcher that has these types of features?

Thanks!