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[BartMan01]

First off - great job getting this added.  I know other people are having a hard time trying to get over this hurdle.

Three issues I see with the current implementation:
First - podcasts are also still in the 'music' section as well.  When Apple loads them from iTunes they are only in the Podcast section and not in with the music - so a shuffle all just plays your music files back.

Second - (at least with podcasts downloaded external to MC) the podcasts are being grouped by 'Artist' instead of by 'Album' (or some other tag).  I know you have no control over what podcasters put in their metadata, but it seems the 'normal' use is the 'Artist' field to denote the speaker or guest and the 'Album' field for the podcast title.  For example - the ITC series of podcasts puts the guest name as the artist.  I am behind on listening to them, so this means I have 96 'podcasts' in my list on the iPod from these alone.  Not impossible to work around, but please re-look at this when you get a chance.

Third - you are missing whatever flag (or trickery) Apple is setting to make the podcast files bookmarked.  If I send an MP3 podcast to the iPod via iTunes it is a 'bookmarked' file that remembers where it left off.  That way if I am half way through an hour long podcast and switch over to music, it knows where I left off and resumes the file when I come back.  This may be related to the first issue - since it seems you have figured out how to make the iPod think they are podcasts, but not exactly loading them in the same way as Apple does.

Keep up the good work - I am loving the new iPod support features.

[BlueGlow]

Yes, things are looking good, but we're still lagging behind iTunes a bit.
Here are my notes on bookmarks and shuffle.

[dpippel]

Things are indeed starting to get fine-tuned as far as Podacsting goes, and I'm thankful. I'll echo Bartman01's concerns #1 and #3 as well. Bookmarking for Podcasts is essential, and if their redundant listing under Music -> Artists could be eliminated that would be awesome.

[Matt]

Things are indeed starting to get fine-tuned as far as Podacsting goes, and I'm thankful. I'll echo Bartman01's concerns #1 and #3 as well. Bookmarking for Podcasts is essential, and if their redundant listing under Music -> Artists could be eliminated that would be awesome.

Our resident Podcast guru thinks listing them under music and podcasts is the way to go.  One advantage to the music section is that the iPod will play more than one file at a time. (unlike the Podcast section)

[bennyd]

Our resident Podcast guru thinks listing them under music and podcasts is the way to go.  One advantage to the music section is that the iPod will play more than one file at a time. (unlike the Podcast section)

I agree with the Podcast guru

[PollyQ]

I agree with the Podcast guru

Ditto to that.  A lot of my podcasts actually are music, and besides, I don't want to have to check two places to get a full list of what's on my iPod.

[BartMan01]

One advantage to the music section is that the iPod will play more than one file at a time. (unlike the Podcast section)

In that case, yes leave them as is.

One additional thing I wasn't thinking about is that in the 'music' section I can make a playlist of various podcasts.

[dpippel]

Our resident Podcast guru thinks listing them under music and podcasts is the way to go.  One advantage to the music section is that the iPod will play more than one file at a time. (unlike the Podcast section)

Yep, if that is indeed the case then having them in both locations seems to be the best way to handle things.

[BlueGlow]

I prefer having them listed in both places as well.

Also, could you please add "Remember playback position" and "Skip when shuffling" fields to MC's database and to iTunes support?

Related to that, Edit This Feed should have an iPod option section:

iPod Options:
 -  Set "Remember Playback Position" to true for new episodes: (T/F)
 -  Set "Skip During Shuffle Music Playback" to true for new episodes:  (T/F)
 
These would specify the default values for the "Remember playback position" and "iPod skip when shuffling" fields when files are downloaded.

It would be great to have general MC support for Remember Playback Position.

Thanks,
  bg

[gany]

5. NEW: Podcasts on an iPod are flagged to be skipped during shuffle / and to always get bookmarked. (will only get flagged for podcasts newly uploaded to an iPod)

Is it possible to activate these flags manualy for audiobooks and other titles?

Gany

[DancingSamurai]

I echo gany's question / feature request -- please allow the 'skip during shuffle' and 'bookmarks' to be set on arbitrary tracks (or instruct us on how to do this at the present time, if already possible). I have a number of lectures and language courses in .mp3 format, and these features would go a long way to dispel my frustration on using them with my ipod.

Thanks!

[DancingSamurai]

Sorry to double post, but since this feature is still not yet implemented, is there any way I could make a fake podcast (my own .xml file on a website or something) to fool MC into thinking arbitrary tracks (e.g. whatever lectures I'm trying to listen to) are podcasts and thereby enable the bookmarking / skip on shuffle functionality? I don't really use podcasts much so I'd appreciate any help with this. Thanks!

[BartMan01]

Sorry to double post, but since this feature is still not yet implemented, is there any way I could make a fake podcast (my own .xml file on a website or something) to fool MC into thinking arbitrary tracks (e.g. whatever lectures I'm trying to listen to) are podcasts and thereby enable the bookmarking / skip on shuffle functionality? I don't really use podcasts much so I'd appreciate any help with this. Thanks!

Actually, all you have to do it give the file a genre of 'podcast' and it will be treated this way.