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The W - Music - Looking for a good podcast aggregator (replacement for iTunes)
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Mr. Boffo
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Since: 24.3.02
From: Oshkosh, WI

Since last post: 3886 days
Last activity: 3847 days
#1 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.12
Oh man. There are a few minor bugs in iTunes (or at least the Windows version) that are driving me crazy.

I'll detail those bugs for you.
1. When iTunes downloads a podcast, it puts it in the C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Downloads\Podcasts folder. Then once it finishes, it moves it to the C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Podcasts folder. Except sometimes it doesn't. This leads to iTunes "losing" the file. When I try to play it, it tells me that it can't be found, and asks me if I want to locate it. What the heck is that about? You downloaded the file, you tell me where it is!

2. When I tell iTunes to delete a video podcast, it doesn't actually delete it. I can go into C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Podcasts\VH1 Best Week Ever, for example, and see that there are still 5 mp4 files in that directory, even though I deleted them all.

I know they're minor bugs, but they're really starting to annoy me. And since I don't have an iPod or an iPhone or an Apple TV (and I don't buy anything on iTunes), I don't have to use iTunes. So does anyone have a suitable program that will download podcasts from an RSS feed?
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samoflange
Lap cheong








Since: 22.2.04
From: Cambridge, MA

Since last post: 3806 days
Last activity: 3798 days
#2 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.91
Juice is the best standalone podcast software I've found. I've been using it for about a year and a half. I don't use it to manage files, I just go into the folders and delete them myself, but I'm fairly sure that you can do it within the program. It also doesn't have a built-in media player, but if you click a file within Juice it will call up whatever your default mp3 playing software is and play the file.
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/

MediaMonkey is a complete iTunes replacement. It was already one of the best music organizers/player, and then sometime in the past year or so they added podcast features. I haven't used it for podcasts because I don't feel like fixing what ain't broke (Juice is fine for me), but I admit it would be more convenient to have it all in one program.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/

(Also, if you do try out MediaMonkey, get this plug-in for it. It adds a very nice feature. http://magicnodes.110mb.com/)



Lloyd: When I met Mary, I got that old fashioned romantic feeling, where I'd do anything to bone her.
Harry: That's a special feeling.

Make/watch my fake internet city grow. (samoflangia.myminicity.com)
Mr. Boffo
Scrapple








Since: 24.3.02
From: Oshkosh, WI

Since last post: 3886 days
Last activity: 3847 days
#3 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.12
Update, I guess.

Tried MediaMonkey, and thought it was going to be satisfactory. It had little issues of its own, and I was disappointed with certain things. THen when I went into it after a couple days and somehow everything had been lost, I said screw it.

Figured I'd give Juice a shot, and I have to say, I like it. I like how I can get all downloaded podcasts on a single list (in the downloads tab). From the Cleanup tab, I can indeed delete podcasts. I don't know why you have to go to a separate tab (seems to me just hitting delete in any other tab would seem sufficient), but it's no problem.
ironcladlou
Potato korv








Since: 2.1.02
From: Quincy, MA

Since last post: 5699 days
Last activity: 5551 days
#4 Posted on | Instant Rating: 2.05
Juice is about the best one out there. Doppler was quite good, but the developers got lazy. One feature I liked about Doppler was the ability to run something on the MP3 after download. I liked to run MP3Gain on the files to level out the volume, since some podcasts' production values are amateurish at best, and the volume levels from podcast to podcast varied wildly. I'm using the Zune software for podcasts these days, only because I have a Zune, and it's the best way to get files onto the device.



"I could drown the pain, and drink upon commuter trains, and here you stand in eastern standard time"
- Mike Doughty
samoflange
Lap cheong








Since: 22.2.04
From: Cambridge, MA

Since last post: 3806 days
Last activity: 3798 days
#5 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.90
    Originally posted by Mr. Boffo
    Tried MediaMonkey, and thought it was going to be satisfactory. It had little issues of its own, and I was disappointed with certain things. THen when I went into it after a couple days and somehow everything had been lost, I said screw it.

    Figured I'd give Juice a shot, and I have to say, I like it. I like how I can get all downloaded podcasts on a single list (in the downloads tab). From the Cleanup tab, I can indeed delete podcasts. I don't know why you have to go to a separate tab (seems to me just hitting delete in any other tab would seem sufficient), but it's no problem.


Glad to hear Juice worked out for you. The only problem I've ever had with it is occasionally I'll run a scan for new episodes and see it downloading every past episode of a particular podcast (or at least a big chunk of old ones from some time frame). It's happened to several different shows before, and I'm not sure if it's a bug within Juice or if it comes from some sort of reorganization of the feed itself on the podcaster's side. Anyway, it's not too big a deal as I just delete them off the download queue, uncheck the episodes in the feed list (annoying if it was a lot since there's no 'uncheck all'), and delete anything that was downloaded before I got to it.

What didn't you like about MediaMonkey? My major gripe with it is that is too good at its job. I prefer a more stripped down program that just does the things I want and nothing more, which is why I use MusikCube full-time instead. Every few months when I feel like screwing around with my computer for a while I'll reinstall MediaMonkey and try it out again, but every time I get annoyed with how detailed it is.



Lloyd: When I met Mary, I got that old fashioned romantic feeling, where I'd do anything to bone her.
Harry: That's a special feeling.

Make/watch my fake internet city grow. (samoflangia.myminicity.com)
Mr. Boffo
Scrapple








Since: 24.3.02
From: Oshkosh, WI

Since last post: 3886 days
Last activity: 3847 days
#6 Posted on | Instant Rating: 5.12
    Originally posted by samoflange

    What didn't you like about MediaMonkey? My major gripe with it is that is too good at its job. I prefer a more stripped down program that just does the things I want and nothing more, which is why I use MusikCube full-time instead. Every few months when I feel like screwing around with my computer for a while I'll reinstall MediaMonkey and try it out again, but every time I get annoyed with how detailed it is.

I guess I agree in a way. It really reminds me of an MP3 jukebox like MusicMatch. The problem is that I have no interest in that. I have MusicMatch, I have Windows Media Player, I have Winamp, I used to have iTunes. I hardly need another one.

All I need is the podcast functionality, and I found it lacking. Lack of support for video podcasts was disappointing. I downloaded a plugin that was supposed to work for it, but I found it very buggy. Second, I liked how iTunes listed all the podcasts in one place. In MediaMonkey, you've got to click on the feed, then see if there's any new podcasts. I also couldn't figure out how to get it to download only the new episodes. The closest option was one that would download the last two regardless of how old they were.
Juice, meanwhile, has the download tab where I can see all downloaded podcasts. It sends the files into Windows Media Player, so there are no problems with video podcasts. It has the Cleanup tab so that I can delete them after I'm finished. And as a bonus, it doesn't keep trying to get me to download Safari like iTunes was doing.
That's not to say that Juice works 100% of the time. I have one podcast (or at least the latest episode of it), where it would get to 100%, then tell me that there was an error. I could play the file while Juice was still open, but if I closed it and went back in, it would try to download it once again. And there's another podcast where it tells me that there are multiple enclosures, whatever that means.
But all in all, I'm very happy with it.
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iTunes Top Downloads -- January 22, 2012 This is a moment in time snapshot of the current top downloads from iTunes. We take a snapshot each week at the same time and post it here. To preview the songs, click on a link.
- The-W iTMS Affiliate, iTunes Top Downloads -- January 22, 2012 (2012)
Related threads: iTunes Top Downloads -- March 02, 2008 - iTunes Top Downloads -- February 24, 2008 - iTunes Top Downloads -- February 17, 2008 - More...
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