Podcast

[philippe_44]

I've submitted a few PR to LMS 8.0 for podcasts to improve the "last position" feature and to add a "recently played" item at the bottom of the podcasts list. They are now part of the 8.0 nightly.

Funny enough, the capability to track podcast progress is a very complicated one. I've just realized that when you enable direct streaming (or don't use my "reliable" plugin which forces proxied streaming), then tracking does not work. I've been scratching my head a lot to find a solution to that silly problem, but can't find any. So be aware that tracking requires proxied streaming as of today.

[dolodobendan]

when you enable direct streaming (or don't use my "reliable" plugin which forces proxied streaming), then tracking does not work.

Isn't "Direct Streaming" the default setting? If so, what about making "Proxied Streaming" the default?

[philippe_44]

Isn't "Direct Streaming" the default setting? If so, what about making "Proxied Streaming" the default?

Yes it is but I've a solution to that issue that does not require forcing proxied streaming. I'll wait till Michael comes back.

[dolodobendan]

Okay, great, thank you!

[SimonG156]

I've submitted a few PR to LMS 8.0 for podcasts to improve the "last position" feature and to add a "recently played" item at the bottom of the podcasts list. They are now part of the 8.0 nightly.

Excellent news as a big podcast listener. where is the recently played stored?

Never mind, found it. Your equivalent of
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Squeezebox\prefs\plugin\podcast.prefs"

[vco1]

Not sure if it's related to what is mentioned at the top of this thread, but since I upgraded from 7.9.4 to 8.1.0 (dockerized, everything fresh) I encountered some strange behaviour with podcasts on my SB Radio. Basically I can't play podcasts anymore.

What happens is that if I select an episode and press Play, the last selection plays. That last selection can be another podcast episode, an album track or an alarm sound. So everything but the podcast that I want to listen to. ;-)

Everything works fine - i.e. as expected and as before - with Squeezelite. But not so on the Radio. Any idea what could be wrong?

SB Radio is running firmware 7.7.3-r16676.

Edit: based on the changes on the Podcast plugin committed on July 14, 2020 I changed the Streamming Mode setting for the SB Radio to Proxied Streaming (not my preferred way, but fine too). That seemed to slightly improve the situation, although it's still not reliable. If the selected podcast starts playing is kind of hit or miss.

And as a sidenote: the podcast title is also missing. Sometimes...

[Redrum]

Not sure if it's related to what is mentioned at the top of this thread, but since I upgraded from 7.9.4 to 8.1.0 (dockerized, everything fresh) I encountered some strange behaviour with podcasts on my SB Radio. Basically I can't play podcasts anymore.

What happens is that if I select an episode and press Play, the last selection plays. That last selection can be another podcast episode, an album track or an alarm sound. So everything but the podcast that I want to listen to. ;-)

Everything works fine - i.e. as expected and as before - with Squeezelite. But not so on the Radio. Any idea what could be wrong?

SB Radio is running firmware 7.7.3-r16676.

Edit: based on the changes on the Podcast plugin committed on July 14, 2020 I changed the Streamming Mode setting for the SB Radio to Proxied Streaming (not my preferred way, but fine too). That seemed to slightly improve the situation, although it's still not reliable. If the selected podcast starts playing is kind of hit or miss.

And as a sidenote: the podcast title is also missing. Sometimes...

I am running LMS on a pCP, version 8.1, and I normally don't listen to podcasts on a radio (I listen on Touch and Receivers), but have one (same firmware as you), so I tested it. It plays podcasts fine. Two things (I have no idea if they are related) - I have installed the radio/LMS 8 patch, and, I use Philippe's "Reliable" Plugin. Regardless of if it helps solve your problem, I find that Reliable is essential for podcast listening, as before installing it, I never made it through a long podcast without failure, and reliable fixed that. If you aren't using it, I would recommend it.

Let me know if there is any other testing you would like me to do, maybe the name of a podcast you are having trouble with?

Jim

[vco1]

Thanks for the help. Based on your advise I installed the Reliable plugin. Unfortunately that didn't fix the issues. The problem is that the behaviour is very inconsistent. However, I'd say it fails in some way 99% of the time.

A couple of podcasts that show this behaviour:
https://www.relay.fm/mpu/feed
https://appstories.net/episodes/feed/

Usually the problem occurs when selecting the latest episode (the one at the top of the list). Sometimes it doesn't play at all when clicking the Play or "Enter" knob (enter being the big dial). Sometimes something starts playing, but not the correct (selected) episode.

For the record, I restarted both the server and the Radio many times in between the several tests.

Final thing I noticed is that the erroneous behaviour only occurs with podcast episodes that have been played before. This looks to be the pointer as that what is going wrong (or what I might be doing wrong).

[Redrum]

Thanks for the help. Based on your advise I installed the Reliable plugin. Unfortunately that didn't fix the issues. The problem is that the behaviour is very inconsistent. However, I'd say it fails in some way 99% of the time.

A couple of podcasts that show this behaviour:
https://www.relay.fm/mpu/feed
https://appstories.net/episodes/feed/

Usually the problem occurs when selecting the latest episode (the one at the top of the list). Sometimes it doesn't play at all when clicking the Play or "Enter" knob (enter being the big dial). Sometimes something starts playing, but not the correct (selected) episode.

For the record, I restarted both the server and the Radio many times in between the several tests.

I really do not know allot about how to attempt to play the feeds whos link you provided, Maybe that is what is different with our experience. I use the built in podcast plugin, and I use the material skin podcast search to find and save the podcasts I listen to. I'll usually hear about a podcast, example "slow burn". Search it in material (itunes or gpodder), find it and add it. Then play it

Maybe if you gave me the name of the podcast you are having a problem with I'll try it with my method (is it "relay" and "appstories?"). Who knows, maybe the problem is what is being used to play the podcast with the radio. For example, if someone uses the plugin, tunein, radio.com, etc they might get different results.

Jim

[vco1]

I really do not know allot about how to attempt to play the feeds whos link you provided, Maybe that is what is different with our experience. I use the built in podcast plugin, and I use the material skin podcast search to find and save the podcasts I listen to. I'll usually hear about a podcast, example "slow burn". Search it in material (itunes or gpodder), find it and add it. Then play it

Maybe if you gave me the name of the podcast you are having a problem with I'll try it with my method (is it "relay" and "appstories?"). Who knows, maybe the problem is what is being used to play the podcast with the radio. For example, if someone uses the plugin, tunein, radio.com, etc they might get different results.

Jim

I'm using the podcast plugin too. In (Server) Settings > Podcasts one can add feeds.

The podcasts are Mac Power Users and Appstories. But those are just examples. It basically goes wrong with any podcast episode which has been played before.