I’ve actually been looking to switch off Downcast and use some kind of centrally sync’d podcast app/service. Great to see that Plex might actually be my solution. It would certainly make things easy for me.
That being said, and I’m aware this is still beta, here is my feedback on what’s missing for my use cases:
Podcasts being automatically downloaded/cached on my Plex Server so they are accessible as long as my server is up. I’m currently very far behind on my podcasts and some of the feeds I use no longer list the episodes I still have to listen to. I’d basically need to keep everything cached locally until listened to, then it can be purged (manual/automatic process for purging locally sync’d podcasts once they are mark as “watched/listened”
Ability to create automatic playlists based on criteria. Example: Include all un-watched episodes from Podcast A and B, sort oldest first
Ability to sync podcasts and playlists automatically from Media Server to mobile devices when they connect to my home network where my Media Server is (this will reduce data usage for me if my phone flips over to cellular data, WiFi isn’t available or my internet is down at home). Ideally this would be a per device setting. For example I’d have my iPhone sync automatically but not my iPad or Laptop.
Pre-defined skip forward/back intervals 30sec, 1min, 2min. Makes skipping ads on certain podcasts easier with out the need to scrub/fast forward
Subscribe to new podcast button (manually) should be front and center and easily found. I’ve subbed to one podcast manually and now for the life of me cannot find the button to add another podcast (turns out this was a bug and a refresh of the WebUI brought the button back)
Ability to manually mark podcasts as played/unplayed
Ability to mass mark podcasts as played/unplayed
Ability to customize dashboard and hide ‘Categories’ and ‘Recommended’ yadda so it only shows my content
Please, please, please… I do not want podcast nor do I want to see the crap when I launch the app in Android and scroll through the home menu.
I have followed the instructions here, ( https://support.plex.tv/articles/podcasts-overview/ ), to disable podcast for myself and all users only to have them back again.
You know, its really annoying to log into the Plex app to watch a movie with family, only to scroll down and see some punks podcast listed below our family photos. AAGH!
I hate podcast and want to remove them from my Plex experience.
Plex was awesome, now it is frustrating as hell.
Ok, for anyone who would like to disable podcast in their plex app,
1st… Follow the instructions here to disable podcast online… https://app.plex.tv/desktop#!/account/online-media-sources
2nd… Power off your server, wait a few seconds and power it back on.
3rd… Uninstall the Plex app on your Android and iOS devices.
4th… Reinstall the Plex app, sign in, and your good to go.
Hope this helps.
Some observations trying to switch to Plex from my previous podcast app on the iPhone:
Lock screen controls were rewind, play and fast forward. The podcast apps I’ve been using have skip back, skip forward instead, and I find them more useful in this context. (Usually walking, not wanting to stop and look to see how far forward/back I’ve gone)
Starting up the podcast again at the end of the day (hadn’t used Plex since on the way to work), I found myself digging deep through menus to find and restart my podcast. I’d imagine this would be more difficult if I had a bunch of podcasts downloaded.
Resuming last played podcast would be an awesome addition to the force touch pop up menu. Next set of candidates would be most recently downloaded.
Recommended podcasts became a lot more appropriate and palatable after I had downloaded/played my first podcast. From the sounds of some of the protests, maybe you’d be doing yourself a favor by suppressing recommended podcasts until you’ve got something to base it off of. (Haven’t tested this yet, but I hope recommendations are device based, not server based. My kids aren’t interested in my podcasts, and vice versa.)
Is there a plan to bring podcasts to Libraries instead of Online Content, I’ve never been a fan of how these personalize features work, I have my own scripts for pulling podcasts to a folder.
Absolutely want the ability to download podcasts to my server and to my mobile devices. This is a basic feature in most other podcast apps, allowing one to download episodes ahead so they can keep listening offline.
For my use, I work in an office that is a kind of dead zone: the corporate network is mostly locked-down, and wireless signals have difficulty penetrating the building. I like listening to music and podcasts while I work, but I have to do so with downloaded content on my phone because I can’t stream it reliably. Being able to download to my server and sync that with my phone would be awesome.
If I may also add as a feature enhancement. My company has an internal password protected Podcast server. I was able to inject my login information into the URL when I added the Podcast but it’s not listing any of the available podcast. I’ve already been contacted by a few of our users that were really excited to see this feature. If there any way you guys can support Logins for Podcast? If you guys need some access to try an figure it out I am happy to get you a login to you can test against our setup. It works against several other Podcast Apps but with Plex it would be much more universal.
When I try to add RSS urls of the podcasts I listen too from the web interface, it rejects them with “Nothing is here
This item may have been deleted recently”
Two examples are as follows, the BBC show “click” and “Penns Sunday school”
Would be nice to set default settings for specific podcasts. I listen to a lot of pod casts that are progressive, meaning i need to start at the beginning. But when the podcast shows up on deck, it shows the most recent episode, not the most recent “UNPLAYED” episode…
UPDATE: This is only a problem if there isn’t an episode currently in progress. If there is, the half played episode shows up on deck.
