Home / ubuntu / Questions / 83828
In Process
Grumbel
Asked: 2011-11-30 12:17:30 +0800 CST

Good alternative for Rhythmbox for Podcasts?

  • 772

I am currently using Rhythmbox for my podcasts (around 50 feeds) and I am looking for an alternative due to it's numerous short comings and bugs, among other things:

  • it crashes every now and then
  • lacks ability to redownload failed downloads
  • you can delete episodes, but you have no way to see deleted episodes
  • you can't see podcast that don't have any new episodes, they are completely invisible in the GUI
  • since after the Ubuntu 11.10 upgrade it has started to convert MP3 before copying them to the MP3 player, however not all, just some random ones for no obvious reason
  • doesn't support parallel download from multiple hosts
  • doesn't give control over which feeds are auto downloaded
  • doesn't keep track of last listening position
  • ...

However I am actually quite happy with the overall user-interface of Rhythmbox, a simple listview with all the podcast titles, track length and release date that I can sort is exactly what I want. I would however like to have more control, ability to group multiple feeds would be nice and in general just features that make it easy to track large number of podcasts.

Alternatives I have looked at so far:

gpodder: Doesn't look bad, but its focused on download only, not playing podcasts, it gets very slow with large number of podcasts, it makes downloading a big issue with pop-ups and stuff, instead of a thing that happens mostly transparent in the background

banshee: Might be a good alternative if it wouldn't be for the lack of simple listview, it only has this awkward iconview that allows no way to sort the podcast episodes

amarok: extremely ugly interface, podcasts seem to be an afterthought, hidden on the left pane with most of the interface being useless, no way to sort episodes after release date, etc.

liferea: good: support for the whole RSS feed, not just podcasts, bad: support for the actual MP3 is extremely awkward with it being just an attachment

miro: doesn't support syncing to MP3 player devices

software-recommendation

2 Answers

  1. I personally use and prefer gpodder, however as you have issues with it, it looks like you haven tried miro (listed in Synaptic)

    • 4

  2. I find GUI audio players often frustrating, so I usually end up going back to the command line. I've crossed a couple CLI podcast apps worthy of mention. There's

    I recommend checking them out, it should be fairly straightforward and do exactly what you want it to do...download podcasts. Bashpodder seems to work with a config file, so I'm sure you could tweak it to your likings. Enjoy!

    • 2