Podcast handling improvements

[9cupsoftea]

this should address the scrollbar issue and the artwork drill-down issue:
http://www.mediafire.com/?w3gh8o0zcyj8faa

Thanks. I don't seem to have the issue anymore.

[Steven]

i've added back in the Podcast Directory functionality, which has been done now based on searching the iTunes store podcasts with a much nicer interface than the current version

http://www.mediafire.com/?w3gh8o0zcyj8faa

[Steven]

one more enhancement - you can now additionally filter by category when scanning the podcast directory:

http://www.mediafire.com/?w3gh8o0zcyj8faa

[psychoadept]

That podcast directory is definitely way nicer than before.  Thanks, Steven!

[Anti]

That is awesome! I've been listening to podcasts all evening - something I haven't done in a loooong time!

Is it intentional that the columns are not sortable by ascending/descending though?
It's no big deal, but I usually have newest episodes at the top!

[mikebo]

Great! But only if you know what you're looking for. It would be awesome if in addition to search you could also browse podcasts sorted by popularity.

[Anti]

> It would be awesome if in addition to search you could also browse podcasts sorted by popularity.

I initially thought the same thing, but I've changed my mind. If you go to the directory (http://podcastdirectory.com) and use their own filters - Eg. podcasts -> comedy -> popular or ranking (remember to also set your language and type) - the list is actually quite bad; some podcasters obviously know how to 'game the system' and get to the top of the lists. Their recommendations are terrible too.

I got on far better by using the keyword search in Steven's dialogue.
One suggestion I'd make is to try to get the search to do partial word matches, if possible.

[mikebo]

If you go to the directory (http://podcastdirectory.com)

Is that listing the same as iTunes podcasts?

[Anti]

> Is that listing the same as iTunes podcasts?

Ah, I hadn't noticed that Steven had switched to the itunes directory API; the categories still exactly match those from the podcastdirectory.com. I guess that all the big directories contain more-or-less the same podcasts as each other. But I don't know if iTunes would give better results than podcastdirectory.com for popular or rated (and I'm going to install iTunes to find out!).

[Steven]

i'll add a button to sort the results AZ - otherwise it will use the default popularity sorting as set by the iTunes store

[Steven]

One thing that would be really cool is if we could give MusicBee overrides for the album and artist fields, per podcast.

Album is already overriden with the subscription name so there shouldnt be any inconsistency with that.
I have added an Author field into the subscription definition, and that can be flagged to override the artist on each podcast

For the podcast directory i have added an AZ button - by default it sorts subscriptions by popularity but clicking the AZ button will sort alphabetically

[9cupsoftea]

This is perfect!

[psychoadept]

I have added an Author field into the subscription definition, and that can be flagged to override the artist on each podcast

Fantastic, thanks!

[mikebo]

Is there a way now to browse all available podcasts?

[frank2003]

One small issue. I want to subscribe to this podcast http://www.starshipsofa.com/feed/ and MusicBee says "Unable to verify the validity of this URL".