Winamp Podcast partial downloads

[DonnEdwards]

This is my first post. A big THANK YOU to Winamp for sponsoring "This Week in Tech". As a result I have gone pro and bought WinAmpPro 5.581

I am trying out the Podcasts feature so I can finally ditch iTunes but I am experiencing a problem with the podcast downloads:
Each file downloads only around 5 minutes, sometimes less, then stops.
This is happening on all the following podcast feeds:

• This Week in Tech
• Windows Weekly
• This Week in Google
• FLOSS Weekly
• Security Now
• Uncle Jay Explains the News (video)

What confuses me further is that these feeds are working correctly:

• Aljazeera Listening Post (video)
• SmallBizPod (audio)

Is there some kind of streaming/download/IE setting that I can tweak? I have checked my firewall settings and put it in "learning mode" for a while, but that didn't create any new firewall rules.

Any suggestions will be most appreciated.

Update: If Winamp only tries to download one podcast at a time, the downloads seem to work. How do I prevent it from downloading more than one?

[DonnEdwards]

I'm still having download problems. Can anyone help?

[joebloggscity]

"Update: If Winamp only tries to download one podcast at a time, the downloads seem to work. How do I prevent it from downloading more than one? "

Winamp podcast stuff is quite primitive at the moment (sadly), i really hope they improve it adn we can all put suggestions to them (i've done so before).

I can't see an option to do it only one at a time... I usually just do it all manually, but to be honest i don't think i've had any real problems when I try to upload multiple podcasts (usually it's at most 3 at a time).

[DrO]

personally i've just let it run with the default settings and it'll download (or queue if there's more than 2 downloads as of 5.58x) and i've never seen it cut off downloads. the only thing i can assume is that the servers you're connecting to have some sort of control on them to prevent multiple connections.

as such there are config options to have it only download the most recent podcast via the main preferences or by setting custom options per subscription.

-daz

[DonnEdwards]

Originally Posted by DrO

personally i've just let it run with the default settings and it'll download (or queue if there's more than 2 downloads as of 5.58x) and i've never seen it cut off downloads. the only thing i can assume is that the servers you're connecting to have some sort of control on them to prevent multiple connections.

Even when downloading from completely different servers it cuts out randomly. I have given up using Winamp as a podcatcher. It clearly isn't designed to do it: there is no way of marking which podcasts have been played either. It's a pity.

I'm using Juice as a podcatcher and playing the files in Winamp. Works perfectly, with no download issues.

I think the problem is with the "transparent proxy" used by my ISP, but I'm only guessing.

[DrO]

the seeing if a podcast has been played i think is meant to be viewed within the local media -> podcasts view instead of the podcast directory -> subscriptions / downloads views which i think would be useful though the downloads view is now a more generalised aspect with 5.58x (it can be made to parent to the podcast directory view if wanted) but i do have to agree that things are basic - its a bit better with 5.58x but still not too great.

then again it depends on what you're looking for as i just download them and then queue them to play from the downloads view based on when they've downloaded (filtered to show the most recently downloaded at the top of the downloads view).

either way i can see why people aren't too happy with podcast (and a number of other areas of the player) but there's little resources / interest to work on such things it seems.

-daz

[Bilbo9955]

Since 5.581 no longer shows podcast download status, it is possible to shut down winamp while downloading still in progress.

[DrO]

it's meant to prompt if there's a download happening whether you want to close Winamp or not which still seems to work with the download i just tried it on.

-daz