I’m currently looking for a replacement to castbox. Castbox us OK, but I want to learn what else good is out there. Bonus points for one that has movement-sensitive sleep timer the way Smart AudioBook Player has.

UPDATE: Testing out Antennapod. Looks nice, and seems to do what I want it to do. I need to experiment with the auto-download a bit and see if it behaves the way I want it to. If it does, we have a winner.

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    2·
    3 hours ago

    I migrated from Doggcatcher to Podcast Addict a couple years ago. They’re both OK. Most podcast apps are unnecessarily complex, convoluted and cumbersome to me, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

    Lately I’ve been testing Media Monkey - it’s primarily an iTunes-like app for Android. It indexes your own media store, and can sync whatever you choose to your phone. It also has a podcast tool in the desktop app.

    Downside is the podcast portion doesn’t seem to have discovery/search like you’d think with a podcast app - you have to manually add the RSS url yourself. Plus to get wifi sync (which is critical to me), you have to buy both the desktop ($35) and Android app ($5). I get it, development isn’t free, and wifi sync really works. I don’t buy many apps, but I paid for both parts of Media Monkey, because I haven’t found anything else that provides media management, playlist, and sync.

    • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      Keep an eye on your media volume with Media Monkey. I’ve been using the Windows and Android versions for years, but I’ve noticed that a lot of my music is getting quieter.

      I haven’t been able to narrow it down to Media Monkey or something else yet, but MM is the most likely culprit, as it’s the only media player I use.

      I’ve ripped CDs with the same settings as other CDs, and the files play back much quieter than the other ripped CDs and the CD they were ripped from.

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
      5·
      5 hours ago

      I migrated to antennapod after Google killed their podcast app.

      Antenna pod has a few persistent and annoying bug/quirks.

      • If you’re streaming it will often skip forward/backward in time by anywhere from 0.5 to 30-45 seconds when it downloads the next segment. I’ve seen this across a bunch of different podcasts. Conan needs a friend, stuff you should know, this American life, etc. There’s been quite a bit of activity on their forums about this, along with a few attempted fixes, but the problem persists for me
      • I somehow wound up with 1+ GB of podcasts despite Auto delete turned on. This is potentially due to the prior bullet. I’ve had podcasts end early (on time) and also run 5 minutes past their end-timd
      • The Android Auto interface is not great. The home screen pop-in, or whatever it’s called, will randomly show you 3 podcasts from something you’re subscribed to

      I also find the interface somewhat odd.

      You have an inbox, which is basically a running feed of new episodes from your subscriptions. You can play those directly, remove them from your feed, or add them to a queue. You can then do the exact same thing from the queue. I would either make the inbox dumber and keep the queue or flatten the queue and inbox.

      The app is also massively customizable, which is cool, but some of the customizations interact with other things. Downloading from your inbox can add a podcast to your queue. Deleting from downloads, which is a fourth area of the app, can remove them from your queue.

      I do generally like the app, and also like the idea of FOSS, but I suspect there are better commercial options out there.

    • thisfro@slrpnk.net
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Antennapod is really nice. But are there good apps on desktop to sync to? I used plex before, which made it very easy to listen on any device

      • somenonewho@feddit.org
        1·
        25 minutes ago

        Well antennapod supports syncing to “gpodder.net” which has the clue in the name “gpodder” is a desktop app for podcasts.

        I’ve had a few issues before with syncing with gpodder.net but the gpodder API running as a nextcloud app works like a charm.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    6 hours ago

    I’ve been using Podcast Addict for years and still like it. Has a lot of features.

  • cephus@lemmy.world
    91·
    6 hours ago

    I’ve been using Pocket Casts for many many years and like it…but never really researched anything else.

    • domdanial@reddthat.comEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      Same, I also bought the premium years ago. I don’t know if I’m grandfathered in now, but it looks like there is a subscription option now that I won’t get, but the features and interface are nice. Sleep timer, silence scrubbing, speed control.

  • Stovetop@lemmy.world
    72·
    6 hours ago

    Call me basic, but since I have a Spotify subscription for music, I just use it for podcasts, too.

  • CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee
    2·
    6 hours ago

    I was lucky enough to get locked in on the lifetime license of Pocket casts so that’s what I use it’s a really good player. It also has a sleep timer and you can shake the phone to restart it

  • JASN_DE@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 hours ago

    Probably a little less of what you’re looking for, but the Audiobookshelf player in combination with a self hosted ABS instance works great for me.