MediaMonkey forum

How do I mark a podcast as played?

By playing it.

trixmoto wrote:By playing it.

...Which isn't feasable if you download a backlog of ~50 podcasts and only want to sync the three latest, because those are the only ones you haven't heard.

I'm only just learning myself, but wouldn't it be good enough to set the custom sync for the podcast to only sync the last 3 unplayed files, or something like that? I'd like the ideal answer to your question too.

I've struggled with the same thing myself. I listen to a lot of podcasts and don't want a podcast to be deleted of my ipod until i've listened to the whole thing. Many times I only get to listen to part of the podcast and want to come back to it. But sometimes this would register as played and be deleted next time I synched. Also, sometimes I listen to the very beginning of a podcast and don't want to hear it at all and want to delete it. But I could never find an easy way to do this.

Here is the "solution" I came up when using MM before version 3 (currently I'm still using this in MM3 but am experimenting with some of the new podcast features):

- Created an autoplaylist with the following settings:



Rather than using the first criteria, you could just set this where Genre = Podcast.

- Have this playlist sync to your ipod.

- Now when you are done with the podcast on your ipod, change it's rating to something other than Unknown.

- The next time you sync, the rating will be transferred back to MM and then the podcast will no longer be a part of the AutoPlaylist. Therefore it will be deleted from the ipod.

I've played around with MM3 and the podcast syncing functionality. But, at this point, I don't think it gives me the flexibility I want. So, I will probably stick with this method in MM3.

After giving my rather long explanation above, I found a problem with it when using MM3. Now that MM more correctly syncs podcasts (the way they are done using iTunes), you no longer have the ability to change the rating of a podcast when listening to it on an ipod. I looked into this a bit, and it looks like the ipods actually function this way for podcasts. I don't know why they should have it set up this way, but they do.

So, that means that you can either sync the podcasts using the functionality built into MM3 (which is actually quite nice ) or go and change the Genre of your podcasts to be something other than "Podcast". When a different genre is used, the podcast is actually synced like a regular music track rather than a podcast. Now on the ipod you will have the ability to change the rating.

I know a script could be written to change the genre automatically. But, at this point, I'll probably try and use the podcast sync functionality in the normal fashion and see how that works.

It should be possible to write a script which marks episode as played...

And with out that script, your tip on using AutoPlaylist to Sync select podcasts is really good, thank you!

This method has also 2 more benefits (for generic devices with filesystem):
- You can now choose the location for syncing podcasts easily
- You can now prevent episode from syncing manually - just rate it appropriately

And combined with Subscription setting on what episodes to delete, episodes can be flexibly controlled (example when Subscription has setting to allow removal if rating is less then 4):
- Rated Unknown - keep, sync to device
- Rated 0.5 - 3.5 - do not sync (remove if synced), delete if meets all settings in Subscription
- Rated 4 - 5 - do not sync (remove if synced) and keep

One note for creating such AutoPlaylist - instead of using some folder/extension criteria, just add "Status - is podcast" and "Rating = Unknown".

If any one still interested - I just found the script which will mark podcast as played - IncrPlayCntr.vbs

It is described in the following thread:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... c&start=60

Original text is on page 3 and page 5 describes modifications needed for MM3.

dgcom wrote:This method has also 2 more benefits (for generic devices with filesystem):
- You can now choose the location for syncing podcasts easily
- You can now prevent episode from syncing manually - just rate it appropriately

And combined with Subscription setting on what episodes to delete, episodes can be flexibly controlled (example when Subscription has setting to allow removal if rating is less then 4):
- Rated Unknown - keep, sync to device
- Rated 0.5 - 3.5 - do not sync (remove if synced), delete if meets all settings in Subscription
- Rated 4 - 5 - do not sync (remove if synced) and keep

One note for creating such AutoPlaylist - instead of using some folder/extension criteria, just add "Status - is podcast" and "Rating = Unknown".

After working with the new version and using the built-in podcast syncing functionality I have now gone back to my "other" way of doing it. What you mention above is exactly what I found out myself. I have much greater control of podcast syncing doing it this way. Now that we can control the subscription settings by ratings, I came up with the same process you did for how to rate the podcasts.

I rarely, if ever, listen to a podcast on my PC. But when I do, the script you mention will be helpful.

Also, I went ahead and modified a script I had previously used to automatically change the Genre as a podcast is added. It has been working well for me. You will notice that I also changed the Artist to @Podcast. This has the benefit of keeping all the podcast artists out of the Music section of the iPod. Now when I want to listen to a podcast on the iPod, I choose Music, then Artist, then @Podcast. This then lists all my podcasts grouped by podcast subscription (actually Album, but it works the same ). Obviously, this is specific to the iPod, I have no experience with other players. Here it is if you would like to use it: