Beta 2.0.7 Released

[marwatk]

Hi guys, another day another beta.

I wouldn't have actually released this one yet (I'm working on a bunch of little tweaks now that I can add a lot of), but wanted to get some debugging code in for the deletion issue.

Here's the complete set of changes:
* Add support for atom feeds (see http://debaccuardi.typepad.com/at_the_k ... e/atom.xml)
* Added logging to episode deletion for tracking down IllegalArgumentException
* Fixed: After a battery pull or exit sometimes episodes show up under the wrong podcast (probably a synchronization issue with the numbering)
* Pressing 'N' on playlist screen should bring up switch playlist menu
* Add 'Add all to playlist' when viewing episdoes or highlighting a podcast (use keyboard shortcut 'A')
* Keyboard shortcut for adding to playlist (A) (with Alt support for adding to any playlist)


-Marcus

[Neuroxic77]

http://ota.versatilemonkey.com/beta/

Here is the link.

[Tripper_]

"Pressing 'N' on playlist screen should bring up switch playlist menu" - Doesn't seem to work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Thanks

[marwatk]

"Pressing 'N' on playlist screen should bring up switch playlist menu" - Doesn't seem to work

Hmm, what model are you on?

-Marcus

[Tripper_]

It's the 8900.

[marwatk]

Thanks, on that kb layout I had missed a case. will be fixed in the next release (tomorrow probably, or tonight if I get feedback on the deletion issue).

-Marcus

[matt]

* Fixed: After a battery pull or exit sometimes episodes show up under the wrong podcast (probably a synchronization issue with the numbering)

This issue didn't fix for me in 2.0.7. After the reboot following installation, two podcasts from separate feeds appeared both in their correct locations and also appeared as episodes under TWiT.

[MADBRADNYC]

Marcus,

I have noticed a few things that I wanted to bring to your attention.
T-Mobile 8900 (OS4.6.1.114) PodTrapper ver. 2.0.7.

I have experienced the same problems with double downloads within the same playlist, as well as some (not many) of the same duplicates in other playlists.

Pressing “N” does not bring me to the switch playlist option. It does however bring me to the current or last played playlist though.

While in a playlist, I select a podcast to play. When that podcast is finished, it plays the next podcast as it should, but the information header of the podcast remains the same as the one previously played. It will permanently show the first podcast played no matter how many podcasts are played, and will not update to the current one unless I back out to the full playlist. At this time I can see the playlist quickly update to the currently playing podcast. Can this be fixed so when you finish a podcast within a playlist, the information header changes to the currently playing podcast automatically? Gotta be a bug.

I also noticed that at the bottom right of some of the downloaded podcast within a listing (playlist or otherwise) in the “% listened to” area, it randomly either shows up as length (time) or size (MB). Is there a way to have an option to set it for one or the other? Personally I prefer to see the length (time) for all of the podcasts in a playlist. It seems to be mixed at random.
***Also on that same note, sometimes these values are not present and show up as 00, but when played it does show the time/time left as it should. This freaked me out because I thought that it was not downloading the content, until I actually listened to the podcasts.

Example:
1) BBGeek Cast
0:00 0% listened 10MB

2) Engadget Mobile
0:00 0% listened 01:29:36

3) Any Random Podcasts (example)
0:00 0% listened 00
But when selected to listed, the correct info appears.

What are your thoughts? I hope I explained the issues correctly.

Thanks.

[arkolbus]

While in a playlist, I select a podcast to play. When that podcast is finished, it plays the next podcast as it should, but the information header of the podcast remains the same as the one previously played. It will permanently show the first podcast played no matter how many podcasts are played, and will not update to the current one unless I back out to the full playlist. At this time I can see the playlist quickly update to the currently playing podcast. Can this be fixed so when you finish a podcast within a playlist, the information header changes to the currently playing podcast automatically? Gotta be a bug.

I think that's intentional, or the behavior you're looking for might be desired, but not implemented. Is there some reason you're using the details screen for your playback? I just do all my playback from the playlist screen, but maybe I'm missing something.

I also noticed that at the bottom right of some of the downloaded podcast within a listing (playlist or otherwise) in the “% listened to” area, it randomly either shows up as length (time) or size (MB). Is there a way to have an option to set it for one or the other? Personally I prefer to see the length (time) for all of the podcasts in a playlist. It seems to be mixed at random.

I think this is a limitation of BB Media Player (which handles all the playback, processing, etc). There are some files that BBMP cannot return the length of without playing them, so PT just uses the file size until playback starts. I can envision a workaround where PT mutes output and cycles through each of the problem files, playing a brief segment of each file in order to get the length. This would have to be done at a time when there's no other audio output, and I'm not sure how vodcasts would be handled (since those cause so many other problems). It would be nice though, that way the total size at the top of the playlist could be replaced with the total playback time.

[arkolbus]

"Pressing 'N' on playlist screen should bring up switch playlist menu" - Doesn't seem to work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Thanks

Same problem on the 8330

[MADBRADNYC]

While in a playlist, I select a podcast to play. When that podcast is finished, it plays the next podcast as it should, but the information header of the podcast remains the same as the one previously played. It will permanently show the first podcast played no matter how many podcasts are played, and will not update to the current one unless I back out to the full playlist. At this time I can see the playlist quickly update to the currently playing podcast. Can this be fixed so when you finish a podcast within a playlist, the information header changes to the currently playing podcast automatically? Gotta be a bug.

I think that's intentional, or the behavior you're looking for might be desired, but not implemented. Is there some reason you're using the details screen for your playback? I just do all my playback from the playlist screen, but maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks for the input arkolbus. I agree. I am not sure that this is actually intentional, but what I am looking for is definitely not implemented at this time. The reason I play from the details screen is because of the details. This is where you can see the album art that was recently implemented, and were all of the controls are (play/pause/FF/RW) for easy access. Listening from the playlist itself is possible as you do, but if you wanted to pause for a minute (I have children to look after), I still would have to go into the details screen to do so anyway. Unless I am missing something.

I also noticed that at the bottom right of some of the downloaded podcast within a listing (playlist or otherwise) in the “% listened to” area, it randomly either shows up as length (time) or size (MB). Is there a way to have an option to set it for one or the other? Personally I prefer to see the length (time) for all of the podcasts in a playlist. It seems to be mixed at random.

I think this is a limitation of BB Media Player (which handles all the playback, processing, etc). There are some files that BBMP cannot return the length of without playing them, so PT just uses the file size until playback starts. I can envision a workaround where PT mutes output and cycles through each of the problem files, playing a brief segment of each file in order to get the length. This would have to be done at a time when there's no other audio output, and I'm not sure how vodcasts would be handled (since those cause so many other problems). It would be nice though, that way the total size at the top of the playlist could be replaced with the total playback time.

I can understand that this is a limitation for the BBMP. Your explanation makes sense. Although I am not speaking of the (total) size of all of the files at the top of the list, but I am speaking of what shows for each individual podcast within in a list as my exmple shows. This is not a problem to me as much as the details screen, because it does show the time if played.

Do you know if the other issue fixes are in the works. I would really love to stop the double downloads, and have a shortcut to switch playlists as well. Thanks for the help.

[arkolbus]

Thanks for the input arkolbus. I agree. I am not sure that this is actually intentional, but what I am looking for is definitely not implemented at this time. The reason I play from the details screen is because of the details. This is where you can see the album art that was recently implemented, and were all of the controls are (play/pause/FF/RW) for easy access. Listening from the playlist itself is possible as you do, but if you wanted to pause for a minute (I have children to look after), I still would have to go into the details screen to do so anyway. Unless I am missing something.

The [Space] key works as a play/pause, or you can go into Settings -> Keyboard and map the Hold/Mute button or either of the convenience keys to Play/Pause.

[MADBRADNYC]

Yes. I already know about the space bar, and the mute button was already implemented for play/pause in the earlier release. I already have my convenience keys mapped out for Vlingo and QuickLaunch. I am really speaking of being able to view the album art for each specific podcast being played, and having the full functionality of RW/FF as was intended with the earlier releases. I'm sure so much hard work was not put in just so it could not be utilized. Why put in album art if it cannot be viewed when the podcast is playing? Weird.

[arkolbus]

Yes. I already know about the space bar, and the mute button was already implemented for play/pause in the earlier release. I already have my convenience keys mapped out for Vlingo and QuickLaunch. I am really speaking of being able to view the album art for each specific podcast being played, and having the full functionality of RW/FF as was intended with the earlier releases. I'm sure so much hard work was not put in just so it could not be utilized. Why put in album art if it cannot be viewed when the podcast is playing? Weird.

Sorry I missed the part about RW/FF. Q/W map to long/short RW, and O/P map to short/long FF.

I can't speak to the album art, I suppose there's no good answer for that. I've disabled album art to speed things up, and since I only really listen to my podcasts in the background (commute/work/around the house/etc). The only benefit I ever saw out of the album art was on the main screen, for a quick visual identification of the podcast.

I know you're looking for a better solution, and I agree it would be nice to have. I'm just trying to offer a temporary alternative in the meantime.

[MADBRADNYC]

Thanks for the assistance. I just think that regardless of what shortcuts I can utilize, I think that I should be able to see the details of the currently playing podcast, and not the information from 5 podcasts earlier.

[marwatk]

Lot's of stuff in here

Re: Switching the current view to the currently playing item when it changes:
This is actually on my todo list and should be there before the next major release (hopefully next weekend if I can fix this stupid IllegalArgument bug).

Re: 'N' key not working as advertised:
This should be fixed in 2.0.8 out now

Re: Double downloads
This is confusing for the end users (and I have it on my list to fix), but it's not actually downloading them twice. What happens is the same download instance will get added to the queue twice (if you see it twice you'll notice that it's always the same data, progress-wise). It's fairly harmless, when the download manager encounters something in the queue that's already finished it merely skips it.

Re: Time vs. Size in progress bar
Andew did a good explanation here, and I'm hoping to test out some stuff for feeding it through the player always after it downloads (mostly to test for download failure), a side effect of that should be that the durations are always accurate. (No guarantees this part will make 2.1, though).

Re: episodes show up under the wrong podcast
The problem here was that the numbering system wasn't properly synchronized (it changed due to changes in playlist stuff and had a bug in it). So while the numbering thing is fixed, episodes that were downloaded and had conflicting ids will always be affected (until they're deleted, anyway). There's no way for me to cleanly fix it without totally wiping out the episode (which, if you want, you can do yourself by holding Alt and pressing delete. That will force it to be refreshed from the feed, but it has the downside that PT will see it as a new episode).

I think I got them all, let me know if I misunderstood anything or missed something.

-Marcus

[MADBRADNYC]

Lot's of stuff in here

Re: Switching the current view to the currently playing item when it changes:
This is actually on my todo list and should be there before the next major release (hopefully next weekend if I can fix this stupid IllegalArgument bug).

Re: 'N' key not working as advertised:
This should be fixed in 2.0.8 out now

Re: Double downloads
This is confusing for the end users (and I have it on my list to fix), but it's not actually downloading them twice. What happens is the same download instance will get added to the queue twice (if you see it twice you'll notice that it's always the same data, progress-wise). It's fairly harmless, when the download manager encounters something in the queue that's already finished it merely skips it.

Re: Time vs. Size in progress bar
Andew did a good explanation here, and I'm hoping to test out some stuff for feeding it through the player always after it downloads (mostly to test for download failure), a side effect of that should be that the durations are always accurate. (No guarantees this part will make 2.1, though).

Re: episodes show up under the wrong podcast
The problem here was that the numbering system wasn't properly synchronized (it changed due to changes in playlist stuff and had a bug in it). So while the numbering thing is fixed, episodes that were downloaded and had conflicting ids will always be affected (until they're deleted, anyway). There's no way for me to cleanly fix it without totally wiping out the episode (which, if you want, you can do yourself by holding Alt and pressing delete. That will force it to be refreshed from the feed, but it has the downside that PT will see it as a new episode).

I think I got them all, let me know if I misunderstood anything or missed something.

-Marcus

Thanks for the reply. The guys here are very helpful, and I appreciate all the information that was provided to me.

1) Re: Switching the current view to the currently playing item when it changes:
I am glad to see that you are aware, and have this in mind to fix in the near future. This was bugging me.

2) RE: 'N' key not working as advertised:
Cool. Just downloaded 2.0.8 and rebooting as I type this on the laptop. This would be a great feature. Very helpful.

3) RE: Double downloads
Thanks for explaining this to me. I am glad it is not actually downloading twice, as I only have an 8gb card and I was concerned about storage space, because of my election to start deleting stuff at 2gb.

4) Re: Time vs. Size in progress bar
Again, I am glad that you are aware, and have this on your list. I can wait. The app gets better and better.

5) Re: episodes show up under the wrong podcast
Ok. so let me see if I get this correct. The new podcasts will not have this bug, but the older podcasts that this has happened with will continue to be there unless I delete them, correct. And if I delete them they will recycle and show as a new podcasts, but within the proper playlist. If so no problem. let me know if I understand this.

Anyway, You have addressed all that I have noticed. Very helpful..

[marwatk]

Ok. so let me see if I get this correct. The new podcasts will not have this bug, but the older podcasts that this has happened with will continue to be there unless I delete them, correct. And if I delete them they will recycle and show as a new podcasts, but within the proper playlist. If so no problem. let me know if I understand this.

Yep, you got it.

-Marcus