Latest Podcasts in One Playlist?

[CosmoNut]

I've got a few short podcasts I like to listen to on a regular basis (e.g. CNN News Update, Wall Street Journal Tech Brief, etc.) that I'd like to listen to back-to-back on my way to work each morning.

How can I most effectively put all these little podcasts into one playlist that updates automatically and syncs to my iPod? It really bugs me to listen to one, then have to go into the iPod to find the next one, and so on. I'd prefer to just start it and let it play them all.

I tried a smart playlist, but apparently they don't *see* podcasts. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[kwsanders]

The only way that you can do it at this point with the current iTunes setup is to create a new playlist and then drag those podcasts from the Podcast library to that new playlist. They will then be treated like any other songs on your iPod and will play consecutively. I hope the next version of iTunes beefs up support for the Podcast library with Smart Playlists and stuff like that.

[CosmoNut]

Oddly enough, when I still had 4.8 (early in the morning before 4.9 was available), I could have done it. Podcasts were just put into one playlist, and I could have "whittled" it down that way.

Let's hope they have more options in 5.0. It'd be great to have an option to "Put today's unheard podcasts into one playlist."

[Reid]

I've had the same problem. For some reason they've excluded Podcasts from consideration for Smart Playlists -- even when you choose Genre="Podcast"!

[CosmoNut]

Maybe our problem will be solved tomorrow. Here's hoping.

[CosmoNut]

Indeed! A solution presents itself with iTunes 5! Now podcasts are included in the library so they're eligible for smart playlists. Any other smart playlists that you DON'T want podcasts in should get a "Podcasts: False" added in the options.

[dfiler]

Hmmm. And now it seems we need a new tag: Broadcast Date

Off to the feedback page...

[Reid]

Originally posted by dfiler
Hmmm. And now it seems we need a new tag: Broadcast Date

Off to the feedback page...

Date Added? You could use that as a choice in Smart Playlists.

[CosmoNut]

Accomplishing this is actually a convoluted process, but it can still be done:

Setting up a Master Podcast Playlist for Playing Podcasts Back-to-back:
(Only for iTunes 5.0 or above)[list=1][*]Subscribe to whatever podcasts you want.[*]For each podcast that you want in your master playlist (that will play them all back to back), create a smart playlist and name it appropriately. In other words, make a smart playlist only for "CNN News Briefing" with the criteria to identify it and select "Limit to 1 song selected by most recently added." For the next podcast, do the same thing with a new smart playlist.[*]Put all those individual podcast playlists into a folder for space-saving.[*]Create a master podcast smart playlist that matches "all" of the following rules: Playlist is (select playlist). Create a new line for each individual podcast playlist to be included.[*]The master playlist *should* round up all the podcasts you want.[/list=1]
For regular listening, this really only works for the frequency you will be listening or more often. For example, any weekly podcasts would be included over and over each morning on your drive to work whether you've listened to it already. Daily or hourly podcasts would be fresh for each morning commute.

[ashon3611]

easier way to listen to just songs in the library...

EDIT -> SHOW SEARCH BAR

then click MUSIC on the search bar... whala!

[CosmoNut]

Read my very first post again so you can see what we're trying to accomplish here. It's isolating specific daily podcasts into one auto-updating playlist. Has nothing to do with songs.

[Kishan]

in iTunes 5.0, try setting up a smart playlist in which "podcast" is "true" and "play count" is "zero". This creates a podcast playlist of all the podcasts you haven't listened to.

[Anders]

Originally posted by Kishan
in iTunes 5.0, try setting up a smart playlist in which "podcast" is "true" and "play count" is "zero". This creates a podcast playlist of all the podcasts you haven't listened to.

This combined with CosmoNuts list have given me exactly what I wanted. Our national radio have 7-8 political, social science and deep news programs. Some updated every day, some weekly. I have an ambition to catch it all but some days/weeks I don´t get to while on others I have more time and can catch the most recent, non listened program.

Now I always have a list of the most recent podcasts of each show that I haven´t heard. So if I finish this weeks show it will automatically fill up with the newest I haven´t heard. Now I don´t have to keep track of what shows I have heard and skip those while on the road with my iPod. Its done for me.

SUPERB. Thaks both of you

[CosmoNut]

[eekles77]

I have another question that relates to this topic. When you sync an iPod with iTunes, for instance, in the way we have been talking about and having it download a certain playlist to play, will it delete previously synced files? I want to only have podcasts that I havn't listened to on my iPod, of course it will only update when I sync it again, but will it delete my old podcasts and replace them with the new podcasts that I havn't listened to?

[CosmoNut]

Originally posted by eekles77
I want to only have podcasts that I havn't listened to on my iPod, of course it will only update when I sync it again, but will it delete my old podcasts and replace them with the new podcasts that I havn't listened to?

Using a combination of your Podcast settings in Preferences and strategic use of Smart Playlists, yes. In the Smart Playlists you'll want to also add a field for "Play Count is 0".

[eekles77]

Okay, so the iPod does delete podcasts from a previous sync?

[CosmoNut]

Originally posted by eekles77
Okay, so the iPod does delete podcasts from a previous sync?

Actually iTunes is the holding house for all things iPod. It gets info from the iPod about what you've listened to, what ratings you've changed, etc. and adjusts everything accordingly.

iTunes is what downloads and organizes your podcasts for the iPod to use. If something is to be deleted off the iPod, it has to be done in iTunes first. Does that help?

[eekles77]

Ah, ok. So if the podcasts are gone from the playlist that I am syncing with, then they won't be on the iPod. Thanks for the help.