Looking for a good podcast listening software.

Hey guys! I absolutely love listening to podcasts on such feature-rich phone apps like Pocket Casts, Downcast, or Sticher (Used them all for at least 6 months each at some point) but I find the desktop market for such things very lacking. I'd really like a software, or a web app, that works pretty much exactly like Pocket Casts for my phone but for my Windows desktop. Is anyone aware of such a software?

In lieu of that I suppose a more realistic goal is downloading the individual mp3s manually and managing them with a standard media player. I like foobar for this, because if you accidentally close it, foobar remembers your position, but I don't believe it does for crashes or in-between resets (it could, I'm not sure). It also has universal hotkeys so you can set it up to adjust volume or play and pause when in a different application. But I'd like something that can remember file progress on multiple individual files at once, and store those positions long term.

Basically, I like to listen to the Bombcast and other long form discussion podcasts and interview content when I'm playing something low-impact like Diablo. But because these are sometimes 3 hours long (thank you Brad), it's easy to pause when I'm done with a session, walk away from the computer to do something else, forget to write down my place in the file and shut down the computer later. The auto-downloading of the phone apps is also very nice.

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions!

Have you considered using iTunes? Subscribing to a podcast is far more convenient than downloading individual mp3s. It also has an option to remember and resume where you left off instead of restarting at the beginning if that is what you're talking about and looking for.

I couldn't imagine not using itunes for my podcasts. But I have an Ipod so I'm pretty much stuck with it, Though I also cannot imagine not having an ipod. (fuck else would I have, a zune?)

I haven't seen anything that's as full-featured as the phone apps, but Mediamonkey will automatically download podcast feeds and I think there's an auto-resume option (they call it bookmarking).

Diablo 3

gPodder is what I use. It's strictly a podcast aggregator, I use Winamp to listen to the files on a PC. I don't think Winamp has a "save your place" option, though.

I have all my podcasts bookmarked and just play it from the website.

I like Pocket Casts. It's easy to use, looks better than iTunes. But the only problem is that the Premium feed doesn't update. But the adds are funny anyway. It's pretty easy to manage podcasts on Pocket Casts. It's not free though and for some Podcasts it doesn't display the header image.

@dougtrio: I use MusicBee. I just tested to see if it keeps your place on a file if you start another file or quit the program. Turns out it does.

It also seems to tie into some APIs to provide concert listings and a music release calendar.

Grandma mode activated! :P

Yeah, that's my catch 22 too. iTunes is fucking horrible. For several weeks straight it has stopped updating podcast feeds claiming I haven't been listening to them, despite listening to them every week. It also keeps losing the Premium feed password every day despite me setting it to remember it. It also randomly deselects podcasts from what it should automatically sync to my iPod. I'd go with any other software and hardware if any other had the sense to actually automatically keep track of what you've listened to, save the playback position if you pause and preferably be last.fm compatible.

@branthog: Hey, man. it Works!

I tried a couple of programs but most of them were a hassle, Zune was alright though and iTunes is a big fat ckunky piece of software.

Use this as your podcast URL: http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@www.giantbomb.com/podcast-xml/premium/ replacing username and password with whatever you're using.

And another reluctant vote for iTunes. It automatically keeps track of all my podcasts, plays nice with my iPod and supports the premium stuff, but dammit, if that program isn't the most terrible POS I've seen.

But it's easy...

Another vote for MediaMonkey. Good at monitoring and organising Podcasts and always remembers your place on each episode.

A thing I've started doing if you tend to listen to your podcasts while playing games off steam is to use itunes to download and aggregate them then use steam to play them.

I really wish Spotify had an RSS feature since I listen to all my music on there.

Musicbee is great. It can search the itunes store and is super customisable. Itunes is great for podcasts, but pretty bad for almost everything else.

I have the same problem with the premium feed. Have not had any of the other problems you listed though. But I manually select which episodes go onto my ipod cause its a 1gb ipod so I have to really plan out what I'm gonna listen to at work.

Side note, I wish the premium feed didn't have the bombcast in it cause I prefer the one with ads. Or they should do something to make the premium version of the bombcast stand out more cause even though its just an ad in the beginning of the show I still find it entertaining.

SIDE SIDE Note, How has cards against humanity not sponsored the bombcast yet? They have been sponsoring WTF, Comedy Bang Bang and Never Not Funny for at least a couple months.

Nah, you'd listen to music on your phone like a normal person;)