Episodes missing chunks
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Hey, new to the app, but I’m finding some episodes shorter than they should be. For example, an episode of Film Theory (One of us is Dead) cut off before the sign off by about 30 seconds. A second example is Skyjacks: Courier’s Call episode 56 is listed as 23:40 or so on your app, but in Spotify is 24:32, and the one in your app seems to have cut out the midroll announcements. I am on android, newest update as of 7-25-2024, a Samsung S21 FE. I have no ad blocking apps. Any clue what might be causing these issues?
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I have a few ideas as to what might be causing the difference. If you can share exact links to the episodes in question on both Spotify and from Pocket Casts I can look at this specific case.
Here’s what I think is the case from the information you’ve shared.
First, Spotify works differently from our app. Our app relies on podcast RSS feeds to get content. Spotify has their own system for distributing content specific to their platform, and some creators make specific versions of their feed for it. Additionally, unlike another other podcast listening apps like Apple Podcasts, we can’t check what feed Spotify is using for the podcast to compare why ours is different.
In addition, some podcasts use dynamic ad insertion (DAI), which can change the length of a podcast depending on what ads are inserted. DAI serves ads based on your phone’s IP address. However, it’s important to note that Pocket Casts does not provide your location for these ads. It’s actually the podcast hosting providers who figure out your location based on where your phone requests downloads from.
Pocket Casts Forum 