Pocketcast glitch
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t’s a great app, but there is a glitch you may or may not be aware of.
Reasonably often, while listening to a podcast (from any creator), I realise that a short section, maybe 30 seconds or so, that I have just heard, is being repeated.
There is no gap in the delivery or any other warning that this is about to occur – it just flows seamlessly into the passage being read. It’s not a big problem, more a curious occurrence which always takes me by surprise.
Thanks for an easy to use app.
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Does this only happen when pausing for a little while and then resuming? If so, this is intelligent playback resumption (Profile > Settings > General > Player). When enabled, it rewinds the audio a little if it has been paused for a certain amount of time so it’s easier to get back into the flow of the episode, but you can disable it if you don’t find it helpful.
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No, I am aware of that feature and like it. My issue occurs when there hasn’t been any pausing.
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Do the podcasts that have this issue have ads in them, @wsearl? If so, the issue is probably Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI).
Full Explanation (You Can Scroll Down for the Summary):
DAI is what most podcasts use to insert ads. How it works is that the audio files do not initially have any ads in them; instead, the ads get inserted when the audio file is downloaded from the server. Podcasts use DAI because it allows for easily adding and removing ads from several or all episodes and targeting ads to listeners based on location (podcasters also use DAI for inserting time- or location-sensitive announcements).
If you click play on an episode without having downloaded it beforehand, Pocket Casts accesses it through a progressive download, wherein the audio file is slowly downloaded as it gets played (most other podcast apps do this as well). Podcast apps do this so you don’t have to wait a while to start playing. This can cause issues like the one you are experiencing with podcasts that use DAI because the ads get inserted when the audio file is downloaded and you are listening while it is still in that process. Some apps (like Pocket Casts) are more vulnerable to this than others, and some podcasts (like Radiolab, for example) are more liable to cause this than others.
TL;DR:
Most podcasts use DAI, which means the ads are inserted when the audio file is downloaded. On Pocket Casts, when you haven’t downloaded an episode beforehand, it downloads the audio as you listen. When these are combined, issues can arise because the ads are inserted when the file is downloaded and you are listening during this process.
Solution:
This is an ongoing issue that the developers are still trying to fix. Currently, the only solution is to set podcasts with this issue to automatically download new episodes.
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Thanks for that answer – very interesting and unexpected explanation.
I’ll set my ‘essential’ podcasts to auto download and monitor the others for ads to see if I can identify a pattern.
Thanks again.
Pocket Casts Forum 