Make player better for long audio podcasts - FF/RW resume

[faltime]

The player is GREAT seriously great, but it really is only geared to music. But it could be great for audio podcasts as well (you have no idea how important an EQ is for podcasts) the problem is there is no way (that I see) to FF or RW through a track or skip a predetermined length of time.

Adding these features would be great (how about a long press and hold on the forward button for FF and opposite for RW) - and you could add trackball support for ff/RW

And a adj button to skip an X # of seconds in a track.

Finally having the player pick up where a track was when paused or exited would be invaluable for podcast support.

I am sure I am not the only one who would like to use you amazing app for audio beyond music.

[admin]

Thanks for the request.

Better support for long files expected in one of the next minor releases.

[dirtdigger]

This sounds like a great idea!

Another thing I'd like to suggest would be a separate selection for audiobooks and/or podcasts in the library view (and perhaps an option to set folders for audiobooks and podcasts). This is one thing I do miss about my iPod - keeping audiobooks/podcasts separate from music.

Automatic bookmarking would be nice for audiobooks, too.

[andrewilley]

(how about a long press and hold on the forward button for FF and opposite for RW) - and you could add trackball support for ff/RW

And a adj button to skip an X # of seconds in a track.

Finally having the player pick up where a track was when paused or exited would be invaluable for podcast support.

I too use my phone largely for listening to podcasts, so the above features would be very welcome indeed. Especially the "press-and-hold headphone button" for fast-forwarding or fast-reversing within a track (like the default music player already does).

Sliding left or right on the trackpad/ball would be a great way to skip a given number of seconds too - e.g. skip forward 30 seconds (ideally with a configurable value available, as some podcasts can be an hour or two long).

Finally, I get quite a few MP4 videos which auto-download into the same podcast folders, so it'd be really useful to have an option to select which extensions the player will look for (the easiest would be to have a full list in the settings screen, with tick-to-select, so I can just disable MP4).

Oh, and an option to auto-refresh the folder/file list on startup of the player would be excellent so it picks up any newly-downloaded podcasts automatically.

This is a GREAT piece of software and I will be buying it shortly. Thank you for all the hard work on it.

Andre

[admin]

Next minor release (coming tomorrow) includes fix for long mp3 seeking - it's instant now. Better support for podcasts is considered, though PowerAMP is primary a music player, but such functionality is very useful for long tracks as well (long sets, etc.)

[andrewilley]

Thank you, one of the great things about the very best software is when users get to discuss options with the developer. The product always benefits from features that may not otherwise have been considered. Thanks for your time.

Andre

[scrivnet78]

These features being implemented is my only bar to entry. I'm sure many others feel the same.

[dirtdigger]

These features being implemented is my only bar to entry. I'm sure many others feel the same.

Me too. There are partial solutions on Android but none that work very well (AstroPlayer has bookmarking and even podcatching, but doesn't have the option to bookmark just audiobooks, and I don't want individual songs bookmarked).

I'm not really looking for something to do the podcatching itself (I use BeyondPod to actually download podcasts), just something to play long files with bookmarks and keep things separate from music files through picking a folder in the settings.

[bur]

Even better (for me anyway) than a defined ff/rw would be a goto command. Something that allows you to jump to 24:35 for example.

[robera]

FF and RW should be possible also on the widget. Long press do not work in widgets(it usually edit it) so I think there should be included a Progress time bar on the widget. How about it?

I am using QuickDesk only to launch Poweramp widget in front of any app. It just a floating window to control the music without closing current app. It is great, but the only thing missing in the widget is the Progress time bar to have total control over the music being played!

[admin]

The only issue with progress bar in widgets is that it will require frequent (0.5 sec) updates to widget and this will plain eat the battery.

Unfortunately, on Android widget updates are not optimal, widgets are saved to the flash on each update and each widget update should update all the widget, not just changed part of it. This is esp. problem for SGS series, as flash writes are 10x slower on them (or even more).

HTC for example, solves this via their home screen customization - elements which looks like widgets are actually HTC home screen extensions without such limitation, this lets them add progress bar without such problem.

Though, I'm keeping eye on the issue and may be something comes up.

[LXXIII]

"Poweramp is primarily a Music Player". I hear this a lot and I think it's sad. do you think iPod would be as succesful had it been "primarily a music player"? there is nothing stopping any program from fulfilling the functions of both music and podcasts/audiobooks.