Podcasts

Bòcan is a full podcast player as well as a music player. Podcasts have their own section in the sidebar and their own playback controls.

Subscribing to a podcast

Click Podcasts in the sidebar. Type a show name into the field at the top of the Podcasts view, or paste a feed URL there. Bòcan searches Podcast Index and the Apple iTunes catalogue at the same time, removes duplicates, and shows a badge for the source of each result. A storefront country picker changes which Apple catalogue is searched.

Bòcan reads RSS and Atom feeds. A feed served over plain http is accepted from a computer on your home network. Plain http feeds from the internet are not supported.

Browsing episodes

Click a show to open its episode list. Episodes are listed newest first, or oldest first for a serial show. Change the order with the Episode Order setting of the show. Each row shows one of three states: unplayed, in progress (with the time remaining), or played. The search box filters your shows, the Continue Listening rail, and the episode list inside a show.

Downloading episodes

Click the download button on an episode row to save the episode to your Mac. The download mark fills as the file arrives, and hovering over it shows the percentage. Downloaded episodes play from disk and are available offline.

Bòcan can download the newest episodes of a show automatically. Turn that on in the settings of the show, and set how many under Settings → Podcasts.

Resuming playback

Bòcan remembers your position in every episode. Click the episode again to continue from where you stopped. The Continue Listening rail at the top of the Podcasts view lists every episode you started but did not finish.

Skip intervals and playback speed

While a podcast plays, the transport bar shows skip-back and skip-forward buttons in place of previous and next track. The default intervals are 15 seconds back and 30 seconds forward. Change them under Settings → Podcasts → Playback.

Podcasts have their own default playback speed, independent of the speed for music. A show can override it.

Chapters, transcripts and show notes

Bòcan supports the Podcasting 2.0 namespace:

Feature	What you get
Chapters	A jump-to list in the player while the episode plays
Transcripts	View, download, and clean up the transcript of an episode
Credits	Host and guest names for the show and for each episode
Funding links	Links to support the show, with a confirmation before a link opens
Podroll	A shelf of shows that the publisher recommends

Show notes are available from the player bar. They are rendered from sanitised HTML.

Per-show settings

Each show has its own settings:

• Playback speed override
• Episode order
• Auto-download of the newest episodes
• Retention policy. In-progress, played, and downloaded episodes are always kept.

Global settings

Settings → Podcasts controls the refresh interval, refresh on launch, auto-download, the skip intervals, the default speed, and the storefront.

Import and export subscriptions

Bòcan imports and exports your subscriptions as OPML, so you can move to or from another podcast app. Mark All as Played works across every show.

Podcasts and the rest of the app

• Scrobbling: podcast episodes are not music tracks and never scrobble.
• Library Summary: the Podcasts tab (Tools → Library Summary, ⌘⇧Y) shows your unheard backlog, dead feeds, downloaded episodes you never played, and completion rates. Reap Now deletes listened episodes that still use disk space, after a confirmation.
• Phone Sync: downloaded episodes can sync to a paired Android phone. See Phone Sync.
• Crossfade: crossfade applies to local songs only. Episodes change over without it.