Are there any plans to start using podcast chapters or reason not to?
2 Likes
The latest Tech News Weekly (104) had detailed chapters, really excellent. I’ve asked if it’s possible to include the timings of the sponsor breaks as that helps planning how much to listen to if I don’t have enough time available to listen to the whole show in one bite.
Really? I just checked in Pocket casts and I don’t have any chapters for that specific episode
Do you see chapters in other TWiT shows as well or just TNW?
Nope. Only TNW 104, no other shows.
I wonder if this is one of @mikahsargent 's automations that he’s testing? If so, it’s good!
1 Like
That’s also a bit strange, isn’t it?
Seems Podcast Republic takes the chapter time codes from the show notes and interprets them as chapters.
What are the chapters?
Chapters or bookmarks as called by some other apps are notes to specific points in the timeline of an audio or video file. They are especially useful for lengthy episode. You can click on the chapter to start playing from that specific position in the timeline.
Some podcast publishers may add the chapters info into the podcast media file. In that case, this app will extract them and display them to you. This app can also take the chapters info in the podcast show notes if that’s detected. Users can also add chapters manually.
1 Like
Could be that, yes. Whatever it is, I’ve only seen it on this one episode. All the other recent shows on TWiT that I skimmed through in my subscriptions list had a blank Chapters tab.
Oh, that’s neat 
Not all TWiT shows have timestamps in the description
I don’t recall seeing them before. Maybe this show is the only one to have both, which is why I was wondering if it’s an experiment. If so, I like it.
Having clickable chapters would be great.
I’ve noticed that TWiTs show description notes are not necessarily listed in order of discussion, and having clickable chapters would be useful when wanting to re-listen to a specific topic/conversation.
TNW is probably a lot more regimented than the other shows so a lot easier. Time coding for TWIG would be a nightmare for example, where subjects are returned to, digressions etc.
2 Likes
Tru that…good point!
+1 for chapters. I find it incredibly useful…
Definitely something I’d upvote!
There is no standard for chapter markings. There used to be an Apple system but it required AAC and only worked on Apple software.
As far as I know, there is no way to add chapter markings to MP3s.
3 Likes
There is this: http://id3.org/id3v2-chapters-1.0
I believe at least Pocket Casts, Overcast (they have a chapter encoder) and probably Apple Podcasts support this.
1 Like
Looks like TNW 104 has what is needed to have the effect of chapters, whether or not actual chapter marks have been created. In Podcast Republic, the timings in the Description are clickable links which take you straight to that section when playing a downloaded file. I also see these segments and timings in the Chapter tab, and clicking on them starts playback from that segment.
If I don’t have the show downloaded, I can still see it and all this information for it in the Subscriptions section of the player. If I click on a segment there and subsequently download the show, playback will start from that segment.
If I start streaming the show without downloading it, this is kicked off by a Play button which always starts from the beginning of the file, but once playback has started, clicking on any of the timings moves streaming playback to that segment.
From my point of view with this one player, whatever was done with TNW 104 gives a great result. Would be interesting to know what people experience with this file in other players.
Oh, I should have said, I’m subscribed to TNW for audio only, so all my results above were with the audio file.