In order to better support Podcasts, we need to be able to sort album tracks by Date Added, not just track number.
All of my podcast lists are broken in Roon because they are non-traditional albums with no track numbers, but sorting tracks by date added would fix this.
You mean, like this:
(I tend to add podcast broadcasts in batches, so that’s why some episodes have the same date)
If I really wanted to be completist, I’d edit the release date metadata (either in Roon or in an external metadata editor) and use that to order the track list…
aye captain. like ye got there.
I too have created a custom filter to achieve my desired results. However, and maybe I’m alone here, I don’t believe this falls under the use-case of custom filters, which I see as a users unique way of filtering content outside of a standard methodology.
With Podcasts, the standard sort method is always by date, and as such no custom filtering should be expected. So what we really want is generic template folders which Room has predefined defaults.
So Room should have a skeleton structure like so:
- Music
- AudioBooks
- Podcasts
• Any content within the Music folder has the tracks sorted by the standard track no.
• Content inside the Podcast folder would sort tracks by release date and falling back to date added as necessary.
Otherwise you have to apply/remove the custom filter every time you view a podcast album.
Erm, I will have to disagree with you about “Roon should have a skeleton structure like so…”. That’s tying the data model to a physical structure. I think it is highly unlikely that the Roon devs would go down this particular route. 
The whole point about Roon is that it deals with objects in an object model. The Focus and filter functions are ways of extracting particular objects according to what the user wishes. All views can be bookmarked for permanent reference, and the bookmarks are dynamic, so new material that falls within the bookmark criteria is automatically included.
I agree with the argument that Podcasts should have their own object model, since they are somewhat different from (for example) compilation albums. That’s something for the Roonies to consider (and I think they are already aware of the request).
The object model works fine, and the saved filter will be automatically applied, bit that still requires the user to add new podcasts to the model manually.
The idea of a skeleton structure, similar to imap, is that it makes it very easy for the software to auto apply a default model to anything within a template folder.
It’s essentially doing the same thing, but my approach says that it’s Roons job to apply the correct model automatically based on which folder content resides.
And the data is already tied to a physical structure. That’s why you specify a “music” directory when first configuring Roon. It applies the only object model it has to all content under that parent folder.
The skeleton structure allows Roon to preconfigure multiple object models based on what directory it’s pulling data from. Despite it’s faults, this is one of the things Plex does better than Roon.
On a side note, regarding your setup. How do you currently tell Roon which albums are your podcasts and which are music? Are you manually editing your saved filter every time you add a new podcast to your library?
I have a podcast RSS downloader which automatically adds any show I subscribe to to my library. So anytime I add a new show I have to then configure my filter to include that new album?
Frankly, I don’t bother editing the metadata, my Podcast downloader (Grover Pro) just tosses podcast episodes into folders (by podcast name) under \\ROCK\Data\Storage\InternalStorage\GroverPro. Roon has created albums from the folder names, and I initially assigned these albums to the genre “Podcast”.
Any new episodes of existing podcast series will automatically end up in the relevant podcast “Album”. If I add a new podcast series, I will also assign the “album” to the Podcast genre, but that’s the extent of the editing that I do. As I say, I am not a completist…
I just wish, Roon would also integrate a Podcatcher. As a ROCK user I can’t use my own Podcast-Downloader 
I use the Windows 10 Grover Pro app and simply define a folder on my ROCK storage hierarchy for download storage. Grover pro runs on my Windows 10 PC and stores podcasts over the network into the ROCK internal storage…
I know that involving a second computer would be a workaround. In my case I switched from an iMac to a NUC with ROCK to save a lot of energy for just listening to audio. Since that switch I need to power on my iMac only a few days a week. To let my iMac manage and fetch the podcasts for the NUC I’ve to turn it on at least twice a day. And then I’ve to wait for the new episodes to appear.
Then it’s better for me to use a Podcatcher on my iPad and live with bad sound quality. In my case it would be helpful if my ROCK could act as an AirPlay speaker.
But they are still mixed-in with all your music… Better to have libraries for Music, Podcasts, and Audio Books.
They’ll get there.
Is it possible to manage multiple libraries with Roon/ROCK?
Why is it better to have separate libraries? I can easily focus on my music/podcast/drama collections using genres.
Sorry, didn’t mean to confuse. For the record, Roon doesn’t support libraries. The software is a bit audio-racist, or audio-blind, in that it doesn’t recognize any other type of audio except music. The great audio melting-pot if you will. You’re either Music or it will force you to be music…
Adding library selection to Roon would be mostly trivial as well.
•Minor UI update to add a library selection menu in the main Overview page.
• Minore tweak to the file location setup wizard to allow creating multiple libraries.
•Only three unique data models to manage (music, podcast, audio book)
The company seems to be overly concerned with pleasing the audiophiles and their endless demands for master quality audio, etc and less on the overall experience of browsing your music collection (which is their primary selling point on the website).
I for one just want:
•The visceral experience of flipping through my old CD booklets again.
• Making and exporting/sharing mix tapes.
• Full metadata for inner sleeves and jewel cases (should make this a community supported, wiki-style database that we can collectively contribute additional photos to)
• And an unsurpassed audio recommendation / radio / shuffle engine.
• And a fully scalable UI with touchscreen support throughout for my jukebox style setup.
• Multiple library support for Podcasts, Audiobooks and Music.
• A morning radio-mix alarm would be nice, but I can make that in nodejs.
• Lyric searching would be on the list as well.
While I agree that the Roon object model could well be expanded to take in audio media such as podcasts and audiobooks, I’m not bothered about having additional library selection menus. As I say, I can easily browse specific views of my total collection. I like a UI that is as simple as possible, not one that when you click on a menu it reveals dozens of options, and sub-options. One of the reasons that I ran screaming from JRiver when I tried it a few years back.
Maybe I’m alone on this but the focus feature is not very intuitive and isn’t a natural analog to the physical activity of browsing.
In the real world, I would never keep my music mixed-in with my audio books and podcasts. I’d have a case for each.
And when Opening Roon, when I want to play one of my Podcasts, it’s just natural to open the Podcasts folder and everything is neat and tidy. Currently, there is too much micro management involved with “Focus/Bookmarks” for getting the preferred level of distinction between Audiobooks, Podcasts and Music.
Thankfully, you wouldn’t be affected by the change since you wouldn’t be forced to create multiple libraries if you didn’t wish too.
If I had a wish, I’d like to have that feature too.
I have a lot of audiobooks, and am currently thinking about how and if I should try and use podcasts with Roon.
There is no need to have an additional button to switch between libraries ( like Music, audiobooks and podcasts) as long as you just have one set up. So this button might only show up if you choose to have a separate audiobook/whatever section.
Just like to bring this up again, since I’ve discovered that every one of my Podcasts has an “Unknown Composer” credit associated with it - and there’s no way to remove it. Would be nice to have an additional Credit Role defined as well: “Performer - Presenter”. The closest equivalent is currently “Performer - Spoken Vocals” which isn’t quite right…
+1 for Podcast as separate objects.
I’d like to add Podcast in my library but I don’t want them to be mixed up with my music.
In JRiver, you can have your favourite podcasts listed and ready to go without downloading the file. It simply streams them on demand. In Roon it appears that in order to have a podcast available, it needs to be resident as a file in your media library. This takes up unnecessary disk space. Would it be possible at some time in the future, for Roon to have this facility?
