Apple 2 iPods, 1 Computer, several podcasts?

Here's the Scenario:

My wife and I enjoy the same podcasts. We want to each synchronize with iTunes and listen to the podcasts at our leisure.

Currently, this works fine, except that if I listen to a podcast and sync my iPod after listening to it, that tells iTunes that episode has been played.
When my wife syncs her iPod, she does not get that episode because it has already been played. (boo)

Is there any easy way to do this other than multiple user accounts/iTunes libraries?

I'm thinking of just letting her log in as herself to manage podcasts, then log in as me to manage *shudder* iTunes purchased music. (so we only use one Authorization for our computer instead of two)

Any tips? Is there something I'm missing?

 

PC or Mac?

 

How about this:

When you sync, you have an option for Podcasts, which is likely to be currently set to "Sync all unplayed episodes of..."

Instead, set this to "Sync all podcasts" (or equivalent).

Next, set each iPod to "Only Synchronise checked items". Make sure everything is checked by default.


This way, when you download podcasts, they'll be "checked" by default, so they'll sync to the iPod. Once both of you are done with them, you can uncheck them, and they won't sync any more. Unfortunately, I can't think of any better solution for a PC. However, if you were using a Mac, you could set up an automator script to work as follows:

For all Podcasts in (your podcast folder)
If they have been listened to
Transfer them to (a second, temporary folder), and set them to "Not listened to yet".

For all Podcasts in (a second, temporary folder)
If they have been listened to
Delete them

(This way, they'd automatically delete after two iPods had set them to "Listened to", no matter which order it happens in.)

 

this is on a PC. I think I'll just create a separate iTunes library on my wife's account on the computer, then let her manage her own podcast. Seems easiest without any manual intervention other than switching users.

 

why don't you just unsync the ipods, and drag and drop the podcasts as you see fit, thats what i do with my music, as i have some stuff in my itunes library that i don't want on my ipod, my dads music etc, so that it doesn't sync and i keep the files i want on etc

 

What about creating a smart playlist that includes any podcast where playcount is less than 2? Then, you could sync to that playlist instead of syncing them as podcasts. (You might need to convert them to regular "songs" first - I don't know if you can include podcasts in a playlist. You should be able to.)

This will work on either platform.