Spotify Podcast Episodes error 500

[bpratt107]

Trying to get an automation setup for my son, to play some podcast episodes of thomas the train.

Standard calls to spotify work for any album based track. (music etc)

but any sort of podcast play returns:
URL Call:
http://192.168.1.27:5005/[RoomName]/spotify/now/7iFmGKpRo0FOCaMfH47Spv

{"status":"error","error":"Got status 500 when invoking /MediaRenderer/AVTransport/Control","stack":"Error: Got status 500 when invoking /MediaRenderer/AVTransport/Control\n at Object.invoke (/app/node_modules/sonos-discovery/lib/helpers/soap.js:99:10)\n at Player.addURIToQueue (/app/node_modules/sonos-discovery/lib/models/Player.js:616:15)\n at /app/lib/actions/spotify.js:33:36\n at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)"}

I noticed on Spotify's URL's, when a podcast episode is playing, it says "episode"
"https://open.spotify.com/episode/7iFmGKpRo0FOCaMfH47Spv"
but when a song/album is playing, it says "track"
"https://open.spotify.com/track/4PTG3Z6ehGkBFwjybzWkR8"

Thoughts on why I might be getting this error 500? I'm inclined to believe it's due to this episode/track inconsistency

[bpratt107]

More notes,

When I make the call:
http://192.168.1.27:5005/LivingRoom/spotify/now/spotify:episode:31PQ6wMS34oRG7DFQa8zkX

This will output success, and the state of the zone will report the correct episode playing, but the state is STOPPED. I have tried seeking track, and well as play, in the zone, to no avail.

Below is the state of the livingroom player after the above call.

{"volume":2,"mute":false,"equalizer":{"bass":3,"treble":0,"loudness":true,"speechEnhancement":true,"nightMode":false},"currentTrack":{"artist":"Gullane (Thomas) Limited.","title":"Christmas Animals Special: Animal Families - Thomas & Friends™ Storytime","album":"Thomas & Friends™ Storytime (UK)","albumArtUri":"/getaa?s=1&u=x-sonos-spotify%3aspotify%253aepisode%253a31PQ6wMS34oRG7DFQa8zkX%3fsid%3d9%26flags%3d8%26sn%3d5","duration":1844,"uri":"x-sonos-spotify:spotify%3aepisode%3a31PQ6wMS34oRG7DFQa8zkX?sid=9&flags=8&sn=5","trackUri":"x-sonos-spotify:spotify%3aepisode%3a31PQ6wMS34oRG7DFQa8zkX?sid=9&flags=8&sn=5","type":"track","stationName":"","absoluteAlbumArtUri":"http://192.168.1.44:1400/getaa?s=1&u=x-sonos-spotify%3aspotify%253aepisode%253a31PQ6wMS34oRG7DFQa8zkX%3fsid%3d9%26flags%3d8%26sn%3d5"},"nextTrack":{"artist":"","title":"","album":"","albumArtUri":"","duration":0,"uri":""},"trackNo":1,"elapsedTime":0,"elapsedTimeFormatted":"00:00:00","playbackState":"STOPPED","playMode":{"repeat":"none","shuffle":true,"crossfade":true},"sub":{"gain":7,"crossover":0,"polarity":0,"enabled":true}}

[bpratt107]

When casting from spotify, the JSON uri is

"x-sonos-spotify:spotify:episode:3YjxbPjCYKkTQrXVUehIOA?sid=9&flags=0&sn=5"

but when cast via the above link, the JSON uri: is:
"x-sonos-spotify:spotify%3aepisode%3a31PQ6wMS34oRG7DFQa8zkX?sid=9&flags=8&sn=5"

It seems to be adding in %3 in place of the colons on episode direct calls?

[mark-zarandi]

hi mr pratt. I've found that downloading podcasts to a pi instead through the regular RSS and then playing them through SOCO is much much more reliable. if you're writing automations, i think this might be in reach for you. I use https://github.com/dplocki/podcast-downloader/tree/master, then as one of my startup programs i have it check for new files every 15 minutes.

gnome-terminal -- bash -c "while sleep 900; do python3 -m podcast_downloader --config /home/pod_config_v2.json; done"

The WHOLE spotify podcast advertising ecosystem is nuts and messes everything up, you'll find going straight to the rss more reliable i hope.