Just bought a new iPod Nano 2GB, second gen and must first say it's a very nice device. Perfect for music and photos.

Being a frequent listener to podcasts though, one thing bugs me. When I load a podcast on to the iPod and play it, it will either:

A. Play, but any attempts to scroll forward in the track cause the iPod to "crash", jumping back to the main menu
B. Try to play, fail half way through the "Horizontal Slide" animation and return to the main menu

A (very poor quality, I hate my phone) Video is available at http://irctunes.50webs.com/ipod.3gp, if you can play 3GP files. (QT supports it, but not in Safari apparently)

I've noticed in particular it seems to happen with files encoded in the LAME3.97 codec, such as those currently being distributed by Austereo (Triple M), for example the Get This and Spoonman podcasts. Their older podcasts, encoded with CastMetrix, play fine. I'm thinking it may be an issue or outdated software in the iPod OS, but i'm unsure.

I've reported the problem to Apple and checked over their forums numerous times, but they've been fairly unhelpful so far, lacking in any actual cause of the issue or workarounds.

Has anyone else experienced this issue, or know of any way to fix/work around it? Thanks.

I'll take it that this isn't common then? Or does everyone here just have a normal iPod.

May need to wait (and hope) for an iPod OS update then.

its happening to me too, but only on tony martin's get this..

i think its austereo...

I've never had it happen, but I don't listen to those podcasts so its probably a setting they are using in LAME that isn't handled well by the nano.

Damn. Not what I was after... I suppose it's either up to Apple to bring on an iPod Software Update, or to just re-encode the files before sending to the iPod.

Anyway, for the first time, while listening to the Spoonman, I attempted to play another podcast which did the same, but instead of just returning to the main menu, the iPod froze and required a reset.

Thanks for the help anyway, and it definitely seems to be an issue in LAME encoded files that Austereo seems to be using.

I've been having the exact same problem. Your theory about the encoding sounds logical to me. It's the only explanation I've been able to find anywhere on the net.
I've found a way around the problem, it's a bit cumbersome, but it will work until they have a new iPod update.

In iTunes, go to your podcasts list.
Cntrl Click on the podcast/s you want to listen to.
Choose "Convert selection to mp3" from the menu.

It can take a little while, so you may only want to do a few at a time. Depending on how fast your Mac is.

iTunes will begin to convert the file (or files) you've selected.
Under Playlists, you will see "converting" appear. You can click on it to check the progress if you like.

When it's done, the podcasts you selected will appear in your music library.
You can then drag them to your nano and they will appear in the music section.
When you want to play them look under Music instead of Podcasts.
After all that, it works! You can fast forward or rewind without a problem.

At least so far... I've only tested one podcast.

You could probably go one step further and create an on-the-go playlist of just the podcasts.

Hope this helps.