Doppler
With subscription audio and video content increasing in popularity, finding a tool to effectively manage subscriptions is important. After subscribing to an RSS 2.0 podcast feed, Doppler automatically downloads on a schedule set by you or only does a manual check when you request an update. The app syncs with Bloglines subscriptions, so if you already have a list of feeds offering podcasts, you don't have to reacquire all of them. Password-protected feeds are supported as well. In order to avoid download redundancy, Doppler skips files with duplicate names by default, which keeps you from wasting space and helps to avoid wasting the publisher's bandwidth. A search tool checks against a database of known podcasts to make subscription convenient, although several of the more popular podcasts seem to be missing. File types are fully configurable, which is important for getting the right content compatible with your preferred media player of choice. While I personally prefer the podcast management built in the latest version of FeedDemon, Doppler is the best free alternative for Windows users. [Windows 9x/2k/XP $0.00]