Doplar is really crashy on my machine.
Juice doesn't see the podcasts I've already downloaded and tries to download them all again.
iTunes...?

Beyond these often recommended three, there are hundreds of other alternatives.

Should I just take the plunge and use iTunes (Apple software under windows hardly has a good reputation - Quicktime is horrible) - or are some of the other alternatives worth trying? If so, which?!

Cheers,
David.

I have searched for good alternatives for this myself. I too was frustrated with Juice's issue of overwriting old podcasts with newer ones, Doppler crashed on my machine, and I am hesitant to use iTunes. I did considerable amount of searching and tried a variety of podcatchers and now I just use Google Reader. I like that I can have a master tracker of the files no matter which computer I am on. The added benefit is that I don't need to run any extra services or software on my machine.

Here are the others I am aware of.
Winamp: It was ok but I was not into Winamp.

JRiver Media Jukebox 12: has a podcast client but I have not tried it yet.

MediaMonkey 3: I really like MediaMonkey but I can't use this at work because of WindowsXP administrator restrictions.

Feedburner's RSS client. I have not tried it.

Various: none were polished or stable enough for me.

I use myPodder (podcastready.com). Have nothing to say - I think that is the best we can say about software

Thanks for the advice.

mypodder, and autopodder, are heavily tied into podcastready.com, and don't see the existing podcasts on my machine. mypodder supposedly lets you change the folder where the podcasts are being stored, but ignored whatever settings I entered. autopodder "helpfully" renamed the podcast filenames so they no longer sort by date!

I'll try the Google Reader automatic downloading option to see if it works for me.

I'm amazed that something as popular as downloading podcasts has such patchy software support. I think I'll have to try iTunes after all!

Cheers,
David.

myPodder go to podcastready.com if you what to look at some new podcasts... it should go somewhere by default... why not to go "home"? You can add any (arbitrary source) channel from "Options"->"Subscribe to a podcast channel". No problems with folders; moreover, myPodder runs from my DAP itself.
Did you tried "Options"->"Import" to get your old podcasts? (I had no chance to do this by myself)

I'm not sure if any such software allows you to "switch" one to another on the fly. The program should track what was downloaded and when; it's better to play with fresh install to avoid the mess with old downloads.