Ok, I have used Amarok exclusively for some time now.  Would pay for it if was a commercial product.  All that aside... this update leave something to be desired.  Podcasting...hopelessly broken.  Xine-lib interface, broken for streaming.  Still no stable support for Musicbrainz.....  Will be downgrading right now...
Could someone suggest a workaround for the xine-lib problems for Fedora/Ubuntu/any other flavor desiring stable packages not from Livina?  If not, could you at least say something about there being NO stable workaround and not simply point to an obscure Ubuntu forum? 
Sorry, I know I sound rude, but a subsequent release should invariably be MORE stable, not less so...right?  MORE stuff should work, not less....

a) podcast - please be more specific: how exactly is it hopelessly broken? Is it a known problem that's been reported on http://bugs.kde.org ? If not, have you filed your own bug report?

b) xine-lib - please be more specific. Is there a particular type of stream (for example, mp3)? What version of xine-lib are you using? Have you checked here: http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/MP3_on_Kubuntu_6.06 ? Have you considered compiling it yourself?

c) Musicbrainz is never likely to be stable - sorry, it's out of the amarok developer's hands. Gentoo, for example, has removed musicbrainz support from the official ebuild.

d) Be aware that downgrading involves its own problems - if you wish to keep your 1.4.3 database for future use again, make sure you back up ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/ AND ~/.kde/share/config/amarokrc. You'll probably have to delete both these to downgrade. If you use mysql or postgresql databases, you may need to drop and recreate the amarok database.

Probably sounds just as rude/unhelpful as your post, sorry

You are correct, I am a rude butthead.  My apologies, I should not have posted such a nasty sounding message.  I understand that there are many things that are out of developer's hands...If it helps, remember that I did say I would still pay for it.  amaroK love?!?!? ;

Podcasting is not 'hopelessly broken'.  This is a nasty thing I wrote and should not have; the issue is that there is a problem with the downloading.  It appears that there is some difficulty that causes slow downloading across the board.  I am not sure what would cause this; I don't believe it is a podcast-specific issue that is causing it, it happens with all the podcasts I have.  Bugreport filed on bugs.kde.org.

Should have posted more information, sorry.  The error message received from xine-lib is as follows:

Error Loading Media
No suitable demux plugin. This often means that the file format is not supported.
http://scfire-ntc0l-2.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1018

Using xine-lib version: xine-lib-1.1.1-0.lvn.3.4 (Livna? Ugh!!!! Obviously I don't pay attention to my own repositories!)  Honestly, I am not sophisticated enough to recompile xine-lib in a way that would leave it working with other applications.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

As for Musicbrainz, I had no idea that Gentoo dropped it from offical builds.  It would make sense, trying to complete a good application with all these other issues can be a huge issue.

Not that attached to statistics - will probably back up album cover cache, so I don't have to redownload album covers....

Sorry about my first message, I swear I am not a pr*ck!

Might be worth looking for a binary of xine-lib 1.1.2 - there were lots of issues resolved. Also, as the url I posted above says, you'll probably need to install xine-extracodecs (that's for ubuntu/kubuntu - not sure about FC) for mp3 support.

It sounds like the amarok binary you're using hasn't been compiled with helix support.
Helix engine is the alternative to xine, and although it also doesn't come with mp3 support, installing RealPlayer and configuring amarok to look in the RealPlayer directories for its codecs will give you the missing file format support.

Personally, my helix support (comes with SLED10) is not very nice, keeps getting silent pauses in the middle of songs and stuff.  Occassionally Amarok changes itself to helix, but I always pick it up because of the said result above.  I'd remove it if I could be bothered..... ;}

there's an upside - helix rocks for streaming