Sansa Clip+ feature request / bug fix list

[dfkt]

• Gapless playback: it's even mentioned in the manual, but the Clip+ doesn't play gapless. I managed to achieve gapless playback with a few FLAC files (not all), but no Vorbis or LAME MP3 files. Make the Clip+ gapless for all formats.
• Volume level/scale: same as the old Clip v1, the volume levels are too loud on the lowest setting (especially the FM radio, which is insanely loud on vol. 1), and the whole volume scale isn't very well weighted.
• Remove the SlotMusic "menu": I paid for the Clip+, and I don't need that obnoxious advertisement in the menu. Get rid of that useless spam when no SlotMusic card is inserted.
• Pan/balance: Many people (including me) don't hear equally loud on both ears. Pan/balance would be highly appreciated - for me it's the 2nd most important (and basic) setting after the volume control.
• Folder advance in folder browsing mode: The Clip+ only plays the chosen folder and doesn't advance to the next. It either loops the current folder or stops after the last track. There should be an option to make it play the next folder.

Feel free to add your suggestions to this list. Of course, it would also be nice to see the requests for the old Clip implemented in the Clip+ as well.

[CrowdAds]

[JK98]

Why don't you post this there?

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/boar...uresuggestions

[boechat]

Scrobblings!

I only need this o Clip+.. If so, i buy one right now

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by JK98

Why don't you post this there?

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/boar...uresuggestions

Because they read our forums.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by JK98

Why don't you post this there?

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/boar...uresuggestions

Because some people (like me) don't visit the Sansa forums.

Steve

[d_headshot]

These are pretty big ones(in terms of asthetics):


-Playback display would look a lot neater if it was "Song - Album" with a space between the dash and the tags instead of the current "Song-Album".

-Fixing the track tag problem from "xx" to "x/x". When going to the track info menu, I hate seeing my track tags saying something like "18" rather than the proper tag which is supposed to be "1/8".

-Folder browsing and track info menus should be moved up higher on the lists.

-Adding more track info such as Year, Composer, Publisher, etc.

[defaultluser]

Gapless playback

: it's even mentioned in the manual, but the Clip+ doesn't play gapless. I managed to achieve gapless playback with a few FLAC files (not all), but no Vorbis or LAME MP3 files. Make the Clip+ gapless for all formats - Rockbox can do it, and so should the stock firmware.

I think you made a mistake here. I've been using gapless OGG Vorbis files on my Clip+ with zero issues. The gapless playback of Vorbis is perfect.

I'm using CDex 1.70beta2 with the default aoTuV codec. And yes, I've listened to this dozens of times, it absolutely works.

Just a smattering of the albums I've tested with Vorbis gapless:

The Wall
Dark Side
Losing Streak
Time
Eldorado
On The Third Day
The Police: Live!
12 Gardens
Lake Trout Live at 8x10

This list above spans almost every musical genre, and includes studio concept albums and live recordings. I've listened critically for every gap with my Maudio AV40s and also my MS-1 headphones, and I can detect nothing. The playback sounds like the CD in every case.

LAME mp3, on the other hand, is not gapless (but damn well should be). But I say, please get your requests straight, and take Vorbis off the list.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by defaultluser

I think you made a mistake here.

I tried aoTuV and Lancer encoded tracks on my Clip+ and they weren't gapless. None of them. They had no gaps between tracks, but they had audible clicks/pops. They were encoded from FLAC and FLAC/CUE sources. They play perfectly gapless on the S9, Rockbox, Winamp, etc.

Since there is such discrepancy between our two gapless experiences, it is safe to say there is something wrong with gapless on the Clip+. Not to mention I only tested Vorbis - but I really use LAME for everything and would prefer this one to be gapless.

[defaultluser]

Originally Posted by dfkt

I tried aoTuV and Lancer encoded tracks on my Clip+ and they weren't gapless. None of them. They had no gaps between tracks, but they had audible clicks/pops. They were encoded from FLAC and FLAC/CUE sources. They play perfectly gapless on the S9, Rockbox, Winamp, etc.

Since there is such discrepancy between our two gapless experiences, it is safe to say there is something wrong with gapless on the Clip+. Not to mention I only tested Vorbis - but I really use LAME for everything and would prefer this one to be gapless.

Can you try ripping a Vorbis test set direct from the CD? All my tests were ripped direct from the CD using CDex.

It is remotely possible that your path from CD->FLAC->Vorbis introduced some unwanted extra data in your file that caused the Clip+ to choke (yeah, I know, I'm not buying it either, but there could be a bug in your conversion path that only the Clip+ is tripping over). Try and replicate my process exactly and see if that doesn't work.

[defaultluser]

Now that I have had my say about gapless, I would like to add two requests to your list:

Universal file visibility for playlists

Can they add a way to make all files on the device visible to a single m3u playlist? The way the files are segregated now, it breaks the m3u playlist system, because you can't make a playlist filled with files from both the external memory and internal memory.

This could be accomplished by mapping the external music to a folder in the internal memory hierarchy, like they already do when you use the player in MTP mode.

e.g.:

\MUSIC\External_Music

Alphabetical scrolling through artists/albums/folders using the R key.

From what I remember (do not have the player on me this instant), the right key does nothing while browsing folders/artists/albums, since you have to select using the center key. An alphabetical scroll, even unidirectional, would save me a lot of time searching my 3500 song library.

[Mikerman]

Originally Posted by defaultluser

Now that I have had my say about gapless, I would like to add two requests to your list:

Alphabetical scrolling through artists/albums/folders using the R key.

From what I remember (do not have the player on me this instant), the right key does nothing while browsing folders/artists/albums, since you have to select using the center key. An alphabetical scroll, even unidirectional, would save me a lot of time searching my 3500 song library.

Very good thought and suggestion!

[dfkt]

The tracks I tried play perfectly gapless on any other player, hardware or software - since they don't work on the Clip+, there's something wrong with the Clip+, not my tracks.

[defaultluser]

Originally Posted by dfkt

The tracks I tried play perfectly gapless on any other player, hardware or software - since they don't work on the Clip+, there's something wrong with the Clip+, not my tracks.

...Or it could be something wrong with your player in particular.

I know a way we can settle this. You can PM me your email address, and I can send you an album subset that I know plays back %100 gapless.

Or, you could send me something you've encoded, and I can see if there's a difference. If you have any of the albums I listed above, that would be perfect, since I can compare them side-by-side with my existing OGG rips. But I suppose anything will work.

I'd be happy to record the playback so you can hear that it is gapless on my player.

[defaultluser]

DFKT:

After thorough analysis of my gapless tracks tonight, I have to say that you are right - there is a small noise at the end of SOME of my OGG tracks. The reason I did not hear it before is because it is very quiet, so you'll only catch it in non-pop, studio recordings.


For example, I can't hear it to save my life on any of my live albums. I also can't hear it on any of my pop gapless albums (ELO, Joe Jackson, etc). But after careful scrutiny, I heard it in a couple of places on quieter concept albums like Dark Side, The Wall and The Thomas Tracks, and also the Happyman to 9th At Pine transition on Losing Streak.

It's not bad enough to make me upset, you really can't hear it unless you're listening for it. But I will agree, the slight noise is there, and it is noticable between some tracks.

[ultrauber]

Though I made a separate thread for this, a bug: the bottom few pixels of the yellow titles are a bit scrambled, though the battery indicator is fine.

GAPLESS FOR LAME MP3 - I got really excited about this but I can still hear a tiny break in the cheering on live albums. Unless this is just loading/buffering time...

More choices for what a long select does - now we have "Add to Go List" and "Rate Song." Should be able to choose EQ, Song info, etc.

Pan/balance - I might not use it but tons of people would. Besides, I don't think this is hard to implement.

Better equalizer - the current one sucks. At least use a few lines to mark the +/-dB values. 7-band or even stereo (separate settings for right and left) would be nice.

A filler mSD - ship new players with a plastic microSD in the slot to block dust for those who won't use the slot.

Rockbox would add almost all of this except the 7-band/stereo EQ.

[m_k]

Originally Posted by ultrauber

Though I made a separate thread for this, a bug: the bottom few pixels of the yellow titles are a bit scrambled, though the battery indicator is fine.

GAPLESS FOR LAME MP3 - I got really excited about this but I can still hear a tiny break in the cheering on live albums. Unless this is just loading/buffering time...

More choices for what a long select does - now we have "Add to Go List" and "Rate Song." Should be able to choose EQ, Song info, etc.

Pan/balance - I might not use it but tons of people would. Besides, I don't think this is hard to implement.

Better equalizer - the current one sucks. At least use a few lines to mark the +/-dB values. 7-band or even stereo (separate settings for right and left) would be nice.

A filler mSD - ship new players with a plastic microSD in the slot to block dust for those who won't use the slot.

Rockbox would add almost all of this except the 7-band/stereo EQ.

Aw, c'mon, those aren't shortcomings -- those are "value"!

[ultrauber]

Originally Posted by m_k

Aw, c'mon, those aren't shortcomings -- those are "value"!

Seriously.

Although I would pay them to implement those features.

[boechat]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Heh... spaces are overrated.

No, of course it's only a firmware thing - but no other Sansa player works with Zenses as well. Not that I care, since I would never use MTP - not even if it was the only way for scrobbling. MTP is just so incredibly bad compared to MSC for my needs.

I would be surprised if Sandisk gave the users a working scrobbler implementation - but then again, they already gave us file/folder, Replaygain, and some sort of rudimentary gapless support as well. They do listen to the community, and I'm grateful for that.

Nobody can make any predictions about Rockbox ports - it works when it works. And it's always a lot of work porting it over to a new player.

Yes, spacebar its just a exquisite way to separate words!

Can you tell me the difference between MTP and MSC?
Do the PlusClip work with mtp?

Originally Posted by m_k

Two free cheats (one that betrays my age...)

1. Alt+32 (hold down the Alt key, and type "32" on your numeric keypad, then release the Alt key)

2. Find a space. Any space (that is, any space on a web page or document). Select the space with your mouse. Type Ctrl-C and then, anywhere you want to "type a space" type a Ctrl-V and the space you placed in your copy buffer will appear at the cursor position. You can keep pasting them until you need to put something else into the buffer (since you can only have one item in the buffer).

Tks for the tip. But i already bought a new keyboard. haha
and its a cool keyboard! Since there is no spoiler tag, letme show you
the link for a pic. sorry the offtopic

Originally Posted by ultrauber

Seriously.

Although I would pay them to implement those features.

Yeah! i would pay 50 dollars for perfect Scrobbling system!

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by boechat

Can you tell me the difference between MTP and MSC?
Do the PlusClip work with mtp?

There are a number of threads on this topic, so you may wish to look for a good explanation.

The Clip+ supports both MTP and MSC (as do the Clip and the Fuze). I use MSC mode and it works well for me. Others use MTP because they use Rhapsody.

Sansa defaults all of these players to Auto-Detect. For certain, you want to decide on one or the other and change Auto-Detect to your choice.

Steve

[donp]

Originally Posted by ultrauber

GAPLESS FOR LAME MP3 - I got really excited about this but I can still hear a tiny break in the cheering on live albums. Unless this is just loading/buffering time...
.

If it's just a tiny break, then likely the DID get the loading time part, but did not fix the part about skipping blank space in the file (based on lame playing time tag).