abi>> Sansa Clip Review

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by lpitt

No sign at my Portland Best Buy. I hate going into that store. I don't understand how people can get paid for being rude.

According to their web-site the black 2GB is available at 4 of the 6 Portland area stores. Guess you just had bad luck.

Steve

Not available at Clackamas, Cascade Station
Available at Beaverton, Tualatin, Mill Plain WA, Gresham

[lpitt]

Thanks for the info. I'll try one of the others tomorrow.

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

According to their web-site the black 2GB is available at 4 of the 6 Portland area stores. Guess you just had bad luck.

Steve

Not available at Clackamas, Cascade Station
Available at Beaverton, Tualatin, Mill Plain WA, Gresham

[sibion]

Finally got my hands on one as well. Here are my two complaints at this point.

1. Can't OS select to be mass storage (MSC), it seems to work fine but then says the cannot start drivers and drivers aren't installed. You can only use in MTP mode. I followed the same directions (both sets) that are noted for making the Sansa Express MSC but it did not work. Anyone else try this and get it to work.

2. Time display for any mp3 over an hour. The files play fine it always shows 0 for the hour. For example, at 30 minutes it reads 0:30:00 as it should but then if it is at an hour and half it also reads 0:30:00...two and half hours, 0:30:00 and so on. I have an open ticket with Sandisk and am waiting to hear back from level 2 support, my guess it is a bug. This is from a audiograbber file, anyone try an audible file? I have tried converting the file to a .wav, wma and also reencoding mp3 with another encoder, nothing fixes it.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated.

[ishturkish]

Originally Posted by lpitt

Which Best Buy in Portland did you get it at? I'm going to try tomorrow.

I bought mine in Tualitin. The Beaverton store said they would get it on Friday, so it should already be in stock.

[xJestersx]

No word of them yet in Canada, thinking of getting a new Sony or possibly a Shuffle cause of it .

[dacher]

Thanks for the great review and video. I got this as my first 'real' portable mp3 player. My bestbuy in central jersey has a stack of them -- red, black, pinks. I got a red one.

I didn't install the mini-CD. Is there anything useful in it?


I'm still charging it, so I don't have much to write about it. The only challenge so far is putting foam over the earbuds. Fngers feel so thick and stiff... Finally got one on, I'm going to fight with the 2nd one now.

[EnzoTen]

"MTP/MSC OS Selectable" means that is will choose the protocol that works for that system. Of course it will choose MTP on any windows system and MSC when MTP is unavailable.

I really dont understand why you are tying to force the player into MSC. It will still be and MTP device unless you hack every windows system you plug it into.

Can i ask why you are trying to make this connect via MSC? I dont really see the point, both are drag and drop on a windows system.

[tmgeorgo]

I read your review and found it to be very thorough and fair. I do have one question that I'd like to know more about. I currently have a sansa m260 and really like it except for one thing--the Unknown Artist/Title bug that prevents songs with correct ID3 tags from displaying properly. Does the clip suffer from this problem too?

[EnzoTen]

I never had a m260 so i am not familiar with the bug. Can you please explain?

[groovingalong]

My E270 occasionally displays the same problem. Basically, after a database build, some songs seem to have lost a bit of the tag information. They show up as unknown. Some of the tag information survives, but not all of it.

Not sure if both players (e200 and m200 series) have the same problem.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by groovingalong

My E270 occasionally displays the same problem. Basically, after a database build, some songs seem to have lost a bit of the tag information. They show up as unknown. Some of the tag information survives, but not all of it.

Not sure if both players (e200 and m200 series) have the same problem.

What firmware version are you running, i'm running 1.02.18A and have never experienced this issue. Check your tags and make sure they are correct, format your player, safe disco and let the db rebuild. Then connect again and reload tunes to see if the problem persists.

[groovingalong]

My firmware is old, so that might make a difference.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by groovingalong

My firmware is old, so that might make a difference.

Install the latest firmware, format and reload tunes and you should be fine. On the other hand, you could always RB the player

[groovingalong]

I'm considering my options - but keep in mind this isn't about my e200 series player, but a question about the clip player. And if the problem has been solved in later firmware versions on the e200 series, chances are the Clip doesn't suffer from this problem.

[tmgeorgo]

It's described a bit better in this forum thread:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ead.php?t=4944

I have 500+ songs on my m260 and 5 songs who are tagged unknown instead of what their ID3 tag says. I know the ID3 tags are right b/c the unknown songs change as I add and remove songs from the player, so it's definitely a firmware bug. I've got version 2.2.5A, which is the latest release for my hardware.

[groovingalong]

The m200 series is older than the e200 series, so it might be the same issue, they just stop making newer firmware after a while.

[sibion]

Originally Posted by sibion

Finally got my hands on one as well. Here are my two complaints at this point.

1. Can't OS select to be mass storage (MSC), it seems to work fine but then says the cannot start drivers and drivers aren't installed. You can only use in MTP mode. I followed the same directions (both sets) that are noted for making the Sansa Express MSC but it did not work. Anyone else try this and get it to work.

2. Time display for any mp3 over an hour. The files play fine it always shows 0 for the hour. For example, at 30 minutes it reads 0:30:00 as it should but then if it is at an hour and half it also reads 0:30:00...two and half hours, 0:30:00 and so on. I have an open ticket with Sandisk and am waiting to hear back from level 2 support, my guess it is a bug. This is from a audiograbber file, anyone try an audible file? I have tried converting the file to a .wav, wma and also reencoding mp3 with another encoder, nothing fixes it.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated.

Update on this:

1. Can get it into MSC mode but it shows no files, no matter, I linked my WMP to my iTunes folder used a nice little program called MusicBridge to transfer my ratings and voila....all is well in my music world.

2. Well, no luck here, I was on the phone about 10 times with Sandisk and tried a number of things. The last guy had me on hold 15 minutes as he "researched" the issue to see if there is a fix. He told me that it has been entered as a bug and should be fixed in the next rev of the firmware but we will see. Interestingly enough I did my own testing and found that Audible audiobooks don't have this problem but recording over an hour with the native FM recorder produced the same bug. So it is clearly a bug and not an encoding issue. Now if I could only encode my files in the Audible format I would be in good shape. BTW, I quoted "researched" because I am a skeptic and believe that some of the tech support guys put you on hold, go to the bathroom, grab a cup o' joe and return to tell you they have logged a bug to get you off the phone. Anyhow, I am optimistic that this issue will be resolved, may not wait though and may return my clip before the end of the month.

If anyone has a solution or knows how to mimic an Audible file, I am open to suggestions.

[Brestinder]

hows the progres of opening clip ??

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Brestinder

hows the progres of opening clip ??

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archi...sassembled.php

[ebyss]

This is a great review, thanks very much.

I'm going to pick one up to try.

I enjoyed the video, not much of a plot tho... (sorry!).

One question, based on the vid.

Is the clicking noise really that loud when you're navigating/selecting?

If so, maybe it should be called the 'Sansa Click' (double sorry!!!)...