Some questions regarding the Clip

[shadowcat]

Hi, I'm considering whether to buy a Clip and I'd appreciate it if you guys could answer the following questions:

1. What are the average file upload and download speeds?

2. At the link provided at the bottom of the message, I see that the Clip has by default a "MUSIC" folder. I assume music files must be stored there and that I can store whatever I want (non-mp3) files in other folders?

3. I believe we can still store music in subdirectories under "MUSIC?" So I could have "MUSIC/artist/song.mp3?"

4. People have been complaining about no file/folder browsing support. We could circumvent this by creating m3u playlists right? How do we play m3u playlists? I can't seem to find anywhere that explains that.

5. I have a Bluetooth headset and it came with a mini-USB universal (100-250V) AC adapter. It says output is DC 5.0V +- 5% and minimum and maximum currents are 150 mA and 400 mA, respectively. Does anyone know if I can use that to charge a Clip without damaging it?

6. Can we use a Energizer Energi To Go to charge the Clip on long trips/flights?

Thanks in advance. The link is here:

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/boar...&thread.id=777

[macilaci457]

I can partly ansver your questions:

1. Upload speed is a bit more than 2Mbps. Download speed I didn't test.

2. My clip recognizes mp3 files not copied to the Music folder but to the root too.


3. Yes, You can make subfolders. I do too.

4. I never made playlists, 'cause I only listen to full albums.

5,6. The USB charge specification is 5V and 500mA, so any charger device that supports the same specs. may charge the clip properly. You cannot damage with less current but if it will charge, than it will charge more slowly.

[kukrapok]

Point 4. is discussed in (at least) one thread in this forum, and also here:
http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board?board.id=clip
It all depends on which OS and software you use to create the playlists, it goes from the all-automatic to the all-manual.

[Mikerman]

I can confirm that files are picked up and accessible if they are stored outside the Music folder as well. I use separate podcast and audiobook folders as well (that I set up).

[mikewhitesell]

I have been using the clip for about a week for podcasts. I use podcastready as my podcast client. podcastready.exe resides in the root directory along with autoload.inf. Podcast ready also has directories associated with the program. All podcasts go into the "podcast" directory off of the root (not into the music directory). The .exe and other associated program files are not causing any problems with the operation of the clip.

Note that my player is set up in UMS/MSC mode so that the player acts as a drive.

I can plug in my clip to any computer, run podcastready.exe and new podcasts are downloaded directly to my player.

[Mikerman]

That is exactly what I do with 2 1-line DOS batch files on my Desktop: one transfers Podcasts to my Clip; and the second deletes the podcasts off my computer. (I could have done this as one batch file, but wanted the option of not having the podcasts deleted.)

[mikewhitesell]

I think Podcastready is a little different than what you are doing mikerman. Podcastready is a podcast client that resides on your mp3 player (UMS/MSC only). It has all the necessary software on the mp3 player itself to check all your feeds for new content and download them directly to your mp3 player. No batch files are necessary.

The beauty of this is that you can plug in to any computer and update your podcasts. The software supposedly works on windows, mac and linux, but I have only tried windows.

This is a really useful program for me because I mainly listen to podcasts on my clip (and past mp3 players). When traveling, I can plug in to any computer (public library pc, hotel pc, work pc, home pc, etc..) and update my podcasts.

Here are some of the features:

-Shows a list of all of your feeds
-Each feed has a picture, link to host website and list of podcasts available in that feed.
-When starting the program, it updates all your feeds and indicates on the feed list if there are new episodes and selects them for download.
-Previously downloaded or older podcasts can be reselected for download.
-One of the tabs allows you to view all podcasts stored on your device, how long ago it was downloaded (hours/days), and allows you to delete selected podcasts.
-You can add feeds to the player manually or you can do it through podcastready's website, or through podcastready one click subscription buttons on some websites.
-Podcastready's website allows you to create an account and add podcasts to your account through their podcast search engine. A list of your podcast feeds is kept on their website. If you add podcasts manually to your player, the website updates automatically. If you add podcast feeds to the website, the next time you plug your player in to your computer the website gets updated with new feeds.
-You can have friends on their website who are allowed to send podcasts to your "private channel" which acts like any other feed. If a friend puts a podcast in your private channel, your "private channel" feed will indicate a new podcast next time you plug in your device. Friends can also view each others podcast feed list.

I typically don't use their website though, it is dog slow at times. I typically add/remove podcasts manually on the device.

I love how simple this program is to use!

For all of you MTP people out there, they also have a version of the software that installs on your computer, though I haven't used it.

[mikewhitesell]

The website name is podcast ready
The name of the software is mypodder

If any of you are using podcast ready, add me as a freind.
Username is mikew

[Mikerman]

Yep, I looked at it and it seems to be a nice program; although I got a bit concerned by the installation process--it all wasn't as transparent as I would like (maybe I just didn't understand the program well enough). I use iPodder (now named Juice) as my podcast aggregator--a good (basic) program, and then transfer the files from my computer to player as noted above.

[mikewhitesell]

I used ipodder for a while but I had a problem with it. I had a samsung (yp-mt6z) player at the time that browsed by directory. Ipodder put every podcast in its own seperate directory. It made it difficult to navigate on my player, so I would copy each individual podcast out of its directory on the computer into a flat directory on my player.... Ahh well, I have learned a lot since then.

I stumbled on to "podcatcher on a stick" which was a very very basic client that resided on my player. After a few months using that, they stopped development on it and started development on mypodder.

Unfortunately, podcast ready's website is pretty crappy. It looks nice and works great except for the fact that it is slow slow slow.

The installation is a bit dumb too. All the installation really does for you is create an autorun.inf and add some info to the config so that it knows which account it links to on their website.

[jaylicht]

1. On my Mac I get 3MB/sec both directions which works out to 24Mbps.
5. That should work. I've used a few different USB mini 5-pin chargers for car or US outlet.