Sansa Clip+ feature request / bug fix list

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Christian Davideck

* a triple AAA battery slot (in the player) (optionally, i.e. 2 product lines!)

How about the Sansa slotMusic player (not slotRadio). But presumably you would like other features. I wouldn't mind getting a slotMusic player, but Never Avail in Canada. I tried to buy one at Best Buy and Wal-Mart in the States but they had stopped carrying them. No great reason for wanting one, but I have some rechargable AAA batteries that I'm not using. A slotMusic player would give me a use.

Originally Posted by Christian Davideck

* a triple AAA battery clip-on (to extend the internal battery's 15 hour life), so you can use your player on a few-days-hike by bringing spare AAA batteries with you)

I thought this was already available as a generic product. Why should Sansa do one as well?

Steve

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Christian Davideck

* .ape file support
* .aac file support

Rockbox supports both codecs. However, I wouldn't recommend using APE on any portable player. It's a highly inefficient codec that drains batteries really fast. There is no benefit in using APE over FLAC, the size differences are generally negligible (APE is only the tiniest bit smaller than FLAC, yet with disproportionally higher decoding loads). FLAC is a much better codec in every aspect, much easier to decode - and one can convert APE easily and lossless-ly to FLAC.

[Mikerman]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

I thought this was already available as a generic product. Why should Sansa do one as well?

Steve

I'm not aware that there are clip-on battery extenders, as vs. small "carry-along" extenders/chargers such as the Lenmar Powerport Mini.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Mikerman

I'm not aware that there are clip-on battery extenders, as vs. small "carry-along" extenders/chargers such as the Lenmar Powerport Mini.

Make your own from velcro?

Still think it is a product better suited to the generic manufacturers than Sansa.

Steve

[Mikerman]

Yep, you could add velcro to something like the Lenmar.

Me, I'm generally fine with the Clip+ battery (and will Rockbox, increasing the battery further, if/when the port is listed as stable)--I just recharge overnight.

[Tripzone]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I would love to have the ability to tell my Clip+ which tag field to use to create its folders from. Having it always use the "artist" tag makes folder browsing useless if you have a whole bunch of "singles" loaded. If I could select "genre", ( a tag I never use), that would be outstanding.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Tripzone

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I would love to have the ability to tell my Clip+ which tag field to use to create its folders from. Having it always use the "artist" tag makes folder browsing useless if you have a whole bunch of "singles" loaded. If I could select "genre", ( a tag I never use), that would be outstanding.

Tripzone: Folder browsing has abolutely nothing to do with tags. If it's organized by artist then the user (ie YOU) organized it that way. I had a folder on my Clip+ called "XMAS".

Steve

[Tripzone]

Perhaps this is one of the differences between using MTP and MSC mode. Until yesterday, I was using MTP mode, and the Clip+ definitely created its own folders from the artist tag. In other words, I had no folders. The Clip itself, created them.

Now that I've switched to MSC mode, (as per the forum recommendations), perhaps, I'll get back folder control. I'll try it tonight.

Edit: Although, now that I think about it, last night, I reformatted the Clip+, set mode to MSC, and reloaded all my songs. These are singles in their own dedicated "Sansa" folder, so there's no individual folders. Sure enough, on the Clip+, after loading, there's a folder for each artist. The only place the Clip could have gotten this info is from the "artist" tag. The song filenames are in a "artist - title" format. It couldn't have extracted that info from the filename.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Tripzone

Until yesterday, I was using MTP mode, and the Clip+ definitely created its own folders from the artist tag. In other words, I had no folders. The Clip itself, created them.

No, the Clip didn't create them - whatever sync app you used on your PC created those folders on the Clip.

[Marvin the Martian]

Rockbox gave me pretty much everything I wanted from my Clip+, so to me, this thread is irrelevant from this point forward.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

Rockbox gave me pretty much everything I wanted from my Clip+, so to me, this thread is irrelevant from this point forward.

What relevance does this have to Tripzone's question/problem?

Steve

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Tripzone

Although, now that I think about it, last night, I reformatted the Clip+, set mode to MSC, and reloaded all my songs. These are singles in their own dedicated "Sansa" folder, so there's no individual folders. Sure enough, on the Clip+, after loading, there's a folder for each artist. The only place the Clip could have gotten this info is from the "artist" tag. The song filenames are in a "artist - title" format. It couldn't have extracted that info from the filename.

How did you load the songs onto the player? Drag & Drop? Windows Media Player? Winamp? Media Monkey? Have you looked at the player in Windows Explorer (aka My Documents) to looks at the structure?

Steve

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

What relevance does this have to Tripzone's question/problem?

Steve

It has zero relevance to Tripzone's question.

I saw that Tripzone was already getting assistance from two qualified individuals (you and dfkt) , so I instead posted something entirely different.....hence, the words "to me" in my post.

[Tripzone]

Excellent! Thanks guys. (Gals?) Now this thing works the way I think it should. Apparently, the "trick", is to use MSC mode and a file manager, (Windows Explorer), rather than a media manager, like MediaMonkey.

I don't know why MM would take it upon itself to create those folders. Perhaps I should ask over at the MM forum.

Anyway, thanks all.

[meetooman]

Originally Posted by Tripzone

I don't know why MM would take it upon itself to create those folders. Perhaps I should ask over at the MM forum.

I don't like either when they make choices for me, but I believe this default organization is a way to help you. If the user put thousand files, browsing the Music folder will be difficult (even maybe slow for the device itself).
On Linux, I often use Banshee that only put music on the device's root Music folder. It makes no difference when inside the music manager, but it can annoying if you later use a file manager to look for a file. People say that MM is highly configurable, for MSC as well as MTP transfers. You can probably taylor it to your needs.

[Tripzone]

Originally Posted by meetooman

People say that MM is highly configurable, for MSC as well as MTP transfers. You can probably taylor it to your needs.

Yup. Someone over at the MM forum has just told me how. Between this forum and MM, this lit'l Sansa Clip+ is becoming a really cool little device. Way better than my now defunct iPoop.

[Tomcatt]

I have a both a 4GB Clip and a 4GB Clip+ with 8 & 16GB microSD cards. wonderful little machines. use them both daily.

The microphone in these things is phenomenal. I can record lectures in class and have ZERO problem hearing everything the professor says, even when they walk around or otherwise muffle their voice.

my only complaint / feature request at this time is I'd really like to be able to record to the SD card(s). I frequently fill the internal memory before I get a chance to (aka, remember) transfer to my PC, where I convert them to .mp3 format.

as an aside, and I'm sure this is simply a restriction due to processing power / encoding, etc. -- it sure would be cool if I could record as .mp3 instead of .WAV, it would save tons of space... and time converting!

thanks to anyone who reads this..
SanDisk for making a superior product, everyone else for a very enjoyable forum. better than most others I read!

[Mikerman]

Or is the non-recording to mp3 a licensing issue?

[dfkt]

Indeed, a company has to pay a separate licensing fee for an MP3 encoder, next to the MP3 decoder. That's why most companies use WMA nowadays, since it's one price for both. Or WAV, since it's easier on the CPU, among other things.

Tomcatt, if you install Rockbox on your player, you can choose between MP3, WP, and WAV recording.

[Tomcatt]

Originally Posted by dfkt

...a company has to pay a separate licensing fee for an MP3 encoder..<snip>..WAV, since it's easier on the CPU, among other things.

I didn't think of the licensing fee! forgot about that part. the CPU part makes complete sense - and if my battery will last longer for it, then I'll keep on keepin' on..

Tomcatt, if you install Rockbox on your player, you can choose between MP3, WP, and WAV recording.

oooooh! don't tempt me. lol.
I *just* updated my old Clip to the newest firmware today, as the many annoying issues it had (especially in comparison to the '+') finally got the better of me.
would one be better to RB than the other, Clip or Clip+ ?

thanks.