Sansa Clip Zip Firmware 01.01.18

I still look for titles under “A” or “The”–my brain just internalizes those words as part of the name . . . .

@tapeworm wrote:

 

:stuck_out_tongue:

My sentiments exactly!   :smileyvery-happy:

@tapeworm wrote:


@miikerman wrote:

Thanks for the update, SanDisk!     Having Play All back is, once again, nice, handy and appreciated.

 

And now, how about screen use enhancements, to add/add back in track time elapsed and remaining info., as well as track no. in list being played/total track no. info. (without which one easily can get lost in album play)?     


Yes indeed. It’s not like anyone’s asking for anything new or different. We just want back what was removed from the previous entire line of Sansa players. And it’s useful information that every mp3 player (except those with no screen obviously, like the iPod Shufle) should have, despite what the UI guy at SanDisk thinks

 

One shouldn’t have to use Rockbox just to get basic utility and functions out of this player.

What Tapeworm and Miikerman said.  Having time elapsed in the display missing is something even my 12 yr. old noticed and thought should be in there (gave her my old Clip when I got the CZ).

Oh, and while off topic, if anyone considers getting the slicone jacket for the player offered on Amazon for $5 do it.  I got it a few weeks ago it fits perfectly.

Ok tnx for the update, I see playall, but what does it help me?? it still does not show a amount of track# so I don’t know what files are copied onto the unit.

I am still with all my problems which I originally had, being that I CANNOT add a few 1000 tracks on the player with confident that all the files were copied right,

I would really wish to see the sandisk players becoming more powerfull like heir other compectitors out there.

@ubtapes wrote:

I am still with all my problems which I originally had, being that I CANNOT add a few 1000 tracks on the player with confident that all the files were copied right,

Why is that?

@ubtapes wrote:

it still does not show a amount of track# so I don’t know what files are copied onto the unit.

I am still with all my problems which I originally had, being that I CANNOT add a few 1000 tracks on the player with confident that all the files were copied right,

While not shown on the Now Playing screen, you can go into Settings > System Settings > Info and see the total number of Songs, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Voice & FM Recordings.

A couple more button presses to be sure, but the information is there.

@tapeworm wrote:


@ubtapes wrote:

it still does not show a amount of track# so I don’t know what files are copied onto the unit.

I am still with all my problems which I originally had, being that I CANNOT add a few 1000 tracks on the player with confident that all the files were copied right,


While not shown on the Now Playing screen, you can go into Settings > System Settings > Info and see the total number of Songs, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Voice & FM Recordings.

 

A couple more button presses to be sure, but the information is there.

And if the Info screen shows the correct number of files but you aren’t able to find them in the Music (or Podcast, or Audiobooks, etc.) menu, it’s probably a tagging problem. Files with incompatible/scrambled tags end up lumped together under “Unknown”.

Tnx Tapeworm for this idea, now I know already how much files It displayes.

But what it still bother me, is that I added 3000 files on the internal and 4000 on the Sandisk SD Card , and it shows only 4930 songs.

Why is that?? I only have 6 folders in total, all the files are tagged with all the fields exept for the album cover field only the files from the card have it.

On a ipod when they say its 16gb you can actually fill it to the utmost,  no matter which channel or frquency or bitrate or duration the files are. I hope Sandisk will get to this feature

@ubtapes wrote:

 

But what it still bother me, is that I added 3000 files on the internal and 4000 on the Sandisk SD Card , and it shows only 4930 songs.

Why is that??

 

Apparently you have hit the database limitation. While listed as 8000 tracks, that number can be reduced significantly by length of file names, folders within folders, things like that. We have heard from others who hit their ceilings at about 5000 songs too.

1 Like

The post seems to be informative.

Nice work!

Some suggestions to radio part:

* smaller frequency digits so we can have two lines for  the RDS info or one line for a station name and other for the RDS info, anyway it would be nice to have possibility to set the station name;

* change the select button function so it can switch |<< and >>| buttons functions between tuning and changeing to the prev/next preset station -  in this mode we can display in the status line preset station number/number of preset stations - default mode should be to change between presets if there are any. 

Timer - better do not center the time string and use fixed left position.

Player - is there a possibility to add some kind of headphone sound spatialization in EQ as an additional option?

Great job

Best regards

– 

Adam

Tnx again Tapeworm,

Now, how can I get all the key info such as file size, filename chars limits etc…which well help me get there in the range of 8000.tracks.
If Sandisk claims that it is possible to have this amount of tracks, I believe there should be a way to accomplish that, if so where can I look it up?

I appreciate your help,

I’m sorry to inform, but the RDS is still not working here in Lithuania. I’ve updated the firmware manually to 01.01.18F (“System Settings->Info” proves, that the latest version is installed). Tried to format the player, reset to factory setting, tried to reupdate the firmware - the result is the same. There are only 2 stations from the FM range that shows something like “ADFJH” and this is total abracadabra, all other stations (17 stations) does not show anything.

Please note, that other devices - my cellphone, car radio receiver - shows RDS information on all the stations. Sandisk support thinks i’m dummy and gives advices like “please update the software once again” or “If the RDS info is not showing on the player than it is a local issue for Lithuania” and etc.

As i know there are 2 standards of RDS: RBDS (used in US) and RDS (used in Europe), so maybe this could be the problem ? I mean my player supports only US modification of RDS and is unavailable in Lithuania, could it be so ?

Totally unsatisfied with this player, Sandisk and eShop does not want to refund for this player, do not know really what to do :neutral_face:

Any help appreciated :cry:

@romanaleksejuk wrote:

I’m sorry to inform, but the RDS is still not working here in Lithuania. I’ve updated the firmware manually to 01.01.18F (“System Settings->Info” proves, that the latest version is installed). Tried to format the player, reset to factory setting, tried to reupdate the firmware - the result is the same. There are only 2 stations from the FM range that shows something like “ADFJH” and this is total abracadabra, all other stations (17 stations) does not show anything.

Please note, that other devices - my cellphone, car radio receiver - shows RDS information on all the stations. Sandisk support thinks i’m dummy and gives advices like “please update the software once again” or “If the RDS info is not showing on the player than it is a local issue for Lithuania” and etc.

As i know there are 2 standards of RDS: RBDS (used in US) and RDS (used in Europe), so maybe this could be the problem ? I mean my player supports only US modification of RDS and is unavailable in Lithuania, could it be so ?

Totally unsatisfied with this player, Sandisk and eShop does not want to refund for this player, do not know really what to do :neutral_face:

Any help appreciated :cry:

It sounds like the standard your local broadcasters are using isn’t being read by the CZ.  I’m in the eastern US and checked my player’s FM broadcast RDS info.  It’s receiving it again with the latest FW update and I’ve power cycled my player several times since updating.

I will say though that some information is being displayed peculiarly.  My wife’s car (a 2010 Chevrolet) shows all RDS info correctly (i.e. the station call letters).  The CZ though shows some strange info on a few stations, namely, some stations show their call letters beginning with the letter “K”.  No stations in this area have call letters starting with K.  All of the stations with the problem are Clear Channel Communications-owned stations.  Hmmmm…

When the player is being launched for the first time, there is an option to choose the region, i’ve chosen “Europe”.

So, if there is an option of selecting the continents, that means that this player SHOULD BE adaptive for the concrete RDS system (as i mentioned before - there are only 2 RDS system versions). If my cellphone (generic SonyEriccsson) is able to recognize RDS correctly, my car radio (worlwide SONY) is able to recognize it correctly, why were Clip Zip developers unable to implement this feature correctly ?

Sorry, but the phraze “It sounds like the standard your local broadcasters are using isn’t being read by the CZ” is not really an explanation of the problem, and far less - not a solution :angry:

@romanaleksejuk wrote:

When the player is being launched for the first time, there is an option to choose the region, i’ve chosen “Europe”.

So, if there is an option of selecting the continents, that means that this player SHOULD BE adaptive for the concrete RDS system (as i mentioned before - there are only 2 RDS system versions). If my cellphone (generic SonyEriccsson) is able to recognize RDS correctly, my car radio (worlwide SONY) is able to recognize it correctly, why were Clip Zip developers unable to implement this feature correctly ?

Sorry, but the phraze “It sounds like the standard your local broadcasters are using isn’t being read by the CZ” is not really an explanation of the problem, and far less - not a solution :angry:

As far as I know, the only effect the Region setting has is to stick EU users with a reduced volume (to meet with EU regulations limiting volume on audio devices). Hopefully with a future update, it should also change the FM tuning range and increments to region-specific settings.

I believe the issue was between the FM receiver chip and the Zip’s interpretation of the data string.  Previously, i could restore RDS information if I would pause / mute FM, then open a music file from the Music library.  Afterwards, RDS would restore normally.

As far as the RDS standards between US / EU, this may involve the FM chip itself, and its interpretation of the RDS data.  The update does restore the information display, at least it does here in the States; perhaps a little testing with EU signals will be the hot ticket to solve this for the Zip worldwide.  It’s possible that one fix uncovered another issue.

Did your Zip display the EU (local, in your case of course) RDS data?

Locally, the Clear Channel broadcaster is using the same Harris exciter / encoder as other stations.  We have two layers of FM information in the US, a digital “HD Radio” carrier, plus the original analog signal, with RDS.  On the HD side, the song information is also broadcast as part of the digital signal. (I have receivers that show both the HD and RDS concurrently).

Try the above trick with your Zip (pause FM, go to Music, play a file, pause, then go back to FM)  The RDS information should begin to refresh after 5-10 seconds.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

@romanaleksejuk wrote:

When the player is being launched for the first time, there is an option to choose the region, i’ve chosen “Europe”.

So, if there is an option of selecting the continents, that means that this player SHOULD BE adaptive for the concrete RDS system (as i mentioned before - there are only 2 RDS system versions). If my cellphone (generic SonyEriccsson) is able to recognize RDS correctly, my car radio (worlwide SONY) is able to recognize it correctly, why were Clip Zip developers unable to implement this feature correctly ?

Sorry, but the phraze “It sounds like the standard your local broadcasters are using isn’t being read by the CZ” is not really an explanation of the problem, and far less - not a solution :angry:

I’m just a customer like you, I don’t work for the company nor do I know much about the insides of the CZ.

@neutron_bob wrote:

I believe the issue was between the FM receiver chip and the Zip’s interpretation of the data string.  Previously, i could restore RDS information if I would pause / mute FM, then open a music file from the Music library.  Afterwards, RDS would restore normally.

 

As far as the RDS standards between US / EU, this may involve the FM chip itself, and its interpretation of the RDS data.  The update does restore the information display, at least it does here in the States; perhaps a little testing with EU signals will be the hot ticket to solve this for the Zip worldwide.  It’s possible that one fix uncovered another issue.

 

Did your Zip display the EU (local, in your case of course) RDS data?

 

Locally, the Clear Channel broadcaster is using the same Harris exciter / encoder as other stations.  We have two layers of FM information in the US, a digital “HD Radio” carrier, plus the original analog signal, with RDS.  On the HD side, the song information is also broadcast as part of the digital signal. (I have receivers that show both the HD and RDS concurrently).

 

Try the above trick with your Zip (pause FM, go to Music, play a file, pause, then go back to FM)  The RDS information should begin to refresh after 5-10 seconds.

 

 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Tried it Bob, the CC stations always show the wrong call letter info.  The data isn’t remotely correct.  For example, one of the CC stations call letters, WRDU (106.1MHz, local to the Raleigh, NC area) shows up at KATA.  Other CC stations show the same strange things, their call letters are mucked up.  But, any ‘catch phrases’ for the station or what’s playing right now does show up properly.

I went back out to my wife’s car (a 2010 Chevy Equinox with the optional upscale Pioneer-designed factory system) to check on the RDS data it shows in the display.  I was wrong about it displaying the right call-letter info for CC stations, it displays no call letter infor for those stations.  All other stations in the area show the call letters though.

Either CC stations don’t broadcast the info and the CZ does something weird since they’re not, CC stations broadcast some jibberish and the Chevy’s radio doesn’t show it but the CZ shows it or some other situation I’m not aware of.  Whatever is going on it’s something peculiar to CC stations and there is a difference even with a more sophisticated receiver.

No big loss for me though, Clear Channel stations around here are the pits so I typically don’t listen to them.  :smileyvery-happy:  That company has ruined each station they’ve bought in this area.

@neutron_bob wrote:

 

Locally, the Clear Channel broadcaster is using the same Harris exciter / encoder as other stations.  We have two layers of FM information in the US, a digital “HD Radio” carrier, plus the original analog signal, with RDS.  On the HD side, the song information is also broadcast as part of the digital signal. (I have receivers that show both the HD and RDS concurrently).

 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

I forgot to mention that my CZ often shows  the song/artist info.  Is that from the HD radio carrier or is it sometimes in the analog data stream?