Too Complicated - get back to basics!

All these procedures and rules to get the simplest things done have given me a headache, so let me get straight to the point:

The ClipZip is too much hassle to use! I had a Clip and a Clip+ prior to this and didnt need to read a single forum to get things done… plug it in, copy the audio files across (yes, even in folders), unplug, navigate to folders, play. Simple. Intuitive. You didnt even need a manual!

Now I need to use an external audio manager to create playlists, and there are rules for internal memory vs external memory, and different modes for the micro sd card, and different rules for music vs audiobooks, and… WHAT?!

Youve lost me. As a customer. Probably for good.

Maybe Im old fashioned but I will manage the order I want songs played in by ordering them in a folder. I just want to copy them onto the Clip and press play. Is that too much to ask? And I want them to appear as the file name - not the ID3 tag.

Someone else pointed out that the time had gone from the playback too - why?

But hey, at least we got a pretty colour screen (which I look at for all of 5 sec as I turn it on)

Maybe I should have read the forums first, but I just assumed the Clip product was going in a straight line, not a giant U-Turn!

Well done Sandisk - A GIANT LEAP BACKWARD!! What a waste of money!

I see very little difference in using the clip+ or clip zip, certainly nothing that should be a hassle. If you load rockbox, then there is a significant change in operation. I don’t like display on the zip, but that’s another matter.

Hi Dave

Its completely different. Try dragging a music file onto the external memory card using nothing but Windows Explorer and see what happens. The file name itself gets changed, the playback shows only the ID3 tag, podcasts show up in audiobooks, theres no elapsed time on the playback…

johnparker8 wrote:

Hi Dave

 

Its completely different. Try dragging a music file onto the external memory card using nothing but Windows Explorer and see what happens. The file name itself gets changed, the playback shows only the ID3 tag, podcasts show up in audiobooks, theres no elapsed time on the playback…

The Clip+ and Clip Zip work the same in this regard.   My guess is that you set your old player to MSC mode (which does not rename the files on the player) and your new player to MTP mode (which does rename them).  

Ditto as to the USB MTP - MSC modes issue.  My guess is, if you set the USB mode on your Clip Zip (under System Settings) to MSC mode, your new player will work just like the earlier ones.  Mine does. 

(Note:  as your computer only shows the files that are on your Clip that were transferred to the Clip under the USB mode you currently are set to, you might want to copy the current files on your Clip to your computer, erase them on the Clip, reset the Clip’s USB mode to MSC mode, and then transfer the files back to your player.  This way, your computer will see all the files that are on your Clip, when you set the player’s USB mode to MSC mode.)   

JohnParker8: At least the Clip Zip doesn’t have a touch pad coupled with a poorly written firmware.

Many thanks for your help Saratoga and Miikerman,this did indeed fix the majority of the issues.

My player was supplied with the MCP/MSC setting on “auto detect”, so setting this to MSC has at least stopped the files from being renamed and so on. Consider me schooled by the masters :smiley:

Sadly, the new Zip still lacks a very useful function that the Clip had - podcasts with both elapsed time and folders. Ill explain:

On the old Clip, it was possible to copy folders of podcasts into a directory called Podcasts. For playback, the only option was “Music”, then you could navigate to Folders > Internal > Podcasts and see the folders. Navigating into these folders and then choosing Play All resulted in the files being played with an elapsed time shown. This was very handy for rewinding to a certain point (rewind accelerates so can be tricky with only a bar graph to guide you) or for seeing how much of the podcast was left to play.

The new Zip doesnt work this way. For starters, you now have a selection between Books and Music when playing back. Choosing Books will get you a time indication (strangely, both podcasts and audio books appear in this menu) but no folders; while Music will get you the folders, but no time indication :confounded:

All of this testing will also get you a frustrated customer who would rather be doing something other than trying to figure out the nonesensical rules of the device he just bought.

In conclusion I guess I can live with loss of the time indication, but one bitten…

Yep, I have never understood why SanDisk chose to cast aside certai good functionality rather than simply including it and then building upon it. Almost as if there was change simply for change’s sake–were normal user’s and their needs simply not consulted in the development process?

Exactly right. Why do ‘music’ tracks need to have no time indication? They have a slider so the device is calculating the duration etc. And why would audiobooks and podcasts have no folders?
We should be navigating to a menu… Play all. Done.
Does Sansa even read these reviews?
Can we expect a fix in a future firmware version?

@miikerman wrote:
Yep, I have never understood why SanDisk chose to cast aside certai good functionality rather than simply including it and then building upon it. Almost as if there was change simply for change’s sake–were normal user’s and their needs simply not consulted in the development process?

That’s how modern software design works, unfortunately. If you want proof, look at Windows 8, and its disfunctionality.

Sigh . . . . :frowning: