a few issues

i blindly bought the jam and sports since it was the only available players and i thought since they are newer than the clip + they might be somewhat quality, even though since they are lower priced i figured there mightalso be some limitations compared to the clip+ (maybe)

since there is this 2000 song limit and i have 10000+ songs on my sd card my question is

  1. if i navigate to SD CARD > ARTIST , there is an option SHUFFLE on top, which creates a temporary playlist i assume? of course it shows a truncated 2000song playlist
    the question now is … since its a random generator that creates this, is this always 2000 different entries each time or is it always gonna be the 2000 FIRST !! songs found on the sd card just in different random order/arrangment, if it would be the former and pick 2000 randomly from all over the cardspace each time you hit SHUFFLE , then effectively practically it would be as good as a clip+ 32k limit since youre not gonna listen to 2000 songs in a row SHUFFLE mode would use your whole music collection (unless you want a fixed arrangment-order for the whole collection)

if not though i thought i use playlist creator and create 5-10 2000each playlists

  1. i got a SD CARD ERROR/unreadable for my 32gb sd card quite often, is this a known issue? i never had problems with this sd card

  2. is there a way to see the “meta”/detailed information of a mp3 ? in rockbox i always could find out the folderpath +filename on every mp3

  3. is there a way to raise volume levels via firmware update or so ? in traffic it gets hard to hear, with rockbox of course you had higher volume

Thank you for posting these inciteful questions and comments. I think we will have a useful discussion on this forrum.

  1. In my opinion, the 2 Music databases are re-compiled by the player each time the player is ejected from a PC (or Mac).

    The 2 Music databases use metadata from the ID3 tags.  I am guessing above the 2000 song limit, the internal Music database will ignore the excess files in the player memory. The same limit will apply to the separate Music database on the micro SD card.

     I am guessing that the Music mode (and Card mode) shuffle commands are based on the metadata in the Music databases. So, these Music shuffle commands will not access song files above the separate 2000 song limits.

     I also wonder if the songs to be included in each re-compiled database may vary slightly after each file management session? The variations may arise from internal sorting rules of the player OS and/ or file sort status of the FAT directory?

    The 2000 song limitations can be bypassed by using Folder mode playback of files saved into subfolders. Folder mode playback can be shuffled using the option shuffle command.

     Unfortunately, Folder mode playback does not allow for playback (or shuffle) from more than one subfolder at a time.

As you suggested, I think Playlists can be designed to overcome the 2000 song limitations. I do not know if there is a maximum song limit for any single Playlist. (2000, or other, or none?)

      My favorite Playlist software for my Clip Sport is “mp3tag”. This software creates Playlists across multiple subfolders. The m3u files can be saved in the Music folder or any subfolder under the Music folder.  The Clip Sport (and Jam) will not access the internal memory and the micro SD card within the same Playlist.

      

       

 Hi DFELD2005, following up the first question,

 Imagine I have one folder, with 1000 subfolders and each subfolder with 10 mp3 each. Can I make a playlist of those 10000 musics, and play them randomly, using your method  (“Folder Mode” & “mp3tag” & “shufle”)? 

(I can’t believe I am not be able to shufle more than 2000 musics in my Clip Jam).

I would first try this suggestion on a few subfolders and see if you are satisfied with the process and the results.

    The “one folder” you cited should be the “Music” folder in the root directory.of the micro SD card.

Then I would use the software “mp3tag” to load the contents of approx 10 of your subfolders into the Playlist window.

     Use the column headers to sort the contents any way you desire.for a non-shuffled playback.

Then use the Save command to save the Playlist into the “Music” directory.  

     Use a filename that is useful for your needs  “playlist01.m3u”  etc.

Eject the player and use CARD mode to select and play your Playlist.

     If you want to shuffle the songs in your playlist, use the Option button to select shuffle while one song is playing.

If you get this plan working, then try a larger collection of subfolders in your next attempt.

Maybe report back here with your results and your comments & suggestions.

 Well, I just got my ClipJam and, with “Folder Mode”, surprinsingly (for me) I was able to put 2700 songs (~15GB) in one folder of the card and it recognize all those songs and is playing them randomly. The question is if it is randomly playing the whole 2700 or just a subset of 2000… Does anyone knows this? Is there a limit of songs one folder can have and play it randomly?

I think Folder mode (with Shuffle=On) can shuffle play *all* the music files in one folder.

     (Folder mode can only access one folder at a time.)

If you like to use multiple subfolders to arrange your music albums & collections, then consider creating Playlists. These only work in Music mode, but do not depend on the Music database (and no dependence on ID3 tags).