Can a Clip Zip be used with no internet connection?

An oldie relative has asked for one of these for Christmas.  He has a PC (running XP) and a stack of CDs, but no internet access.

Will a Clip Zip work without internet access?  I can plug it into mine and get any firmware updates in advance.  I can also download any software needed onto a USB drive (if they can be downloaded as standalone installers).

Does the software require the PC to have been updated?  I installed XP onto it and downloaded all the updates about 8-9 years ago, but it hasn’t been updated since.  They live miles away, and we’re visiting them at Christmas so I can’t plug the PC into a net connection and do a one-off update.  I’m wondering if it’s dependent on Media Player or other things, e.g. .net etc.

If it would work in this way then would there be issues?  Presumably there’d be no cover art, but would there be any other issues?

Thanks.

Oh, I should add that due to the age of the PC it’s probably USB 1.  Would this make transfers unbearably slow?  I think it has about 512MB RAM.  It definitely has a CD-ROM drive though!

As long as its an XP machine, it should be fine in MSC mode (MTP would require you to update WMP). If its something older, it may not have proper USB support.

An internet connection is needed if you want your ripping software (Windows Media Player, etc.) to fill in the ID3 tags of the files you convert from CD’s for transfer to the player. Otherwise, you (or your relative) will have to manually type all that information into a tag for each track. The information contained in these tags are how all Sansa players sort and display track information. Without it, all your music will be filed under “Unknown” and then by file name. Kinda hard to look up a specific artist or album that way.

So, while not critcal an insternet connection is definitely a handy thing to have. :wink:

Thanks very very much for the info.

Hmmm.  As I’ll be the upaid tech support for this, I don’t fancy having to guide him on how to type in track/artist names and rip, drag and drop onto the device.

It would be nice if the software guided you through ripping, typing in track names etc.  But I’d assume the reality is you’d use one app to rip, another to add tags, then manually drag and drop to the player.  Not oldie friendly.

I think I’ll just tell him it won’t work properly without internet access, which is pretty much true.  It’s up to him whether to join the 21st century or not.

Having your rippiing program, whether it be WMP, Winamp, EAC, Media Monkey or whatever pull from an on-line database and fill in the ID3 tags for you at the same time you’re ripping the CD is really nice. In fact, it’s almost mandatory for transferring those converted files to any mp3 player; doesn’t matter if it’s a Sansa, Sony or Cowon. While many players (including the Zip) have an option to browse by folder/file, tag-based display of the Artist, Album, Track Name, etc. is really the way it is now. I’ve had to edit a few tags where the database was wrong, but I’d never want to completely type in all the fields manually for any more than 1 CD. It’s just too time-consuming.

Watch that “oldie” talk though . . . we more mature folks prefer “well-seasoned”. :stuck_out_tongue: