Clip Zip Feedback and Feature Request Thread

Ability to shuffle podcasts like you can with normal music.

@miikerman wrote:

Yep, you are right–both the issue and the fix.  Stay tuned.

 

Update:  New firmware has been posted, which fixes the issue.  See the firmware upgrade sticky thread at the top of the forum–

Thanks Mikerman (and to the admins/software coders).

Gapless is a whole lot better than with the Clip but not quite there; quieter passages (like the ones in Abbey Road) are imperceptible.  The one between Sgt. Pepper Intro and “With A Little Help” is quite noticable (that one has some higher amplitdues) but the transition between “Good Morning” to “Sgt. Pepper Reprise” which melts into “A Day In the Life” is vastly better.  Cover image size or even no image doesn’t seem to matter.  Don’t know why one is fine the other isn’t but it’s there with some transitions within the same record.

BTW, is the CZ a bit brighter, bass shy or a little of both compared to the Clip?  It might be my imagination but it sounds like it.  I tried it with my Beyers and my Grados and they seem a bit brighter; when I try with my Sennheiser/Addias running 'phones I had to use quite a bit of EQ with my Clip.  Not so with my CZ.

howdy all, need some help…

Bought a 4gb cz and a 8 gb cz, 32 gb class 4 in each.

Got these a couple days ago, formatted all and then loaded up the music; filled internal ~75% and ~ 29 gb on each card. The problem is that each time we power up either cz, it takes 25-30 minutes to “Refreshing your media”.

ideas/suggestions??

@yeshua63043 wrote:

howdy all, need some help…

 

Bought a 4gb cz and a 8 gb cz, 32 gb class 4 in each.

 

Got these a couple days ago, formatted all and then loaded up the music; filled internal ~75% and ~ 29 gb on each card. The problem is that each time we power up either cz, it takes 25-30 minutes to “Refreshing your media”.

 

ideas/suggestions??

The thread I’m going to link you to mentions the Sansa Fuze, but the information on tagging the files applies just as well to any Sansa player.http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57248

saddly, after doing as suggested, still took 30 minutes

Some more info about the files you loaded would be helpful.

I’ve reformatted the card and reloaded it with my music with media player. It has been “refreshing” for an hour and a 1/2.

Not really sure what other info you want…27gb of files I ripped from my cd collection. All mp3’s.

Oops, something definitely is up with that–on my 8GB Clip+ with 32GB Class 4 card and both 95% full, a refresh takes 20-25 minutes–the Clip Zip shouldn’t be beyond that (I haven’t timed on the Clip Zip with a similar sized card). One thing possibly to try is, reformat the microSD card using the SD Association’s formatter tool. https://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/ Also, apparently, the nature of the tags and file names/folder structure can affect the refresh time–best to keep things simple there. Any complications with yours, by any chance (such as lots of ID3 tag fields filled in, e.g. the Comments field, and a complicated/deeper folder structure)?

Do note the thread Marvin links to above–very helpful info.! (And some of the simple suggestions in the thread easily can be implemented–a minute or 2, in fact–and could make miles of difference.) :slight_smile:

Why would you upgrade a great device and remove features that are part of what made the clip so great? I finally wore out my old Clip zsilver and bought the newest version and I found I had lost the display of track numbers, time remaining and the “play all” feature. It’s so frustrating I’m sending it back and buying the Clip+! This is a EPIC FAIL on Sansa’s part!

Availability in the UK would be nice! :smiley:

@kevinfreels: I agree with you, that the missing info. (time elapsed and remaining, and track no./total tracks no.) on the Clip Zip should be brought back to the music screen. (I forgot about the “play all” option, which should be brought back as well.) But SanDisk has proven that it can be responsive to customer comments and pleas–make them know to SanDisk, here/otherwise! :slight_smile:

@miikerman wrote:
@kevinfreels: I agree with you, that the missing info. (time elapsed and remaining, and track no./total tracks no.) on the Clip Zip should be brought back to the music screen. (I forgot about the “play all” option, which should be brought back as well.) But SanDisk has proven that it can be responsive to customer comments and pleas–make them know to SanDisk, here/otherwise! :slight_smile:

I’ve got to also agree.  After using a couple of Clip’s and Clip+'s with Rockbox for some time; and now getting a CZ…I do miss all the extra information on the screen.  It certainly would be nice if it were brought back.  Not a FAIL by any stretch of the imagination as the unit now stands; but would make a nifty little player even better!

@longi wrote:

Availability in the UK would be nice! :smiley:

I thought I read, this month.

SERIOUSLY NEED ABILITY TO PLAY AUDIBLE.COM CONTENT!!  :cry:

Well it would be great if someone from sandisk would say that this is definitely going to be fixed. If so I don’t need to return it. But I only have 24 days left to do that. 

What I’ve heard is, both SanDisk and Audible are on this, and Audible has said, this month. 

From all of this, I take it that if it is do-able, it’s going to be done.  And I don’t see any reason why it can’t be and won’t be.  Of course, what do I know–I’m just a consumer.   :wink:

I’m currently on my second rockboxed Clip+ that I mostly use for listening to audiobooks. Rockbox is great from a features perspective, but is far clunkier to use than the stock firmware. Not a problem if I’m sitting someplace, but very inconvenient and potentially dangerous if I’m driving and trying to switch to where I left off in another book. I’d like to go back to the original firmware because of it’s simplicity (which sound like it has been enhanced by the new menu customization), but there are 2 things that keep me on rockbox, which if implemented would make me buy whichever model of clip I needed to in order to get them.

  • Variable speed playback with pitch correction. I know that the hardware can handle it because rockbox on the clip does it, and does a very good job of it. I really like the way that Sansa implements their speed control as a setting that applies to all audiobooks, but not to music, but I find the whole chipmunk voice thing to get really annoying, and only having slow, normal, and fast as options to not be particularly helpful. For different books I will vary playback speed from about 110% to 190%, with most around 145%
  • Speed up refreshing the media. A 16gb sd card leaves me without listening enjoyment for way too long. With rockbox there is no refreshing of the media when the player is unplugged from the computer or when an microsd card is inserted.

tb wrote:

  • Speed up refreshing the media. A 16gb sd card leaves me without listening enjoyment for way too long. With rockbox there is no refreshing of the media when the player is unplugged from the computer or when an microsd card is inserted.

You can change this by cleaning up your tags.  Check out my refresh times. first for Clip Zip …

OK, player now loaded with MP3’s, 6.96GB on the internal, 14.8GB on a class 2 16GB card. Still flies through menus, and the refresh time just now was 2:53.6…two minutes, fifty-three point six seconds. Of course, YMMV with regards to the refresh time, depending on your tagging practices.  That is 2,685 songs, average bitrate of the lot is 233kbps.

And then for Clip+…

OK, same tracks on the Clip+ results in a refresh time of 3:20.8…three minutes, twenty point eight seconds.  I’ll let the engineers figure out why the new player would refresh faster.

The addition of the stopwatch is a nice addon. What would be more useful for runners is an interval timer that beeped while listening to music or podcasts. People pay $20+ for dedicated timers like the Gymboss (http://gymboss.com/). This type of function could easily be embedded in a player. This would make the Clip Zip a must-have player for runners in training.