Clip Zip Feedback and Feature Request Thread

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.

+1 on the lap timer and audio cues for time and such. I’m still rocking along on my Clip+ which has been nearly perfect. Just repaired a broken clip. Two things would make me buy a Clip Zip today:

  1. A metal case. The plastic (on the Clip+, at least) is fairly sturdy but I’ve got to believe that a metal case would be even more robust. The plastic case’s potential weakness was a concern when I bought the Clip+ but I didn’t think it would really be an issue. Now that I’ve broken mine I feel much more passionate about clip strength.

  2. Audio cues for the stopwatch. A lap timer would be nice and I’d use it if I had one but I think I’d get even more use out of the audio cues. I had an old Phillips mp3 player with a stopwatch feature and a button that read the time when you pushed it. It was awesome. The player was total garbage otherwise but that feature kept me using it for years until it was replaced by the Clip+.

I do not use my Clip+ to its full potential. I’ll probably get a Zip sometime soon - even sooner if my clip repair fails - and I don’t expect to use it to its full potential either. I use my Clip+ almost exclusively as an exercise mp3 player. It goes running with me and it goes to the gym with me. I don’t care about the display because I rarely look at it. All I need are tactile buttons so I can turn it on, advance or repeat a track, or adjust the volume. I do very little else with it. I’m totally sold on the brand and model because it does what I want so well that I really can’t imagine getting anything else. Having said that, a Clip model incorporating my two suggested features would be purchased with little regard to price.

My headphones have a mic and a button.  It would be nice to use the mic for recording and to use the button to control the Clip.  On my Palm Pre, a single button press pauses the music, a double press skips to the next track.  I know that this might involve a hardware change so I don’t have my hopes too high.

Thanks for listening!

Paul

Hello tb. Welcome to the forum. I have been pleading for variable speed playback with automatic pitch correction for a long time. I have not used Rockbox since the display items with it look too small, and the interface seems too complex. Is it true that with Rockbox when you change the playback speed the pitch must be changed separately, or does Rockbox automatically correct the pitch when the play speed is changed? besides being worried about possibly bricking a player with rockbox, I am also worried that if Rockboxed it might not play Slotradio cards anymore. does Rockbox have the autoresume feature that the original firmware has?

I just edited all my tags to get rid of the v1 tags. It does significantly help speed up refresh rates. It was so easy to do with mp3Tag.

@jk98 wrote:

Hello tb. Welcome to the forum. I have been pleading for variable speed playback with automatic pitch correction for a long time. I have not used Rockbox since the display items with it look too small, and the interface seems too complex. Is it true that with Rockbox when you change the playback speed the pitch must be changed separately, or does Rockbox automatically correct the pitch when the play speed is changed? besides being worried about possibly bricking a player with rockbox, I am also worried that if Rockboxed it might not play Slotradio cards anymore. does Rockbox have the autoresume feature that the original firmware has?

 

I just edited all my tags to get rid of the v1 tags. It does significantly help speed up refresh rates. It was so easy to do with mp3Tag.

I hope more people see this and follow suit. Only the older players need those ancient v1 tags.

New Clip Zip; 16 g Kingston class 10 micro sd card.

Am I correct in assuming that there is no way to go back or forward in a song?

sure there is. press and hold the << button to rewind the track and press and hold the >> button to fast forward a track. 

Not only that, but mp3Tag itself works so much faster without the v1 tags.

@tokadap wrote:

My headphones have a mic and a button.  It would be nice to use the mic for recording and to use the button to control the Clip.  On my Palm Pre, a single button press pauses the music, a double press skips to the next track.  I know that this might involve a hardware change so I don’t have my hopes too high.

 

Thanks for listening!

 

Paul

Would love to see a remote control dongle for the Clips!  But not permanently attached to a set of phones–a cable that you could plug your own phones into, like those made by iLuv and other companies for Apple players.  My Panasonic portable CD player has this and it’s great for outside and exercise use. 

@miikerman wrote:



Would love to see a remote control dongle for the Clips!  But not permanently attached to a set of phones–a cable that you could plug your own phones into, like those made by iLuv and other companies for Apple players.  My Panasonic portable CD player has this and it’s great for outside and exercise use. 

Heh, heh, you said “dongle!”  :smileyvery-happy:

“Feature Request: “Timed Auto Pause” (for audiobooks primarily). I listen to audiobooks a lot when I go to sleep, and I keep an ageing “iAudio U2” for this purpose alone. It has a feature where you can play 1 track, it pauses and waits for you to press play to play next track and if I don’t press play within a certain time the device turns itself off.”

Imo even better than a timed auto pause would be a function that is optional which allows the user to set a time limit, and if no buttons are pressed within that time limit, then the player goes into pause mode(then it will later shut off based on the power saver setting). When one presses a button, then the count down timer resets and starts again. This continues until the mode is disabled.

@jk98 wrote:

Hello tb. Welcome to the forum. I have been pleading for variable speed playback with automatic pitch correction for a long time. I have not used Rockbox since the display items with it look too small, and the interface seems too complex. Is it true that with Rockbox when you change the playback speed the pitch must be changed separately, or does Rockbox automatically correct the pitch when the play speed is changed? besides being worried about possibly bricking a player with rockbox, I am also worried that if Rockboxed it might not play Slotradio cards anymore. does Rockbox have the autoresume feature that the original firmware has?

 

I just edited all my tags to get rid of the v1 tags. It does significantly help speed up refresh rates. It was so easy to do with mp3Tag.

If you truly want the benefits of Rockbox, just go ahead and install it.  Once you take the plunge, you’ll not regret it.  I was hesitant before installing Rockbox also, concerned it’ll brick my clip+, then I installed it on my fuze, the player I could do without if it got messed up and, now, I’m a happy Rockbox user.

Of course, no Rockbox for the Clip Zip (yet).  Also, always a legitimate concern of even a small bricking possibility and the effect on DRM playback under the original manf. firmware.

@marvin_martian wrote:


 

Heh, heh, you said “dongle!”  :smileyvery-happy:

Marvin, you need sleep today!   :wink:

@mags1230 wrote:


@jk98 wrote:

Hello tb. Welcome to the forum. I have been pleading for variable speed playback with automatic pitch correction for a long time. I have not used Rockbox since the display items with it look too small, and the interface seems too complex. Is it true that with Rockbox when you change the playback speed the pitch must be changed separately, or does Rockbox automatically correct the pitch when the play speed is changed? besides being worried about possibly bricking a player with rockbox, I am also worried that if Rockboxed it might not play Slotradio cards anymore. does Rockbox have the autoresume feature that the original firmware has?

 

I just edited all my tags to get rid of the v1 tags. It does significantly help speed up refresh rates. It was so easy to do with mp3Tag.


If you truly want the benefits of Rockbox, just go ahead and install it.  Once you take the plunge, you’ll not regret it.  I was hesitant before installing Rockbox also, concerned it’ll brick my clip+, then I installed it on my fuze, the player I could do without if it got messed up and, now, I’m a happy Rockbox user.

I gotta agree here, about Rockbox. Up until I received the Zip and started testing it, I had not used the OF on my Clip+ in a year or so, and it’s been used a lot in that time and it still runs like a champ.

DRM is not an issue for me…I avoid it.   In JK98’s case, I don’t buy worrying about  that as a legitimate excuse:stuck_out_tongue:, since he has at least four players…surely he can live with the possibility of  just one of them not being to play a SlotRadio card. In fact, he could go to Radio SHack and buy a Clip+ for $30 and Rockbox one of his old ones.:wink:

Except that, not losing DRM capability on one’s primary player or the player that one may be using at the time is a legitimate preference.  DRM files and capability still can be an understandable concern–for library borrowings, Audible offerings, etc.

The player I might consider Rockboxing is my my Clip V2. It is one of my oldest Sandisk players. It doesn’t have a card slot, so it already can’t play my Slotradio cards. My reasons for hesitating about Rockbox is that some mentioned that Rockbox doesn’t have the autoresume feature that the Clip original firmware has. I need the player to remember not just the place in a file, but which file is playing in a series of podcasts. I am also concerned that the display in Rockbox may be hard to read. There is more information on the screen, and each item is smaller than with the original firmware.

As to screens, Rockbox has many different options from screen layouts that users have created–some of them mimic the original Clip screen, in variations.  They all are easy to install/select.  A gallery of screens:  http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?target=sansaclipplus

@jk98 wrote:

The player I might consider Rockboxing is my my Clip V2. It is one of my oldest Sandisk players. It doesn’t have a card slot, so it already can’t play my Slotradio cards. My reasons for hesitating about Rockbox is that some mentioned that Rockbox doesn’t have the autoresume feature that the Clip original firmware has. I need the player to remember not just the place in a file, but which file is playing in a series of podcasts. I am also concerned that the display in Rockbox may be hard to read. There is more information on the screen, and each item is smaller than with the original firmware.

 

 

I recently switched to one that I find just as easy to read, if not more so, than  the original…I haven’t used any other theme since.

http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?themeid=1323&target=sansaclipplus

Very easily installed with the Rockbox Utility installer.

@miikerman wrote:

Except that, not losing DRM capability on one’s primary player or the player that one may be using at the time is a legitimate preference.  DRM files and capability still can be an understandable concern–for library borrowings, Audible offerings, etc.

 Absolutely, it’s a legitimate consideration, especially since it apparently has been reported that that has happened.

@jk98 wrote:

The player I might consider Rockboxing is my my Clip V2. It is one of my oldest Sandisk players. It doesn’t have a card slot, so it already can’t play my Slotradio cards. My reasons for hesitating about Rockbox is that some mentioned that Rockbox doesn’t have the autoresume feature that the Clip original firmware has. I need the player to remember not just the place in a file, but which file is playing in a series of podcasts. I am also concerned that the display in Rockbox may be hard to read. There is more information on the screen, and each item is smaller than with the original firmware.

 

 

With rockbox installed on the original Clip V2, is there a dual-boot, like on the fuze?  If there is, then you may not lose any functions of the OF other than what you are already aware of, although you may want to look into that.  If all goes well with the install, and you find you don’t like rockbox, you can just boot into the OF. 

Sometimes, after charging my fuze and then disconnecting it from the computer, it’s still in the OF so I just use that instead of shutting down and rebooting into rockbox.   When I’m in the OF, it resumes where I left off the last time I used the OF, and the same for rockbox.  In rockbox, after booting up, it doesn’t go directly to where I left off, it goes to a menu where I have to select “resume playback”.  This is for music files.