Clip Zip Feedback and Feature Request Thread

+1. Having had some audiobook issues this morning and needing to try transferring content repeatedly to the player, I am very tired of refresh delays today, with a 16GB microSD card installed . . . .

JK 98,

Rockbox has a great interface for speed control.  Hold down the play button and the speed interface comes up.  Then it’s right for faster, left for slower, up for increase the pitch, and down for decrease the pitch.  Increasing the speed doesn’t increase the pitch, so you’d need to both increase the speed and the pitch seperately in order to go chipmunk, although I suppose increasing the pitch without the speed would also make a very nice chipmunk voice.  Then tap the power button and you go back to the playback screen.  

The player can be configured to start playing where you left off upon powering it on, and you can set it to automatically start some set amount of time before you left off, say 15 seconds, to get you caught up with where you were.  This is where it gets annoying though.  Once you have created a bookmark in any of the mp3s in a book it will automatically bookmark the book when the power is turned off, but the player doesn’t start playing from the last bookmark, it just starts playing the file, and the speed settings you were using are kept in the bookmark rather than as a setting for the player, so you have to find the bookmark and play it or adjust the speed every time you turn on the player to get back your speed setting.

One other handy feature for audio books is that you can set it up so that hitting the fast forward or reverse buttons will move you forward or back by a fixed amount of time that you set (15 seconds in my case).  Unfortunately, it applies to everything, not just audiobooks, so if you use the player for music as well then you have to go into the settings and change them when listening to music, or be really annoyed that you can’t switch between songs without going into the track listing, whereas the stock firmware handles audiobooks differently than music, so when you switch between the two everything works the way you expect it to.

Nothing in it is particularly complicated, and not particularly annoying when sitting around with nothing better to do, but you need to figure some things out and a lot of things are more involved than I like to do while driving a car, out for a jog, or using my table saw, as opposed to the stock interface which just works without any effort, other than the whole not having variable playback speed thing.  And the forward/back 15 seconds and no refreshing media things are incredibly nice as well.

How about rename ‘Sport’ to ‘Timer’?

+++ thanks for the clock on the playscreen!

— please add elapsed/remaining time on the music playscreen and track/total no. tracks

cheers!

Rockbox seems too difficult to use while someone is walking around outdoors. I guess it might not be that difficult to use if one is sitting down and wearing reading glasses. :slight_smile:

@jk98 wrote:

Rockbox seems too difficult to use while someone is walking around outdoors. I guess it might not be that difficult to use if one is sitting down and wearing reading glasses. :slight_smile:

The theme I have installed is easier to read than the original firmware.

A nice thing about Rockbox is its theme gallery (choose the one you like), as well as the ability to create your own (or modify one of the pre-existing ones). But if the Clip Zip what’s playing music screen is amended (some might even say “fixed” . . .) so as to add elapsed time and remaining time, and track no./total tracks, I would never have a need to go the Rockbox route. Hint, hint . . . . :wink:

@miikerman wrote:
A nice thing about Rockbox is its theme gallery (choose the one you like), as well as the ability to create your own (or modify one of the pre-existing ones). But if the Clip Zip what’s playing music screen is amended (some might even say “fixed” . . .) so as to add elapsed time and remaining time, and track no./total tracks, I would never have a need to go the Rockbox route. Hint, hint . . . . :wink:

I don’t buy that line for even a minute…you never  installed Rockbox  on any of your Clips or Clip+'s, did you? I’d be shocked if you had, considering how many posts you have made, especially in the other forum, warning of what could theoretically happen if they did install it. :stuck_out_tongue:

One thing to consider…maybe part of the reason the Zip db refresh is a little quicker than that of the Clip+ is that a little more memory is freed up by not having to display that information. Also, say you go to shuffle all, on both players…the C+ will say, for example,  1/952, and the Zip will not. Perhaps this also contributes to the quicker refresh time.

In all honesty, if there was no Rockbox, I would prefer the Zip to the Clip+…the customizable menu is really nice, and I prefer the sound of the Zip to the non-RB Clip+ slightly.  Add RB to the Clip+, and now they sound the same  (with no EQ) but the battery life is better on the C+, especially if you don’t use MP3. Since most of the time, battery life isn’t an issue for me, I am perfectly happy with whichever one I happen to use each day.:wink:

@marvin_martian wrote:


@miikerman wrote:
A nice thing about Rockbox is its theme gallery (choose the one you like), as well as the ability to create your own (or modify one of the pre-existing ones). But if the Clip Zip what’s playing music screen is amended (some might even say “fixed” . . .) so as to add elapsed time and remaining time, and track no./total tracks, I would never have a need to go the Rockbox route. Hint, hint . . . . :wink:


I don’t buy that line for even a minute…you never  installed Rockbox  on any of your Clips or Clip+'s, did you? I’d be shocked if you had, considering how many posts you have made, especially in the other forum, warning of what could theoretically happen if they did install it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Haven’t installed Rockbox on my Clips; have had it on my iRiver iHP-160 for around 5 years now (using the theme I had developed for it and that was one of the Rokbox themes for the player) . . . .

@marvin_martian wrote:

If you could live without the database functions, and just use folder browsing and the GoList, then you could get by without adding RAM. 

Folder Browsing in the Clip and Fuze are still based on the DB and subject to the limit.

If I go to Music/Folders, I still only see the folders that were added to the DB.

Unlike Rockbox, where I have true folder navigation to the drive, the Sansa Firmware still only provides folder navigation to those files that are registered in the DB.

so folder browsing doesn’t work to bypass the limit.  Believe me, I have tried with the Fuze.!!!

@p_opus wrote:

@marvin_martian wrote:


If you could live without the database functions, and just use folder browsing and the GoList, then you could get by without adding RAM. 


Folder Browsing in the Clip and Fuze are still based on the DB and subject to the limit.

 

If I go to Music/Folders, I still only see the folders that were added to the DB.

 

Unlike Rockbox, where I have true folder navigation to the drive, the Sansa Firmware still only provides folder navigation to those files that are registered in the DB.

 

so folder browsing doesn’t work to bypass the limit.  Believe me, I have tried with the Fuze.!!!

Well, that is an almighty bummer. :cry:

In that case, the only function the folder browsing would serve is to help out people with tags that are lacking…that seems like a bit of a fail to me then. :dizzy_face:

@marvin_martian wrote:

 

 (edit)…the only function the folder browsing would serve is to help out people with tags that are lacking…that seems like a bit of a fail to me then. :dizzy_face:

Folder browsing is good for compilation albums.  I have a folder that contains over 80 songs from more than 20 different artists/groups.   Many of these songs are from albums that I don’t want to put on my player or are just singles.  Without folder nav, I’d have to use playlists which I don’t like to use.

@mags1230 wrote:


@marvin_martian wrote:

 

 (edit)…the only function the folder browsing would serve is to help out people with tags that are lacking…that seems like a bit of a fail to me then. :dizzy_face:


Folder browsing is good for compilation albums.  I have a folder that contains over 80 songs from more than 20 different artists/groups.   Many of these songs are from albums that I don’t want to put on my player or are just singles.  Without folder nav, I’d have to use playlists which I don’t like to use.

You know, I never thought about compilation albums in that regard…I just scroll through the album list (much easier now with the Zip’s alphabet browsing) , and don’t load the songs I don’t like. Now that you bring up the P-word (playlist),  that reminds me of the one use I have had for folders every once in a while…to make a kind of pseudo-playlist.

Track Info for podcasts.     This was a feature of the Clip + that appears to be missing from the Clip Zip.    For folks that listen to a lot of podcasts, the date is very helpful in a) deciding what to listen to, and b) understanding the context of the discussion in the podcast. 

I think a few things that could be on the new firmware:

-elapsed time and time remaining for songs (maybe you could make it an optional feature if some people don’t want it). This is important for me because I use it for backing tracks when playing guitar and its easier to practice a part when you what time it is.

-how many songs in your current selection, like the old clip (eg. if your listening to an album it would say song 03/12 or if your listening to your whole collection say song 55/600)

And another thing not firmware related;

-maybe the buttons could be a little less sensitive; I was walking with the Clip Zip unlocked in my pocket and it kept on going to the next song or going back to the beginning. having to unlock it and lock it each time i want to change songs is a bit of a pain because sometimes i want to skip through songs.

But apart from that its good so thanks Sansa!

I have two request:  When you were playing a song on the sansa clip+, you had the choice to play all the songs from the artist, for example, it would say, Play all, In the sansa clip zip, It doesn’t have this option, it only says, shuffle list, and then the albums. I wish you could be fixed.

Second, there was an option where you could bring up a menu that reads, “Back to music list.” It doesn’t have this in the zip. If you could fix these two things I’d be happy.  :slight_smile:

@ross2011 wrote:

I have two request:  When you were playing a song on the sansa clip+, you had the choice to play all the songs from the artist, for example, it would say, Play all, In the sansa clip zip, It doesn’t have this option, it only says, shuffle list, and then the albums. I wish you could be fixed.

 

Second, there was an option where you could bring up a menu that reads, “Back to music list.” It doesn’t have this in the zip. If you could fix these two things I’d be happy.  :) 

 

I miss the Play All option as well, Ros2011, and would like to see it come back (it would seem to be easy to do).  But also note that there is a nifty option with the GoList playlist:  you can add an Artist’s entire collection to it at a single time, likewise an entire album at a time, and then play the GoList.  To do this, with the artist or album highlighted on a list, simply press and hold the center select button; and then choose and play the GoList under the Music listing.

As to getting back to the music list, it might just work for you to either press and hold, or press multiple times, the small Go Back button at the 11 o’clock position on the front pad. 

But good to hear that I’m not the only one missing the Play All option.

How often does sansa do Firmwire updates… because this is the first time I’ve ever updated my device?

For newer, actively supported players like the Zip, updates are usually issued every three months (approximately). Discontinued players don’t get updates.

Ok thanks… I know for OS on computers, it’s every month