MTP, MSC

What would be the difference in adding music to the fuze in either mode?

MTP, or Media Transfer Protocol, is a mode where the Fuze+ is recognized as a Media Device (Player) by the computer.  This mode is supported by Windows Media Player 10 and later.

MTP does plenty of things in the background, like song ratings, album art, and playlists are a snap.

On the other hand, it has a dark side, if you like to control the device directly in MSC mode, where the player is seen as a memory device.  You can’t do some little tasks, like generate a list of files on the device (to print), and some editing applications have difficulty addressing the files on the device, like MP3Tag.

Oh, the Fuze+ isn’t affected yet (I HOPE it will be) by this mode- that annoying “reading card” when you power up can be dramatically shortened, if not eliminated, with MTP as part of the equation.  But, I digress.

If you have protected media, as in subscription music and audiobook tracks, MTP is required to transfer the license information.

Otherwise, you can use MSC mode.  MSC is a necessity when using Linux or Mac OS, or even if you’re porting information over from a cp/m machine like the Kaypro 10.  Hehe.  MSC is a wonderful thing, allowing direct control.

To complicate things, you can drag and drop in MTP too if desired.  Don’t have to use PIP like the Kaypro situation.

I’m in an old school mode tonight, browsing data for the Hubble, such a cool machine.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

I suppose the protected thing angle depends on the program. I’ve never had Audible fail me in MSC mode.

A technical to look at it might be to say msc mode exposes the two drives on the device and their file systems; while mtp mode virtualizes and blackboxes them behinds api’s.

As mentioned MTP mode is useful, namely because of the API’s in that it makes transferring certain elements easier when you don’t want to have to go hunting around into the features of various programs.  Most importantly it makes dealing with playlist really easy as the preferred playlist format the sansa use seem to be nonstandard and the specfication vary fron model to model.

The main drawback I can see with MTP, really had to do mainly with the SD card. MTP mode truly optimizes a card for a specific player model. When the sd card is filled with MTP mode, and popped into another device, a psp, a playstation, your car radio’s SD slot, (even my old v1 Fuze), the only thing you should expect to work is the actual sound coming out of the soundfiles. Everything else that might read like album covers, ratings, and most especially playlists, are gravy and shouldn’t be expected to work except on the original device (model), and through the mtp mode on that device model.

-Kal

Thanks for the help. 

I asked this because I had my fuze set on auto detect and when I updated my album art, many of the albums have the same cover.

@zombified456 wrote:

I asked this because I had my fuze set on auto detect and when I updated my album art, many of the albums have the same cover.

Next time it might be better to describe the exact problem you are having. That way you’re more likely to get an issue-specific answer.

There are plenty of places to find an answer to the broad question of “What’s the difference(s) between MTP & MSC?”

:wink: