New feature request for the next firmware

Well, actually there are two features I would love to see added to the fuze:

  1. Being able to put the player into ‘car mode’ so that it’ll turn itself off the moment I disconnect it from the charger (maybe wait a couple of minutes, to prevent this from happenning in accidental disconnection of the charger). this way when I turn off my car and leave, I won’t have to bother to shut down the fuze manually.
    For the record - I LOVE it how the moment the fuze it connected to a charger it turns itself on. this way I get in my car, turn on the engine, and the music starts playing! :slight_smile:

  2. Actaully being able to update the “Go List” on the Go. Right now the ‘hold button to add song to go list’ is pretty useless. If I have a Go list playing, and I want to queue more songs into it, I have to queue them, and then go back to the music menu -> playlists -> Go list -> play. which annoyingly causes the current song to stop. I just want to be able to queue songs/albums to the playlist… (=> have the go list ‘refresh’ while it’s playing)

Thanks!!

So you’re using an FM transmitter to play your music in your car (I assume)?  Though it’s not a bad idea, I don’t think it would be very easy to implement.  How would the Fuze recognize that it is connected to your car and not something else (i.e. the computer or a wall outlet)?  

I don’t think (someone correct me if I am wrong) that there’s any way it can tell, and it can’t shut off automatically once you unplug it from a computer (if it has to refresh its library that would screw everything up).

So it’s not a bad idea, I don’t think it would be very easy to implement.

 

Your second suggestion has been brought up in another post (and probably some more).  I do agree with you that the Go List should update itself even if it is in use.  But I don’t think this is a big priority in the upcoming firmware update or even if SanDisk is considering changing it. 

not exactly - I use the car lighter to charge the player, and my aux port in my HU to play music. (used to have an FM transmitter, but had many issues with it)

regarding not being able to tell if it’s connected to a car or a wall charger, I must admit I haven’t thought of that :slight_smile:
I guess sandisk could either:

a. When ‘car mode’ is selected, just stop playing music when not charging (pause), so the player will turn itself off after a couple of minutes. but then when turned on it should resume play, and not remain paused.

b. make ‘car mode’ irrelevant when going out of ‘connected’ mode, so it will only shut down if it’s currently playing. yes, this will happen with a wall charger as well unless you turn that option off, no biggie.

Ah yes car charger, why didn’t I think of it.
Either way, like I said I doubt the Fuze knows what it’s connected to.  But it might actually know if it’s connected to a computer or not.  The screen is different when connected to a computer (and you can’t play your music from the Fuze if it’s connected).  So when it is unplugged from that situation it would stay on (to refresh the library).   In other cases it could be programmed to shut off once unplugged.

To be honest I really have no idea if this is a reasonable request.  No idea how hard it would be to implement this.  I wouldn’t mind seeing this feature but who knows. 

Your suggestions could probably work if implemented.  There are probably a few work arounds to make this work, though I’m not sure if SanDisk will even consider making this change.

@llhell wrote:
not exactly - I use the car lighter to charge the player, and my aux port in my HU to play music. (used to have an FM transmitter, but had many issues with it)

regarding not being able to tell if it’s connected to a car or a wall charger, I must admit I haven’t thought of that :slight_smile:
I guess sandisk could either:

a. When ‘car mode’ is selected, just stop playing music when not charging (pause), so the player will turn itself off after a couple of minutes. but then when turned on it should resume play, and not remain paused.

b. make ‘car mode’ irrelevant when going out of ‘connected’ mode, so it will only shut down if it’s currently playing. yes, this will happen with a wall charger as well unless you turn that option off, no biggie.

The problem is that there a hundreds of different hookups in cars. Some people have car setups where the USB port is used by the fm transmitter, and yet others use sync technology. It would be really hard to develope a feature that everyone can use

@conversionbox wrote:

The problem is that there a hundreds of different hookups in cars. Some people have car setups where the USB port is used by the fm transmitter, and yet others use sync technology. It would be really hard to develope a feature that everyone can use

There aren’t hundreds of different hookups that would need to be supported. Really two cases - where the stereo sees the Fuze as a USB drive or MTP device (USB-only hookup), and where the stereo just uses line-in.

The first use case is already taken care of, since first never involves hitting play on the Fuze. I can confirm it works.

The other case (which the OP is asking) for assumes the headphone-out is connected to a line-in (since the only way to get line-out on the Fuze requires a big dock). The resulting sound is quite mediocre (I have confirmed this as well), and Sandisk is just asking for a lot of trouble calls about poor sound quality if they intimate that they support this configuration.

@bdb wrote:


@conversionbox wrote:


The other case (which the OP is asking) for assumes the headphone-out is connected to a line-in (since the only way to get line-out on the Fuze requires a big dock). The resulting sound is quite mediocre (I have confirmed this as well), and Sandisk is just asking for a lot of trouble calls about poor sound quality if they intimate that they support this configuration.

When you tried the headphone out to line-in, were you using any EQ settings? I have found that EQ at Normal headphone out to my home stereo with Fuze volume maxed sounded just fine, albeit not as loud as the same song on my CD player. 

@bdb wrote:


@conversionbox wrote:

The problem is that there a hundreds of different hookups in cars. Some people have car setups where the USB port is used by the fm transmitter, and yet others use sync technology. It would be really hard to develope a feature that everyone can use


There aren’t hundreds of different hookups that would need to be supported. Really two cases - where the stereo sees the Fuze as a USB drive or MTP device (USB-only hookup), and where the stereo just uses line-in.

 

The first use case is already taken care of, since first never involves hitting play on the Fuze. I can confirm it works.

 

The other case (which the OP is asking) for assumes the headphone-out is connected to a line-in (since the only way to get line-out on the Fuze requires a big dock). The resulting sound is quite mediocre (I have confirmed this as well), and Sandisk is just asking for a lot of trouble calls about poor sound quality if they intimate that they support this configuration.

When I said hundreds. I meant in general, there are hundreds of ways to hook to a car. Wheather they apply is not what I meant to imply. I was simply trying to say that to make something that is universally for all users would prove to be a challange.

@bdb wrote:


@conversionbox wrote:

The problem is that there a hundreds of different hookups in cars. Some people have car setups where the USB port is used by the fm transmitter, and yet others use sync technology. It would be really hard to develope a feature that everyone can use


There aren’t hundreds of different hookups that would need to be supported. Really two cases - where the stereo sees the Fuze as a USB drive or MTP device (USB-only hookup), and where the stereo just uses line-in.

 

The first use case is already taken care of, since first never involves hitting play on the Fuze. I can confirm it works.

 

The other case (which the OP is asking) for assumes the headphone-out is connected to a line-in (since the only way to get line-out on the Fuze requires a big dock). The resulting sound is quite mediocre (I have confirmed this as well), and Sandisk is just asking for a lot of trouble calls about poor sound quality if they intimate that they support this configuration.

bdb - I agree the sound is not as good as when listening with headphones, but it’s still great. you just need to disable the eq and sometimes lower the volume on the fuze to avoid distortion.

and they really don’ thave to call it car mode if you think the only problem is they wouldn’t want to officially support this configuration. they can call it ‘auto shutdown when not charging’ :slight_smile:

Re read the thread an apparently missed where you said that this could be something people could choose to use. If this is possible I am a fan now!

As a temporary work around comment… I dont charge in the car much, but so I dont have to remember to turn it off, I usually know how long it takes me to get someplace, so I set the sleep timer for that long, and it will shut off for me.

FYI, rockbox for e200 has an optional car mode that works like this:

 If external power is disconnected (or turned off) during a song, the play pauses.  If power resumes before the normal idle-poweroff setting then play resumes after 5 seconds (time to start the engine), otherwise the player turns itself off (does not turn on automatically if external power goes back on)

car-mode does not stop you from playing songs normally while not hooked to a charger, it only does the pause or play on transitions. 

Ahh, I hear so much about this ‘Rockbox.’ Too bad I never had a compatible player, and the the Fuze is probably about a year away from a stable port…

And **bleep** this firmware update is getting me anxious. I can’t wait. 

@llhell wrote:

  1. Actaully being able to update the “Go List” on the Go. Right now the ‘hold button to add song to go list’ is pretty useless. If I have a Go list playing, and I want to queue more songs into it, I have to queue them, and then go back to the music menu -> playlists -> Go list -> play. which annoyingly causes the current song to stop. I just want to be able to queue songs/albums to the playlist… (=> have the go list ‘refresh’ while it’s playing)

I’ve waited for that since I’ve bought my Fuze!!! VOTE

Have I mentioned putting Podcasts and AudioBooks in their own top-level option … not in Music?

The Sansa Fuze definitely needs a “Car Mode” feature in the next Firmware update.  My iPod Nano had this as a standard feature and it helped to preserve the battery life.

I hook it up to a combo FM transmitter/charger and when I shut off the ignition, the Fuze keeps playing and eventually drains down the Fuze battery until it dies. 

Then it cannot be operated until the battery has a chance to recharge for about an hour.

I do like the fact that the Fuze starts right back again when the ignition is turned back on (as long as I remembered to manually turn off the Fuze)

When will this be available?

Everyone knows what I wish for, please fix the golist and let us add audiobooks and podcasts to the golist already…

If I had two wishes I would wish that they could redesign the podcast folder system altogether. It doesn’t really work for podcasts that come in twos. Say you have a show that is part one and part two. Then when you add them to the folder it plays them all together along with all of the other shows with the same show name. But what if you want these shows grouped together as one part.

like coast to coast - Psi Research

and then you could scroll down for Mysterious Lights & Ark of the Covenant and then the next theme name I wish it would work like that, anyone understand? 

Because right now it just groups them altogether as one big super show. But it isn’t.

This is part of the reason I don’t use the podcast folder because it really limits you on how you can search for programs. I guess it’s really setup for casual listeners.

I would also like to see support for play counter, this would mark the idtag with a 1 when the file has been listened to on the fuze. this would make software like Media Monkey a great match together with the fuze because you could setup that software to automatically delete Podcasts you’ve listen to from the persons pc. that way you have a back up copy of the file in question on your pc and can keep up.

If I had a third wish I would wish for three more wishes!!!

Message Edited by jarrycanada on 06-27-2009 02:26 PM

For me apart from Gapless I would love to see the ability to browse the library by “BAND” or “Album Artist” rather than just Artist as at the moment my Artist list is one big mess and I never use it (loads of compilations).

I am pretty sure the ipod does it differently, it looks for the compilation flag, if it is flagged positive then it looks at the “BAND” field rather than the indivisual track artist. Makes sense to me.