Sansa Media Converter Build 4.256 & 4.263: Download Details and Release Notes

Sansa Media Converter Build 4.256 & 4.263 Release Notes  
This new release includes support for the new Sansa Fuze release, as well as various bug fixes and changes listed below.

To download Sansa Media Converter, please download and install the Sansa Firmware updater first, connect your Sansa device and check for updates. The Sansa Updater may not open if your Sansa has the latest firmware installed.  In this case, go to Start > All Programs > SanDisk > Sansa Updater, with your Sansa plugged in.  The Updater will open, and will then take a moment checking for updates.  If your device is eligible, you should get the Sansa Media Converter item in the list for available downloads.

1)     The new version of SMC (263) is only for Fuze (V1 and V2) and the new Fuze+.

2)     All previous/legacy Sansa players will continue to have the ability to download the previous/current version of SMC (256).

Sansa Media Converter version 4.256 Release notes

Bugs Fixed:     

·  SMC causes certain TV tuners to not be detected on Windows Media Center PC 

Features Changed:

·  New Sansa background and logo

Known Issues:

·   Videos converting in batch sometimes do not play or synchronize to the Sansa Fuze (Work around: Only convert one file at a time)

·   If a USB drive is connected to the PC as well as a Sansa player without a microSD card in it, SMC indicates that the USB drive is a microSD card in the Sansa Player (Work around:  Only connect one USB device at a time when using SMC)

·   Video and audio out of sync on certain video files (typically files longer than 30 minutes)

Sansa Media Converter version 4.263 Release notes

Supports only Sansa Fuze and Sansa Fuze+

Added Features:


SMC now supports *.flv files containing an MPEG-4 or H.264 encoded video stream.

 

Limitations:

  • Supports only Sansa Fuze and Sansa Fuze+.
  • If the system that SMC is running on does not have the appropriate CODECs installed, then SMC may not be able to convert certain files.

This product is intended to be used for converting your personal files. Copying or commercial use of copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner may be prohibited by law. Use of your MP3 player, in compliance with all copyright and applicable intellectual property laws, remains the responsibility of the user of the product.

Known Limitations:

  • If the system that SMC is running on does not have the appropriate CODECs installed, SMC may not be able to convert certain files.

It appears that SMC cannot write filenames that are outside of ASCII.  Trying the following will reproduce:

 1. Copy “Bear.avi” (or any short video that you have handy – I used this from Sample Videos in Vista) to “くま.avi”;

 2. Start SMC and Add Media the latter file (which displays fine in SMC);

 3. Convert Media it (SMC pretends as if there is nothing wrong, and reports successful conversion);

 4. Open Fuze’s Video Folder — you do not find the *.avi nor *.thm file.

Repeating steps 2 thru 4 with the “Bear.avi” instead would give you an expected result – on Fuze you can view the Bear.

Features Changed:

·  Photo cropping feature is removed

·  New Sansa background and logo

And that’s a good thing??

 Want some feedback?

1  We don’t care about the background.  Stop wasting time with that stuff.

2  The CROP feature was GOOD.  Eliminating it was a bad move.

3  Work on getting simpler video transfer without such enormous files.

4.256 works better than the SMC that came with my e260 – which wouldn’t work on longer videos – but the audio on 4.256 is way out of sync.

BTW I had to hunt around for this download, found it at 

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=smc&thread.id=755

… newbie reply, no flames plz

Overall,  I am pleased with my Fuze and the fact that Sansa seems to want to constantly improve/update their products, but I must say that SMC IS NOT user friendly at all. It is a royal pain in the tush. Frankly, it shouldn’t be such a pain to try load photos and you shouldn’t have to be a techie to do it. I struggled to get photos on my Fuze and after several hours of trying to figure it out, I was so frustrated I almost took the Fuze back. My 19 yr old can load his photos onto his Ipod in a couple of clicks. Is there not a way to make the SMC much more user friendly? I would never have known that I have to use another converter to convert movies to an SMC workable format had I not nosed around in the forums. I know nothing about Codecs, reformatting, etc and shouldn’t have to just to be able to put a movie or photo on my Fuze. On the next update, can Sansa simply focus making SMC  functional & user friendly - with actual clear & concise user instructions in the help category or a tutorial? You just really shouldn’t have to put out that much effort to use a product.

I agree - stop screwing around with the small stuff. Fix the stuff that’s broken, rather than making with the pretty-pretty.

  1. Remove the requirement to “run as administrator” on Windows Vista. What on earth do you think you need to administer my computer for, if the only goal is to convert one set of bits to another and then write them out to a USB-connected drive to which I, as a non-administrator user, have access writes?

  2. Fix the audio sync - it’s intolerable trying to watch a movie that’s been copied to the device.

  3. How about adding the ability to convert media _without_ the Sansa present? I want to convert, say, a dozen movies, and have them handy for copying onto the Sansa at a later date.

I bought this Fuze as an alternative to the ipod. After spending 3 days trying to figure out how to transfer pics and videos to this product, I am on the verge of taking back for a refund.

There is NO WAY that this process should be so complicated.   Proprietary usb cords may be understandable, but having to use that useless SMC software (that won’t even load on my 13 Gig laptop because it says that there’s not enough space), then installing it on my PC and STILL not being able to convert (greayed out convert button) is the last straw.

 It is ridiculous that you can’t just use the fuze as an external HD and move files manually.  

No, I can see a need to do a couple of operations:

  1. Rotate the video pi/2 radians.

  2. Reduce the resolution to match that of the screen, and the frame rate to match the abilities of the device.

  3. Tag with time marks, so that the audio and video don’t get out of sync (hint!)

It would be a nice idea, too, if the device itself was able to remember where you were in the video when you turn it off, so it comes back to the same spot later.

Howdy, folks:

Just got a Sansa Fuze and am very frustrated after trying for 1.5 days to convert and upload a video. Have tried many different avenues, including the Sansa Media Converter, but that program keeps flaking out and refusing to work with any of the formats I’ve tried. It just keeps the CONVERT button GREYED OUT, and keeps saying something about format not accepted and other codecs are needed… This is very irksome.

  1. What has worked, using VISTA and the Sansa Fuze, to get a video that is presently in .VOB format into an MP4 format so that Fuze will accept and play it? The .VOB video is rather long (about 1.3 G), considering the storage limit is 4G on this Fuze.  It is basically just a slide show with some music on it.  Why is this so hard for Fuze to recognize and deal with? Can someone please advise? Thanks.

  2. Cannot find what MODEL NUMBER this Fuze is. Can’t seem to find any reference to a model on any of the printed materials, the box, nor the Red Sansa Fuze itself. Where is the model number?

Thanks for any help!

Hi

I purchased Sansa e270, downloaded sansa media converter, But was unable to convert video files as the covert button is greyed out… Please Advise…

Regards,
Ashok

@ashokdinakar wrote:
Hi
 
I purchased Sansa e270, downloaded sansa media converter, But was unable to convert video files as the covert button is greyed out… Please Advise…
 
Regards,
Ashok

does this answer your qeustion?

Will not convert my files convert button not even clickable  

Hi again, folks.

 

After a lot of “futzing around” and a call to Sansa “Help” (in India) (who wasted more time & energy and provided no help at all), I was able to solve the dilemma about GREYED OUT CONVERT BUTTON on Sansa Media Converter *simply* by plugging in the Fuze (via USB cable) to my computer. As soon as I plugged in the Fuze, the Convert button “lit up,” enabling the conversion of files to Sansa-readable format. This was on a VISTA machine.

 

Good luck to those of you struggling to make sense of Sansa’s software. Sansa *really* needs to UPDATE and CORRECT its software, because end-users should not have to struggle for days on end, just to get a program function like the Convert button to work!

 

Further, it seems risky and sloppy for Sansa software and the Fuze to require you to plug the Fuze into your computer before it will convert a file, because AS SOON AS it converted, it also WROTE the file to my Fuze! That seems rather presumptuous and risky. I was expecting the program to convert the file and allow me to save to my hard drive first, so I could verify that it was what I wanted, before it went ahead and wrote the file to my Fuze, without asking me first.

 

Oh well, at least the software now works (sort of).

 

BTW, after all that hassle, the video that got converted and written to my Fuze is so TINY that I probably won’t bother to put additional videos on the Fuze. Not worth the bother, since it is hardly legible…

 

Good luck, folks.  Enjoy Sanza’s music capabilities–which is where it really “shines”!

:-) 

P.S. Apparently there is NO MODEL NUMBER for the Fuze.  The FUZE identification is simply “FUZE.”

My favorite thing about the Sansa Media Converter is the way it literally quadrupals the size of all the media files it converts.  It just makes you wonder - how DO they do it?  I guess the same way the program itself is over 100mb!!!

Your LINK takes me to a blank page with a yellow Shiled down in the bottom left hand corner with DONE written by it

Is there anything that Sansa can do properly or do they make a balls up with their websites as well as their firmware,

software & Hardware

Tony Arnold (Director)

www.helios-electronics.com

Dear Slotmonsta

                      Your LINK

Download Sansa Media Converter   

Takes me to a blank page with a yellow shield down in the bottom left hand corner and the word DONE written beside it

Is there anything that Sansa can do profesionally ?

Tony Arnold (Director)

www.helios-electronics.com

@arny wrote:

Dear Slotmonsta

                      Your LINK

Download Sansa Media Converter   

 

Takes me to a blank page with a yellow shield down in the bottom left hand corner and the word DONE written beside it

 

Is there anything that Sansa can do profesionally ?

 

Tony Arnold (Director)

www.helios-electronics.com

For a Driector of a compny which I have used in the past and is very good ( I had a great experiance), I expect more from you… Do you have a pop-up blocker? I bet you do and if you turn it off that link will work. There is no text on the page it is a about:blank page that opens and a download window pops up. This is how most professional companies do it.

@arny wrote:

Dear Slotmonsta

                      Your LINK

Download Sansa Media Converter   

 

Takes me to a blank page with a yellow shield down in the bottom left hand corner and the word DONE written beside it

Most likely your firewall or anti-virus software is blocking it from downloading. I get a yellow bar across the top of IE and a warning sound. I just have to click on the bar and tell it to download. Then it does fine.


Arny wrote:

Dear Slotmonsta

Is there anything that Sansa can do profesionally ?

Tony Arnold (Director)


well i bet they can spell professionally correctly unlike you.

Hi, is this program compatible with Vista 64 bit?

I have not been able to install the program itself on my Vista 64-bit PC. I get the message, “Internal Failure, Error Number 0x80040707, Description: (none provided)”  followed by another dialogue box that says, “Severe, Error loading DirectX DLL (0x100)” 

I have had no problem installing the program or using it on my XP computer.

I’m suspecting that this may be yet another program that doesn’t work on 64 bit Vista… :s

Thanks.

Message Edited by moonstar on 02-06-2009 05:51 PM