The link I got after navigating a rather confusing and clunky menu set to try and find the media converter.
Lo and behold - File not found
Congratulations, SanDisk. By following the confusing path of information on your website, I have been given a unique tour of a number of failings. Included below are three examples of these failings;
Your Sansa 4-gig MP3 player was packaged without vital software (This has been spoken of more than a few times in the forums. I’m sad to know I am not the only one with this problem)
The interface of your website and forums could best be described as incoherent and broken, no other two adjectives could truly capture this mess. I’m going to give you a homework assignment. Have someone in your office name twenty things you need to find on your website. Specific products, corporate contact information, software downloads, and the like. Time how long it takes you to find each thing. It took me far too long to find the item I was looking for, though you’d think a critical piece of software used by a fair number of your products would be a quick-link item. Worse yet, the information on your website is out-dated and no longer functional. Shameful.
The moratorium on information regarding media conversion, upload, and formatting (as evidenced by a hundred threads asking for the same information with no real answer) make me doubt that your corporate staff has even a handful of even marginally well informed members.
Hoping for some changes,
W.A. Scarlet
P.S. I find it laughable that you’d need to remind forum-goers to keep the language clean. Perhaps if less of your customers were victims of your vexing incompetence…
Your Sansa 4-gig MP3 player was packaged without vital software (This has been spoken of more than a few times in the forums. I’m sad to know I am not the only one with this problem)
Um… Sans means “without”. I knew that when I bought it and knew there wouldn’t be any software. I was surprised there was a disk for video and photos, that’s what shocked me.
I did not know it would go with windows media player, which was on my computer (at home, an old version; and at work a newer updated version which worked). That would have been nice to put on the box (unless I missed it, which is possible.).
I wasn’t sure how it would work, but that it couldn’t be too complicated. Isn’t. Rip a CD or have on one the computer, sync and it’s on there. I found it super easy. My coworker got an ipod and the disk went to her c and d drive and she had no clue where anything was. I was expecting a 90 page instruction manual (like every other piece of electronic eqiupment and instead got a little paper with instructions on it. My cell phone is 130 page manual [plus 130 for spanish]).
The link I got after navigating a rather confusing and clunky menu set to try and find the media converter.
Lo and behold - File not found
It took me far too long to find the item I was looking for, though you’d think a critical piece of software used by a fair number of your products would be a quick-link item. Worse yet, the information on your website is out-dated and no longer functional. Shameful.
Their own branded 3 and 1 case isn’t even available on their site…many are looking for a case. The link for cases isn’t even activated at this time.
Why do “they” have to sell it? It’s seems readily available elsewhere…
They sell their microsd cards for about three times the street price. The newest card isn’t even available in their site.
I’m sorry, what new card? I saw the 16gb on their site… it’s the price what Amazon had a few months ago when it came out and now amazons is about $40 less, but not much. So not really 3x less (unless my math is off, and that’s a very BIG possibility…)
Their focus on SlotMusic…pretty dumb imo. Why pay for the preprogrammed music with so many other better options.
Is it their focus on slotmusic? I don’t think they’re putting all their coins in that bucket. They know people all ready have tons of music and want a blank card and large memory device to hold it in. It’s just another way to have music. And start off inexpensively too. Maybe. Not sure what their thought is on this too much. If they just went exclusively for slot music people would go to another MP3 player. I would. When I decided to get an MP3 player (not an ipod if possible) I wanted something big enough to hold items in it, but I didn’t need something huge. The slotmusic player wouldn’t have cut it. I was thinking of another player but the SanDisk name is the reason I bought this one.
The total lack of good accessories.
Really? I think I spent a lot on accessories. Most of mine haven’t been “SanDisk” accessories. Cassette car adaptor wasn’t a sandisk product, but works. Speakers also weren’t, but work. Earbuds I bought (I have 3 different types, one bought before, one bought because I thought they would be good but were too short) not sandisk, but work. Carrying case for cards (really just a make up bag with 3 slots), again not sandisk, but works. I guess the docking station was sandisk, or at least it’s made for a fuze. The silicon cover, etc., was an accessory. I think all those were good accessories and count as accessories for my Fuze since I use them with my Fuze.
And as I said on another post, acccessories were not the reason I bought a fuze. If I wanted accessories I would have bought soemthing else. I had looked before I bought and saw tons of accessories for one other player. I wanted a player to put music and podcasts on (video, fm radio, voice recorder, expandable memory was the nice features I found out after).
And my favorite issue, addressed in this post…the total lack of acknowledgement of the VIDEO ISSUES.
You mean the audio/sync issue? Or using the SMC to get video to the fuze?
The audo/sync is an issue with other players too, ipods are the ones I know of.
The SMC does need to go. There is no need for that. Or at least the delay in putting it on the Fuze. Ipods take 2 seconds: load to itunes, and it’s on the ipod. I don’t see why the Fuze couldn’t do something as simple.
I’m not going to get in a t i t for tat argument with you. I stand by my opinions. But if you click on the link at the top of this page, click on The Fuze link, then on the memory link…there is NO 16g card, in addition to two unhighlighted links for cases and armbands.
And the gripe was about the lack of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the issue. Every post about the video conversion is ignored or given unrelated answers. The point isn’t the problem, but the lack of action on it.
The fact that the issue is there wasn’t even brought up by me.
I guess I am going to get in a t i t for tat argument…
The total lack of accessorys I refer to is the lack of things compatable with the CONNECTOR…i.e. docks etc. My Altec Lancing 413 doesn’t even have a clock. As far as I know it is the only dock currently available.
I guess I am going to get in a t i t for tat argument…
The total lack of accessorys I refer to is the lack of things compatable with the CONNECTOR…i.e. docks etc. My Altec Lancing 413 doesn’t even have a clock. As far as I know it is the only dock currently available.
This is the one I was talking about that I bought… no, no clock, but I don’t need a clock…
Oh, they compete, and you don’t have to look too hard. Just purchased 2 Sandisk 8gb microSDHC cards with SD adapter from www.nextwebsales.com for $21.33 each mailed to the house.
However, SMC is a dog. When you are marketing a product with a screen and touting video, you need to have some basic compatibility with some of the more popular codecs. Microsoft is notorious for proprietary formats but I didn’t have any trouble using a variety of programs to put video in a compatible format. Of course, it was possible to find out what that format was.
Using other programs to convert video to .avi MPEG 4 (that’s Part 2) SP (that’s Simple Profile) QCIF+ (that’s 220 x176) 20fps (that’s frames per second) does not yield usable video. I want to download and install yet another 86MB proggy just to transfer video to one device.
The last two docks look to me to not fit the Fuze. It would appear that the offset connecter on the Fuze won’t fit. You are just argueing semantics with me.
My point about the Sansa site never mentioned your sansa sites, just the area Linked at the top of THIS page, as I clearly stated.
And I guess I have been rude as I have been accused of …shouldn’t have took the bait.
Attack the messenger.
IF I DID NOT WANT VIDEO , I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT A CLIP. ?
This is sold as a video player, and it doesn’t work as advertised. PERIOD.
How dare you accuse me of attacking you? I did NOT. I was merely trying to help you find what you want with your Fuze.
And I am hurt. :smileysad
if you don’t like the fuze, take it back, get a different mp3 player and be happy!!
Do your research before buying and don’t complain when you make a mistake and blame others for it. If you had researched the fuze, you would have found this site easily and found there were problems with it (just like any other player) and then you wouldn’t have bought it. Again don’t complain when you make a mistake and blame others for it.
Do not attack me or anyone else here, you have no right.
“The audo/sync is an issue with other players too, ipods are the ones I know of.”
There was a recent review of a PMP on AnythingButiPod on either a Cowon or iRiver I believe that mentioned this problem. It’s not just a SMC thing, it seems to be an issue with several brands. I have to wonder if it’s been a problem all along, it’s just that capacities on PMPs are getting larger and allowing us to play longer videos that show the problem more glaringly.
I also note that earlier versions of SMC are customized builds of “ArcSoft Media Converter”, while later versions are a customized build of an InterVideo product that I haven’t determined yet, and both have the sync issue. It’s as if a .dll or .ax that they have in common is at fault. This is probably why there’s no “action” from Sandisk, it’s a fault that lies elsewhere. They should be and probably are pushing to get it fixed, but they don’t have direct control over the process, aside from threatening to use yet another vendor that may well rely on the very same code that ArcSoft and InterVideo have problems with.
Agreed, it is a frustrating problem, but it’s not just Sandisk that’s having it.
And FWIW Asryal, Sandisk has recently started rennovating their website, and I too have found some broken links at times, but they quickly get fixed. The link to SMC 2.436 is a link from a page on the old Sandisk.com site, 2.456 is linked from the new Sansa.com site. They do need to fix that. There have always been a number of links to accessories such as cases, docks, cables, etc., they’re just in a different place now. Granted, not as many items as iPods, Apple has one heck of a marketing department, but more than I’ve seen for Creative players, even from Creative themselves.
