Bizarre burst of static at end of each song when Image loading

Just got my ClipZip yesterday and I’ve uncovered a realy problem with my player.  There is a bizarre burst of static near the end of each mp3 I play.  It happens within 5-10 sec. before the transition to the next track.

I all of my albums (ripped myself from CD) that I encoded in 320kB VBR mp3 and 128kB CBR mp3.  I use the 128k files for portable music, the 320k for listening when using my nice headphones.  I tried both, same burst of static.  Some music has a strange pause and not the static burst.  Those tracks have the pause in the same part.

I tracked it down to image loading.  No matter what size I use (went to an 8k image), the burst/pause happens when I have an image embedded and there’s a track transition.  Get rid of the image, problem gone.  Lighter images cause the pause, darker ones cause the static burst.  Bigger images (say 50k) cause a longer burst/pause.

I tried this on 3 albums, The Beatles “Rubber Soul”, Beady Eye’s “Different Gear, Still Speeding” and Oasis “The Masterplan”.  Same thing each time but the Beady Eye didn’t give a static burst, just a pause.  That image is mostly pastel/light colored.  Strip the image out and the problems are gone.  The original embedded image was 60k, going to an 8k image didn’t make a difference.  The screen going into sleep mode makes no difference.  MSC or MTP mode make no difference either.

And yes, I did a hard reset of the ClipZ.  Same problem.  This is an image processing problem.

Sandisk, image loading doesn’t work right!  Didn’t anyone check it first?  Grrrrr…

So where do I gripe about the issue formally?  This must a software thing and not hardware is my guess.

Yep, you are right as to the issue–it’s been noted–and the need for a fix.  Stay tuned. 

Yep, you are right as to the issue–it’s been noted–and the need for a fix.  Stay tuned.

By the way:  super scientific and studied identification there!  :slight_smile:

A new firmware has already been posted, and it fixes this issue, along with other things.

Firmware update topic.

Strangely, the topic is in the “sticky” section, but NOT in the main list.

See?   :wink:

I tried re-loading the firmware, what, 10 min. before my post?  It was the previous (OE) firmware.

Dat was fast!!  :slight_smile:

And who says that SanDisk isn’t listening to you.    :wink:

@miikerman wrote:

And who says that SanDisk isn’t listening to you.    :wink:

I just checked it out with the problem files and it’s fixed indeed.  Glad they fixed it quickly but I have to wonder if anyone actually tried playing music before shipping it.  No matter, they made good.

Strange thing though is the gapless is sometimes gapless, sometimes isn’t.  Example: in my copy of The Beatles’ “Sgt; Pepper”, the transition between the intro “Sgt. Pepper” and “With A Little Help” is noticeable.  Not as bad as in the Clip but definitely there.  BUT, in 'Abbey Road", the transition between “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Sun King” is flawless.  It might be the image size (SP I used a 40k, AR a 20k).  I’ll play around with image size since it may still matter.

Word of advice to everyone: limit image size to 20k or less.  It still seems to matter.

Still doesn’t show elapsed time so they *somewhat* listen.   :smiley:

@tnmats wrote:


@miikerman wrote:

And who says that SanDisk isn’t listening to you.    :wink:


I just checked it out with the problem files and it’s fixed indeed.  Glad they fixed it quickly but I have to wonder if anyone actually tried playing music before shipping it.  No matter, they made good.

 

Strange thing though is the gapless is sometimes gapless, sometimes isn’t.  Example: in my copy of The Beatles’ “Sgt; Pepper”, the transition between the intro “Sgt. Pepper” and “With A Little Help” is noticeable.  Not as bad as in the Clip but definitely there.  BUT, in 'Abbey Road", the transition between “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Sun King” is flawless.  It might be the image size (SP I used a 40k, AR a 20k).  I’ll play around with image size since it may still matter.

 

Word of advice to everyone: limit image size to 20k or less.  It still seems to matter.

 

Still doesn’t show elapsed time so they *somewhat* listen.   :smiley:

I wish you luck with your testing…there are people asking what image size they should use, on other forums. Me, I’m not going to go back and re-tag everything because one of my six players doesn’t like the tags.:wink:

@marvin_martian wrote:


@tnmats wrote:


@miikerman wrote:

And who says that SanDisk isn’t listening to you.    :wink:


I just checked it out with the problem files and it’s fixed indeed.  Glad they fixed it quickly but I have to wonder if anyone actually tried playing music before shipping it.  No matter, they made good.

 

Strange thing though is the gapless is sometimes gapless, sometimes isn’t.  Example: in my copy of The Beatles’ “Sgt; Pepper”, the transition between the intro “Sgt. Pepper” and “With A Little Help” is noticeable.  Not as bad as in the Clip but definitely there.  BUT, in 'Abbey Road", the transition between “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Sun King” is flawless.  It might be the image size (SP I used a 40k, AR a 20k).  I’ll play around with image size since it may still matter.

 

Word of advice to everyone: limit image size to 20k or less.  It still seems to matter.

 

Still doesn’t show elapsed time so they *somewhat* listen.   :smiley:


I wish you luck with your testing…there are people asking what image size they should use, on other forums. Me, I’m not going to go back and re-tag everything because one of my six players doesn’t like the tags.:wink:

I can understand that; me, I never had images embedded until recently.  My company issued me an iPhone so I started embedding album art in my 320k MP3s.  iTunes (evil EVIL software!) handled it for most of my albums, I did the rest manually.  I laughed that some recent albums that weren’t exactly obscure, like Wilco’s last 2 LPs, it couldn’t find.

Now I need to do it for my 128k portable files.  320k is too power hungry and space hungry for smaller devices; it’s a pain to keep 2 folders of music but I handle it.   And it seems that a 20k image is about the right size to keep the image quality up for an ifruit product but small enough to not bother the CZ.  I can hear the difference in the files but considering the environment I use 128k files in it’s not a bother.

I still prefer to listen to my 24 bit/96kHz FLAC files for proper listening with my Beyers.  :smileyvery-happy:  And now the built-in EQ native characteristic of CZ seems to be happy with my Sennheiser/Addias running phones which is an added bene!  Their included phones aren’t half bad either; not great but not attrocious like the Clip’s excuse for phones.

@tnmats: Unfortunately, no one listens to me all the way. The fools. :wink: Do remember, the player only just came out–I am sure that firmware upgrade work and considerations continue in turn (no doubt, the static blast issue was seen as a priority to handle as soon as possible–you can imagine the possibility of volumes of returns otherwise). Now, to see if we all are pleasantly surprised as to other possibilities. In the meanwhile, still a pleasure to use.

@miikerman wrote:
@tnmats: Unfortunately, no one listens to me all the way. The fools. :wink: Do remember, the player only just came out–I am sure that firmware upgrade work and considerations continue in turn (no doubt, the static blast issue was seen as a priority to handle as soon as possible–you can imagine the possibility of volumes of returns otherwise). Now, to see if we all are pleasantly surprised as to other possibilities. In the meanwhile, still a pleasure to use.

Rockbox may be the final solution.  :slight_smile:

I tried RB with my Clip.  It was a pain to use even though it improved performance.  I hated the screen, too busy with any skin I tried.  I just rolled back to the OE firmware since it was simpler to use.

@tnmats wrote:



Rockbox may be the final solution.  :slight_smile:

 

I tried RB with my Clip.  It was a pain to use even though it improved performance.  I hated the screen, too busy with any skin I tried.  I just rolled back to the OE firmware since it was simpler to use.

This one could be the answer…I just loaded it on for the first time, and it’s great…even better readability than the OF.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever switch to anything else, unless this one becomes incompatible in the future.

http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?themeid=1323&target=sansaclipplus

@marvin_martian wrote:


@tnmats wrote:



Rockbox may be the final solution.  :slight_smile:

 

I tried RB with my Clip.  It was a pain to use even though it improved performance.  I hated the screen, too busy with any skin I tried.  I just rolled back to the OE firmware since it was simpler to use.


This one could be the answer…I just loaded it on for the first time, and it’s great…even better readability than the OF.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever switch to anything else, unless this one becomes incompatible in the future.

http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?themeid=1323&target=sansaclipplus

 

So you loaded RB onto the Clip Zip?

@tnmats wrote:


@marvin_martian wrote:


@tnmats wrote:



Rockbox may be the final solution.  :slight_smile:

 

I tried RB with my Clip.  It was a pain to use even though it improved performance.  I hated the screen, too busy with any skin I tried.  I just rolled back to the OE firmware since it was simpler to use.


This one could be the answer…I just loaded it on for the first time, and it’s great…even better readability than the OF.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever switch to anything else, unless this one becomes incompatible in the future.

http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?themeid=1323&target=sansaclipplus

 


So you loaded RB onto the Clip Zip?

Nope, sorry for the misunderstanding…that’s what I have on my Clip+. :wink:

@marvin_martian wrote:



This one could be the answer…I just loaded it on for the first time, and it’s great…even better readability than the OF.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever switch to anything else, unless this one becomes incompatible in the future.

http://themes.rockbox.org/index.php?themeid=1323&target=sansaclipplus

 


So you loaded RB onto the Clip Zip?


Nope, sorry for the misunderstanding…that’s what I have on my Clip+. :wink:

So you loaded it on your C+ but not the CZ, correct?  I can’t get RB’s web site to load right now but I’m guessing there’s no port to the CZ.  Yet.

That’s what I thought.  I can’t get the RB web site to load right now so I’ll check those themes later.

I figure it won’t be long before there’s a RB ported to the Clip Zip.  I’ll give it a whirl again.  Thanks for the tips.