Clip Zip Feedback and Feature Request Thread

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201

Hi to all,

I’ve just bought a CZ and despite I’ve seen they’ve already been requested, as I think these features are a must have, + 1 to:

  • Show number of files xx/yy in a folder or album.
  • Show elapsed and remaining time (elapsed as a minimum).

I don’t need to see the hour when playing music, so there you have some pixels you can use better.

I would also be nice to have an option to delete entire folders.

202

Yet again: +1.

203

This is my first Sansa player. I have the 8GB Zip with a 32GB card installed that was just hanging around doing nothing. Normally I’m a Cowon guy. I have 2 32gb S9’s and a 16GB D2+ that I bring back and forth to work, but I’m really liking this little player. While it may not sound as good as my Cowons, it sounds much better than either of my iPods (1 in a drawer and 1 connected to my cars USB) and my Creative Zen (in a drawer). I’m already used to folder browsing (there really isn’t any other way, and won’t use a player without it now) so once I filled up the main memory and got 5 or so GB on the SD card I was off and running. Not only does the radio come in really good, but it also shows the call letters and the name of the song and artists? Holy ■■■■ Batman, this thing is great! The clip feels really sturdy too.

What I’d like to see changed/improved.

  1. As other people said, showing the time elapsed/remaining.

  2. Fix occasional gaps in the gapless playback. I rip the audio off DVD’s and listen to movies at work sometimes. While listening to Star Wars: A New Hope there were 10 or so times when there was a slight pause between chapters.

  3. Allow artwork named “cover” to be displayed also. Cowons only display “cover” artwork, so that’s what all mine is called.

  4. Being able to delete entire folders, not just individual songs.

  5. Show song number as 02/10 (as song 2 of 10)

While it would be nice if these things were fixed, that doesn’t change my opinion of this player at all.

(I was just reading this post backwards and most of these are on the previous few pages)

204

I wanted a small player for exercise and audio book listening.  For audio book listening, I would like as much information as possible about where I am in the book and chapter.

The radio is great, by the way.

I would LOVE to have multiple bookmarks available.  I have not had this in an audio player, but have really come to enjoy this feature on e-books.  I can bookmark the part of the book where they introduce a bunch of characters, or other key info.  Then if time has elapsed since I was listening (or I’ve just forgotten), and I need to go back to pick up the info, I can bookmark my current place, jump back by bookmark to refer to the info, and then back to reading.

This would be even more useful when listening than when reading for me, because I listen to audio books or podcasts while doing other things, and have less focus - more likely to need to go back to pick up key details.  Plus, if I want to share a certain part of a podcast, or audio book, the bookmarks would make that easy too.

205

Another pair of requests / suggestions:

  • Add an option to automatically start playing files of the next folder when the last song of the current folder finishes. (Forget this, I’ve seen that selecting “play all” on top folder plays all it’s subfolders).
  • Add different options to sort folders: by name (ascendant / descendant order), by date (newer first / older first)…
206

I’ve read several posts on playlist issues, but I haven’t seen an issue like this.

I’ve created Playlists in my new Clip Zip from songs in my internal memory and my external microsdhc card. I did this via Windows Explorer by creating a new playlist in the internal playlist folder, and dragged and dropped them to the new playlist (it is .pla format).  I was then able to disconnect from my computer, and was successful in playing the playlist, accessing songs from both internal memory and the external card.  I even powered the Clip Zip down and turned it back on to ensure persistance (and it still worked). 

Upon reconnection to my computer, the Clip Zip somehow modified the playlist and deleted ALL entries from the external card.   I tried again, with the same results (edited the playlist, disconnected, worked successfully, reconnected, Clip Zip zapped the entries). 

So I did it again, this time creating copies of the playlist in the playlist AND root folders of the internal memory.  Tested again with the same results.

For some reason, when I connect with the USB, it will Zap all references to external memory songs in all .pla files in internal memory.  What am I doing wrong???  Could it be a problem with the new firmware update (I heard that is problematic), and if so, how do I back it out?  Or is there some setting where I can tell Clip Zip not to alter my playlists? 

Thanks in advance.

207

I would suggest M4B support , see : http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Zip/MB4-Support/td-p/264197

According to http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/How_To_Make_M4B_Files it says “An M4B file is an audio file which can be bookmarked. This is the audio-book file type.”

In the case (“this is the audio book file type”) is true AND (“zip supports audio book file type”) is true –> M4B support should be true

(I am aware that other digital formats are ALSO able to store audio like spoken text… but  refer to “THE” audio book file type)

208

I have done research all over the place and can’t seem to get a straight answer.  So if my request is already possible, please just tell me how to do it.  If not, I would love, Love, LOVE to have a feature added to the Clip Zip where I can *save* multiple bookmarks. As in, bookmark a file, play another one, then go back to my bookmark - not just “resume after turning back on.” It can even be exclusive to audiobook/podcasts. I just want to be able to listen to multiple audiobooks/podcasts and not have to relisten to sections because I can’t remember the exact minute and second that I left off. PLEASE :smiley: Thank you!!!

209

I have done research all over the place and can’t seem to get a straight answer.  So if my request is already possible, please just let me know how to do it. 

If not, I would love, Love, LOVE to have a feature added to the Clip Zip where I can *save* multiple bookmarks. As in, bookmark a file, play another one, then go back to my bookmark in the first one - not just “resume after turning back on.” These bookmarks would, of course, need to be remembered after having powered the device off and on and they can even be exclusive to audiobook/podcasts, if need be. I just want to be able to listen to multiple audiobooks/podcasts over the same period of time and not have to record the minute and second I leave one to go listen to another one for a little while.  The chapter mode is nice, but bookmarks would be awesome!

PLEASE? Thank you!!!

210

I just checked on my Clip Zip - I have 2 books I’d started before settling on the book I’m currently reading.  The other two still asked me “Resume” or “New Start” when I select them.  I think this is all your asking for, correct - a single bookmark for each book?  I think what you want is already available.

You are finding your audiobooks under the “Books” section, not “Music”?  If it’s correctly interpretting your “album” as a book, you should be getting the “Resume” question for each book you’ve started.  You may want to start a new thread with your question (or search in other forums, not just the Clip Zip - the bookmark works basically the same as Clip/Clip+)

211

Thanks for the response. It’s a funny thing.  What you describe is what I’d been looking for.  I tested for it multiple times after I downloaded a few books to my new clip zip, then updated the firmware, and tested it again.  Still nothing.  I figured I’d try one more time after I had turned it off and on a few times (after posting my previous comment) and there it was! It finally asked me if I wanted to resume :smiley: 

I really thought it was a feature that needed to be requested because I have seen other people on various sites inquiring about this feature for the clip zip with no confident replies in the affirmative.  So I guess the request would be that there be clearer/more accessible documentation on this feature.  There is nothing I could find about it in the user guide, but that is probably because it seems to have been part of a firmware update.  It would have made my decision to buy the clip zip a no brainer if I had been able to find such doucmentation, so now that I have found this feature to be available, it is everything I was looking for! Thanks, again!

212

Allow for artwork named “cover” to be displayed. Also, either increase, or better yet remove the file size limit for artwork. All of my music has artwork named “cover” (as this is what Cowon requires) and is 500x500. The artwork for “Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender” is over 200kb. It’s a pain to have to rename and resize all my artwork before I put in my Sansa.

213

It would be great to have these features

  1. When playing songs, the player should display what song of total.  That is, if I play song 3 of a 12 song album, the screen should display 3/12.

  2. When playing a song and exiting to the list view, there should be an indicator to indicate which song is currently playing.

  3. The Card screen should show the card volume label, capacity and free space.  This is so that it is easy to identify which card is in the player.

214

@kmk_01kmk wrote:

Another vote for track xx/xx information on the screen.  It’s really necessary for Audiobooks.  Maybe some people like the mystery of not knowing they’re on track 12/12 vs 6/12 - but I personally, I like knowing the books wrapping up soon vs there’s hours to go.  Also, track number is a SPOILER discussion point in my household (we’ve gotten used to using with Clip and Fuze) as there’s often 2 people reading the same library book at the same time.

Another idea (a couple of months has not been enough time for me to “grow accustomed to” the new display): 

Under “Music”, there’s a “Track Info” menu item which is missing under “Books”.  If it’s not desirable for Sansa to add track info to the display screen, I’d settle for the “Track Info” menu item under Audiobooks to list the track information.  I could live with it being an extra button push (or two or three), as long as the information is available without going out to the track list and counting tracks. I’ve lost my bookmark doing that before.

Is there anyone here who’s an insider who may know if something is happening with this?  At this point, if someone asks my opinion of a player to buy for audiobooks, I wouldn’t recommend ClipZip, since the Clip, Clip+, and Fuze handle books better.  I’m an avid fan of the Sansa products so I’d like to be able to say “they’re working on a firmware update to fix it”.

215

hi,

little more effort should be given to audiobooks sections and related features. 

First, speed of audiobook should have more options than slow,normal, fast. E.g. by percentage of original speed. 

Second, like in VLC - scaletempo, there should be pitch correction in case of faster audio playback - High pitch voice in fast audio speed is very annoying. 

Thanks for your effort with new fw.

Peter.

216

2 suggestions - 1) fix the playlist problem ASAP 2) add AM to the radio. It seems impossible to find a small mp3 player with an am/fm radio.

217

I agree, adding pitch correction to this platform would be very nice, especially for audiobooks and podcasts.  The Fuze+ does this, but it is using a different platform; the AMS Sansas have not incorporated pitch correction.

Actually, it’s a misconception: the devices employ a trick of “time compression”, truncating the gaps between audio samples, so we hear the pitch at the same percieved frequency.

The time elapsed / remaining display is integrated into the “books” section, as it’s pretty important in navigating through a book or podcast.  Personally, I’d love to have this information displayed during music as well.  At the least, the time should pop up if the scan forward / back buttons are used.  It’s important for long pieces, as in classical music.

AM Radio is a bit of a pickle, due to its low frequency, and the very nature of the signal.  Amplitude Modulation is susceptible to interference on the carrier being heard in the audio, and a little digital device is an absolute bonanza of RFI (radio frequency interference) at such close distances, especially if you consider there’s a display panel and processor a few millimeters from the radio receiver.

The receiving antenna for AM is a small ferrite loop.  At the range of frequencies for AM broadcast, there simply isn’t enough space within a Clip for a proper coil and core.  There are ways to shrink the required antenna, in today’s era of digital trickery, but the stumbling block of interference is still a huge obstacle.

Have faith, as firmware updates in the past have given us quite a few cool additional featues for the most diminutive of Sansas. 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

218

+1 for

  • info on “now playing” screen for elapsed time and time remaining for songs
  • consistent support for playlists

I’ve noticed on my Zip that it detected 5 out of my 15 M3U playlists and successfully imported these. Even if I copy the same playlists under another folder, the Zip will again detect the same 5 and add them to the library. If anyone cares to inspect why it imported these or why it didn’t detect the others, let me know, I’d be happy to provide them.

  • When locked, pressing the volume buttons should not light the screen. The volume button is often used when the player is locked and lighting the screen just wastes battery power.
  • “Return to now playing list” , which would take you to the list of tracks that are currently queued.

Thanks for bringing back the “Play all” function!

I still can’t believe I’ve got a 36 GB mp3 player the size of a watch for $40… I remember the days when I had a backpack with over 40 audio tapes, which I switched for CD cases later on. And now… :slight_smile:

219

pls provide option of ‘refresh database now’ or something like this

thanks.

220

@apurvmj wrote:

pls provide option of ‘refresh database now’ or something like this

thanks.

There’s no need for this.The player will automatically refresh its database when it’s unplugged from the computer if anything has changed (added or deleted content).