Experience with Rhapsody on Clip+

MP3 players Sansa Clip | Clip+
1

I had the old version of the Clip and recently it stopped working after I dropped it. Thinking of getting a Clip+ but I wanted to see how it performs with Rhapsody. One of my biggest complaints about the old Clip with Rhapsody was that the delay to start playing and go between songs was painfully slow (several seconds). Does anyone have experience with this and know if it’s any better??

Thanks.

2

Ah, so you’re wondering what Rhapsody is like on the new Clip+?

Holey moley!  It will scare you, to put it bluntly.  Rhapsody tracks simply FLY onto the device, refresh time (the time it takes the Rhapsody client to refresh all licenses, scanning the tracks) is a joy to behold.

The gap previously experienced loading tracks is pleasantly missing now.  I love this machine.  As you flip forward to the nect track, it starts playing immediately.

In short, you’ll love this new little machine.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: 

4

Hehe.  I’ve been experimenting with the new Clip+, as you’ve guessed.  My initial impression of the differences running Rhapsody was quite surprising.

In contrast, the e200v2 is painfully slow when refreshing Rhapsody tracks.  The Fuze firmware received the requisite tweaking to make the synchronization process considerably faster.  Running the Clip+, I am amazed, to say the least.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

5

Thanks for the feedback. Based on that I decided to get one and I can confirm that Rhapsody is a much better experience on the Clip+ compared with the old Clip. Everything is faster: startup, scanning, file transfer, playing tracks. Glad I made this purchase.

Kind of ticked my old Clip broke. I took it apart and found that the reason it was broken was that the battery was loose and the leads had broken due to it jiggling around inside. Probably should have tried to get it repaired under warranty but I couldn’t resist.

7

If you have a 2nd MicroSCHD card – can you control which card Rhapsody copies files to?

8

Yes.  If you have a µSD card mounted, it will show up in the sources pane below the Sansa.  Note that there’s a Photos folder shown.  This isn’t usable, with the Clip+, but the Rhapsody client thinks it’s a Fuze.

You can drag and drop any desired music files to the card just as the internal memory, listed above.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

9

Thanks, Bob – so with the additional card in the Clip+, you get 2 sources – one labeled “Sansa Clip+ 2/4/8GB” – and then another labeled something like “Sansa Clip+ External 2/4/8/16GB” – and you decide which of those two sources to copy Rhapsody music into – that all about right?

(thanks kindly – if I’ve got it right, I’m glad to hear it works this way) 

10

Yep!  The Rhapsody Channels can only be added to the Internal (Main) memory.  Those are available under the Radio button now.  Otherwise, you simply drag and drop to the desired area.

If you click on either one, look at the bar at the bottom of the screen, and you can check up on available memory space.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

11

Sorry, just want to clarify – you can copy tracks/albums to either internal or extended memory by dragging them to either of the two respective sources within the Rhapsody app – but channels can only be added to the internal memory?

What happens if you drag a channel into the extended memory source?

(thanks again) 

12

That’s easy, you get the “international ‘no’ symbol”.  Rhapsody Channels are an automatically updated playlist that is hidden in the file tree, keeping your favorites separated from the channel tracks.

To do this, they’re stored in the internal memory.  I like the channels feature, as any track you like can be added to your library with a simple click.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

13

btw, do you know of any docs that explain how Channels work with the Clip+?

For example, I assume that when you add a channel to the Clip+, Rhapsody then transfers some set number of tracks to the Clip+? And if you listen to some (but not all) when you listen again later, does it pick up where you left off (perhaps like an audiobook)? And then when you reconnect to a PC running the Rhapsody app, it automatically deletes some tracks, and adds more?

Just trying to understand the mechanics of it… 

14

Oh, also – when you add a Rhapsody Channel, does that then clutter up when you browse your music? (ie, do the tracks that get added via Channels also show up when you browse tracks you added yourself?)

Do you happen to know what happens if you’ve manually added a track than also happens to be in a Channel you’ve added? (does it wind up deleting the manually added track when it flushes the Channel?)

15

@turnstyle wrote:

Oh, also – when you add a Rhapsody Channel, does that then clutter up when you browse your music? (ie, do the tracks that get added via Channels also show up when you browse tracks you added yourself?)

I can answer this one now: no, the Channel tracks can only be accessed via Channel playback, and do no show up when you browse music. (except, I gather per neutron_bob’s comment, unless you then add a Channel track to your library.)

16

Rhapsody Channels were first introduced on the Sansa Rhapsody player (E200R series) and has been available for the clip, fuze and clip+ and now many other non Sansa players.

Basically Rhapsody channels are like off line music stations, except that you can skip forward or backwards at will.  Unlike channels on the E200R, you can not see the track list in the channel via the player.  Channels on the E200R series allowed you to see the entire setlist and pick anywhere to start.  With the Fuze and Clip+ you can only skip forward and back.

Once you stop playback, it will take up where you left off.

If you click on the center button while a track is playing, it will be added to your library and will appear in your track listing like any other track.

The cool thing about channels, is that everytime you connect to Rhapsody, you can “update” the channel and it will “erase” the tracks you’ve already listened to and replace them with other tracks.  Tracks that you have “added” to your library will not be erased during the channel update, so using that feature is a nice way to “keep” a song you’ve discovered and would like to keep.  However, marking a track as part of your library removes it from the play rotation in the channel (I believe).

The channels range from 3.0 to 5.0 hours of music per channel.  Some channels on Rhapsody are smaller than others.  The most popular channels are refreshed by Real more often than some of the more vague ones.  So it’s possible after a couple of refreshes, you will have gone through the whole tracklist offered by Real for that channel.

I love channels, it’s a great genre mix for work, and I can go home and refresh the channel and have a new mix the next day.  I’ve also discovered a lot of new music using channels.  In fact, Channels are the ONLY reason I have stayed with Rhapsody for so long.  Sure, it’s cool to download individual tracks, albums, and some of the playlists in Playlist Central are cool, but Channels simply rock.

The ONLY thing that would make it better would be a function on the player that would allow me to shuffle across all channels.  Load up 5 channels, hit shuffle and allow me to listen to a mix across genre channels would truly be cool.

Hope this helps.

Message Edited by p_opus on 10-22-2009 06:49 AM

Message Edited by p_opus on 10-22-2009 06:51 AM