Happy 5 months since the last Clip firmware update--is a new update coming, our friends at SanDisk?

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Clip | Sansa® Clip+
21

@keyb_gr wrote:

Still remember the news about Sandisk not doing too well in the financial department a few months ago? If we’re unlucky the programming folks have been laid off… (Which obviously would ■■■■. Waiting for Godot, anyone?) Well, let’s hope that’s not the case, but in times like these you never know.

I’m sure layoffs effect every department.  Budget cuts.  And im sure other projects are higher priority.  The mp3 market is saturated, and pricing pressures.   The clip is mature and maybe at the end of is life cycle…  But I still LOVE my little Sansa Clip mp3 player.      How sad to think that maybe, i won’t get to update firmware to play with new features.  >.<;   lawl.   I’d guess that firmware updates for the Clip are not on the Software Engineers priority list that they have been tasked with.     

Really the CLIP is very stable, feature rich, and any minor complaints probably have work arounds, except for maybe the pitch issue.

-  wonders if there will be an update,  so i know if i should keep returning to the forum…   -

22

In the meantime, keep your eye on this:

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaClip

:wink:

23

The Cowon S9  just got a firmware upgrade including gapless.  Too bad there still is no word whatsoever from SanDisk as to whether anything is happening here (let alone when).

24

Sandisk has returned to profitability. Flash memory card prices have increased somewhat in the past quarter.

Sandisk does not release separate results for their mp3 player division.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/SanDisk-Announces-Second-bw-1931783537.html?x=0&.v=1

25

Please, please, please… fix the “pitch” problem.

I am a musician who likes to play along with the music on my clip, but I can’t, because it’s all out of tune.

This is a fundamental flaw in the Clip that really deserves to be addressed with a firmware update.

The longer I listen to music on my Clip, the more I train my ear to accept “off pitch” music, as normal.

This is not good for a musician/singer or anyone who would like to some day be a  musician/singer!

We have been waiting a long time without a response from Sansa.

I must now stop purchasing and recommending Sansa products until Sansa gets their software team back and get this “pitch” problem fixed.

If Sansa is done supporting this product,

Could Sansa release the code to RockBox or some open source project so they could fix this problem?

Best wishes for a positive outcome…

26

@wavysclip wrote:

Please, please, please… fix the “pitch” problem.

I am a musician who likes to play along with the music on my clip, but I can’t, because it’s all out of tune.

This is a fundamental flaw in the Clip that really deserves to be addressed with a firmware update.

 

The longer I listen to music on my Clip, the more I train my ear to accept “off pitch” music, as normal.

This is not good for a musician/singer or anyone who would like to some day be a  musician/singer!

 

We have been waiting a long time without a response from Sansa.

I must now stop purchasing and recommending Sansa products until Sansa gets their software team back and get this “pitch” problem fixed.

 

If Sansa is done supporting this product,

Could Sansa release the code to RockBox or some open source project so they could fix this problem?

 

Best wishes for a positive outcome…

A Rockbox port is already in development for the Clip. If/when they get it running and stable, that will bypass the problem entirely since they use their own code, not the original manufacturer’s.

If you meant the Rockbox community patching Sansa’s firmware, I don’t think they really care to do that kind of thing.

Message Edited by gwk1967 on 07-28-2009 05:10 PM

27

Sansa, phone home…

…adding, the evident uncertainty created by this silence has made me very reluctant to recommend buying Sansa products. It’s puzzling why a company is deliberately squandering its customer goodwill. Even if they’re abandoning the Sansa business unit (rank speculation alert), the parent company is a continuing endeavor that should care about its customer image. 

28

Agreed with you.  At the least, ackowledge inquiries here–people like you are SanDisk supporters.

It always is worse to ignore, than to ackowledge.  If even just simply to say, We will advise in the future if and when there is more to report …

29

@miikerman wrote:

Agreed with you.  At the least, ackowledge inquiries here–people like you are SanDisk supporters.

 

It always is worse to ignore, than to ackowledge.  If even just simply to say, We will advise in the future if and when there is more to report …

Face the facts… No matter how many threads are generated or how many posts created… they are not going to answer until THEY are ready…

I used to be a sandisk advocate…not so much anymore.

30

@fuze_owner_gb wrote:

@miikerman wrote:

Agreed with you.  At the least, ackowledge inquiries here–people like you are SanDisk supporters.

 

It always is worse to ignore, than to ackowledge.  If even just simply to say, We will advise in the future if and when there is more to report …

Face the facts… No matter how many threads are generated or how many posts created… they are not going to answer until THEY are ready…

 

I used to be a sandisk advocate…not so much anymore.

It is disappointing, makes one wonder if we’re all facing the “Sansa View, Part Deux” scenario. :neutral_face:

31

Ouch.

You guys are brutal :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s a simple case of busy times.  As mentioned here, the support system is being updated.  The website is also undergoing some construction.  Note some subtle changes, like the SanDisk link in the upper left, as well as changes in the corporate side of the site.  I’ve been busy repairing interrupted links, among other things.

Development for the Clip is continuing, rest assured.  Thank you for your patience while these changes take place.

µsansa

32

microsansa;

I think the issue here is that people in the forum expect that when they ask for information regarding product status ( “is it no longer being supported” ), in the forum, they expect a response from SanDisk relatively quickly … on the order of days, I guess.  People have been asking about the status of the Clip for a few weeks, now.

Personally I’ve never expected a response from the company when people ask these kinds of things in this forum, but I guess the fact that SanDisk employees HAVE posted here in the past leads people to believe that this is more than just a user forum.

So to avoid this kind of turmoil in the future, it would be good if SanDisk could make some kind of statement as to what we should have for expectations, here.

E.g., if someone starts a new thread and says “Hey SanDisk!  Have you discontinued Product X?” or “When’s the next firmware update?”, should we expect a response from SanDisk?  If so, about how quickly?

Thanks.

33

@microsansa wrote:

 

Development for the Clip is continuing, rest assured.  Thank you for your patience while these changes take place.

 

µsansa

Thank you for the heads-up! It’s greatly appreciated! :smiley:

34

Ditto; many thanks! 

I don’t think anyone was trying to be brutal  :wink: , but just trying to get an update as to a possible firmware update.  As you know, for awhile there, they were coming in at around once a quarter, and it’s been almost 6 months since the last.  And in the interim, an update came out for the Fuze, a number of months ago, with some of the changes that many would love to see for the Clip (e.g. file/folder view).

It really is helpful and supportive to hear back on this–this is one of the reasons why some of us apppreciate SanDisk and its players.  In my humble experience, I think that too many manufacturers forget this aspect of product sales and support–those that remember routinely get lauded.  Keep it up!

:slight_smile:

35

Thanks for the update.  Happy to hear that you’re still working on the clip!!

36

Also very happy to hear from Sansa, that they are still supporting the Clip.

Sansa, please drop a line once a month, if just to let us know your still alive.

I’ve been so cold and lonely without the warmth of your firmware updates  :smileyvery-happy:

I have been putting off re coding all my music to 48 Khz Mp3 in hopes that Sansa would soon release a fix for the pitch problem.

For now I transcode to 48 Khz the stuff I want to use as backing tracks and stick them in the Audio book folder.

I used my clip to record me playing acoustic guitar outside in the woods recently. 

It was placed 2 feet away on a stump. It’s mono but the sound quality was fairly good.

Certainly good enough to capture song ideas, and then dump it on to the computer at home and work out the details.

The pitch problem dose not seem to affect the files recorded with the Clips internal microphone and played back by the Clip.

It makes 16 bit, 24 Khz sample rate, mono .WAV files.  Recordings made with the Clip also play back in correct pitch on my computer.

If Sansa could fix the Pitch problem and add and option to record stereo from the head phone jack as well as the built in mic, they could sell a lot of these at Guitar shops and Music stores. Add a built in chromatic tuner that could work from the built in mic or the headphone “input/output” jack, and you would have an instant hit!

Next… Develop firmware that would turn the Fuze into a multitrack recorder/player with effects…

Happy Trails…

Wavy

37

@wavysclip wrote:

 

…  and add and option to record stereo from the head phone jack as well as the built in mic, they could sell a lot of these at Guitar shops and Music stores. 

 

You do know that this is more than a firmware update?  Anyway, best done with a separate mic jack since people will want to monitor the input.

 

I’ve recorded live music with my e200 and it sounded amazingly good… well, AM radio good, but that’s really good for some pinhole mic in a player laying on the grass recording to 64K mp3.

 

38

Thanks microsansa!

…adding, I don’t expect responses immediately or even within days, however weeks, months of virtual radio silence is … disconcerting.

…adding x2, I hope “development … continuing” means new Clips with larger memory (and an expansion slot?!) are on the horizon.

39

Yep, stereo recording would involve a next gen Clip hardware change.

Adding a built in tuner that works off the existing microphone, on the other hand, is a firmware only upgrade.

As for the hardware change, it would not be that extensive and I have rarely used headphones to monitor while recording, only to check sound quality after recording. An input level meter and input level sensitivity adjust would be adequate for most situations.

Here is another brilliant idea! :wink:

For people who use “in ear sound isolating headphones”, an option to use the built in mic, with the press of the center button, to hear someone speaking to you without having to remove your headphones to hear them. 

Of course you could also use it to listen in to peoples conversations, when they think you are listening to music… he…he…

Or as an inexpensive hearing aid…

or maybe you could adjust the amount of outside sound you hear with a balance and/or squelch control…for safety.

Hey Sansa, no need to cut us short on firmware upgrades in order to speed up the obsolescence of the Clip, so we will purchase a new one to get new features. Since the clips built in Lithium Ion battery has a shelf life of aprox 3 years, we will have to replace them any way.

So keep the firmware upgrades coming to the old products and I will buy a new one when the battery dies or I want larger capacity, different color. One of the most attractive features of the clip were the regular firmware upgrades (since getting all the bugs out before releasing a product, is not an option). Bring em back please and fix the Pitch Problem.

Happy Trails…

Wavy

40

Thanks again for the brief note from Sansa. :smiley:

The information/feedback provided by Sansa customers to the Sansa development team, in this Forum, has to be the best, free advice a consumer products maker could ever wish for.

How about a little gratitude from Sansa in the form of more frequent feedback and a simple note of thanks for all our contributions and our efforts to unburden Sansa support by answering peoples questions for them, in this forum.

Are we a team here, or what?

Best wishes for the companies resuming support/firmware upgrades and its future success.

Happy Trails…

Wavy

Message Edited by wavysclip on 08-07-2009 10:55 AM