in the next release can you include support for RDS and WMA lossless format… Also some kind of noise reduction if possible
Firmware alone cannot give us RDS. The FM radio chip currently used in the Fuze does not support it. The cool SlotRadio player does have RDS capability. Perhaps, in the future, the Sansa will support RDS, but it is a hardware issue at this point.
It’s very nice to be able to identify that cool tune currently on the air. RDS has grown up a bit in recent years, as it started with very poor implementation, depending upon the broadcaster. One would often be barraged with mindless ■■■■ like station slogans, sweepstakes and contest blurbs, the current temperature in Hoboken, NJ, and such.
As far as wma lossless, consider that once you’re dealing with “lossless”, it’s all a matter of compression efficiency, a convenient encoding platform, and smooth decoding on the player end. Oh, and proper tag support. FLAC works very well, and has promise of being around as an archival standard for years to come.
WMA has the advantage of being native to Windows Media Player, a platform that is relatively easy to work with, and convenience in the form of tagging. I have my reservations as to a proper implementation, seeing the debacle over WMA Pro as an example. Microsoft can be their own worst enemy, well, okay, they are their own worst enemy, as it seems apparent that they can’t simply try their own interfaces and repair the quirks.
Spending a lot of time with WiMP, I can assure you that it’s reminiscent of eating a gourmet meal using toothpicks. And throw in one of those new titanium sporks for good measure.
FLAC supports ID3 tags, is open-source, and works very well indeed. For a codec that I’d use primarily as a reference, and for archiving the PCM originals from disc, leaving it open to the “nuances” of Microsoft simply isn’t appealing. I am reminded of the absurdities of using Microsoft Word for many years, and its alarming propensity to lack reverse compatibility. Writing reports in the fire service, I had to always remember to save “rtf” format copies so that computers with different versions of Office could read the documents.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Hey! “the current temperature in Hoboken, NJ” you’se pickin on Joisey? Watcha-u-mouth
(sorry, too tempting)
RDS would be nice, but then again so would HD-radio… if the chip doesn’t support it then I guess we can’t have it. I’d take broader video compatability before RDS on my wishlist… at least that’s possible with the current hardware
RDS would open a bunch of new ‘nice-to-haves’… example: I’m listening to the radio and hear a song I like, click down and save the data to “song-wish-list”.
Tim (in Union,NJ)
Message Edited by timn on 06-11-2009 04:57 PM
