I bought the Fuze+ because I have been waiting for years to get a 50 GB or more solid state with radio and recording. 16 + 32 really just about does it for me. But like many here I’m stymied by the performance, poor scrolling, etc by this device. I’m staying current with the firmware, and I am finding lots of workarounds. For example, I am taking lots of genres that I like listening to at once and tagging them into the “artist” tag. This lets me listen to a group of like music from the Artist screen. The reason that this is so important is that it is hard to get the genre screen because you must go through the song screen which is horribly slow on a device with 48 gig of music.
The other big problem is the controls. It is not that they are too sensitive or a problem with tagging as many here say. These controls are excellent with very little media on the device. The sensitivity is another side effect of the unresponsiveness with a fully loaded large collecton. The device simply doesn’t time slice well and it doesn’t store it’s index in any rapidly accessible format.
I have other workarounds too, but the firmware is just not addressing the big picture. Just something so simple as allowing an alphabetic drill down (“A” to artists beginning with “A…” would be a huge win. I’m not one of those whiners that’s going to return the device or bash it (although I do wish that I had read the http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/16Gb-Fuze-32Gb-uSDHC-collapses-when-loaded-up/td-p/206180 review with the Cowon J3 recommendation before purchasing the Fuze+). But I didn’t, I was so focused on getting the Fuze when it finally up’d the capacity that I didn’t research. Now I own the device and I’m retagging every few weeks and getting it to the point where I can live with it.
But what drives me crazy is that it’s all software and there’s no reason why this can’t be great. I had Rockbox on a really old 40 gig hard drive iRiver before this. Even though the Rockbox software for the iRiver was really primitive and unintuitive, I learned it and it was really efficient. It just did the job. I’ve seen it on iPods and other modern devices and it really is friendly and I think that it would be awesome on the Fuze+.
So… does anybody know if Rockbox for the Fuze+ is on the horizon?
FuzionNow wrote:So… does anybody know if Rockbox for the Fuze+ is on the horizon?
Someone reverse engineered the firmware update format, so it should be pretty easy at this point to run custom code. However the person working on it doesn’t actually own a Fuze+ and so far I haven’t heard of anyone interested in working on it. Of course, someone could show up and start working on it eventually.
Thanks you guys. This platform is too compelling for the Rockbox folks to skip, and this does give me some hope on things to look forward to. In the meantime, I’m really getting an excuse to nail some genres in my collection, trim some tunes that are filler, etc. Every couple weeks I copy the collection to a different folder on my hard drive and flip the genre / artist, etc and am happier each time that I do it.
But I will be a happy man when Rockbox arrives or if Sansa beats it there with a great firmware release.
Thanks you guys. This platform is too compelling for the Rockbox folks to skip, and this does give me some hope on things to look forward to.
Generally ports are done by onwers of a player, people like you, not core rockbox developers. For instance. I didn’t do all that much on the Fuze port. with most of the hard work being done by Rafael, a clip owner who was interested in programming software for his device. He eventually got a few more players to work on various Sandisk devices, and I even sent him my Fuze so he could work on it. In contrast, core rockbox developers help out on new ports, but most aren’t too interested in new hardware most of the time (since we already have players). In my case I usually just work on audio codecs, with only occasional bits of things for new ports.
Additionally, what usually makes a new device “compelling” for existing developers to work on is that its hardware is very similar to a port they already like or work on. In this sense the Fuze+ isn’t too compelling to me since its not very similar to the other Sandisk players. So really its probably up to people like you to work on your device. Of course if someone ends up with a player they might get interested.
By compelling I guess I meant the combination of low price, a great screen, 48 Gig of solid state, voice recording, a recordable tuner with RDS, great capacitive touch control… all in combination with sluggish software!
I would think that would be unbelievably compelling for a port! More than doing something similar to the same old. I will watch the page at Rockbox… I have to think that we’ll see some action pretty soon!
i have never used rockbox but i have only heard good things about it. last i heard they have gotten the lcd screen working but still need to do alot of work to get rock box on the fuze+
we have touchpad, usb and lcd’s implementation nearly completed! Work has just started on storage. Now it will probably slow down in the next mouth because amaury will not have a lot of time
As soon as I’ll have the possibility to flash my firmware back to the lastest original one and the music pülayback works, I’ll start to test the builds. On my old iPod v5.5 I used only Rockbox and was very content with it.
Thank you metaphysicien, I’m so glad you started to kick off this port. I’ve owned a 16 Gig Fuze+ with a 32 Gig sd card for a year and have been unable to use it due to the firmware’s inability to handle a large number of songs. I am really hoping that Rockbox will materialize for the Fuze+ because the hardware is just so compelling in size, capacity and price. I’m sure that Sansa will eventually be able to supply something functional at their “supported” capacities, but I know that the Rockbox team can get it done now.
I’ve owned a 16 Gig Fuze+ with a 32 Gig sd card for a year and have been unable to use it due to the firmware’s inability to handle a large number of songs.
You must have gotten one of the pre-release models then as the Fuze+ didn’t come out unit the end of August last year, and this is only the middle of June.
You’re right. I just double checked and actually ordered it and the 32 GB Sandisk card on Oct 7 2010 and received the week of Oct 10. Actually it was $213.03, not $175, so my complaint is even more valid. Anyway, what’s the difference? It’s still $213 for a device and a 32 SD that I couldn’t give away for $50 now.
I accept the fact that I am guilty of being a consumer who trusted the quality for which I have grown to trust Sansa to deliver. I screwed up… I trusted them. Sorry!
You need to question why you feel a need to be an apologist, unless you are affiliated with Sansa in which case you could give us the actual scoop? That would be valuable on an online forum.
pamaury is working his tail off on it but it is not translating well to the Sansa Fuze+. Bootloader can’t deal with a low charge battery when plugged into a computer, navigation shaky with a tendency to loop and essentially unnavigable.
Outlook not good.
Can anybody remind me why I was so anti-iPod and got so many friends and family to buy Sansa devices? I just can’t even relate those years anymore…
pamaury is working his tail off on it but it is not translating well to the Sansa Fuze+. Bootloader can’t deal with a low charge battery when plugged into a computer, navigation shaky with a tendency to loop and essentially unnavigable.
Outlook not good.
Well since he’s the only one working on it, development will take a really long time. Doesn’t mean the outlooks isn’t good, just that you’ll have to wait (or else join in and help so it gets done sooner).
I realize that. pamaury is working far harder than any member of the Sansa team did. I really admire his efforts. But he’s only one guy…
Realistically, they’re having trouble sensing the battery charge and they shut down when it’s low which prevents recharge on a computer. They can’t handle the bizarre stream of non gesture driven random events from the touch screen that make the cursor scroll the menus endlessly. The device is likely to be discontinued before Rockbox gets there.
