Sansa Clip Zip Firmware 01.01.18

@romanaleksejuk wrote:

When the player is being launched for the first time, there is an option to choose the region, i’ve chosen “Europe”.

So, if there is an option of selecting the continents, that means that this player SHOULD BE adaptive for the concrete RDS system (as i mentioned before - there are only 2 RDS system versions). If my cellphone (generic SonyEriccsson) is able to recognize RDS correctly, my car radio (worlwide SONY) is able to recognize it correctly, why were Clip Zip developers unable to implement this feature correctly ?

Sorry, but the phraze “It sounds like the standard your local broadcasters are using isn’t being read by the CZ” is not really an explanation of the problem, and far less - not a solution :angry:

I’m just a customer like you, I don’t work for the company nor do I know much about the insides of the CZ.

@neutron_bob wrote:

I believe the issue was between the FM receiver chip and the Zip’s interpretation of the data string.  Previously, i could restore RDS information if I would pause / mute FM, then open a music file from the Music library.  Afterwards, RDS would restore normally.

 

As far as the RDS standards between US / EU, this may involve the FM chip itself, and its interpretation of the RDS data.  The update does restore the information display, at least it does here in the States; perhaps a little testing with EU signals will be the hot ticket to solve this for the Zip worldwide.  It’s possible that one fix uncovered another issue.

 

Did your Zip display the EU (local, in your case of course) RDS data?

 

Locally, the Clear Channel broadcaster is using the same Harris exciter / encoder as other stations.  We have two layers of FM information in the US, a digital “HD Radio” carrier, plus the original analog signal, with RDS.  On the HD side, the song information is also broadcast as part of the digital signal. (I have receivers that show both the HD and RDS concurrently).

 

Try the above trick with your Zip (pause FM, go to Music, play a file, pause, then go back to FM)  The RDS information should begin to refresh after 5-10 seconds.

 

 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Tried it Bob, the CC stations always show the wrong call letter info.  The data isn’t remotely correct.  For example, one of the CC stations call letters, WRDU (106.1MHz, local to the Raleigh, NC area) shows up at KATA.  Other CC stations show the same strange things, their call letters are mucked up.  But, any ‘catch phrases’ for the station or what’s playing right now does show up properly.

I went back out to my wife’s car (a 2010 Chevy Equinox with the optional upscale Pioneer-designed factory system) to check on the RDS data it shows in the display.  I was wrong about it displaying the right call-letter info for CC stations, it displays no call letter infor for those stations.  All other stations in the area show the call letters though.

Either CC stations don’t broadcast the info and the CZ does something weird since they’re not, CC stations broadcast some jibberish and the Chevy’s radio doesn’t show it but the CZ shows it or some other situation I’m not aware of.  Whatever is going on it’s something peculiar to CC stations and there is a difference even with a more sophisticated receiver.

No big loss for me though, Clear Channel stations around here are the pits so I typically don’t listen to them.  :smileyvery-happy:  That company has ruined each station they’ve bought in this area.

@neutron_bob wrote:

 

Locally, the Clear Channel broadcaster is using the same Harris exciter / encoder as other stations.  We have two layers of FM information in the US, a digital “HD Radio” carrier, plus the original analog signal, with RDS.  On the HD side, the song information is also broadcast as part of the digital signal. (I have receivers that show both the HD and RDS concurrently).

 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

I forgot to mention that my CZ often shows  the song/artist info.  Is that from the HD radio carrier or is it sometimes in the analog data stream?

I live at the german/dutch border. All dutch station show RDS the german stations don’t. Does anybody understand that?

@romanaleksejuk wrote:


@certigny wrote:

I live at the german/dutch border. All dutch station show RDS the german stations don’t. Does anybody understand that?


It seems that radio function of the player is not popular, that’s why people are lazy to complaint about RDS problem, but the problem do exist in some countries. And the developers don’t care really… 
This is the problem of a big company, which does not respond on a single complaints (only typical pseudo-polite suggestions like “please restart you computer”).

I’m planning to post an article to some popular IT blogs about my story with the CZ and about SanDisk support, about their suggestions and reaction to the problem (with the emails, forum posts and all other evidence).

Contacting the International Consumer Protection Organization would be also a great experience for me.

 

I wish a Merry Christmas to SanDisk support team and to the developers, and yes, please continue ignoring serious issues. :robotmad:

This is a consumer-to-consumer forum, not official Sandisk support.  The posts you see here are from other owners like myself and we don’t work for Sandisk.

@tnmats wrote:

This is a consumer-to-consumer forum, not official Sandisk support.  The posts you see here are from other owners like myself and we don’t work for Sandisk.

  1. To enter this forum, you must click a link, which is called “Support”.

  2. In the forums header it is written “Welcome to the SanDisk Forums”.

  3. There are Sandisk Admins present on this forum, who work for this company.

  4. When i was registering a direct ticket as an additional explanation for the support - i have pasted a link to this thread, so the real support team saw and knew about this problem/thread.

So you can call this forum like “consumer-to-consumer” or etc. but the official Sandisk people knows about this forum, and they should be interested on bugs elimination of their products.

@romanaleksejuk wrote:


tnmats wrote:

This is a consumer-to-consumer forum, not official Sandisk support.  The posts you see here are from other owners like myself and we don’t work for Sandisk.


  1. To enter this forum, you must click a link, which is called “Support”.

 

No, you don’t.

 

  1. In the forums header it is written “Welcome to the SanDisk Forums”.

 

So? If you read the 1st paragraph in the Forum Rules & Guidlines (you did read the Rules & Guidelines when you first registered, didn’t you?), you’ll see

 

“The goal of the SanDisk Forum is to provide a place where all SanDisk users can gather as a community.  In this community users can share thoughts, ask questions, look for answers, give improvement suggestions and learn more about the SanDisk products they own.”

Nowhere does this site claim to be an ‘official’ or Tech Support’ forum.

 

  1. There are Sandisk Admins present on this forum, who work for this company.

 

Yes, there’s one . . . and only one. And he does have other duties and a full-time job at SanDisk, so he’s not here 24/7/365.

 

  1. When i was registering a direct ticket as an additional explanation for the support - i have pasted a link to this thread, so the real support team saw and knew about this problem/thread.

 

So you can call this forum like “consumer-to-consumer” or etc. but the official Sandisk people knows about this forum, and they should be interested on bugs elimination of their products.

 

Interested? Yes. And I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but you have to consider 1 complaint (or even a few) about some discrepancies in the RDS feed to the FM radio on one of their many products is not likely to illicit an urgent high-priority firmware investigation and/or re-write. As you said, the FM radio on these things are not as popular as playing user-added content in the form of mp3’s or other formats. In fact a lot of these devices (from other manufacturers) don’t even have FM on them at all.

 

And truth be told, SanDisk’s Tech Support even flat-out denied the Clip Zip officially had RDS capability until just very recently. Is it really that big of a deal for you? People have been listening to FM radio on various devices for decades now without it and were perfectly happy without RDS. Does the absence or inaccuracy of RDS on this particular device detract from or ruin your enjoyment of the broadcast? Isn’t it really the music that matters?

 

Interested? Yes. And I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but you have to consider 1 complaint from Lithuania about some discrepancies in the RDS feed to the FM radio on one of their many products is not likely to illicit an urgent high-priority firmware investigation and/or re-write.

 If you read all the messages carefully, you should see that there are one more complaint on this issue from the customer from German, people are too lazy to complaint on this issues. No matter how many complaints there are, there is a fact - RDS is not working at some countries.

 

SanDisk’s Tech Support even flat-out denied the Clip Zip officially had RDS capability until just very recently.

 When i was thinking to buy this product, i read an official paper, where there was RDS function mentioned, and this is not so important either this was recently or long time ago. The fact - this is official function now.

 

People have been listening to FM radio on various devices for decades now without it and were perfectly happy without RDS

You could be completely happy without one hand, but me - not. This function is really important for me and this is NOT your business why it is. And if it is mentioned in the official paper - it should work correctly.

 

Yes, there’s one . . . and only one. And he does have other duties and a full-time job at SanDisk, so he’s not here 24/7/365.

 I don’t care on that, if you don’t have enough time, then Sandisk must hire more admins.

 

 

 

Instead of disputing on unreleated topics with unsatisfied customers please focus on reporting the problems to the developer team.

 


@romanaleksejuk wrote:

 

Instead of disputing on unreleated topics with unsatisfied customers please focus on reporting the problems to the developer team.

 

Agreed.  The forums aren’t where you’ll get through to official channels quickly, customer support via chat/email/phone is the way to do it.  This is true for any product I’ve ever bought, I visit forums like this since companies often don’t seem to resolve things fast enough for my tastes and forums like this allow me to find other customers (like me) who’ve had the same issues. When enough gripe things get fixed (usually).

I’m not bashing you, it’s just that forums like this aren’t the ‘official’ way of griping to any company.  At least any company I’ve had dealings with that had user forums.  And yes, many consumer electronics companies aren’t that fast nor responsive to problems outside of their home market.  I’ve been burned before like you and it isn’t fun.

From what I have seen, the forum is a good way to raise an issue that SanDisk might notice–like writing a letter to a company’s Customer Service with suggestions. And SanDisk sometimes does pay attention–just note the evolution of the Clip line, as well as firmware enhancements (most recently, with “Play all” brought back to the Clip Zip). As to player malfunctions and similar issues (e.g. “my player won’t start”), SanDisk personnel may indeed offer a fix/suggestion in the forum. But best to get help is to telephone SanDisk’s Customer Service (or post here and hope for some help from a fellow user).

@miikerman wrote:
From what I have seen, the forum is a good way to raise an issue that SanDisk might notice --like writing a letter to a company’s Customer Service with suggestions. And SanDisk sometimes does pay attention–just note the evolution of the Clip line, as well as firmware enhancements (most recently, with “Play all” brought back to the Clip Zip). As to player malfunctions and similar issues (e.g. “my player won’t start”), SanDisk personnel may indeed offer a fix/suggestion in the forum. But best to get help is to telephone SanDisk’s Customer Service (or post here and hope for some help from a fellow user).

Yes indeed. This forum and the comments posted have inspired SanDisk numerous times to add requested features and fix bugs in their firmware but . . .

In this particular case, it’s probably going to take more than 1 or 2 people reporting/complaining about the RDS feature in certain countries. And if they do respond, it certainly isn’t going to be over-night. These things take time . . . months in fact. And they (almost) never tell us what they are working on, or when a new firmware update is going to be ready.

The only thing one can do is hope they address it, and get used to the ‘flaw’ until if and when they do. Returning the player is always an option too, for those impatient ones.

I am from Germany and I have stored four radio stations but I can’t see any RDS informations. These radio stations have RDS informations which I can see on my network player with FM radio and clock radio. But RDS is not so important for me. I have selected “other world” to have better maximum volume.

RDS does still not work for me in France with the lastest firmware. This feature is important for me as I mainly use the radio function of the player.

@p_schott wrote:

RDS does still not work for me in France with the lastest firmware. This feature is important for me as I mainly use the radio function of the player.

Please register this problem directly to support team ( http://kb.sandisk.com/app/ask ), we have already 4 people with the same issue, together we can force these lazy developers to fix this issue! :smileyvery-happy:

@romanaleksejuk wrote:

. . . together we can force these lazy developers to fix this issue! :smileyvery-happy:

Yeah, I’m sure they’ll jump right on it with compliments like that!

@tapeworm wrote:

Yeah, I’m sure they’ll jump right on it with compliments like that!

Tapeworm, i have a concrete question for you, are you doing something on this problem (contacting developers, support or etc) ? This is not really funny anymore, direct support is silent, you are talking about all other topics but not on the problem, what the f*ck is going on ?

@romanaleksejuk wrote:


Tapeworm wrote:

Yeah, I’m sure they’ll jump right on it with compliments like that!


Tapeworm, i have a concrete question for you, are you doing something on this problem (contacting developers, support or etc) ? This is not really funny anymore, direct support is silent, you are talking about all other topics but not on the problem, what the f*ck is going on ?

It’s not a problem for us here in the USA, so we have no reason to hassle the developers! :stuck_out_tongue:

@marvin_martian wrote:

It’s not a problem for us here in the USA, so we have no reason to hassle the developers! :stuck_out_tongue:

This player is also sold in Europe, don’t forget that. Thanks for your comment, it really shows all the situation on ignorance.

As i said before, all our forum thread+letters to support forum+recorded phone conversations with support will be used to open the action bill in one of the International Consumer Protection Organizations. Keep it going! :wink:

What’s with all them negative waves, gentlemen?

The Clip Zip is marketed worldwide.  There have been some misconceptions about the FM and RDS capabilities of the new Sansa.  The Clip Zip and Fuze+ have RM RDS capability, using a new version of the FM receiver chip used in the Clip / Clip+.

For RDS to work properly, a clean signal is required.  Remember, the headphone cable functions as the antenna.

With the earlier build of firmware, the Clip ZIp could lose RDS display during playback.  The latest build (01.01.18) addresses this issue.  At least, it does as tested with local RDS signal on my devices.  The situation in other signal areas may be different.

The RDS informaton is fed from the FM receiver chip.  Displaying the information involves a clean signal, the receiver chip and its control, plus the Sansa’s interpreting of that data.  No developer laziness required, there are several links in the chain- and checking these links takes a little time to isolate any issues.  Fixing one issue may inevitably uncover another, it happens.

The FM receiver is capable of reception in the North American and worldwide areas (including EU of course).  Testing in various regions is simple enough, as all we need is a device physically within a region, a few minutes, and an internet connection.  I’m sure it will get sorted out very soon.

As for the hubbub, and ruffled feathers, the forum doesn’t operate in a vacuum.  With the huge base of users giving feedback here, it makes sense that issues will be found and reported among the information here.  And yes, SanDisk does listen to your feedback.

I’d love to test it myself, I would bring some Clip Zips, the laptop, and warm clothes of course.  Much better to visit outside of tourist season.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

romanaleksejuk,

I would like to let you know we are looking into this issue. That said I do not have a time frame as to if or when the issue will be resolved. I am also taking this time to let you know that personal attackes and foul language that you ahve used in a few of your posts will not be tolerated on this forum. This is your one and only warning. If you cannot abide by the forum rules and guidlines you will be permenently ban from posting on this forum.

Forum Admin

slotmonsta