Sansa Fuze+ Firmware 01.32.00

I have a stupid problem with the Podcast folder. Since upgrading to the 1.32.00 the main Podcast browser menu now shows up to 4 times as many tracks as there actually are.

e.g 12 episodes when in fact there are only three in the podcast

(some folders only show twice as many).

I’m Synchronising via 3rd party software to a folder on my PC using MSC mode and have had no problems prior to this.

Hi.

I’m new here. Going to receive my Sansa Fuze+ player in a few weeks. :smiley:

I just wanted to ask that should I install each firmware one by one or can I just upgrade to the newest and it’ll contain all the previous fixes too?

This will be my first Sandisk player as I’ve previously only used players by Creative.

@sapphire87 wrote:

Hi.

 

I’m new here. Going to receive my Sansa Fuze+ player in a few weeks. :smiley:

 

I just wanted to ask that should I install each firmware one by one or can I just upgrade to the newest and it’ll contain all the previous fixes too?

 

This will be my first Sandisk player as I’ve previously only used players by Creative.

Just the latest. Each firmware is complete, containing all the previous updates as well.

Ok. Thanks for answering my question… :smiley:

That was the only thing that I really was wondering about.

Everything else about the player is quite clear.

Browsing this place sure has given me much valuable information already.

Any idea/comments/information when the voice and fm recording thing will be fixed?
& of course the sluggish performance…

I have mixed feelings with the new fuze+

On the plus side, when the touch controls work, they are sexy, and I like it.  The new menu system is awesome and the look of the product is great. 

Another fantastic feature which is not mentioned here is transfer rate.  The transfer rate via Rhapsody and Winamp is outstanding.  I love how fast Rhapsody channels now updates.  It’s almost twice as fast.  The transfer rate for winamp is also sweet.

On the down side, the player takes too long to boot, the sluggish performance navigating menus is really annoying.

What I am finding is the biggest delay is when I go from “albums to Songs” in the Music menu.  Since I have over 4000 songs listed, when it has to make this list, it is several seconds and I just have to wait.

Unfortunately, I use Genre as my preferred method of picking music, which means I have to always navigate through the songs sub menu to get to Genre.

Ideally the lists should be seamless, but if Sansa can’t physically make that happen, at least let us “order” the sub menus in a specific order.

Let me pick which sub menus I want in which order.  (Of course looping through menus would also allow me to navigate the other way and thus avoid the problematic “songs” menu.).

I also want to eliminate the “card” menu from the top like other menus.  Since the only navigation possibilities in “card” is by artist, it’s not very useful.  Also, since the card is already integrated into the other menus, I don’t see the necessity of the “card” menu unless a “slot music” card is inserted.

Either way, let me disable that menu if I wish.

The higher catalog size (10,000) is nice and hopefully will be expanded even further considering a 16GB unit can eventually support 48GB. 

I think since Sandisk does it’s “capacity” based on 128Kbit/Sec MP3’s, then the database size should also sized accordingly.

I have high hopes for the device.  There were similar “gaffs” with the Fuze when it first came out  (such as non-looping menus and a “fixed” scroll rate).  Sandisk matured the product nicely and eventually the Fuze became my favorite player.

@sabina wrote:

I really want to like this player, but so far there’s just a lot of room for improvement…

 

What I would love more than anything in an update would be for my player not to be sluggish.  My library is not even full.  I can deal with the slow start up, but when it takes several seconds between EACH music menu?  That’s a problem, especially if I want to listen by genre or playlist, it takes FOREVER to get there.

 

What I would love even more than that would be to trade in for the same player with tactile buttons, because these touch controls are pretty much aweful.  It compounds the lag problem, because I don’t know if the touch controls just didn’t register, or if the player is just taking a while to respond.

I am forced to whole heartedly agree… I really wish I had just returned this thing to newegg.com within the first 30days but I kept thinking, “oh well maybe the next firmware will fix it” but no, it is still a laggy POS… why can’t you guys fix this? it’s ridiculous, I know it’s not an iPod touch or anything, but come on it was still almost $120 when I purchased it, that’s not exactly “pocket change”… seriously hope I can find some 3rd party firmware, cause this ■■■■ BLOWS!!!

The voice recording issue has been identified and the fix should come in the next firmware release. Before everyone asks I have not been given a release date for the next firmware.

As to the sluggish performance. The initial investigation points to the way the device is integrating the library for the external card. The way this was handled in previous Sansa devices was changed to cut down on database refresh time. In the Fuze+ the external card content is rebuilt on the fly. This was done to cut down on database refresh time.  This is likely what is leading to sluggish performance with large amounts of data stored on the external card. For an immediate work around you can reduce the data stored on the external card. We are looking into way to improve this function but may end up changing the integration to happen during database refresh. This will lead to longer refresh times but should resolve the sluggish performance when changing menus. 

Forum Admin 

slotmonsta

@slotmonsta wrote:

For an immediate work around you can reduce the data stored on the external card. We are looking into way to improve this function but may end up changing the integration to happen during database refresh. This will lead to longer refresh times but should resolve the sluggish performance when changing menus. 

Forum Admin 

slotmonsta

this is most definitely NOT the cause, because I’m not even using an external card and the response time is MURDER… well more like death by old age… have a total of just over 3000 tracks on a 16GB Fuze+ and I literally want to throw this thing it’s so frustrating… just waiting for a fix… until then I’ll keep using my android phone as my media player (but that means I have to charge much more often, which also ■■■■■… I know this thing has potential to be a great little mp3/media player, but boy do I wish I had done a little more digging before making the purchase… I made the purchase because my sister had a Fuze and loves it to death… but Fuze+ is really more like Fuze- (negative)… it’s like self torture in a bad way everytime I turn it on…

@slotmonsta wrote:

As to the sluggish performance. The initial investigation points to the way the device is integrating the library for the external card. The way this was handled in previous Sansa devices was changed to cut down on database refresh time. In the Fuze+ the external card content is rebuilt on the fly. This was done to cut down on database refresh time.  This is likely what is leading to sluggish performance with large amounts of data stored on the external card. For an immediate work around you can reduce the data stored on the external card. We are looking into way to improve this function but may end up changing the integration to happen during database refresh. This will lead to longer refresh times but should resolve the sluggish performance when changing menus. 

Forum Admin 

slotmonsta

 

Ahh, the infamous “refreshing database” raises it’s ugly head again.  Sansa has been dealing with this issue for as long as they have integrated the sd cards with internal memory.  I first ran into the “refreshing database” lag with my E280R.

 

A simple solution option would kill two birds with one stone would be the following:

 

Simply have the initial lists under “artist” “album” and “songs” be alpha-numeric.  That is, they only show the numbers 0-9 and A-Z, (or whatever language equivalent).  That way there is no lag, because each list is static regardless of the database size.  Scroll down to the desired letter/number and tap the center and you now get the list of the items that fit that letter at which point you can “build the list” on the fly, since you will only be building a subset of the whole list. 

 

This kills two birds with one stone, it allows for more precise navigation and limits the amount of swiping a customer does, and creates less overhead to build the list on the fly.  It also allows the device to build the sublists on the fly and not require the extensive DB update during boot.

 

So When I tap the Music Menu option My initial list looks as follows:

 

Artists:

0-9

A

B

C

D

.

etc…

.

 

or better break it up into groups of three letters (like are already on our phones) so that all the letters can be displayed on a single screen:

 

Artists:

0-9

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQRS

TUV

WXYZ

 

You get the picture.  Yes, it adds one more menu level, but breaks up long lists into easier navigatable chunks.  The same look would be for Albums and Songs.

 

That should be very easy to implement and would allow easier navigation across large libraries. 

 

Not only that, it gives me another opportunity to see my cool background Album Art mosaic :slight_smile:

 

You guys are so close.  I think this and a better lock and unlocking mechanism will do a lot for this player.  That being said, once I get use to the capacitive controls, I quite like them.  It has a definite “high tech” feel, and if you just allowed users to adjust sensitivity to their own tastes (use tactile volume control to set this feature), I think you could nail it.

 

Hey, I’d like to see the “inertial” rapid sweep implemented in the horizontal plane as well.  This would make navigating at the top level really cool.  Wraparound scrolling would also be better than the “bounce back” effect, with one exception, going between two choices as in Podcasts / Audiobooks can retain the “bounce”.

These new machines have plenty of memory for a database file.  If needed, a full refresh can happen in the background, at least you can resume playback without having to wait for the coffee to brew.  There should be a flag set if there have been no changes (USB transfers) the last time the device was active.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Bob,

You and I are on the same page.  I suggested this back in the 280R days and it seemed that we were told that it was “not possible”. 

I am not a user of Rockbox, because the Rockbox for the Fuze broke the software RhapPFS.  I had a rockboxed E280R and that rocked since it was hardware based, Rockbox couldn’t destroy it.  But for the Fuze, when I upgraded to Rockbox, I lost my ability to play rhapsody channels or tracks with a constant red dot.

Thus I uninstalled rockbox from the fuze after the first day.  I just can’t give up my Rhapsody subscription

But besides the point, the Developers should really download rockbox and run an original fuze on it for ideas on how to implement a good “database” synchronization plan.

The ability to navigate directly to folders, combined with the ability to perform db updates in the background or during startup and to manually execute DB refreshes gives the user ultimate control over the DB synchronization.  Probably a little confusing for beginning users, but definitely a checksum that can detect no changes in the DB as well as DB sync done in the background should satisfy most users.

“True” Folder navigation would allow immediate playback of files recently added while the DB is refreshing in the background without any more overhead. 

@p_opus wrote:  

Ahh, the infamous “refreshing database” raises it’s ugly head again.  Sansa has been dealing with this issue for as long as they have integrated the sd cards with internal memory.  I first ran into the “refreshing database” lag with my E280R.

 

A simple solution option would kill two birds with one stone would be the following:

 

Simply have the initial lists under “artist” “album” and “songs” be alpha-numeric.  That is, they only show the numbers 0-9 and A-Z, (or whatever language equivalent).  That way there is no lag, because each list is static regardless of the database size.  Scroll down to the desired letter/number and tap the center and you now get the list of the items that fit that letter at which point you can “build the list” on the fly, since you will only be building a subset of the whole list. 

 

This kills two birds with one stone, it allows for more precise navigation and limits the amount of swiping a customer does, and creates less overhead to build the list on the fly.  It also allows the device to build the sublists on the fly and not require the extensive DB update during boot.

 

So When I tap the Music Menu option My initial list looks as follows:

 

Artists:

0-9

A

B

C

D

.

etc…

.

 

or better break it up into groups of three letters (like are already on our phones) so that all the letters can be displayed on a single screen:

 

Artists:

0-9

ABC

DEF

GHI

JKL

MNO

PQRS

TUV

WXYZ

 

You get the picture.  Yes, it adds one more menu level, but breaks up long lists into easier navigatable chunks.  The same look would be for Albums and Songs.

 

That should be very easy to implement and would allow easier navigation across large libraries. 

 

Not only that, it gives me another opportunity to see my cool background Album Art mosaic :slight_smile:

 

You guys are so close.  I think this and a better lock and unlocking mechanism will do a lot for this player.  That being said, once I get use to the capacitive controls, I quite like them.  It has a definite “high tech” feel, and if you just allowed users to adjust sensitivity to their own tastes (use tactile volume control to set this feature), I think you could nail it.

@neutron_bob wrote:

Hey, I’d like to see the “inertial” rapid sweep implemented in the horizontal plane as well.  This would make navigating at the top level really cool.  Wraparound scrolling would also be better than the “bounce back” effect, with one exception, going between two choices as in Podcasts / Audiobooks can retain the “bounce”.

 

These new machines have plenty of memory for a database file.  If needed, a full refresh can happen_ in the background_, at least you can resume playback without having to wait for the coffee to brew.  There should be a flag set if there have been no changes (USB transfers) the last time the device was active.

 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

man, if only sandisk would actually listen to it’s customers… they might have a winner on their hands… seriously, what’s so hard about implementing things that will actually fix the problem , rather than try elaborate schemes that only cause further issues… YOU DON’T ALWAYS HAVE TO REINVENT THE WHEEL GUYS!!!

These above ideas would make this product so much better, I could then honestly laugh at anyone with an ipod nano…

My Fuze + keeps crashing. the screen goes black and then it turns off or it will still be on and none of the controls work. I even tried the trick about switching the USB Mode and that didn’t even work. Have reverted back to previous firmware.

Does anybody know when the new software version will be released?

Only

I’m kind of curious if I’m the only person experiencing RIDICULOUSLY long start up times.

I’ve got a 8gb Fuze+ with an 8gb micro-SDHC card in, both pretty much packed to the brim and this little **bleep** can take up to 15 or 20 minutes to start up and load everything.  That’s only slightly ridonkulous to me.  Sure, 20 minutes out of my day isn’t much, but it’s really the principle of the thing.

I’m pretty tempted to go back to using my glowing blue-screened ever-lovin’ Rio Karma.

@blassreiter wrote:

I’m kind of curious if I’m the only person experiencing RIDICULOUSLY long start up times.

 

No need for curiosity. If you read around here, you’ll discover you have plenty of company.

@tapeworm wrote:

No need for curiosity. If you read around here, you’ll discover you have plenty of company.

I’ve noticed the complaints about the long start up times, yeah.  I was more curious if they’ve been as long as mine. :smileyvery-happy:

There’s about 285 MB left on the player itself and 700 or so MB left on the SDHC card, so I’m going to guess it might be because of that.  A friend of mine has a regular Fuze and hasn’t had the same problems, so I’m trying to discern if I should return the Fuze+ and just get the original flavor.

Edit: I should change ‘start up time’ to ‘time it takes to load the internal memory and external memory’, which is very much to the tune of several minutes.

The earlier Fuze, with the AustriaMicrosystems processor, retained the music database between power cycles, making for a rapid and convenient boot cycle.  The Fuze+ is a little different; the database is rebuilt each time.

If you’ve experienced the Clip+, based upon the Fuze platform, this little guy is atomic fast.

I’m looking forward to improvements in the Fuze+ file parsing process.  Have you tried removing the microSD card to compare your boot time?  It’s quite possible that there could be issues with the metadata that are slowing the process.  Be sure to use ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1 tags.

I’ve found that cleaning up the tag data does speed up the Fuze+ quite a bit.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: