Audiobooks, Clock, and Folder navigation !!

Hi, I am a big fan of audiobooks. All the audiobooks I listen are in MP3 format (like music).

  1. In Sansa Clip+, what is the meaning of Audiobooks? Another format?
  2. In Music mode you can select Play All, Artist, Album…, and Audiobooks - what does it mean, Audiobooks?
  3. If I put some MP3 audiobooks into AUDIOBOOKS folder, they don’t appear if I browse by Artist for example. Why?
  4. Also if in my MP3 audiobooks I have Artist and Title defined in ID3 tags, when browsing through Audiobooks option, I don’t see Artist, only Album, and then, Title
  5. What the connection between MP3 audiobooks, AUDIOBOOKS folder and Audiobooks option in Music menu?
  6. How to make the player to remember the position of MP3 book, where I left? Can it remember position of more than 1 mp3 audiobook?
    Thanks a lot

Message Edited by slishnevsky on 02-11-2010 06:45 AM

On the Clip+, a file is considered an audiobook if it has the genre audiobook, or if it is in the player’s audiobook folder. Audiobook files are excluded from the player’s song database. An audiobook is usually composed of many files, so to have them appear on the player as a single book, and to play in the correct order, they should have the same album tag, and be numbered in order using the track number tag. When you partially play a podcast or audiobook file on the Clip+, when you return to that file you are given a choice of resuming the file or starting from the beginning. If you started an audiobook via the music>audiobooks menu, when you return to that book using the music>audiobooks menu, the player will guide you to file in it that was last played. The player will do this for all of the audiobooks on it.

And, like podcasts, doesn’t it cause the Clip+ to exclude them from ‘shuffle’ mode?

Thanks JK98! Now I understand the logic.

I have a few suggestions that I have already posted under Firmware Wishlist, but I’m afraid they would get lost or unattended, so I want to duplicate them here just in case, since they are so important for me. Moderators, if you think it is not the place, please feel free to remove. Here it goes…

Here are very important things for me


Ability to turn off ID3 tag navigation
I, like many other people, never use ID3 tag navigation, only folder navigation.
I wish there was an option in Setting to turn it off (enable/disable).

Full screen clock with date

There is a Clock setting, but there is no way to see the Clock :slight_smile:

Simplify music navigation by ID3 tags

Such options as “My Top Rated”, “Recently Added”, “Song Rating”, etc… on my opinion are not very useful, could be easily removed.

What useful is probably only Artist/Album/Title navigation.

 

Audiobooks navigation missing Author (Artist)

When I select Audiobooks from Music navigation menu, I can only see the Album (no Author/Artis info).

I understand the reason for having Album (audiobooks that are split into pieces with the same Album name are treated as one book).

But what if I have many short books (stories) from different authors with no Album information?

Need to be able to navigate by Author/Album/Title, same as with music.

Message Edited by slishnevsky on 02-13-2010 06:18 AM

“Impossible navigate to Audiobooks by Author/Album/Title - MUST HAVE”

 If you give the book a different genre other than audiobook or podcast, and don’t put it in the audiobooks or podcasts folders, then you will have this navigation, but the audiobook files will play when you shuffle all your songs, and they will appear in song lists. A file is either in the song database or it isn’t. It needs to be in the song database to give more navigation choices.

“When I select Audiobooks from Music navigation menu, I can only see the Album (no Author/Artis info). I understand the reason for having Album (audiobooks that are split into pieces with the same Album name are treated as one book). But what if I have many short books (stories) from different authors with NO Album information?”

Create the album tags on your own using a tag editor like the free program mp3Tag.

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Yes, you’re right, but that MP3 will stop being an audiobook (in the eyes of the player), Resume function won’t work anymore. :slight_smile:

Also I am not using Genre tag at all in audiobooks, I just copy them into AUDIOBOOKS folder.

“Create the album tags on your own using a tag editor like the free program mp3Tag.”

Have been using mp3Tag before, but now I prefer Tag&Rename :slight_smile:

Now, what if I don’t have Album? What is Album anyway, if an audiobook is a short story (rhetorical question)?

Let’s say I have an audiobook mp3 file: Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451.mp3. In ID3 tags I would have:

Artist: Ray Bradbury  

Title: Fahrenheit 451

Album: __________

When navigating thru Audiobooks menu, I will not see  Ray Bradbury, I will se UNKNOWN (meaning the Album).

Doesn’t make much sense to me. Why is it limited to the Album tag only?

Why not use the combination Artist/Album/Title, that would cover all 3 tags.

And in my example it would be:

–Ray Bradbury

----Unknown

------Fahrenheit 451

That makes more sense (to see who the Author is), then just:

–Unknown

––Fahrenheit 451

Message Edited by slishnevsky on 02-11-2010 08:17 AM

So use your tag editor to set all the album tags equal to the artist tags.

Sure, I can do that as a work-around (since Album is NOT an Artist), but it’s not the point I am trying to make.

Instead of me spending time trying to edit ID3 tags,why not use the combination Artist/Album/Title, that would cover all 3 tags (same with music files)?

It’s a magic Troika (three main tags to use for mp3 tagging). I would even say that for audiobooks Album is less meaningful than Artist (Author), but not vice-versa.

Message Edited by slishnevsky on 02-11-2010 09:18 AM

Usually audio books are Author/Book/Chapter, paralleling Artist/Album/Song for music. I imagine a short story would most correctly be Author/Anthology/Story, since short stories, like singles, are very seldom released entirely on their own. If so, Author/Story/Story makes the most sense.