Is synchronising method better than drag and drop method?

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Clip | Sansa® Clip+
1

Just curious. Dragging files works much faster. On the other hand, using Windows Media player gives you better control altough it is a slower process.

It seems like creating playlists with WMP, then moving songs to the player works fine. Especially, when the player keeps dumping songs into “unknown” album. Then, everything in that album is listed numerically and alphabetically. 

Am I correct on this matter? 

2

For my money, dragging & dropping in MSC mode is the only way to go. I choose & control what goes on (and doesn’t go on) my player. But that’s just my humble opinion. There are folks here that think MTP and ‘syncing’ through Windows Media Player is ‘the best thing since sliced bread’. So it boils down to what works best for YOU.

Oh, and the UNKNOWN album thing? That means your Sansa cannot read the ID3 tags embedded in the mp3 files. You need to get MP3TAG (free) or another tag editor and correct the info in there so your Sansa can read & display the artist, album, song correctly.

3

Tapeworm;

Thanks. I manually scyncronised the clip with WMP. After creating playlists, I moved files not correctly embedded with tags into one of the playlists. Now, I am able to choose any playlist and play songs on the Clip.

To me, this method worked better.

Bye. 

4

Tape worm, could you tell me the correct settings for MP3Tag under Mpeg, I continuously have problems with some files not displaying.

Current settings are:

Read - ID3v1 ID3v2 are checked

Write - ID3v1 ID3v2 are checked as is the radio button for ID3v2.3 UTF-16

Remove - ID3v1 ID3v2 APE are checked.

I primarily use .wma files for space reasons. Thanks

5

Hey, you’re almost there!

Set write to ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1 and you’re in business. This format is best with the Sansa.

Bob :smileyvery-happy:

Message Edited by neutron_bob on 09-20-2008 05:43 PM

6

Thanks bob, I’ll see how I go.

g

7

I generally use WMP when ripping from a CD.  Lately I have been downloading concets from the Audio Archives in ogg vorbis. I have trouble using MP3Tag.  Everything gets tagged as unknown artist, unknown album. The tag is “vorbis comment (vorbis comment)”  I can change the track title, but nothing on the Artist & Album that makes any difference in how the song shaws up on the clip. 

I also hear some annoying popping when the crowd cheers between songs in Ogg Vorbis.  Nothing durring the songs, and the difference between Ogg and the same concerts is remarkable other than the popping.  

If anyone has any ideas about either of these issues? 

Thanks,

jjmotiff

8

The issue with the ogg vorbis comments is a known bug.  The problem is your clip is looking for these fields to be all caps (ARTIST, ALBUM, TITLE, etc) even though the vorbis standard is not case sensitive.  Your comment tags are probably lower case and the clip doesn’t recognize them.  Until this gets fixed in a firmware update you will need to add these comments with upper case comment tags like:

“TITLE=Your Title Here”

“ARTIST=Artist Name”

“ALBUM=you get the idea”

etc. 

9

I use the drag and drop method almost exclusively. Too much work for me using WMP.

10

love the shameless plug in your sig :wink:

11

On drag/drop versus syncing:

If the choice is between drag/drop and WMP sync, then definitely drag/drop.  However, if other tools are an option, then I’d go with syncing.  Winamp and MM come to mind.   I exclusively sync with Winamp in MSC mode.

If you are more playlist oriented, then syncing makes a lot of sense.  You are more into playing whole albums or like browsing for specific tracks, then drag/drop may be simpler.

Another case for syncing would be if you like to keep your player full, but rotate content in and out fairly frequently.  Or if you like to be suprised, most syncing tools can fill you your player with random songs, songs with a certain rating, etc.

In either case, I would avoid WMP and MTP mode if possible.  If you have DRM content you may not have much choice, but otherwise go for MSC mode and better media management tools.

12

My experience… a random sample of one <g>

I downloaded a big (55 hr+) book… Atlas Shrugged.  I dragged and dropped it and it worked fine till the second part of three.  I went back into the Overdrive system and down loaded it from my computer using the synchronyzing method.  It worked fine from then on.

I’ve had great success with my Clip with audio books from my local library. A great recource for books I’ve always wanted to read.

13

Media Monkey and Winamp offer simplicity and easy playlist management too.  There are advantages to either platform.  With Winamp, there’s a conflict issue with WiMP11, as I’ve seen here, as the two grapple for control of the computer.

You’re right on the WiMP issue.  If you choose to sync using the media player, be sure to be careful in those automatic settings, as WiMP likes to dump things you’ve listened to on the PC onto your player.

With DRM issues like Overdrive, the sync method is needed for those track licenses.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: 

14

@neutron_bob wrote:

With Winamp, there’s a conflict issue with WiMP11, as I’ve seen here, as the two grapple for control of the computer.

This is only true in MTP mode (which I advised against).  In MSC mode, there’s no problems with Winamp and WMP coexisting.

15

Ah, that is good news.  I hadn’t tried MSC as most of my media is ported over using MTP.

I use the difference to keep diagnostic files isolated from my music too.  The Winamp GUI is superb, with its green and black reminding me of the old Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminals back in the day.  Check out the Old Computers logo here.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Message Edited by neutron_bob on 09-24-2008 11:31 PM