2 very simple firmware requests

I have recently bought the 8gb version of the Fuze (I previously had the iRiver Clix2 8gb), and after updating the firmware (and getting my ID3 tags to work properly) I am very happy with the fuze.

However, there are two things, that should be very simple to fix, but would really improve the firmware quite a bit - and these suggestions are nothing fancy, like gapless playback or something like that :P.

  1. Ignore “The” (and possibly “A” ) at the beginning of Album, Track, and Artist names. I have so many songs/albums/artists beginning with “The” and they are all grouped together - and sometimes I forget if there is a “The” at the beginning or not (easy to forget a “the” ), and if this “the” was ignored, I would not have such a problem finding the right artist/album/song or whatever. Many players already do this (my clix for example).

  2. Increase the size of the GoList. Simple. 200 is tiny IMHO. Almost always, I am shuffling, and I like to be able to shuffle as many artists at once, so that I get a greater variety of artists playing. Of course 200 songs would take a long time to get through if I listen to them one by one, but say I had 199 songs from one artist, and 50 from the other, I would only be hearing songs from one artist with the current limit of 200 on the GoList (that’s boring to me - lol I get bored of cereals after just one box), plus one extra song that I would be unlikely to hear. That is an extreme case, which I have exaggerated - but as the GoList is so short, I can’t even shuffle between two genres!! With the clix, I could easily shuffle between as many artists/genres as I wanted, by adding to the GoList equivalent or by adding to the “now playing” queue. 

If it is unreasonable to extend the size of the GoList for memory reasons or whatever, I know the Fuze is capable of playing/shuffling more than 200 songs in a row by playing all songs in one genre for example, so why not have a “now playing” queue, which you can add to. So after switching off, your “now playing” list will be lost, but at least I won’t have the 200 songs limit.

Message Edited by Xanikseo on 07-13-2009 11:48 PM

  1. That would be nice. :smiley:

  2. Why not just shuffle all with repeat off? :stuck_out_tongue:

1 - I experienced/suffered this and modified the ID tags to take out the offending “The”'s.  It didn’t take too long (as you can do an album it one hit.  And now, whenever I rip another disc, I do it as a matter of course.

I don’t like shuffling all, because usually I prefer to listen to one type of music at a time, and I have such contrasting music :P. I don’t want to keep listening to a Rocky Christmas in the middle of Summer (not that I have that song though lol)!

I don’t really want to take out the "The"s either, they usually have a reason to be there (like emphasis or something), besides it doesn’t solve the problem.

I’m a little bit of an audiophile (CDs rip at 256kbps ogg/vorbis XD), and I like to keep the integrity of the original song (including "The"s). Changing the name of a song is one thing, but an album?, and changing the name of the artist would be blasphemy lol!!

Message Edited by Xanikseo on 07-13-2009 11:52 PM

That’s why playlist is available. “The” will always be included and if SanDisk will filter it, how about other users who wants the word “The” not to be filtered.

@xanikseo wrote:

However, there are two things, that should be very simple to fix, but would really improve the firmware quite a bit - and these suggestions are nothing fancy, like gapless playback or something like that :P.

 

  1. Ignore “The” (and possibly “A” ) at the beginning of Album, Track, and Artist names.

 

  1. Increase the size of the GoList. Simple. 200 is tiny IMHO.
  1. Good idea, and it’s been suggested before. But as fellow Guru and all-around nice guy Neutron_bob asked here, "What about The THE?

  2. Could be worse. Not too long ago the GoList was limited to only 50 entries! It’s been less than a year since the limit was increased via a firmware update. So . . . all in good time. :wink:

@xanikseo wrote:

However, there are two things, that should be very simple to fix, but would really improve the firmware quite a bit - and these suggestions are nothing fancy, like gapless playback or something like that :stuck_out_tongue:.

 

  1. Ignore “The” (and possibly “A” ) at the beginning of Album, Track, and Artist names.

 

  1. Increase the size of the GoList. Simple. 200 is tiny IMHO.
  1. Good idea, and it’s been suggested before. But as fellow Guru and all-around nice guy Neutron_bob asked here, "What about The THE?

  2. Could be worse. Not too long ago the GoList was limited to only 50 entries! It’s been less than a year since the limit was increased via a firmware update. So . . . all in good time. :wink:

@xanikseo wrote:

I don’t like shuffling all, because usually I prefer to listen to one type of music at a time, and I have such contrasting music :P. I don’t want to keep listening to a Rocky Christmas in the middle of Summer (not that I have that song though lol)!

OK, here’s another idea. With the folder nav option, you can shuffle just one folder, or just the internal memory, or just your external memory. So you could organize your music that way.:wink:

If people really don’t want to filter "The"s, maybe they could make an option in the settings…

LOLZEZ @ The THE - I wouldn’t want the Fuze to filter all the "The"s though, just the beginning one, so it would still be under “The”.

Maybe if they can’t/don’t want to increase the GoList, maybe allow us to queue things (not in a playlist, but add to the “now playing”)? 

I’m trying not to ask too much, I won’t be expecting gapless playback anytime soon; but I think these could easily be solved in 5 mins, and don’t really require too much effort to fix. It’s not really like these are minor issues either, it seems silly now that I think about it that you can’t even queue songs/albums/artists without using a playlist/GoList… 

EDIT: I did think about shuffling through folders, but then I thought “I don’t always shuffle the same things” and then “Sometimes I shuffle by artist, and sometimes by genre”. I suppose if I really wanted to do this, I could, but it would require effort, and I would have to shuffle the same things (the fact that I shuffle shows that I don’t like listening to the same stuff all the time), and doesn’t really solve the problem. It just seems easier just to change the firmware a tiny bit, rather than spend all this time coming up with a workaround which doesn’t really work…

Message Edited by Xanikseo on 07-14-2009 03:08 PM

  1. I blame the music providers. In print, i.e. libraries card catalogs (remember those?), “The” or “A” was always moved to the end of the title preceded by a comma/space, i.e “Magic Flute, The”. My guess is commas used to be an issue in the digital world. Editing the tags works fine for files that you own, and I suggest this could be handled very easily as a preference in the Sansa Media Converter (i.e. Move articles to the end of Artist Names? Y/N. Move articles to the end of Song Titles? Y/N.), but if you subscribe to a service, you’re stuck with the way they create them.

  2. You could simply play all the music on your Fuze and turn Shuffle on, or use a playlist instead of the Go List until they expand the Go List capabilities. 

Message Edited by qualityaudio on 07-14-2009 07:13 AM

  1. I’m afraid I do use some subscription services.

  2. I’ve said before, I don’t like suffling all (too many contradicting songs), and I wouldn’t like to listen to Christmas carols in the heat of Summer for example. I do use playlists at the moment, but this is what I am asking for - them to increase the GoList size, and to do it as quickly as possible, because it’s easy, and if they don’t do it now, they may never do it, so I don’t have to keep using playlists and constantly creating new ones. I can’t create new playlists without a computer either…

Using all these work arounds (thanks everyone for all the suggestions) are all well and good, but don’t solve the solution (which can be easily solved), and create more effort rather than less. I’m not just gonna beaver away with all these workarounds and just sit there and wait for the firmware guys to solve the problem they might not even know exists or be aware of.

I’m not just gonna assume the check is in the post :wink:.

Message Edited by Xanikseo on 07-14-2009 03:25 PM

@xanikseo wrote:

 

  1. I’ve said before, I don’t like suffling all (too many contradicting songs), and I wouldn’t like to listen to Christmas carols in the heat of Summer for example. .

 

Message Edited by Xanikseo on 07-14-2009 03:25 PM

That isn’t an issue for me, because my Fuze only holds about 25% of my music library. Things like that, that you know you won’t be listening to, just remove them, and keep them on your computer. That might make shuffle all more of an option.

@marvin_martian wrote:


@xanikseo wrote:

 

  1. I’ve said before, I don’t like suffling all (too many contradicting songs), and I wouldn’t like to listen to Christmas carols in the heat of Summer for example. .

 

Message Edited by Xanikseo on 07-14-2009 03:25 PM


That isn’t an issue for me, because my Fuze only holds about 25% of my music library. Things like that, that you know you won’t be listening to, just remove them, and keep them on your computer. That might make shuffle all more of an option.

That’s how my fuze is too.  If I skip it a lot on shuffle, it get’s deleted so there’s space for something else.  

Also, I tend to use the genre field (only on the files on my clip/fuze, not on the originals) to group types of songs together.  I use numbers.  It’s a little weird but it works for me :wink:

Message Edited by summerlove on 07-14-2009 05:07 PM