Anyone using a Fuze+MicroSDHC in MSC mode?

I’ve been looking for a 16GB flash player for a while but haven’t been happy with the current options. Basically I’d like a 16GB Clip, so I’m considering an 8GB Fuze + 8GB MicroSDHC. However, I’m concerned about how the syncing is going to work in Winamp.

Primarily I’m concerned about how playlists will work in MSC mode. With the Clip, m3u playlists work great in MSC mode as long as the playlists contain relative paths. How would this work with the MicroSDHC? While I undersand the internal and MicroSDHC memory will both be integrated in the Fuze’s database, the memory is not physically integrated, right? It’s two separate “drives”, right?

I would assume that means that you can’t have a playlist that includes files from both internal and MicroSDHC memory? Playlists on the internal memory could only include files in the internal memory and playlists on the MicroSDHC memory could only include files in the MicroSDHC memory?

So what does this mean for syncing in Winamp? Will Winamp see the Fuze as two separate portable devices? That would be good because you could send some playlists to the internal and some to the MicroSDHC. If Winamp somehow sees the Fuze as a single device I’m not sure how the playlists will work. Anyone ever tried this?

Even if you’re not using Winamp, could someone using MSC mode with a MicroSDHC card please confirm if my understanding of how playlists work is correct?

good to know that you understand how important paths are for m3u.  in regards to having a playlist include both internal and external, I do not think it is possible, however you could give it a try by first uploading the content on your msd and internal memory (msc). than drag the files from your device into winamp’s playlist manager and save the m3u in the fuze.

not sure if it’ll work ,but still worth a shot, right?

in terms of winamp detecting the device, be warned that sansa does not offer support for winamp.  there had been issues with e200 clip and view with winamp mentioned in the forums.

but let us know if you get the m3u playlists to play both internal and external! goodluck! 

hi again, I was curious so I tried it out myself =P

doesn’t work. I created a playlist that included both internal and external memery of the fuze. I saved the m3u in both the MSD and internal.  the playlist in the internal only detected the internal mp3s, and the mSD detected only the mSD songs.

=/ 

doesn’t work. I created a playlist that included both internal and external memery of the fuze. I saved the m3u in both the MSD and internal.  the playlist in the internal only detected the internal mp3s, and the mSD detected only the mSD songs.

Thanks for trying that out.  That’s pretty much what I expected.

As for Winamp, I realize that it’s not supported.  But the syncing features are excellent, espcially for people that need to transcode when they sync.  In my case, my library is all FLAC, and I have Winamp transcode to MP3 during the sync.  I use this on my 4GB Clip and everything works great except that Winamp puts full paths in the playlists.  So I did a little batch script that fixes the paths in the playlists on the Clip after I sync (which I could post here if anyone is interested).

Winamp aside, in MSC mode the Fuze appears as two different drives in Windows Explorer, right?  If so, I suspect that it would appear as two different portable devices to Winamp.  In which case, syncing certain playlists to the internal memory and others to the mSD should be possible.  Both would have a playlists folder that would only contain playlists associated with the respective memory device.

Will the Fuze still find all the playlists if some are on the internal and some are on the mSD?  As long as each playlist only contains files on the same memory device as the playlist itself it should work, right?

correct, the fuze will find any playlist it supports (m3u in msc mode) regardless if its in internal or external.  Even if you have incorrect paths in the m3u, the fuze will just disregard those and skip to the next path.

I’m not sure how the device displays on winamp, I acutally did not install the portable device plugins in winamp, cause winamp always freezes when I connect a device.  so I just disabled device detection with winamp =P. 

Thanks for the Feedback, thoma.  One more question, if you don’t mind.

How is the Fuze with loading large playlists?  On my 4GB Clip I have a couple large (around 500 track) playlists.  They work fine, but are very slow to load.  Takes about 1 minute to select the playlist and another minute after hitting play before playback starts.  Once playback starts, everything is fine.  Not a huge deal, because I usually just load up one of the big lists and leave it on shuffle for days, but still annoying.

I’d really appreciate it you could try it on your Fuze.

hi, currently playlists above 250 song count have a hard time loading (cueing up the id3 tags). I’ve tried with 1000+ song count and it took like 40+ seconds [I didn’t mean minutes in my pre-modified post]!

the clip had the same problem, but I think they are releasing a fix for it soon. It seems that the fuze will implement that fix and be released in the next FW update, but we can only hope.

Message Edited by thoma on 04-21-2008 09:02 AM

Thanks again for all the info.  The new Clip FW is supposed to be out any day.  I guess I wait and see how that goes before jumping on the Fuze.