CD Books When a Disc Finishes the Fuze does Not Automatically Change to the Next Higher Number Disc

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
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I rip library Audiobook CD discs to wma or ogg format. & then use MTP to drag & drop the ripped disc into the Fuze.  

This creates a  hierarchy  of folders.  For example

Folder (book Title)
   Subfolders for each CD of the book (these would be for example  disc 1, disc 2, etc. ending with the last disc 11)

Each disc would have tracks numbered from 1 to the last track.

I want to start a disc and when that disk has played the last track, for the Fuze to move automatically to the next sequentially higher numbered disc.   I also have a Cowon iAudio S9 and a Samsung YP-P3 and each of these players automatically play the discs in order (these are both MTP players).

I have no problem playing any disc.  However, when say Disc #2 finishes the last track, instead of the Fuze automatically moving on to the next higher Disc  (in the example, to disc #3) I have to manually click back to the top folder and select the next folder to continue the book.  This is unacceptable.

Exactly how to I set up the Fuze to play continually, without interruption?  I’ve tried everything I can think of and need HELP!  :)

Phil 

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Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 06:29 PM

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Am I correct in understanding that the Fuze will NOT play sequential subfolder tracks…in other words when the 99 tracks in disc 01 are completed, Fuze will not automatically continue by playing disc 02 tracks?   Both Samsung and Cowan mp3 players do continue playing, so I “expected” that Fuze would, also

If I merge the 99 tracks into 1 large file, but I leave this file in disc 01, Fuze still will not continue on to play disc 02…correct?

Let’s assume I converted my 12 subfolder discs, each with 99 tracks, into 12 discs each with 1 file…Am I any better off re sequential play?

I am looking for the easiest, quickest way to play my already ripped audio books on the Fuze without interruption.  Can you be specific in the steps I must take to accomplish this ressult?

I guess I’ve been spoiled using the other players.  I had no idea there would be further processing required, since the Fuze has MTP capability.

Replies will ne much appreciated!!  I jsut need to know “what” to do to make it work on the Fuze.

Phil 

   

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Use mp3tag. It’s free. Trick the Sansa into thinking they’re additional tracks on the same album.

mp3tag

Set defaults under Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg to Write ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1.

Open the folder of the SECOND album. Highlight all the files, Tools Auto-Numbering Wizard. You can start with any number, so you’d want the last track number of the first disc+1. 

Now, while still highlighted, change Album title to match what’s on the first disc and Save. 

See if that works. Otherwise you might have to drag the drags into the folder with the first album. But it’s good to change the tracks in the second folder before moving them, or mp3tag will display your list as:

01-Track1Disc1

01-Track1Disc2

02-Track1Disc2

02-Track2Disc2

etc. 

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Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 06:28 PM

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I agree with BR. It may be that the tracks simply need to be sequentially numbered, starting at where the previous folder leaves off, rather than restarting at 01 for each folder. Suggest you try Auto-Renumbering w/ files still in their respective subfolders.

One addendum to BR’s instructions is that MP3Tag will look into subfolders by default (unless specified otherwise in Options), so there is no need to do each subfolder separately. All tracks from all subfolders should be seen on the main panel, and batch tag editing should work for all of them.

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If using MTP to drag & drop is the PROBLEM…can I do it in a way that will work?  Would MSC be any different?

Will Media Player “fix” the problem?  I can load each disc’s tracks into WMP.   What I don’t want is to have track #1 of each of 12 CD discs playing sequentially :).   I am looking for the easiest way to just listen to the book while doing other things like exercising, with the least time & effort spent.

Surely others rip library CD audio books and just want to listen to the CD tracks that they have ripped to folders for each CD.

If processing is required…sounds like it is required…would it be “easier” to merge all the 99 files into one file, then rename this 1 file say “A” and do the same for the next CD and name this one file “B”, etc. and then have the 12 single files in one Folder with the book’s Name?   OR would Mp3Tag do the job easier?  I’ve avoided using and tags in the past so am dumb about it.

I apologize for asking these questions…I just never imagined that Fuze would not do what Saamsung and Cowon do automaticalaly (I just drag and drop the entire book folder with its 12 subfolder discs and it “plays”>

Phil 

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Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 06:28 PM

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Unless there is digital rights garbage in the files–like expiration dates–you don’t need MTP, and somewhere between WMP and the MTP mode you may get your filenames changed due to Microsoft’s mysterious inner workings.

If you’re ripping the CDs yourself, then better to transfer them in MSC mode. I like to fix things on the computer before transferring, but in MSC mode you can probably get away with fixing them on the Fuze as well.

Meanwhile, I haven’t tried this lately, but I think if you load the main folder and all the subfolders at once, and the tracknames are 01.Firsttrack, you’re going to get all the 01s, then all the 02s, etc. in mp3tag. So it’s best to open each subfolder and Auto-Number sequentially.

This is a lot faster than merging all the tracks. Mp3tag takes seconds per album. And you’ll still have the separate chapters if you don’t merge. 

I agree it would be nice if the Sansa also read the Discnumber tag, but c’est la vie. Your other units probably also go by tag information, just a little more smoothly. 

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Interesting.  Is there a way to prepend the file names in Mp3Tag or is there another batch file name change utility you recommend.  Certainly I would not want to one by one rename hundreds of files in a book.

I like the idea of having Wp3Tag renumber all the files in the whole book in one shot.  

Ideal approach would be to just drop all the discs into Mp3Tag and tell it to renumebr the tracks from say 001 to 1000 and then drag & drop on the PC all the files from the individual foldersinto one folder and then MSC that folder into Fuze.  

I appreciate your comments, I think you are pushing me along the right path.  When I get there and it “works”, I will post detailed step by step for he record for others to use.  A big part of my problem is that I’ve never had to use tags before and as the other responder said “Fuze uses (requires) tags”.

Phil 

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Message Edited by TomJensen on 05-03-2010 06:28 PM

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The best thing to to is play with mp3tag. It does just about everything a brainless piece of software can automate. 

Again, I would batch-renumber within folders before combining them if every book starts 01-Chapter1. Mp3tag’s default is to number by filename. 

But as you’ll see can also do it by any other header.

So if your book’s Album field says Book-Chapter-1, Book-Chapter-2, etc., you could click on album, have it order them that way, highlight them all and Auto-Number them in a jiffy.  Depends on what filenames and tags you are starting with. 

Mp3tag has some nice features. One is Convert. It will convert tags to filenames (any way you want : %track%.%artist%-%Title% gives you 01.Artist-Song). Or it will convert filenames to tags so 01.Song.mp3 gives you %track%.%title%. 

Meanwhile…why are you using .ogg and .wma? I know some people prefer .ogg sound quality, but for spoken word it’s really not necessary. And .wma…I like to stay out of the Microsoft dominion wherever possible. Mp3 is the most portable format, in case you ever want to move to a player that doesn’t play .ogg. There are even players that don’t play .wma, though I know that sounds pretty doPi. 

Message Edited by Black-Rectangle on 02-05-2010 08:12 PM

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Thanks to all the helpful Replies.  This is a great community!

I am under the impression that mp3 files are larger and use more disc space…that is why years ago I started using wma.   Then I realized that a number of devices don’t support wma (Apple being one).  I am thinking about getting a Nexus One phone when the next generation comes out and it does not support wma.  Apple and Nexus and Samsung and Sansa and Cowon do support ogg.  So I decided a few months ago to start doing audio books in ogg & stopped using the wma.

I agree that mp3 is universal.   If I am wrong that mp3 wastes space then I’ve blown it. I started book ripping when storage was not as large as today for the price.   Today, mp3 may be the sweet spot when storage price and portability arae weighed.

Perhaps in a future firmware release, Sansa will do whatever Cowon and Samsung have been doing for years i.e. seamlessly playing sequentially subfolder Disks in order (01, 02,…11, 12) without any tags.  Especially since Sansa has an “Audiobook” category on their Menu.  

Phil 

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You control how much space mp3 or any other format uses. Somewhere in your settings is bitrate: kbps, kilobits per second of information.

Back in the previous century, shortly after dinosaurs walked the earth, Microsoft put out a study claiming that .wma at low bitrates sounds better than .mp3 at low bitrates. Microsoft just by coincidence makes .wma. Since then .mp3 has been tweaked and tweaked by the kind and tireless people at LAME. And remember, the study was only for low bitrates to begin with.

Space is about bitrates…wma or .ogg or .mp3 at 64kbps takes the same amount of space. And when it comes to spoken-word, you really don’t need a bitrate over 96 at most, and can probably get away with less. 

So I’d suggest mp3 going forward, at the same bitrate you were using with .ogg (or less–try a sample and see).  Because .ogg is open-source there are a lot of flavors of it out there, some of which will no doubt trip up your Sansa or future players. And you won’t hear any difference. Most people who claim they can–especially with something as limited in frequency and timbre as a lone speaking voice–are actually oscilloscopes.

Message Edited by Black-Rectangle on 02-06-2010 10:31 AM

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You got it!!   mp3 all the way from now on at 96 bit rate.  Thanks.

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WMA gives 20%-30% lass battery life than mp3. You can use 32 kbps mono mp3 for audiobooks. The difference in sound quality for spoken word files between 96 kbps stereo and 32 kbps mono is quite minimal, and you will use only 1/3 of the space. WMA does sound a bit better than mp3 at the same bitrate for low bitrates, with 32 kbps mono mp3 probably sounding the same as 24 kbps mono wma. The higher battery consumption for wma  isn’t worth the space savings between 24 kbps and 32 kbps though.

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I’m saving a lot of space now, converting FLAC files to 75% quality WMA VBR. Sounds just as good as LAME V0, with filesizes roughly half. Best thing is, WMP is not involved at all. 3rd party converters rule!:smileyvery-happy:

  I’m never away from a power source long enough for any battery difference to come into play, given my 1000mA wallcharger.

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To supplement what the Forum answered, I asked Sansa directly.  Please comment on their response for the Foum’s benefit, please.

Sansa response was

"

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 7 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

 Subject Playing Ripped Audio CD Discs Sequentially    Discussion Thread   (Edward Mariano) 02/08/2010 04:21 PM **Dear Customer,

Thank you for emailing SanDisk Technical Support. It is our goal to make sure you have all the resources you need to get the most from your product.

The reason why the audiobook is listed under the music category and not under the “Audiobook” category is because this category is only available for audiobooks downloaded in audible.com that are in the .aa file format.

If your audiobooks or ebooks are either .mp3 or .wma file format then the player will recognize these files as music files or songs. However, you can separate your audiobooks from music by following these steps.

METHOD 1 - Change the genre of the files to Audiobook using Windows Media Player.

  1. Open Windows Media Player.
  2. Click on Library.
  3. Right click on your audiobook then select “Advance tag Editor”.
  4. On the Track Info tab change the “genre” to audiobook. Transfer the book back to the player.

METHOD 2 - Edit the ID3 tag.

Please be informed that your Sansa recognizes and organizes your files according to its ID3 tags. The ID3 tags are bits of information about the file (e.g., title of the song, name of the artist, album where the song came from, genre, year of release, etc).

  1. On Windows Explorer, do a single right click on the audiobook file.
  2. Under the Summary tab choose Advanced, then click on the Value column for Genre,and then type in Audiobook.
  3. Transfer the Audiobook file to the Sansa player.

If you want to access the audiobooks on the player, you may go to Music –> Genre –> Audiobook. You should find your audiobooks here.

In the future you can also find the answer to your question by clicking on this link:**
http://kb.sandisk.com/cgi-bin/sandisk_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1100

Best regards,
Edward Mariano
SanDisk Technical Support

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That’s why you should call instead of emailing. Obviously they did not fully read or understand your question, and sent the generic Audiobooks reply. For all you know, it’s a bot.