DUMB FUZE OWNERS

I have a refurbed 8Gig View and I’ll have to admit that when they first came out they were the absolute worst piece of junk SanDisk ever put on the market.

However, the last firmware upgrade for the View has made it at least tolerable to use. Unfortunately, that firmware came out 10 months ago and there’s been no word from SanDisk if they are even working on anything for it anymore, or if they’ve just dropped it as a discontiued product.

That’s kind of sad because there’s only a few bugs that I think they could easily fix. And, of course a few enhancements that should not be very hard to add (like being able to scroll up to get to the bottom of a long list). Since all these fixes and changes seem like they should be pretty easy, I really don’t know why SanDisk hasn’t bothered doing anything. The View _could_ have gone from their worst to one of their best products, but apparently the just don’t care.

Compared to the Fuze, the one main thing I like better about the View is its larger screen and video capabilities. I don’t need to use the Sansa Media Converter software (which don’t always work, and even when it does may not produce very good video or end up with sound out of sync). I usually can just run almost any video thru the Any Video Converter software set for MP3 h.264 with AAC audio at 320 x 240 resolution. Then just copy the file(s) onto the View and the play back looking fantastic.

Some MP4 files I don’t even have to convert if there in the right format and a resolution that the View can handle. Had to hunt around on Anythingbutipod.com to find a list of the resolutions the View can handle though.

 I’m thinking of getting a video out cable to TV, but I may have to up the resolution of my files to 640 x 480 so they look a bit better on a TV.

Other than the video though side of things the Fuze is a much better product overall otherwise.

PAhunter, this is not going to help, SanDisk can’t update the firmware, they have no choice.

Can someone please delete this thread? This is not going to help the Fuze owners, and not the View owners, either, since the unfortunate situation with the View does not reflect on the company’s wish to give support.

Why can’t they update the firmware for the View?

@corilof wrote:
Why can’t they update the firmware for the View?

'Cos they don’t have enough engineers to do the fixes & enhancements for the AMS based players that form their current (and probably future) income stream, as well as supporting legacy products.

Don’t worry, the Fuze will get the same treatment as soon as the next new thing comes out to replace it. That’s why the e2x0v2 series are not being updated any more.

Why don’t they have enough engineers? Because you & I want our Fuzes at bargain basement prices, and they can’t afford to employ any more people.

My guess anyway…

Nevertheless - I’m grateful for the excellent support the Fuze gets for now! Also glad I didn’t buy a View!!

@daytona955 wrote:


@corilof wrote:
Why can’t they update the firmware for the View?


'Cos they don’t have enough engineers to do the fixes & enhancements for the AMS based players that form their current (and probably future) income stream, as well as supporting legacy products.

 

Don’t worry, the Fuze will get the same treatment as soon as the next new thing comes out to replace it. That’s why the e2x0v2 series are not being updated any more.

 

Why don’t they have enough engineers? Because you & I want our Fuzes at bargain basement prices, and they can’t afford to employ any more people.

 

My guess anyway…

 

Nevertheless - I’m grateful for the excellent support the Fuze gets for now! Also glad I didn’t buy a View!!

 

 

 

No Quite… The View was created to replace the e200 series. The e200 serise was discontinued thus no more updates. Odds are there is something in the works to replace the View and then the View gets officially discontinued. Its product evolution. It has noting to do with what we pay for our players or SanDisks ability employ people. It has everything to do with keeping the product line fresh. The way I think about it is like this, the Chevy S10 was replaced by the Chevy Colorado, eventually the Colorado will be replaced by something else, Chevy is not going to keep paying a company to manufacture parts for a product they dont make. SanDisk is not gonna pay the development team to make a firmware for a player that is going to be replaced.

I think the OP was just talking about Fuze owners who are complaining about the Fuze lacking this little feature or that, when the View has bigger problems.

While its nice that Sandisk has been giving us seriously functional updates, keep in mind that there is little money in free updates (other than having a better product to sell now, and a little free word-of-mouth marketing). Once the product is discontinued, there is absolutely no money in free updates. Most other vendors offer no functionality beyond what the device has in that revision.

As the mod of what is formerly the biggest iriver English user forum, an member of the semi-official iriver chinese forum and an long time iriver user, I can tell those of you who think Sandisk tech support ■■■■■ have yet to know what a truly bad tech support can be. For the last few year, iriver users outside of Korea get close to no support, even with the latest products. At least here you get to PM sansafix and have real answers from time to time.

Took the words right out of my mouth, ClieOS.

Where’s the Apple forum where average Joe Customer can talk to developers/engineers and/or support?!?!

The Creative forum?

The Sony forum?

The Toshiba forum?

The Microsoft forum?

Big part of the reason I went Sansa.

I really do feel for the View owners, though. Come on Sansa, fix the product.

Almost bought a View, but prefered the smaller size of the Fuze. Had them both in my hand at BestBuy and chose the Fuze.

I disagree that not releasing FW for an old player won’t score customers. Doing things like that is how a company attracts and keep “Fanboys”. :wink:

Being known as the company that abandons its’ players/customers is certainly NOT a good thing. If it is still on the shelf at BestBuy, you should be supporting it. Period.

 I told you, they can’t, but they want to.

@peregrine wrote:

Being known as the company that abandons its’ players/customers is certainly NOT a good thing. If it is still on the shelf at BestBuy, you should be supporting it. Period.

In theory that sounds good, but the reality of it is that the company that sells five times as many MP3 players than all their customers combined “abandons” its product (adds no new features) on a regular basis (typically annually). To say that this extra post-sales effort gains market share doesn’t correlate with reality.

I’m not complaining by any means, though! I’m amazed at the effort that Sandisk takes in post-sales feature support, and I certainly point this out when people are looking for a new MP3 player.

I’m not saying it creates more market share, but it does go along way to create brand loyalty.

@yelped wrote:
 I told you, they can’t, but they want to.

You’ve said that a couple of times now, but you have not provided anything to back up or verify that statement.

Do you have inside information that SanDisk’s own tech support people do not know about? Do you work for SanDisk? Can you post any links to any official documents or statements made by SanDisk that say that?

Without providing any other means of being able to verify your statement then all we can do is consider it as just more rumor, hearsay, or pure speculation or conjecture on your part.

@miltst wrote:


@yelped wrote:
 I told you, they can’t, but they want to.


You’ve said that a couple of times now, but you have not provided anything to back up or verify that statement.

 

Do you have inside information that SanDisk’s own tech support people do not know about? Do you work for SanDisk? Can you post any links to any official documents or statements made by SanDisk that say that?

 

Without providing any other means of being able to verify your statement then all we can do is consider it as just more rumor, hearsay, or pure speculation or conjecture on your part.

 

Thats all anybody has. Until Sandisk releases its next player they wont discontinue the View officially, but anyone who has watched it at all would see that they have in practice discontinued the View. They want to support the player but if they do then maybe that hurts the development of the next player.

@conversionbox wrote:


@miltst wrote:


@yelped wrote:
 I told you, they can’t, but they want to.


You’ve said that a couple of times now, but you have not provided anything to back up or verify that statement.

 

Do you have inside information that SanDisk’s own tech support people do not know about? Do you work for SanDisk? Can you post any links to any official documents or statements made by SanDisk that say that?

 

Without providing any other means of being able to verify your statement then all we can do is consider it as just more rumor, hearsay, or pure speculation or conjecture on your part.

 


Thats all anybody has. Until Sandisk releases its next player they wont discontinue the View officially, but anyone who has watched it at all would see that they have in practice discontinued the View. They want to support the player but if they do then maybe that hurts the development of the next player.

How would that affect the new player. Tech and Tech Support does not affect/effect how/if a player is made

@pahunter wrote:


@conversionbox wrote:


@miltst wrote:


@yelped wrote:
 I told you, they can’t, but they want to.


You’ve said that a couple of times now, but you have not provided anything to back up or verify that statement.

 

Do you have inside information that SanDisk’s own tech support people do not know about? Do you work for SanDisk? Can you post any links to any official documents or statements made by SanDisk that say that?

 

Without providing any other means of being able to verify your statement then all we can do is consider it as just more rumor, hearsay, or pure speculation or conjecture on your part.

 


Thats all anybody has. Until Sandisk releases its next player they wont discontinue the View officially, but anyone who has watched it at all would see that they have in practice discontinued the View. They want to support the player but if they do then maybe that hurts the development of the next player.


How would that affect the new player. Tech and Tech Support does not affect/effect how/if a player is made

Firmware support DOES matter with a new player. And After all isnt that all the view owners want? An Update? Call tech support with an issue on your View, if the player is supposed to do it then they will help you.

Pahunter wrote:

 

How would that affect the new player. Tech and Tech Support does not affect/effect how/if a player is made

 

Maybe the people who develop the new products are the same ones who work on firmware updates. Since they can’t do two things at once, new products take priority.

Not an optimal arrangement from our (the customers) point of view, but more economical for them, most likely.

Im pretty sure they dont I asked where can I buy movies to download to the view and they never told me a site they just said we are not able to give  that info

Indeed, endorsing a particular source cannot be done, as support has to be “ecumenical”, for lack of a better word.  SanDisk has partnered with Real Networks / Rhapsody (as many makers have for the RhapPFS platform), and with Microsoft for the Janus DRM / WMDRM10 standard.

The view is a different animal, a sortie into a unique video device, using a combination of the NVIDIA chipset and a different AMS processor than the the v2 line, including the Fuze.  This is why the View has an mi4 format firmware library, rather than the binary file employed in the Fuze.

The result is a cool player that can work magic with video. The current View is a complete redesign of its earlier version, the huge View with a standard SD slot. (There are a few rare examples of it in the wild)

The downside?  Its complexity makes it sensitive to firmware builds.  There are users running happily with several versions concurrently.  This can be a nightmare for Support.  There are many users running along with no issues, and with others, it’s a real pickle.

I really like the “flopping” control lights when the device is oriented horizontally (landscape).

If you pull several Sansas onto the test bench, and remove the skins, you’ll find that the production work on all of them is of identical quality.  Interestingly, access to the internals of the View is far easier than its little sisters.  SanDisk put some interesting machines out there, quite an achievement considering the main product is flash memory devices.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, the world economy has been fickle these past few years, and the volatile flash memory market has been a gnarly wave that they have had to ride.  (Yes, I see the engineering pun in that!) SanDisk has been quite busy indeed navigating through all of that, and development is affected by competing needs in all of the areas involved.

It’s my sincere hope that solutions will be found, improvements that will be beneficial both to all View owners, SanDisk, and even users of all variants of Sansa.  The current situation requires understanding and patience.  All of us need to “hang in there” through it, rather than blasting at each other, which is counterproductive.  SanDisk needs to make a living just as each of us do in turn.  We’ve seen that they can make some really cool things, and are more involved with the user community than any maker I’ve seen.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Message Edited by neutron_bob on 04-26-2009 07:37 PM

I asked for movies or how do i get them to my view and they said the format of the vid is wrong ad i asked how to change it and the guy gave me a random number that i called that just wasted my phone minutes and didnt fix the problem so i called sandisk back and i asked for a website that the movie downloads were compatible with the view

There are many different formats of video out there.  With downloads, you are dealing with a format specifically designed to be difficult to transfer or convert.  The objective of many downloadable video formats is to view them on the target PC, and not to transcode or convert them for storage and playback on a secondary platform.

Case in point is Netflix.  They use a proprietary viewer that can be downloaded as part of their subscription service for on-demand viewing.  The rights holders (studios) would be upset if this video is being transferred to another format, or is being stored.  It’s part of the agreement negotiated for release of the material.

The most successful arrangement I see is purchasing the genuine article, the DVD, and transferring it to the Sansa.  Logically, you’re viewing the video that you purchased on a small screen, just as the size of the television you would watch it on can vary greatly in size.  You’re the end user, and you paid for the source video.

This often (well, almost always) is not the case with downloaded video.  There may be downloads online, but I haven’t run across a site that offers video like you can find audio downloads.  Let’s face it, if it were an honest world, we’d have reasonably priced material without the spectre of Digital Rights Management, and few issues with making things work.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: