Lost in the help forums

Sorry if this is not posted in the correct place. Please feel free to move it if that will help me or others who might have an answer to my Sansa question(s) and maybe a few questions about why this page appears differently that most others on this computer.

I’ve had this MP3 player since 2007 or there-a-bouts and the only music I can listen to on it is the music that came with it. I’ve downloaded a ton of albums and songs which play on windows media player from the c250 but the c250 seems to recognize the songs but it won’t play anything that I downlaoded to it.

I am thinking that it might have to do with the file extension. If that is the case can I change the extension type and not lose the music?

( I’m actually listening to it as I am typing this: Whiter Shade of Pale )

Sadly I hardly every used this player because I was frustrated trying to figure it out. It was stored so long that the rubber band I used around the USB cable rotted and dried up. The good news is the battery stayed charged enough that I got to play those few songs that are on it before I charged it.

Any help is much appreciated!

About the way this page appears to me: unlike most if not all other pages on this computer; this one is near impossible to see the area where we type Subject and other things. This is not my computer. That said, I get to use it whenever I am visiting. It’s a fairly new laptop. The computer is a Dell inspirion running win 7. The area’s ie search box, subject box, and message box are all too pale to see. This does not happen in my mail programs which have similar boxes. Is this adjustable on this SanDisk site?

It would have been helpful if you had included information about what file types (file extensions) you were talking about. According to the quick search I did, the C250 supports the following music files: MP3, WMA, WAV, and protected WMA (DRM).

If you don’t see the file extension at the end of the file name (when looking at your files with your file browser/manager. Most likely Windows Explorer) you can always right click on a file and choose to look at its Properties to see what extension the file has.

About your issues with the site: were you referring to the text boxes used to write messages on this forum? If so: yes, I agree with you - they are not very distinguished. There’s just a thin border around them, other than that, they have the same white background color as the rest of the page.

The c250 uses the same USB cable as the e200 series. Luckily, they are even available from the Sansa Store on this website, as well as via sites like Amazon. For the money, I’d recomend the original.

The player should have no problems with standard mp3 or wma  files, but they will not display on the device without proper ID3 tags  on them. The player navigates through your music based upon these tags, which are part of the mp3 or wma standard.

Depending upon your  computer’soperating system, the tag data can be entered by looking at the file properties. With Windows 7, when the file is selected, this info can be viewed and entered directly at the bottom of the screen. Windows Media Player alsohas a tag editor,once you get the hang of it.

Hands down,if you have missing ID3 tag info or album art, MP3Tag  is the tool of choice, available for download here.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Hey Bob, Thanks for writing back.

The cable I have, the one that came with the c250sansa, has a USB/sansa unique connection. I have no problem currenty connecting the mp3 with my computer. 

In fact, I have considered that something went awry after downloading a ton of a friend of mines pristine collection of CD; most never opened or played. So down comes every Led Zepplin album, several Jimi Hendrix albums, Jerrerson Airplane and so on. Maybe the music suggests my age…maybe. <g> Many of them then were uploaded to my sensa. I see them, they are all there. And before I started writing here I plugged everything back in to look at ext.s. The ones that play say MP3 as the ext. The ones that do not say WMA ( or is it P?) ( does it matter? ) 

You say: “The player should have no problems with standard  mp3 or wma  files, but they will not display on the device without proper  ID3 tags  on them.”  

So now I will attempt to verify the ID3 tags.

Before I do that I want to post this since other interfacing problems have been the name of the game lately in my life. For someone who has the swag about knowing lots of “guy” things; it troubles me that so much dysfuntion is happening.

When the new HDTV with new HDTV box, set up by the cable company, tighened with a wrench coax connections, then there is some other problem that takes forever to reslove because most companies and people want to believe that who they are speaking with is at best a novice when it comes to electronic gadgetry. From what I have experienced in life supports their decision to treat everyone as an ■■■■■…most of us are more of an ■■■■■ than we would ever admit.

What do you think the “i” stands for before my name? <VBG>

i Step…

Hey Bob,

               Still haven’t put down this computer to walk to the other computer to look at the files yet. 

To answer your question wrapped in a " depending on what OS you have…" Vista is what is on the computer I now use the most.

There is a very strong urge to go back to a desktop that I have which was one of those mega, top of the line computers that are offered to the public " packaged" for a big box store for instance ( that was where my Dad purchased it ) Not sure that matters here. It sounds as if I can use what comes with media player and windows 7 premium to make those little changes to the tag on all of those albums now on my sensa C250.

BTW, if I didn’t mention it before I want to say that I have been listening to the ones that do not play on my mp3 but they play great through the media player on the win 7 laptop.

Let’s see if i can convert them to my religion. HA!

Printed your post out and when i got down to business i simpley could not find the place under properties being a place that allowed change. Nothing added nor delted. A little - mark under “audio codec”

Is it possible to do a simple: start here, open this, tab this, go to audio codec, hylight delete, type this, hit save, close, restart the computer try the sensa. If this doesn’t work come back and well find out why that didn’t work.

If I am like my parents and just about every other person I know I will give the c250 away, through it away, give it to salvation army or use it for target practice.

How much time must it take to get a product to work as you expect it to especially after reading everything ever written about it, changing things, reformating, updating firmware, software, and underware.

Buy a product that does what one thinks it should do and not have to invest hours into getting the investment to pay back by doing the thing you want it to do.

Just saying…it would be nice to have a device to carry around with me like ever grade school kid and old lady that I see on the subway: just grooving…

I do appreciate all of the help and suggestions here. Thank you for helping!

Sw

Most albums that I donwn loaded seem to exist in WMA.

The ones on the player that say MP3, play well. The ones that say WMA. Appear but never play.

The part about adding or changing some data somewhere in the properties makes sense but so far the change would not take.

Unless there is a particular way to get to the properties it’s starting to look like I’ll have to find a program that changes them all.

Thanks for your help.

Sorry I couldn’t settle down on the computer the last few days, I’ve been out of town.

Take a look at the  wma format  of those files, they could be wma pro, or wma lossless;  these two formats are not compatible with the Sansa.

Between basic MP3 and WMA (constant or variable bit rate) you should be fine. If you ripped the CDs on a different computer, the  rip settings  might have been set to something incompatible. In this case, simply re-rip them in a compatible format. There are many software packages available…

I have now used wma lossless, preferring the simplicity of FLAC. Lossless is a big file, but it is also uncompressed and has plenty of detail. I can’t remember if WiMP11 can convert, as Vista may have version 11, but here’s a note from the Microsoft archives regarding conversion from wma lossless.

WMA Pro is an odd duck, if this is the format, better to just grab the bull by the horms and re-rip.

I’ve been quite happy with the quality of 160kbps WMA, and 192kbps MP3. At the same bitrate, I lean a bit towards the smoothness of WMA. I don’t really have to “cram” the Sansa with mass quantities of files, since swapping microSD cards is so quick and easy, and these rates work really well.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

If you downloaded WMA files from somewhere, they could be “copy-protected”. Likewise, if you copied files that someone else ripped on another computer, and they used Window Media Player, this could also be the case. WMP’s default “rip” settings adds this, preventing those files from playing on anything but the host computer and/or device.


Edit: I’m still waiting for those “in charge” of this forum to move this thread to where it should be, in the Sansa c200 Series board or the All Other MP3 Players board. It has no relevance to User Guides | Firmware | Software where it is now. :confounded:

It’s a hard call, especially if you take the thread title into consideration.

The User Guides | Firmware | Software section contains information that is relevant to all Sansas regardless of model. As such, the primary thrust of this thread concerns file compatibility with the device, an issue that still has relevance with the latest devices.  In fact, it would make a great FAQ come to think of it.

I like your suggestion that the WMA files may have copy protection enabled, as this involved the WMDRM-10 system, and this simply doesn’t work if the device is in MSC mode (since the Secure ID isn’t accessed in this mode for the device).

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: