Sansa 8GB Clip+ $40 at Dell

[mr_a500]

I just got a 4Gb Sansa Clip+ for $39 Canadian. I don't worry about the difference between 4Gb and 8Gb because it has that microSD slot.

I think it's great - especially the fact that you can copy to if from any computer and don't need that crap iTunes. I just copied music to it using an Amiga 3000.

[mr_a500]

I don't ever listen to the radio, so I'm not worried about that. I'm a bit disappointed about the sound quality. I've read everywhere that the sound quality is supposedly great, but with every earbud headphone I've got, it sounds hollow and distant. With full-sized headphones it sounds good. Luckily, I bought this to use with full sized headphones. I want to find a way to somehow integrate the Clip into a pair of good headphones so I can have an all-in-one unit with no frigging wires dangling to tangle me up. It's going to be tricky though. I could end up with a all-in-one pile of useless junk that used to be a Clip and good headphones.

[Hak Foo]

I loved my E250; however, their newer line was less appealing- no Rockbox, no wheel.  I wish I had it still-- the wheel went stiff and I let a co-worker's kid have it.

[EverythingIBM]

This drives me nuts.

[ricercar]

Crasher squi

[ricercar]

There may be only one, but he's everywhere, he's everywhere!

[mr_a500]

You could have at least made an attempt to stay on topic by putting a Sansa Clip+ in one of those squirrel pictures.

[ricercar]

[mr_a500]

Show Image

Whew. Thanks for that. :eyebrows::yo: :llama::bounce:

[mr_a500]

Has anybody noticed a problem with the "voice recorder" on the Clip+? Half the time I record something, save it, but don't get the "Recording Saved" message - and it's not saved. It's totally inconsistent and doesn't depend on the length or sound recorded. That makes the recorder a bit useless because you never know if what you recorded will actually be recorded.

And while we're talking about the Clip, does anybody know what format of playlist it is expecting? Can somebody post a piece of a working playlist? If I can figure out the format, I can create playlists on my Amiga. I tried to make a test M3U file. The Clip displays it, but shows it as "Empty".

[mr_a500]

Can't somebody help me by posting a bit of a sample Clip-compatible playlist? I still haven't figured out the proper format. No matter what I try, my playlists are always "Empty".

[kishy]

I don't know specifically about Sandisk products but m3u is pretty much a standard thing...and most media player software should be able to produce one.

Edit: just Googled it, it looks like the Clip is specifically capable of supporting M3U playlists.

[mr_a500]

I don't use Windows or OSX (or even Linux) and don't have software capable of creating M3U playlists. I read about M3U format and tried to manually create a playlist in a text editor, but it doesn't work. I read that the Sansa Clip expects paths to be in Windows format with backslash and need Windows linefeed to work properly. There must be something else in the format I'm missing.

All I need is for somebody to post a piece of a playlist known to work in the Sansa Clip+ so I can see what I'm missing.

[instantkamera]

I don't use Windows or OSX (or even Linux) and don't have software capable of creating M3U playlists. I read about M3U format and tried to manually create a playlist in a text editor, but it doesn't work. I read that the Sansa Clip expects paths to be in Windows format with backslash and need Windows linefeed to work properly. There must be something else in the format I'm missing.

All I need is for somebody to post a piece of a playlist known to work in the Sansa Clip+ so I can see what I'm missing.

First thing is first, check your firmware and make sure you have the latest.

I checked and relative paths are working for me. For instance, in a given directory, I can just make a text file with .m3u extension that contains a list of the songs I want to play and it works:

Code: [Select]

aaron@ant:/media/0123-4567/MUSIC/Contrived - Pursuit Of Plots$ for f in * ; do echo $f >> contrivedplaylist.m3u;done &&cat contrivedplaylist.m3u
01 - Contrived - Concentric.mp3
02 - Contrived - Expletive Deleted.mp3
03 - Contrived - Ultimatum.mp3
04 - Contrived - For Matt.mp3
05 - Contrived - Get To Your Stations.mp3
06 - Contrived - This Is It.mp3
07 - Contrived - A Reason To Live.mp3
08 - Contrived - Silhouette.mp3
aaron@ant:/media/0123-4567/MUSIC/Contrived - Pursuit Of Plots$

Where the root of the device is "/media/0123-4567/" and "MUSIC" is one of the main directories on the root of the clip+.

when you unmount the device it will rescan and pick up this playlist, and it works. Other than that though, this method is pretty ****ing useless, as it does the same thing as browsing to a given directory and playing those songs (it doesnt allow for artist shuffled lists unless your directory is a huge collection of random songs in the first place).

However, I have had luck moving the playlist up a directory, so it resides in the parent and appending a relative path (windows '\', not POSIX '/', path standard). So the playlist resides in "MUSIC" and looks like:

Code: [Select]

Contrived - Pursuit Of Plots\01 - Contrived - Concentric.mp3
Contrived - Pursuit Of Plots\02 - Contrived - Expletive Deleted.mp3

so on and so forth...

hope that helps.

[microsoft windows]

I don't use Windows or OSX (or even Linux) and don't have software capable of creating M3U playlists. I read about M3U format and tried to manually create a playlist in a text editor, but it doesn't work. I read that the Sansa Clip expects paths to be in Windows format with backslash and need Windows linefeed to work properly. There must be something else in the format I'm missing.

All I need is for somebody to post a piece of a playlist known to work in the Sansa Clip+ so I can see what I'm missing.

What operating system do you use?

[instantkamera]

I can't read!!!

No ****?

[chongyixiong]

Show Image

That pretty much sums up the experience here in GH.
(Not saying it in a bad way, it's pretty entertaining)

[mr_a500]

However, I have had luck moving the playlist up a directory, so it resides in the parent and appending a relative path (windows '\', not POSIX '/', path standard). So the playlist resides in "MUSIC" and looks like:

Code: [Select]

Contrived - Pursuit Of Plots\01 - Contrived - Concentric.mp3
Contrived - Pursuit Of Plots\02 - Contrived - Expletive Deleted.mp3

so on and so forth...

hope that helps.

Thanks. It looks like exactly what I have: relative paths with Windows backslash in paths. After some reading, I think I've discovered the problem: the M3U file must be using Windows1250 charset. (now I just need to find a way to get my Amiga text editor to use the Windows1250 charset)

So, even though this is one of the most "platform neutral" MP3 players you can get, it still uses Windows paths, Windows charsets and you need Windows to use the firmware updater.

[instantkamera]

discovered the problem: the M3U file must be using Windows1250 charset.

Code: [Select]


aaron@ant:/media/0123-4567/MUSIC$ file -bi contrivedplaylist.m3u
text/plain; charset=us-ascii


not the case for me.

[mr_a500]

Code: [Select]


aaron@ant:/media/0123-4567/MUSIC$ file -bi contrivedplaylist.m3u
text/plain; charset=us-ascii


not the case for me.

OK, so that's not the problem then. I wonder what is.

I better check to see that I'm using Windows linefeed. (CR+LF)