Themed Monthly Avatar Committee (TMAC) discussion thread - Page 124

Damn. I just realized I broke a two year plus tradition of using "John Barleycorn" as my test tune for new headphones. I just put whatever on for the S6, and I haven't even listened to that song yet.

Also, that totally sucks about your Clip, jgrey. I can absolutely see how that could happen, given its size and weight. Hopefully it's not too much of an expense to get another one out where you are.

Yes,yes, easy to lose, the Clip is. 

I have lost mine for days before and then found it later. And all my shirts have pockets, and that chest pocket is where the Clip ends up clipped....at the grocery store, walking down the road, etc. The T-shirts with chest pocket that used to be so convenient years ago when I was a smoker, now are a good place for a Clip.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgray91 

It's not supposed to cost a lot, even in Russia, but there's surprise buttsex from the uni suddenly with my current program, i.e. they want more money. Sigh.

I know exactly how that is. It's the same where I am. And of course you're expected to keep up with all this stuff yourself, with no notifications of any kind. They even complain when you go down to the Welcome Center (which I call the Unwelcome Center) to go pay your bill, if you say anything about surprise charges, that it's up to you to keep checking their online service every five seconds to see what they've decided they can get away with charging you what you owe them.

I think the shuffle function might be a little suspect, though; either that, or I just got incredibly "lucky." It played the normal version of a song by an artist, then right afterward played a different version of the same song from a different album.

Also, it's now shut off on me twice without warning, requiring a hard reset. And, when it comes back, it starts playing from the song it was on the last time it was turned off properly. I've got the latest firmware. What the @&#* is going on?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argyris 

 

 

 

I think the shuffle function might be a little suspect, though; either that, or I just got incredibly "lucky." It played the normal version of a song by an artist, then right afterward played a different version of the same song from a different album.

 

Also, it's now shut off on me twice without warning, requiring a hard reset. And, when it comes back, it starts playing from the song it was on the last time it was turned off properly. I've got the latest firmware. What the @&#* is going on?

Save yourself from some future frustration and install Rockbox. The Sansa firmware is temperamental and they haven't released an update in quite a while. There's a bit of a learning curve with Rockbox but it is well worth it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achmedisdead 

Save yourself from some future frustration and install Rockbox. The Sansa firmware is temperamental and they haven't released an update in quite a while. There's a bit of a learning curve with Rockbox but it is well worth it. 

I plan on doing just that when I get my own Clip. Unfortunately, this one was a gift. I'm just testing it out to filter out potential issues just like this one. I had to put the music on it, so I figured I'd test it out before buying one for myself. If this keeps up, I might have no choice though.

I absolutely love Rockbox. I've used it on my iPod for years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argyris 

 

I plan on doing just that when I get my own Clip. Unfortunately, this one was a gift. I'm just testing it out to filter out potential issues just like this one. I had to put the music on it, so I figured I'd test it out before buying one for myself. If this keeps up, I might have no choice though.

 

I absolutely love Rockbox. I've used it on my iPod for years.

 to Rockbox! I have it on both of my Clip Zips, and both of my iPods. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achmedisdead 

 to Rockbox! I have it on both of my Clip Zips, and both of my iPods. 

I've had my share of problems with it, too, but they're quite infrequent, and the software does so much it's easy enough to forgive it--especially since it's an open source project and has to support a wide range of players. SanDisk has complete knowledge of their hardware (unlike the Rockbox folks, who have to reverse engineer), and they have to support exactly one device with their firmware. Two complete stops in less than four hours is not a shimmering endorsement for the firmware--especially since it doesn't even do all that much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argyris 

 

I've had my share of problems with it, too, but they're quite infrequent, and the software does so much it's easy enough to forgive it--especially since it's an open source project and has to support a wide range of players. SanDisk has complete knowledge of their hardware (unlike the Rockbox folks, who have to reverse engineer), and they have to support exactly one device with their firmware. Two complete stops in less than four hours is not a shimmering endorsement for the firmware--especially since it doesn't even do all that much.

It's picky about the ID3 tags, among other things. Recommended MP3Tag settings.....

and minimized tag info....

I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I'll have to check to see if my tracks are set up like that. I've been redoing my whole library to make it smaller, now that I've discovered that using true VBR AAC is much more efficient than what iTunes does. Also, they seem to have improved the encoder because I have a much lower transparency point than I used to.

Anyway, the only problem I've really had with Rockbox is random freeze ups when selecting songs from the Database. It'll bring it up but then it won't play, and then it ignores all further attempts at control. The only thing it responds to in this state is a hard reset. It happens about once every two weeks, if that. I've gone months without it happening.

It could be device-specific. I've only ever tried Rockbox on my 5G iPod Video, so I can't say if it's a universal issue or not.

Okay, I've had enough. I've Rockboxed it. I thought I'd figured out the issue. There were some files on there that were encoded using VBR AAC which would get skipped in shuffle mode. I took those off, so the only thing on there were non-DRM AAC and MP3 files. Nope, still froze up. I sped up the process by just skipping forward with shuffle on. It did it every single time, within ten songs or so.

I might end up inheriting this, too, because my mother isn't going to want to battle with the Rockbox interface. Plus, it's the unstable branch for the Zip, and the player already failed to be recognized as a USB device once and ended up with an error on screen until a hard reset, after which it booted up again and was correctly identified. Hopefully it'll actually be able to play music. It's (slowly) getting put back on the device right now. I'll find out in about ten minutes. At least it should play those VBR AAC files all right, since my Rockboxed iPod has no trouble with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Argyris 

Okay, I've had enough. I've Rockboxed it. I thought I'd figured out the issue. There were some files on there that were encoded using VBR AAC which would get skipped in shuffle mode. I took those off, so the only thing on there were non-DRM AAC and MP3 files. Nope, still froze up. I sped up the process by just skipping forward with shuffle on. It did it every single time, within ten songs or so.

 

I might end up inheriting this, too, because my mother isn't going to want to battle with the Rockbox interface. Plus, it's the unstable branch for the Zip, and the player already failed to be recognized as a USB device once and ended up with an error on screen until a hard reset, after which it booted up again and was correctly identified. Hopefully it'll actually be able to play music. It's (slowly) getting put back on the device right now. I'll find out in about ten minutes. At least it should play those VBR AAC files all right, since my Rockboxed iPod has no trouble with them.

Yeah, Sansa claimed compatibility with non-DRM AAC, but it's decidedly sketchy in that regard. Everything I've put on the rockboxed Zip plays fine.....FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, VBR AAC, AAC that I demuxed from YouTube videos, WMA....you get the idea....lol. I've had RB on the Zip for over a year now, and it's pretty stable now, compared to the early ports in November of 2011.

Basically, now that I have the 80GB 5.5G Video and  32GB CF-mod Mini 2G (both with Rockbox) the Zips mostly are used  on-the-go...they're cheap to replace if something was to happen, you know?

I hear you on your mother and the RB interface...I know my mother would be lost with it. Maybe get your mom a Nano? It would be easier to use, of course it is three times the price of a Zip....lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achmedisdead 

 

Maybe get your mom a Nano? It would be easier to use, of course it is three times the price of a Zip....lol.

She's got two of those! I got her one of the very first generation ones, which she outgrew so we replaced it with a later model. Then, they had a recall of that first generation model because of a battery problem or something (apparently they blew up--I'm not kidding), and they offered to replace any affected model with one of those little tiny clip-on Nanos. So we did that. Unfortunately, she hates that thing. I don't blame her; the touch interface is obnoxious and useless unless you're looking at it, which is the main issue since she wants to be able to skip a song that shuffle puts on that she doesn't want to hear at the time, and that "shake to shuffle" thing is way too inconsistent. She does like the ability to just clip it to an armband, though, and its light weight.

Hence the Sansa Clip Zip. So far Rockbox seems to be working perfectly on here, but I've been enjoying the music far too much to properly skip through a few dozen songs to find out. I was introduced to a lot of my favorite music when listening to her play her cassettes while she exercised, so we share a lot of the same taste.

I see Bowei is back on form. He's the #1 poster today. Glad to see he's recovered his momentum.