[TheGiantHogweed]

didn't installed the 3.22 ..just jumped to 3.24 directly

I think that it is the battery indicator that is the most noticeable difference between the two firmwares. It may be worth trying out 3.22b and seeing what you think of it. I think it is much better having 5 bars to shot the percentage left instead of what FW 3.0 had. What I think would be best is for it to have what it has now on 3.22b with a percentage next to it (not in it) showing but in larger font.

 

[Mr Trev]

I don't know if the old battery indicator is much more accurate. I've had mine go from half bars to dead in 30-45 min. It should be possible to have both methods at the same time. Using a mock up like was posted earlier (by @Sergio88 I think) - vertical battery icon with bars, and then put the numbers beside it. Same size font as the volume should be plenty big to read. But then again I also remember James/Joe mentioning the battery indicator just goes off the voltage and won't be all that accurate in the first place. Just my 5 cents anyway.

 

[Mr Trev]

yay, 200!!!! sorry for being juvenile

 

[CarstenF]

Joe, what about song limit?

I was just thinking about why there is a song limit and how to get around it.

Most likely the programmer of the x1/3/5 software used an available list-element which keeps all song names / albums / etc in memory. I don't know how much system memory the dual-core processor is equipped with, perhaps 512 MB. The limit was likely introduced because either the list element has a maximum limit or the programmer was afraid of system memory running low.

I can see two solutions to this:
A) use a simple database system with just one table and indexes on album, artist, song name etc. And store the database file on the memory card (Fiio probably uses some variant of Linux - there are free open source database systems available, it just needs to be something very simple).
Then use a list element that does not read the entire list into memory but reads in a flexible way the required records from the database as the user scrolls up and down.
This should be something like the display object called "data window" (that's what it's called in the Powerbuilder environment, but objects like that exist in most programming environments).
Or
B) make it even simpler and just create 3 or 4 plain files on the sd card whenever the song library is uodated in exact sorted order. Link a list element that dynamically reads lines from the required file as the user scrolls up or down. You could very easily program such a list object yourself if it didn't already exist prebuilt.

Class 10 micro sd cards are quick enough so that you don't need to keep all songs in memory to enable a list browsing speed that is sufficiently fast.

If your programmers can't do it, release the source to the public - I'm sure a fiio user would implement this for free...

 

[Mr Trev]

I was just thinking about why there is a song limit and how to get around it.

Most likely the programmer of the x1/3/5 software used an available list-element which keeps all song names / albums / etc in memory. I don't know how much system memory the dual-core processor is equipped with, perhaps 512 MB. The limit was likely introduced because either the list element has a maximum limit or the programmer was afraid of system memory running low.

I can see two solutions to this:
A) use a simple database system with just one table and indexes on album, artist, song name etc. And store the database file on the memory card (Fiio probably uses some variant of Linux - there are free open source database systems available, it just needs to be something very simple).
Then use a list element that does not read the entire list into memory but reads in a flexible way the required records from the database as the user scrolls up and down.
This should be something like the display object called "data window" (that's what it's called in the Powerbuilder environment, but objects like that exist in most programming environments).
Or
B) make it even simpler and just create 3 or 4 plain files on the sd card whenever the song library is uodated in exact sorted order. Link a list element that dynamically reads lines from the required file as the user scrolls up or down. You could very easily program such a list object yourself if it didn't already exist prebuilt.

Class 10 micro sd cards are quick enough so that you don't need to keep all songs in memory to enable a list browsing speed that is sufficiently fast.

If your programmers can't do it, release the source to the public - I'm sure a fiio user would implement this for free...

I think the song limit is just a carry over from the x5 conversion. The x3 stores all the library info on its internal memory, and pre conversion (v1.x) I think the number of songs it was able to catalogue was pretty much unlimited. Since the x5 doesn't have internal memory it needs to store that info in the soc ram, or something which isn't terribly large. There has been talk about moving the database files to the sd cards, and I think the x5 has already had the limit increased.
Of course this is mostly repeating what you already posted, but should be easy to increase/eliminate the song limit since we got 8 gb of storage for the database files.

 

[CarstenF]

You wonder what sort of programmer developed this with a 5840 or so song limit on the X5, since this unit has two sd card slots and with 128gb cards already available at the x5 launch, there were certain to be people who would run into the limit with 2x128gb of music....
Shouldn't be too difficult to come up with some logic to decide on what sd card to put the database and what to do if the user swaps cards around - worst case you just recreate the database after sd cards were changed. You could run into a problem if all storage space on the sd cards is used up... Ok in that case you could still display a message telling the user that only folder play is available until the user frees up a few MB for the database. Or you could set aside a part of sd card storage when a new sd card is first inserted or formattec in the device. But then you would again have some sort of a limit...

 

[ryankesler]

I know it's not a database fix, but you can make a (slow to load) playlist of all songs.  I'm at over 9000 on a 128 card.

 

[duente7]

Now Playing screen on X5 now memorizes its path through the situations you describe--here's to hoping the X3 firmware will be updated likewise soon

 
Hi, just to ask if there's a chance to add in a future firmware release the option to quick access the bass/treble setting from now playing menu? like, when holding the back button, to just add one more "slice" to the circle option menu?...so that one would not have to go all the way to root menu and then all the way to the playing folder..that would be really great

 

[SallymaeHogsby]

   
Hi, just to ask if there's a chance to add in a future firmware release the option to quick access the bass/treble setting from now playing menu? like, when holding the back button, to add just add one more "slice" to the circle option menu?...so that one would not have to go all the way to root menu and then all the way to the playing folder..that would be really great

 
I like this idea. After changing the volume, changing the bass/treble is the adjustment I most often make.

 

[duente7]

   
I like this idea. After changing the volume, changing the bass/treble is the adjustment I most often make.

same here, this is the most common setting i access. i believe in the circle option thing, instead of having separate"slices" for the different play and repeat modes, there could be:
 
one slice for the two repeat modes which could toggle with the +/- buttons
one slice for the two play modes which would toggle same as above
one slice to quick access the bass/treble setting
 
furthermore, in the "delete" function i would add the option to select between "delete file" and "delete entire folder"
 
i think it would be much more functional this way, but that's my personal opinion of course

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

I hope that there will sometime be a quick way of turning the EQ on or off. Lots of the time I just like to listen to music using the bass and treble controls. It makes it hard when you have to go to the EQ and keep going along until you find off. There really could do with something being added to the quick menu to be able to do this. Maybe just a shortcut to the play settings menu would be useful.

 

[bruce1967]

I don't really care much for the EQ at all and I never use it but that goes for pretty much any audio player I've ever owned. I like to use the base and treble controls and usually keep those set to zero. Occasionally I might up the base a bit depending on the album but mostly base and treble are set to zero. The difference between the X3 and other audio players I've had is that the X3 is the first I've had with base and treble controls. I like it so much I actually decided to order another X3.

 

[boogotti]

I hope that there will sometime be a quick way of turning the EQ on or off. Lots of the time I just like to listen to music using the bass and treble controls. It makes it hard when you have to go to the EQ and keep going along until you find off. There really could do with something being added to the quick menu to be able to do this. Maybe just a shortcut to the play settings menu would be useful.

1 + yes need a quick way while playing track switch off /on EQ. In the circle menu holding the back button while playing track to disable/ enable EQ pls

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

I don't really care much for the EQ at all and I never use it but that goes for pretty much any audio player I've ever owned. I like to use the base and treble controls and usually keep those set to zero. Occasionally I might up the base a bit depending on the album but mostly base and treble are set to zero. The difference between the X3 and other audio players I've had is that the X3 is the first I've had with base and treble controls. I like it so much I actually decided to order another X3.:bigsmile_face:

I like the EQ mainly because you can boost the lower pitched bass. Other than that, I mainly just use the hardware bass and treble controls.

 

[bruce1967]

I like the EQ mainly because you can boost the lower pitched bass. Other than that, I mainly just use the hardware bass and treble controls.

I suppose if you can find the right sound you're looking for then it's useful. I can just never find the right way to tweak it to a sound I like and I don't like how the volume drops when you turn on the EQ. I had an old ipod touch where the sound always dropped when EQ was on. The difference is that the EQ. on the X3 actually does something to change the sound whereas the ipod sounded dull and lifeless no matter how it was set.