What would you like to see in the next Firmware update?

[williamtsims]

The title says it all:

What would you like to see in the next firmware update?

I would really like to see backrounds, and maybe a UI update for the Main Menu, or an option to change it to List format, Grid Format, etc..

I don't know if it's a hardware thing or not, but I would love to see Music Info on FM radio.

And lastly, MTP support for Linux and Mac! I hate using MSC with Linux!

Of course, these are just my hopes and dreams, let's hear yours!

[CrowdAds]

[Fallstar]

Gapless playback would make me happy.

[williamtsims]

Oh yes!
I would love to see that!

[Sigmund_Freud]

I have only seen it on Apple products so far, but why can't Linux media players and Sansa MP3 players list band names starting on "the" after the next word (The Strokes should be under S, not T)?

I would also like theme support, so the Sansa community can contribute with more specialised and personalized themes (I would like something like the S60 Pearl Black theme with high contrast and focus on usability, while kids value the opposite...).


And for the next hardware generation I would like Sandisk to consider:

1. Switch to standard connections ...
If Sansa players used microUSB we could charge our Sansa player, digital camera and in a few years cell phone (Nokia N85 use this connection) with them same charger. The video out could be moved to a third mini jack pin and one would only need a special cable (three pin mini jack-to-composite) for video while the microUSB would do the rest (computer connection/transfer, charging, dock control).

2. ... and cover them up!
The microSDHC slot and the microUSB connector should be covered against dirt, dust and water.

3. Include a volume key

[JessicatheLittle]

I'd like the best feature on my Sony (may it rest in peace). To be able to browse songs, artists, and albums by alphabet. That way if I want to hear "Make It Rain" then go back to hear " Anything" I can just select the letter and scroll to the song instead of having to develop arthritis in my thumb from that darned wheel. It makes no sense not to have an easier way to get to a song.

[zickZackMann]

An option to order the albums by year. The album names could be displayed like "XY:Teh album", where XY would be the last 2 digits of the year. Displaying it like "2000: Teh album" would take up too much space for displaying the year IMO. Also the year should be shown, when a song is playing.

Me wants YEAR TAG support goddamnit .

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by zickZackMann

An option to order the albums by year. The album names could be displayed like "XY:Teh album", where XY would be the last 2 digits of the year. Displaying it like "2000: Teh album" would take up too much space for displaying the year IMO. Also the year should be shown, when a song is playing.

Me wants YEAR TAG support goddamnit .

And I can't understand why anybody would sort by year. One more tag to try to maintain. For Greatest Hits compilations, the date of the compilation (2007), or the date of the song (1994)?

Oh well, I wouldn't have to use it.

Steve

[zickZackMann]

Because I like to listen to music that changed quite dramatically over the years and if I know the year of its creation at the album level, I can somewhat tell how it will sound like and if it sucks, etc. I guess it depends on the music you hear and your favors, but this tag is really important to me.

[1pj1]

Hello

I like to see support for other video formats,
and the possibility to use programs like Format Factory: http://www.formatoz.com/ for converting films

@ williamtsims:
Linux ubunu detect the fuze as a Mp3 player in usb: auto mode...

bye,
1pj1

[flurl]

Me too wants some way to use videos in a sane format.

[zickZackMann]

I don't think this is going to happen - it took them 8 months to integrate Vorbis and FLAC support. Those are audio codecs, and for this player, video is considered a bonus feature. As a side note, DivX isn't that bad of a format, its quite nice actually if you take into account, that the Fuze doesn't got an Intel Pentium Inside™. Anyway - Rockbox will prob fix this .

[flurl]

@zickZackMann:
Sure, you're right, DivX is not the problem. I just want a way to convert the videos without SMC.
The real problem is, i bought the fuze as a birthday present for the 17 year old daughter of my father's girlfriend and since she saw the video entry in the menu she bothers me to make it working
Anyway, i personally like the fuze, so perhaps i will just buy her another player and keep the fuze for me

[zickZackMann]

Originally Posted by flurl

I just want a way to convert the videos without SMC.

I hear you - this bothers me and a lot of others too. Its definitely something, I would want to see changed in the next firmware. Mainly, because the Sansa software makes the generated videos go out of sync, which totally destroys the fun when you are watching full length movies. It would also be very easy to realize, I can imagine, since they would just have to get rid of an artificial restriction - I don't know why they enforced the use of SMC in the first place. OK, they didn't want their support personal to receive calls like "video playback is lagging, is my device broken?" and people returning their players, BUT, they could have just put a piece of paper into the package telling, novice users should use their software, or display a warning on the Fuzes screen, when a video was not converted with SMC. There are many solutions to this problem and they picked the worst one IMO - just disabling playback.

Well, could also be, that it was too complicated for them, to make the player able to support files that are not encoded in a single way - but I can't really imagine that to apply.

[regeya]

Originally Posted by zickZackMann

I don't think this is going to happen - it took them 8 months to integrate Vorbis and FLAC support. Those are audio codecs, and for this player, video is considered a bonus feature. As a side note, DivX isn't that bad of a format, its quite nice actually if you take into account, that the Fuze doesn't got an Intel Pentium Inside™. Anyway - Rockbox will prob fix this .

I hear you. I'm pinning my hopes on Rockbox, since it's not even possible to take a video which works on a Fuze, put it in a new container, and have it work. I've seen some indications that people are getting closer to understanding this one, but I'm not holding my breath ;-)

[d_headshot]

More ID3 viewing. File type, bitrate, year, etc. And larger album art viewing too.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by d_headshot

More ID3 viewing. File type, bitrate, year, etc. And larger album art viewing too.

I would definitely agree these thoughts, with the exception of the album art. I wouldn't mind if it got bigger, but I really don't worry about it....the Clip freed my mind from that needless stress. It's cool if the art comes through, but if not, I just smile and keep listening. But to see that other info you mentioned...is it MP3, WMA, Vorbis, what bitrate, that would be very cool

[devonh284]

how about cover flow like in rock box

[JK98]

Nsvigation by a choice of folders or tags. Hopefully the song limit will be expanded to 8,000 songs.

[zickZackMann]

LoL Marvin - you seem to be almost something like an activist against album art . Every time someone mentions it, you go like "Who the hell cares about this useless crap?" (a bit exaggerated - no offense intended ).

But I have to agree - this feature is indeed useless as of now, because you cannot see anything but a pile of pixels. Thats why they NEED to make these images bigger, so we can finally realize the wonderful joy, that this great feature is supposed to give us .

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by zickZackMann

LoL Marvin - you seem to be almost something like an activist against album art . Every time someone mentions it, you go like "Who the hell cares about this useless crap?" (a bit exaggerated - no offense intended ).
But I have to agree - this feature is indeed useless as of now, because you cannot see anything but a pile of pixels. Thats why they NEED to make these images bigger, so we can finally realize the wonderful joy, that this great feature is supposed to give us .

Yeah, you do have a point there.....lol It certainly did bug me for awhile pre-Clip when I couldn't get it to work,but stress is your enemy

That does sum up my feeling on the video though. I never tried watching any videos longer than like 10 minutes, so I never saw the out-of-sync for myself, but I couldn't picture watching a screen that size much longer anyways(maybe my eyes are getting old)