Firmware Version 1.930 (Beta) Released!

[nobs]

Originally Posted by Mongo

Nobs, yes the player erased itself when installing 1.93. I did erase some audio books to make sure I had about 2gigs (of 4) free before starting. And it did do a reboot to do the font section. I frankly expected it would and had backed up all my files beforehand.Mongo

With files on the player a firmware flash is considered risky IMHO.

Originally Posted by Mongo

Playlists are good if you can bookmark mid-way through, which is what I want to try next, now that bookmarks have arrived

Even with 100+ file playlisted audiobook, the old resume feature worked, but only if the player is dedicated to one playlist/book.

Originally Posted by Mongo

I listen mostly to audiobooks while driving to and from work (2 hrs /day). So w/the genre trick can simply turn off the player, and then resume when turning on again. Downside is without bookmarking you can't listen to music or anything else w/out losing your place. W/out bookmarks the playlist is now better than the genre system (created w/Media Monkey).

I like MediaMonkey and own 2 & 3. I could not get MM to see the external memory card in MTP (playlist dependent) and I now use J.River Media Center. MC can play audible aa files (and even Libary2Go/OverDrive) and multilevel playlist support blows the competition out the water.
You can try Media Jukebox for free just to see if the playlist and more importantly smartlist will work for you. I used to run both, now I don't even have a recent backup of the MM library due to lack of use.
One thing that makes the $40 MC well worth the price is the portable install, I can now carry 500GB of music, pics, docs and movies to work and family to share playlists ;-)

Originally Posted by Mongo

What I would love, but can't find, is an MP3 to AA audible converter. It has 1 big condensed file, and when you stop it automatically bookmarks w/a file.

I have yet to see high SQ from CD audiobooks , let alone aa or Overdrive.
Lame 3.97 @ "-V 8 --vbr-new" is usually larger than need be on 90% of the available talking books. -V 8 is a little more than the 32 kbps that aa files hit and is a happy medium I have settled on. Even though "-V 9 --vbr new" works for most store bought books and is fairly consistent with aa size to SQ.
I only have version 4 (high) audible books and have started converting some of my collection to - V 8 and verified through http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Due to some of the high compressions from a few studios, -V 9 will dip into 24 kbps because the source is of questionable encoding. YMMV
In other words, the SQ on the aa files is already fairly low because even audible can not re-master the original source material for better SQ.

[CrowdAds]

[Tobey]

The Pilot allows you to put MP3 files into the audible folder, effectively turning them into Audible files in the sense that it will resume where you left off if you want to do something else, like listen to music. Unfortunately, I couldn't get 1.930 to do this for some reason. Most likely a bug.

[rhoton]

I am impressed - and it seems the bookmark bug has disappeared, maybe someone can confirm this, but it seems the playlist now continues in the correct order for audio book files after saving and reloading a bookmark.
Now, I want this for my Pilot and Sport - hopefully those players will have similar firmware upgrades soon that fix the bookmark bug as well.
Oh, I had to reinstall version 1.2 again first before it would accept 1.9, why I don't know.

Barb

[KickassAMD]

Updated mine Works brilliantly! Great work!

[Mongo]

Sadly, after checking various bookmark scenarios for AUDIO BOOKS:
>MediaMonkey sync to player with files nested in directories per orig. CD
>All files in a single directory named to be "in order" of play
>Using www.oddgravity.de fairly easy Playlist Creator 3.5, note this will do relative and absolute playlists in either m3u or pls. {{Strangely while pls isn't recognized by player, pla is and was created by Media Monkey, and is recognized.}}

>>> No method will resume properly from an audio book list after saving a bookmark, playing a song, and loading saved bookmark. Actual file itself will come back ok, but will be, for example, file 24 of 600, instead of 24 of 173 from the original audio book list.

So, still left with either a "genre" method, or a playlist method where you have to simply turn the player on and off to not lose your place after beginning a file set - what I've been doing anyway, so......

RE firmware flash risky w/files on player ? What risk if you've backed up your files? Unless you're thinking the player will choke and be unusable.

I looked up smartlist, and it looks neat for managing music additions, etc., but am adding steadily to audio book collection, not music (have plenty).

Agree that most audio books aren't high fidelity, but w/the ambient noise of a car at 70mph, don't really care unless tinny, or has static. I typically rip book CD's to 128KBPS, and it's fine for my use (not a purist, think 32KBPS would be "ok" for audio). Is the Lame 3.97 @ "-V 8 --vbr-new" a new high fidelity format?

Mongo

Originally Posted by nobs

With files on the player a firmware flash is considered risky IMHO.

Even with 100+ file playlisted audiobook, the old resume feature worked, but only if the player is dedicated to one playlist/book.

I like MediaMonkey and own 2 & 3. I could not get MM to see the external memory card in MTP (playlist dependent) and I now use J.River Media Center. MC can play audible aa files (and even Libary2Go/OverDrive) and multilevel playlist support blows the competition out the water.
You can try Media Jukebox for free just to see if the playlist and more importantly smartlist will work for you. I used to run both, now I don't even have a recent backup of the MM library due to lack of use.
One thing that makes the $40 MC well worth the price is the portable install, I can now carry 500GB of music, pics, docs and movies to work and family to share playlists ;-)

I have yet to see high SQ from CD audiobooks , let alone aa or Overdrive.
Lame 3.97 @ "-V 8 --vbr-new" is usually larger than need be on 90% of the available talking books. -V 8 is a little more than the 32 kbps that aa files hit and is a happy medium I have settled on. Even though "-V 9 --vbr new" works for most store bought books and is fairly consistent with aa size to SQ.
I only have version 4 (high) audible books and have started converting some of my collection to - V 8 and verified through http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Due to some of the high compressions from a few studios, -V 9 will dip into 24 kbps because the source is of questionable encoding. YMMV
In other words, the SQ on the aa files is already fairly low because even audible can not re-master the original source material for better SQ.

[Indecision]

I have the NSDV-2G and I can't get this thing to install. Every time I click "Firmware Update" I get a message that says "Same or lastest version already installed."

Mine only have ver 1.2 of the firmware, not 1.930.

What do I do to get this thing installed? Please help.

Thanks.

[nobs]

Originally Posted by Mongo

RE firmware flash risky w/files on player ? What risk if you've backed up your files? Unless you're thinking the player will choke and be unusable.

Formating or setting flash-able HDW to default values is considered safe. Flashing has always been hit and miss and FW corruption has always been an issue.

[QUOTE=Mongo;243058]
I looked up smartlist, and it looks neat for managing music additions, etc., but am adding steadily to audio book collection, not music (have plenty).
Smartlist is over kill for Audiobooks. Multi-level playlist group is a powerful tool for large audiobooks

Originally Posted by Mongo

Agree that most audio books aren't high fidelity, but w/the ambient noise of a car at 70mph, don't really care unless tinny, or has static. I typically rip book CD's to 128KBPS, and it's fine for my use (not a purist, think 32KBPS would be "ok" for audio). Is the Lame 3.97 @ "-V 8 --vbr-new" a new high fidelity format?

I use Lame 3.97 with both EAC or MC.
-V 0 --vbr-new will have a fairly large file compaired to SQ.
-V 9 --vbr-new is a step below less than half the books that I've got from audible (aa) format. I really can't hear the differance, me ears are showing their age.
aa is very close to vbr 32 kbps, but it will read as cbr with all my media players I've tried.
-V 9 --new can go from 16 to 32+ depending on the source.
-V 8 --new can go from 22 to 48. This is slightly larger than aa and is most likely over kill.

[nobs]

Originally Posted by Indecision

I have the NSDV-2G and I can't get this thing to install. Every time I click "Firmware Update" I get a message that says "Same or lastest version already installed."
Mine only have ver 1.2 of the firmware, not 1.930.
What do I do to get this thing installed? Please help.
Thanks.

Downgrade to 1.105 using: http://www.insignia-products.com/ski...to%201.105.exe

Upgrade 1.105 to 1.9b : http://www.insignia-products.com/ski...areUpdater.exe

Each update requires an "erase internal memory" after FW inorder to update the FONT.

Before updating, recommend reading the manual: http://www.insignia-products.com/ski...serManual1.pdf
<Pg. 24 of 30 (English)>
Erasing all files and restoring factory defaults
<and>
Manually changing the USB mode

[Tony123]

is this for the pilot?

[Tobey]

No. It's for the Insignia Video.

[bit]

Originally Posted by Indecision

I have the NSDV-2G and I can't get this thing to install. Every time I click "Firmware Update" I get a message that says "Same or lastest version already installed."

Mine only have ver 1.2 of the firmware, not 1.930.

What do I do to get this thing installed? Please help.

Thanks.

I had the same issue when I upgraded. What I had to do to resolve it was change from MTP mode to forced MSC by powering the device on with the hold switch ON, restarted the firmware updater and voila, I had 1.9 running on my player.

Hope this helps!
bit

[phuongt]

I plug in my microphone to line in jack to record. But nothing shows up. Is there something wrong with new firm ware line in recorder.

[Mr. Microphone]

No, there's nothing wrong with the external jack recording. It does work in F/W 1.9.

The mic/line-in requires a powered input source. The player cannot "phantom power" the mic. So if you have a karaoke mic or any other quality of mic that does not have it own power source (via a battery or a powered mixer/mic processor), you won't get any record levels.

When you record, a flashing red record light with an "R" blinks in the upper left part of the screen (cute!) But more importantly, the UV meters on either side of the RECORDING display will flicker along with the sound input.

If you get little to no UV level, the player isn't picking up sound loud enough to record.

You just need a powered input (mixer, mic processor, battery mic.)

What the original thought behind recording was I'm not quite sure. It doesn't lend itself to be a usable portable recording device. But you can quickly record a song off the internal radio tuner. Or if you're really industrious, with the right cables, you can hook an old vinyl turntable output into the player's mic/line-in and digitize old vinyl records.

[tappan]

Converted without any problems. Like the new GUI!

[bbf]

Here's my experience with the upgrade:

Try 1: Windows XP Media Center Edition SP3 - Flash program would run, but never displayed the window, so couldn't flash the firmware.
Try 2: Windows Vista x64 SP1 - Flash program crashed
Try 3: Windows Vista 32bit SP1 - Flash program crashed
Try 4: Windows XP Home SP2 - Flash program ran...
Try 4a: Flash program refused to upgrade over version 1.200 it said that the player didn't need the upgrade. So I ran the 1.105 downgrade flash program and downgraded the firmware. After that the 1.9eb flash program successfully flashed the beta firmware.

Definitely a major improvement over the 1.2 firmware. I tried my FAT32 formatted 4GB micro SDHC card (which is usually in my phone) in the player with the 1.93b firmware loaded and it read all my media files properly.

I've got to say that I'm *VERY* impressed by the support somebody at Insignia has given us by providing a firmware upgrade on a DISCONTINUED product that updates it to include most of the features of the current product. (I've had problems getting firmware upgrades to fix problems on non-discontinued products with other products from other big-name companies.) This level of enthusiast customer support is really RARE these days and is greatly appreciated.

[Pheonix23]

Hey I have the 1.2 update and i wanted a recommendation as to whether i should update to 1.93b or not. is it worth it? Do the improvements outweigh any of the bugs?

[XPhile]

Originally Posted by bbf

....I've got to say that I'm *VERY* impressed by the support somebody at Insignia has given us by providing a firmware upgrade on a DISCONTINUED product that updates it to include most of the features of the current product. (I've had problems getting firmware upgrades to fix problems on non-discontinued products with other products from other big-name companies.) This level of enthusiast customer support is really RARE these days and is greatly appreciated.

Amen!

Mike

[whiskeymcclinton]

Xphile: You are right on! A free Firmware update for a discontinued product is impressive! The new UI is improved and changed so much, it's almost like getting a new mp3 player for free!

[Pheonix23]

can anyone confirm whether the 1.93 update gives usb functionality to macs? because 1.2 doesn't.

[tfish77]

What's the point of the new "ratings" functionality? Can you create a playlist based on songs you've given a certain rating? I wasn't able to find that anywhere.