New Sansa players...?

[Dreamnine]

Yeah, without a card, as a stand-alone 2, 4 or 8Gb player it's pretty unbeatable for its size and features.

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by nena

Like I said previously, it would make me think twice before buying a fuze now. And sweetheart, I didn't bring it up.

First off I’m not a “sweetheart” other than to Ms WalkGood, second I could care less if one buys one or not, I don’t have SanDisk stock, heh, and per your other post you did imply it, so I responded. If you mean something else, I’m all ears …

Originally Posted by nena

… I have 6 sansa players and have upgraded every time a new clip model came out, why would you assume I'm unhappy with my devices? I'm unhappy with sandisk's response to certain things, but rather that than be deluded into assuming they're awesome regardless of what they do.

lol, you got me beat, I only have 5 (4 clips & 1 e260), but I certainly didn’t say “awesome” in my reply, they’re good for the price period and if you can run rockbox on them, then I like them better. They are what they are, a good inexpensive player that have a good form factor and that’s it. As far as expecting miracles in firmware from them or other manufactures, personally I wouldn’t hold my breath as they all have faults …

[m_k]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Good point, they've never been able to fix that, even from the e200 series, guess if and when rockbox gets ported that won't be an issue. Which btw I read they've started on ...

A single data point (but I think I've read of others noting the same thing) -- they DID seem to fix it in the Fuze V2.

My Fuze V2 is my ONLY non-Rockboxed Sansa that can play videos via the card.

ALL of my other Sansas either don't support video via card, or, "officially" support it -- but, when I try, it plays for a few seconds and then locks up tight as a drum, and stays locked up until I either do a hard reset, or (sometimes), eject the card and force a refresh. If I try again, it's the same thing. I do have one or two cards that will work (in Fuze V1 or e200 V2), but I don't know what make/model they are (if people think the display on a Fuze is small, then I challenge them to read the microscopic FAINT print on a MicroSDHC card!)

Of course I have zero expectation of them implementing firmware fixes for the other players so that they'll be as robust as the Fuze V2 when handling video files.

Thankfully Rockbox is available for the players OTHER than the Fuze V2, and, the Rockbox video player eats the Sansa player's lunch even on a good day. (The stock video player on the Fuze is the first one that's at all usable, period. Earlier models have no bookmarking, pathetic fast-forward, and in some cases, the worthless .MOV format, with a need to break each file into numerous tiny segments of a few minutes each. The Fuze works, and has enough functionality to be usable, even if not as nice as Rockbox.)

BTW, I don't see this mentioned very much (if at all), but the lowly Express handles the whole indexing thing in an ALMOST Rockboxish manner. The Express writes its index to each MicroSD/HC card, rather than forcing so many rebuilds.

When you move cards between and Express and any other model, you end up with "junk files" (not as bad as drives that have been crapped on by a Mac, but still a waste of space) -- and, the Express is the MOST picky model in terms of which cards it will accept. Ironically, it's about their cheapest model (when it was in production), but, with later firmware versions it did accept HC cards -- but, regardless of card capacity, it was always a crapshoot as to whether it would accept a card, and, if it would, what you'd need to do with the card to make it happy.

It's been a while since I put any cards into any of my Expresses, but I can seem to recall the official directions being pointless, with some cards being able to plug and play (as should always be the case), and others needing to be formatted by the player, and yet others needing to be formatted by the computer. If a card was NOT formatted in the way that particular brand and model card "needed" for the Express, it would go wild -- it would act like it was copying files, writing to the card, but, nothing would happen, or, files would be there, but it would't be able to see them. I think I've experienced both failure modes (as I said, it's been a while -- my Expresses are now relegated to use mainly as utility FM radios.)

That's another player that would have been great IF they'd bothered to deliver a solid firmware version for it. Instead, it's cute, but frustrating.

PS: I forgot to mention -- there WAS one guy who DID spill the beans on the Clip+ a few months before it was released. I forget if it was here or on the Sansa forum, but he did a fairly accurate "tell" on it -- and no one believed him. He took a ration of feces over it, was told that he was a dummy who must have seen a Fuze and thought it was the new Clip with card slot (which he'd described).

Eventually (it didn't take long) he basically said screw this and left. But, he did see it coming -- I would guess he had seen one of the pre-release pieces, or maybe the specs at a vendor that was under NDA, or maybe he worked for a PR firm... there are always plenty of potential leak vectors.

Other than that one guy though, in ONE thread, I didn't see anything beyond wild speculation regarding their future products. If I can find that thread I'll post a link to it, but "ol' pops" ain't doing so well in the health department at the moment, so don't hold your breath (unless you're someone who annoys me, in which case feel free to hold your breath until I get back with you. )

[mikee]

sandisk should release an android tablet mp3 player as a successor to the sansa connect who's wifi internet radio feature is pretty much useless now.

[paulr]

The Clip+ is just about perfect as a small audio player. I'd supplement it with a larger version that's sort of a modernized version of the old E100 series. Basically a Clip+ powered by one AAA cell and with a full sized SDHC/SDXC slot. Or else bring back the M200 form factor, and make a version of the Clip with an AAA cell and no slot, but with 32gb of internal flash.

I guess a Bluetooth transmitter could be useful.

I have not the slightest interest in tiny video players that need format converters. I think the small PMP is a doomed genre, as those features merge into cellular phones. I don't see why I'd buy something like a View, when a good smartphone can do all the same stuff.

I'd like to see a Sansa version of the Ipad though, i.e. a lightweight MID with a 10 inch screen.

[dgb52]

Hope Sansa comes out with a new 16gb player, i want more storage

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by dgb52

Hope Sansa comes out with a new 16gb player, i want more storage

They are way overdue on that.....I think they want us to buy $200 32GB microsdhc cards instead.

[dgb52]

Well unless the price drops quite a bit, i do not think i will be buying one of those.

I have been debating whether to buy a 8 gb Fuze or wait awhile and see if anything new

comes out.

[Adub]

It will be some time before the price drops, more manufacturers need to release them and have them readily available from retailers.

[paulr]

I stopped by here because of a rumor I saw saying Sandisk was getting out of the audio player business completely. That sounded surprising b/c I'd have thought the Clip+ and Fuze were doing well. And there is another thread about "Sansa Tap" which will presumably have a touch screen.

High end players are just silly in my opinion. I have ten or so Sansas (cheap ones keep appearing on Woot and I can't resist them) and a Cowon D2 16gb and I feel like a dork for buying the Cowon. If I wanted a PMP today I'd certainly get a smartphone instead of a dedicated media player. E.g. I keep seeing the Nokia E63 for around $150 and it can do most PMP functions, has a micro sdhc slot, has swappable batteries, has a 2mp camera / video camera, has internet, is a phone, etc.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by paulr

High end players are just silly in my opinion. I have ten or so Sansas (cheap ones keep appearing on Woot and I can't resist them) and a Cowon D2 16gb and I feel like a dork for buying the Cowon. If I wanted a PMP today I'd certainly get a smartphone instead of a dedicated media player. E.g. I keep seeing the Nokia E63 for around $150 and it can do most PMP functions, has a micro sdhc slot, has swappable batteries, has a 2mp camera / video camera, has internet, is a phone, etc.

IMO, a 2mp camera/video camera is a total waste. I hope the rest of the features on that phone are of actual value.

I'm not saying that it has to be a 12mp camera, but 6mp cameras produce very nice pictures and actually have some worthwhile features (zoom, stitch assist, ...)

Steve

[Adub]

Originally Posted by paulr

I stopped by here because of a rumor I saw saying Sandisk was getting out of the audio player business completely.

I can not see this happening as Sansa has 8% of the DAP market and giving that up would be a horrible business decision, being 2nd place behind apple they would be fools to drop it.

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

IMO, a 2mp camera/video camera is a total waste. I hope the rest of the features on that phone are of actual value.

I'm not saying that it has to be a 12mp camera, but 6mp cameras produce very nice pictures and actually have some worthwhile features (zoom, stitch assist, ...)

Steve

There is a lot more that goes into the quality of the camera than the mp alone, i had a fijifilm 3mp camera back in the day that takes better pictures than my current kodak 8mp, as well my old nokia with 2mp takes better pictures than any other phone i have seen ranging from 2-6mp.