Sandisk Sansa C250 v1 Available CHEAP!

[PassinThru]

I lost my old MP3 player's sound quality when it slipped out of my pocket into the water while trying to land a bass this summer while fishing. I needed a replacement.

Searched Newegg and lo and behold, they had some of the Sansa models available. The C240 for $20 each, and the C250 for $30 each. I ordered a C250 (onnaconnacuz it was a purty blue) they didn't have black, and just received it today.

I knew about RockBox but never had a compatible player, I also had no hopes of getting a v1 compatible firmware this late in the game.

Guess what? The C250 that I received today is v1!!!  v01.01.00P to be exact. I immediately loaded RockBox into it even before reading the Sansa manual. :-)  It's running GREAT! (What an amazing piece of work you folks have done. I have been using the CHDK hack on my Canon camera and now I see why it's comparable to RockBox for MP3 players.)

So, in case anyone is looking for a really decent player that also will run RockBox, do not hesitate. Deals like this at Newegg don't last long.

Hint: While waiting for the arrival of my C250, I realized I'd want a backup battery. Well, cost on those, w/shipping, always came to $20-$30 each. So, I ordered one of the C240's from Newegg too, just for the battery. I have no idea if they are v1 firmware or not yet. But hey, you get a whole MP3 player with battery and extra ear-buds for the price of an extra battery, which may or may not be RockBox compatible too. (I hope it is!!)

(I only signed up today to let you know about this. I also wasn't sure which forum to post under. I didn't think I had the right to post an official announcement in the Announcement board. Feel free to move this there if that's where it belongs.)

Here's some links to the C250 and C240 products there (C250's are $30, and C240's are $20)

C250 Red
C250 Blue

Dang, they're all out of the C240's already.

[ThaCrip]

in my opinion even though 30 bucks is a decent price and all... i think your better off paying a little extra for the e250 (i got mine for about 45-50 dollars on ebay a while back) as it just seems better designed with it's wheel etc etc.

although if you could get one (c250) for 20 bucks it would be hard to complain

and in general, in my opinion i think that 2GB is probably the minimum i would consider buying cause with 1GB you dont have to much storage space for songs... cause with 2GB if your using a low bit rate .ogg file (like me) you can fit alot of music on the player and still have quite a bit of space left.

Thanks anyways for the info

[PassinThru]

and in general, in my opinion i think that 2GB is probably the minimum i would consider buying cause with 1GB you dont have to much storage space for songs... cause with 2GB if your using a low bit rate .ogg file (like me) you can fit alot of music on the player and still have quite a bit of space left.

Thanks anyways for the info

Seems they're all sold out anyway just a day after I posted this.

But I feel this comment about which one might be best for the price deserves a bit of a reply. You forget that both these models take a MicroSD card for more storage. MicroSDHC cards are now available in Class-6 speeds up to 8GB. While I've not tested the limits that RockBox gives with these, I assume that it supports all SDHC sizes. That means for $20 or $30 + a cheap SD card you can have 9GB or 10GB player. With the added convenience of swapping them out when you want a whole new collection. I have all my comedy albums on one 1GB card, music on a 2GB card, and videos on a 4GB card, I keep a small-tome of audio books on the Sansa's own 2GB space. I found that the battery compartment can easily hold 3-4 spare MicroSD cards in there without harming things. (The battery is slightly concave on the flat and is a perfect spot to keep them without anything being compressed or forced.) With the interchangeable battery then it also means by carrying a spare taped to the back I get 20-30 hours of playtime between power-sources. Luckily I also had a USB port 5V car-charger (12V) in my junk-box too, so I'm good to go for the long-haul on any trip. Add in my compact folding solar-panel that I use to charge my cameras' batteries at all possible voltages (the cameras which can also use the MicroSD cards), and it was the most cost effective solution all-around for all my media devices.

Anyway, that's my reasons why this was *the* perfect solution for my needs. AND it runs RockBox!

[AlexP]

You can now get micro SDHC up to 16 GB, and when they become available Rockbox should also support the 32 GB models.

[ThaCrip]

@ PassinThru ... i see your point ... but i was not really meaning the internal space when i said what i said.. i was just saying the 'device itself' was all around better (i.e. the c200 series vs the e200 series) with it's scroll wheel etc etc as it's (the e200 series) just fancier than the c200 series... so in my opinion it's worth the extra 10-15dollars or so it costs to get one of those instead of the c200 series.

NOTE: i never used a c200 series sansa but just from looking at pictures it seems like a dumbed down version of a e200.

but that aside i totally agree as you can get a cheap all around solid player and just expand memory if you need to cheap.... cause i agree with you about getting a cheaper model with lower memory and then just add in more with MicroSD slot vs getting more initially in the player itself... since getting more in the player itself tends to jack up price noticeably more vs just buying additional memory like MicroSD... cause i figure that's what i did with mine as the 2GB model was noticeably cheaper than the 4GB model so i just went with the 2GB model and if i need more storage i can just buy a 4GB MicroSD card online for fairly cheap and im golden.

but honestly... i dont think ill ever run out of space on my Sansa e250 (2GB) since im only using about half the space currently and i pretty much have a high percentage of my music collection in it in .OGG format (avg bit rate of 45kbps) ... so cause of the OGG format alone it's sorta like i have a 4GB+ player instead of a 2GB player ... cause typically if i was using MP3 instead of .OGG i could not go less than 128kbps do to sound quality reasons (in my opinion) which would eat up space more than twice as fast, hence, it's sorta like i bought the 4GB player instead of the 2GB one.

just some thoughts... and have fun with your c200's

[pizza4me]

@ PassinThru ... i see your point ... but i was not really meaning the internal space when i said what i said.. i was just saying the 'device itself' was all around better (i.e. the c200 series vs the e200 series) with it's scroll wheel etc etc as it's (the e200 series) just fancier than the c200 series... so in my opinion it's worth the extra 10-15dollars or so it costs to get one of those instead of the c200 series.

NOTE: i never used a c200 series sansa but just from looking at pictures it seems like a dumbed down version of a e200.

I originally bought a C series that I would use while cutting grass, and it was sufficient for what I needed it for, however I was unable to keep it protected, and it got cracks in the screen and the headphone jack wore out in only one summer (maybe a defect on mine and not all C's).  I sent it back on warranty and replaced it with an E series (along with case and screen cover).  I would HIGHLY recommend the upgrade!  The screen is substantially better, and the quality of parts is WAY better (plastic vs metal casing).
I don't recall having my C series having the lockup issues the the E does, but that has been fixed since installing rockbox. (why is "rockbox" not in the forum dictionary??)
C series are kinda cheaply made if you ask me... ("kinda" IS in the forum dictionary)

[Llorean]

Did you try Rockbox instead of rockbox? Can't check directly, still without power from Ike and the mobile interface is limited.

[pizza4me]

nope, "Rockbox" and "rockbox" are both red-lined.

[Llorean]

Did you click the spellcheck button? The red line is your browser's spellcheck.