Going to buy a sansa clip zip, some questions

[kokoko3k]

From what i understood reading here on the site, the device should work with rockbox, and anyway there is a work in progress and i can wait for future rockbox releases, no problem.

However, i have to choice to buy the 4gb model + 8gb external memory or the 8gb model;
the first option whould save me about 5 euros.

1) Will rockbox be able to manage the library between the internal memory and the external one flawlessly?
2) Will rockbox allows me to upload songs to the external memory by plugging the device to the pc or will i need to upload songs directly to the sd card through an external adapter connected to the pc?
3) Any (other) reasons because i whould prefer the 8gb model over the 4+8?

Thanks!

[Mr Whippy]

I don't have the Clip Zip, just the Clip+

1) Yes database looks at internal and microsd card and makes one database
2) When you connect the sansa to a computer two drives are added, one is internal the other is the microsd card
3) Go for the higher capacity one, you can't upgrade internal stock memory only by adding microsd, so that extra 4gb is handy


Not sure which the highest capacity microsd card Rockbox allows, 32 or 64gb. Won't get one until they both drop in price a bit.

[bluebrother]

Rockbox supports SDHC, which is specified up to 32GB. Thete won't be any cards with larger capacity ever. Period. Cards with bigger capacity will be SDXC, for which the situation is different. Search the forums, there has been discussion about those.

[GSV3MiaC]

I have a 4GB Clipzip with 32 GB SDHC card (largest it will support). RB allows card to be written 'in situ' and the database spans both internal memory and the card, but some facilities (like playlist catalogue) don't treat the card the same, and obviously one playlist can't span both memory sources unless you have a very smart program loading the playlist (external folks see the memory card as g:\ or whatever, but that's not what the internal firmware addresses it as). File browsing sees the card as a separate folder right from 'root' level.

RBox is working but still has a few glitches. Battery life fairly sucks (as it did with the original firmware, so maybe it is my player), which may be affected by the large memory card - I'm only getting about 4 hours playing 96kb/s (Q=2.0) .ogg files.

If you're going to have an SDHC card one day, then the smallest internal memory will be fine. If you want to avoid one (and the extra complications it brings) then you need more internal memory. Of course you can only play about 1GB before you need to plug it in to recharge it anyway, so if you knew WHICH 1GB you wanted to hear, you wouldn't need much memory anyway (you can easily synch 1GB while the battery charges).

[kokoko3k]

3) Go for the higher capacity one, you can't upgrade internal stock memory only by adding microsd, so that extra 4gb is handy

I'm not sure i understood properly,
my options are:
a) 4gb internal + 8gb external = 12gb
b) 8gb internal + 0 external = 8gb
"a" is about 5 euros cheaper than "b"

what did you suggested?
thanks!

Post Merge: January 21, 2012, 11:47:57 AM

RBox is working but still has a few glitches. Battery life fairly sucks (as it did with the original firmware, so maybe it is my player), which may be affected by the large memory card - I'm only getting about 4 hours playing 96kb/s (Q=2.0) .ogg files.

Here it is,
this one is something one have to worry about, probably battery life will be affected by external memory, did you ever did a test by using internal memory only?

[Mr Whippy]

Go for B) That way you have 8GB, and if you want more just add a microsd card.

Why would you choose a model with smaller internal memory?

[kokoko3k]

...just because it is cheaper

[GSV3MiaC]

Battery life - with latest RB build I get about 8 hours if I don't have the screen on - that is playing 96kb/s .ogg files. Seems to make not much difference whether internal or external flash memory is in use - I will keep testing. With .mp3s it was less (but the MP3s are at higher bitrate, coz 96kb/s MP3 sounds pretty awful to my ears).

I suspect that I can do better by freeing up more RAM for buffering tracks (not caching the database, reducing max playlist size, whatever) - plus newer versions of RB for the clipzip may do better.

[Mr Whippy]

yeah use 96kps vbr vorbis and sounds fantastic. get way more than 2 hours. As for it's cheaper, I guess but it's a only a few quid and since it's fixed internally might as well go 8GB only a couple more quid. Not like you can remove the 4GB and add more if you need, yeah you can add a 32GB but that means still 4 or 6GB less overall