Picked up the Sansa Clip+

Hey I just wanted to let you know that I picked up the Sansa Clip+ yesterday and the testing has begun. Within the next 2-4 days I should have a finished review ready for your reading, so keep checking for new posts. Also I think I will be doing a video review/demo so that should be done pretty soon too.
-James

How to install Rockbox Using the Rockbox Utility

Okay so you like the looks of Rockbox, but the question is "how do I install it?" Well here is a set of simple step-by-step instructions on how to install Rockbox on your MP3 player using the Rockbox Utility.

Download the Rockbox Utility: Download the Rockbox utility for your platform (Windows, Linux, or Mac) from: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/RockboxUtility by scrolling down to the download section. This program is needed to install Rockbox on your player.

Decompress the .Zip file: When you downloaded the Utility you should have gotten a .zip file. Decompress this file to any desired location (Use a Program like WinRAR, or WinZip), just don't forget where because you will need it for the next step.

Open the Rockbox Utility:Open the file from the location that you decompressed it to.

Set up the Rockbox Utility: Once the Rockbox Utility opens it will prompt you to select your device. To do this simply plug in your player and click "Autodetect", or select your player from the list manually. Clicking "Autodetect" will tell the Rockbox Utility to find your device on the computer and automatically select it from the list.

(click to enlarge)

Install Rockbox:Then from the menu under the quick start tab you can select the "Complete installation" and the "Minimal installation". The Complete installation will install the bootloader ( the thing that tells the player to open Rockbox.), Rockbox, and all the extras (the things that make Rockbox great). The minimal installation only installs the bootloader and Rockbox, no extras. I recommend the Complete installation because the extras are what makes Rockbox great.

Install extras: After installing Rockbox you can now install themes, fonts, games, etc. The games, themes and such are located under the extras tab.

Unistallation: If for some crazy reason you decide that you want to uninstall Rockbox, the Rockbox Utility will do that for you too. Just go to the unistallation tab and click complete uninstall to completely rid your player of it.

Read the Manual for more help: The Rockbox Utility not only does it help you install Rockbox, it's extras, and uninstall Rockbox, but it also includes a manual that can be found under the manual tab of the Utility menu. This manual will provide any further needed information.

200 Views!

We have Reached 200+ views! We are so happy for this, we didn't think we would get that many hits that fast. Please take time to read some of the Reviews and comment on them. Also please take the time to comment on THIS post and quick just tell us how you stumbled upon our Blog. Comments are open to anyone so please type away. We need to find out how people are stumbling upon our site so we can figure out where our "advertising" is working, and where it isn't. Help us help you. Much Obliged,
James

Rockbox: The Open Source Jukebox (Review)

Do you ever find your self saying, “I don't like the looks of my MP3 Players UI (User Interface)?” Or, “I wish that my Player had more features, and was more customizable?” Well here is the answer to all of those questions. Yes and no.

Before I get into any details, Rockbox runs well on these players, has a complete manual and is supported by the installer:

*Apple: 1st through 5.5th generation iPod, iPod Mini and 1st generation iPod Nano
(not the Shuffle, 2nd/3rd/4th gen Nano, Classic or Touch)
*Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
*Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
*iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
*Olympus: M:Robe 100
*SanDisk: Sansa c200 series, e200 series and e200R series (not the v2/AMS models)
*Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (not the S series)

Unstable ports

Rockbox runs on these players, but is incomplete, less usable or has problems that limit it to advanced users:

*Cowon: D2
*Olympus: M:Robe 500
*Samsung: YH-920 and YH-925
*SanDisk: Sansa e200 v2 (AMS) and Sansa Fuze V1

Unusable ports

Work has begun on porting Rockbox to these players, but much remains before they are usable:

*Toshiba Gigabeat S, Cowon iAudio 7, Creative ZVM, Logik Dax, Meizu M6, Samsung YH820
Philips GoGear HDD1600, HDD1800, HDD6300 and SA9200, Onda VX747 and VX767,
Tatung Elio, Apple iPod Nano 2G, Sandisk Sansa m200, c100, Clip v1 and c200v2

What is it, and Why use it?

“ 'Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for a growing number of digital audio players. It has been in development since 2001 and receives new features, tweaks and fixes every day to provide you with the best possible music listening experience. Rockbox aims to be considerably more functional and efficient than your device's stock firmware while remaining easy to use and customizable. It is a goal to not only offer a wide range of functionality, but where possible make sure that this functionality is presented in a consistent manner that is easy to learn and use. It is written by users, for users. ' ” A Quote Directly from Rockbox.org/wiki/whyrockbox

Positives:

Rockbox is full of many things that add a plus to the player that they are on.

-Rockbox allows for you to make, install, or get other's themes and install them onto your player.

(Themes can be downloaded from: http://themes.rockbox.org/ )

Example of a Theme menu:

(This example is the theme titled: Wide cabbie
Submitter:
Jonas Häggqvist
Description:
This is a mod of Cabbie 2.0 by Marc Guay and Johannes Voggenthaler, with a number of changes. Mainly a far larger font, but also 168x84 album art, which I create by merging album art with an artist picture from last.fm. You could also use it to show front and back cover. It looks fine with square album art as well.)

-It allows the ability to play Gameboy and Gameboy Color ROMs ( a ROM is a digital copy of the game see this article for further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image )

-Plugins such as a calculator, Movie Viewer (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), Text Viewer/editor, Rock Paint, Calender, Stopwatch, and many more. (For Complete list visit: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/WhyRockbox)

-Once you have Rockbox installed on your MP3 Player you can still switch back and forth from Rockbox and the Original Firmware.

-File View

-Is Constantly being updated, and has great user support.

-Very Customizable


Negatives:


-It could void your warranty

-You need to know what you are doing before you install, or bad things could happen (Very low probability)


Overall Rockbox is the best alternative to your Original firmware if you are looking for a Customizable, great looking, easy to use, free, and feature packed open source firmware, Rockbox is for you. Check out Rockbox.org for even more info on rockbox and its many features. (A how to install Rockbox Tutorial will be posted very soon)

100 Views

We have now hit 100 views on our blog. Although this may seem like a minuscule amount, it is a large step for us in our young blogging careers. As traffic increases, and more blog posts are put out, we hope to continue expanding our blogging horizons to more than just mp3 players. As traffic increases, we hope to increase our blogging output. So, tell your friends, and we thank you for your continued patronage to our blog.

- Mark

When Looking for a case for your player...........

* Just thought I'd post this in case you needed help selecting a case for your device.

When looking for a case for your player, consider these things:

1. What are you going to be using your player for, for a majority of the time? This means stuff like exercise, travel, at home, etc.

2. What is the Quality of the case? When I look for cases I generally make sure the case is sturdy, and that there is not a big gap in between the screen and the case ( I made the mistake of not checking that with my sansa e200, you can see on the post before this in the picture how scratched the screen is from sand).


3. Does is protect the most important parts of the device? (Mainly the screen)

4. Does it have a clip?

5. How does it change the Device's overall size?

6. Finally, does it cripple the player's use? This means stuff like covering up buttons, the hole for the headphone jack being to high off the player for some jacks, mainly stuff that will slow down your use speed.

Review of the Sansa e200 series

Specs:

Dimensions: Width: 1.7 in. Depth: 3.5 in. Height: 0.5
Memory Capacities: 2GB, 4Gb, 6GB
Special Features: Fm radio with presets, Video viewer, User Adjustable EQ.
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA
Media Transfer types: MTP, MSC
Hardware: Flash Storage, TFT 1.8 in LCD screen, and a Lithium Ion battery.
Weight: 2.6 oz.
Expandable Memory: Yes up to 1Gb, Micro SD.

Out of the box:
Out of the box, you will receive a neck lanyard, a technical support booklet, the Sansa e200 MP3 Player, sandisk head phones (junk), some advertisement papers, extra ear bud covers, connector cord, and some "lil monsta" stickers.

Pictures:














The Sandisk Sansa e200 series, which consists of the e250, e260, and e270 models, were released in January 2006 replacing the e100 series. They are flashed based players, which comes in 2GB, 4GB, and 6GB versions. This player is packed full of features, such as an FM radio, User Adjustable EQ, and Video viewing.

Audio:
The e200 supports only a few formats, they include, MP3, WMA, and windows plays for sure. The overall quality of the e200 is very good. But sometimes there is an annoying scratching noise in the background, when music is not being played. Other than that the e200's sound quality is above par, beating it's competitor the iPod Nano. Along with the great sound quality that the, e200 delivers, it also has a user adjustable EQ (EQ means Equalizer. An Equalizer is a series of settings which control the audio adjustment), which is not super tweak-able, but is better than nothing, and can really make a difference in the player's sound. One thing that disappointed me was the fact that there is only one playlist (called the "go list"). I would have liked to have seen the ability to create and edit new playlists. With my testing, I can get just about 20 hours of music out of it.

Video:
One feature that helped me decide to purchase the e200 was the fact that it supported video. The video quality is not the greatest, but is quite good for the screen size. It can handle up to about 24 FPS (Frames Per Second), which is pretty good. From my testing you can get close to 3 hours of video out of it, but that depends on the brightness of the movie, and other factors.
Video Conversion:
This is where Sandisk really slacked off. The video converter is really fussy, and is the only one you can use to convert video for the Sandisk firmware (This player can also be enhanced with an open source firmware, called Rockbox. We will get to that in a bit.). And don't even think about trying to drag and drop videos onto the e200 because even if looks like it is in the same format, it doesn't work. The converter also chops longer videos ( full length movies, etc) into chunks, which can get annoying. Other than the fact that the converter is kind of a pain, once you have converted the video, it will play at a very watchable quality (This depends, of course on what the quality of the video is before conversion.)

Player UI (User interface) :
The UI on the e200 is quite normal. There is really nothing special to it. The menu is a circle that you use the scroll wheel to scroll around, and choose what you want. On the Menu screen you will find: Video, Music, FM Radio, Voice, Settings, Photo.

Media transfer:
The e200 can be connected you your computer via a Proprietary cable, and media and adding files is as easy as dragging and dropping (with the acception of Videos, you can but you won't be able to view them, we'll get to that in the Video Section.)

Organization:
Music can be organized by Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists, My top rated, and recordings. It does not do any special organization section for podcasts, which annoyed me alot, but is not that big of a deal. I like how the player organizes my music.

Videos are organized in a simple list by title, sweet and simple.

Photos, can be viewed in a list, by thumbnails, or a slideshow.

Product Feel:
This product feels quite sturdy, it has a metal backing, and a plastic front cover. It is really durable (once I feel asleep while using it and rolled on top of it, and it is still working like a champ). Another thing that is also a plus on any player, is a user replaceable battery.

Rockbox on the E200:
One thing that I simply Love about the e200 is the fact that it can be modded with Rockbox, an open source jukebox (firmware). With Rockbox you have the ability to: Change/edit/create themes for your device (if you have the know how you can make your own, other wise you can download ones that people share, on sites like Anythingbutipod.com, themes.rockbox.org.). You can also view videos in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats. There is a text editor/viewer, and so much more. So if you want to unleash the full potential of your player then check out Rockbox.org for more info. (Once you have put Rockbox on your player you can take it off at anytime, and while it is installed you can still use the Original firmware.) I Highly recommend using rockbox on your e200. And if you don't have an e200, check out all the other players that you can put Rockbox on, such as :

• Apple: 1st through 5.5th generation iPod, iPod Mini and 1st generation iPod Nano
  (not the Shuffle, 2nd/3rd/4th gen Nano, Classic or Touch)
• Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
• Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
• iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
• Olympus: M:Robe 100
• SanDisk: Sansa c200 series, e200 series and e200R series (not the v2/AMS models)
• Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (not the S series)

Conclusion:
Overall this product serves as a great Player for either someone looking for a cheap, Feature packed device, or someone looking to purchase their first player. Over all I highly recommend this player to anyone.

Availability:
You can order this product off of Amazon.com from about $40-$80 depending on capacity.