Touchy touch screen rubs me the wrong way

[MilesAhead]

After a lot of web searching I found an MP3/FM radio with 8GB storage for less than $40.  So I was very curious how it would go when I picked it up from Walmart today.  I have never owned or used any touch screen type of device.

After today's experience I feel my worst fears were justified.  I got the thing to play a few mp3 tunes.  Didn't sound bad.  But the touch screen business drove me crazy.  I could not try the FM radio because instead of just disabling the Bluetooth automatically it pops up a message I have to do it.  But it won't let me.  Scrolling of files in a folder as well as settings jumps all over.  As soon as you take your thumb off the screen the scrolled list of files starts to scroll back in the opposite direction.  After about 15 minutes or more of fiddling I got the Bluetooth setting back to Off.  But the setting will not "stick."  No matter what I do it stays set to "on."  I even tried resetting factory settings.  That did not work.

Nearly all the user reviews for this player were  very positive except for the note that the screen seems to require an abnormal amount of pressure to "click" it and that there is a time lag.

In my case I think the touchscreen software was corrupted as I could get it to do almost nothing.  Pressing the menus at the top did nothing at all.  I guess I am still in the market for something with more than 4 GB storage to play my tunes.  Maybe I'll fish around and see if I can wangle a free government issue smart phone or something similar. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so that will give me an excuse to get more treats to eat while I am at Walmart returning the item. 

[4wd]

Maybe I'll fish around and see if I can wangle a free government issue smart phone or something similar. 

-MilesAhead (February 10, 2016, 05:53 PM)

I'd send you one, (I've got two I don't use here, both have FM), but it'd be sans battery - AusPost do not accept Li-Ion batteries in parcels.

A suggestion: There's usually phone/electronics recyclers somewhere, ask there.

[MilesAhead]

Maybe I'll fish around and see if I can wangle a free government issue smart phone or something similar. 

-MilesAhead (February 10, 2016, 05:53 PM)

I'd send you one, (I've got two I don't use here, both have FM), but it'd be sans battery - AusPost do not accept Li-Ion batteries in parcels.

A suggestion: There's usually phone/electronics recyclers somewhere, ask there.

-4wd (February 11, 2016, 08:50 PM)

I haven't had much luck with FM around here.  Which is kind of strange since I can walk to the source of WLRN radio in about 5 minutes.  Out of 5 radios tried I think I got WLRN for about 5 minutes when there was an education(the LRN in WLRN) issue being discussed.  Never when there was jazz being played.

Even trying to listen to Eric Jackson on WBUR in Boston streaming never seems to work.  All I can listen to are podcasts of old shows for some reason I cannot fathom.   Anyway another reason I was thinking of getting a smart phone was to program apps for them.  The Desktop ago of Dos/Windows is over.  So I need to either switch to Linux, program devices or some combination.

It is very frustrating when I cannot even keep up on the jazz that is on the air free for everyone else.  There used to be an FM station that played classical during the day and jazz 7 nights a week.  I used to scratch down the names of tunes in the middle of the night when I heard something good.  The main jazz DJ was there 30 years.  I don't think he wanted to retire so they sold the station out from under him.  I think they stopped broadcasting but I am not sure.  Strange to buy a radio station to not broadcast but maybe it was some billionaire who hates jazz? 

[MilesAhead]

I'd send you one, (I've got two I don't use here, both have FM), but it'd be sans battery - AusPost do not accept Li-Ion batteries in parcels.

-4wd (February 11, 2016, 08:50 PM)

You still have a phone kicking around?  Heh heh
I just bought a $50 SanDisk MP3 Player that was supposed to also have an FM tuner.  I picked it up today.  Well it seems to have 8GB storage and play MP3 but there's nothing about any FM radio.  This brings me up to about 7 attempts to get an FM radio under $50 or so that plays stereo FM.  I got a $23 touch screen FM/MP3 just before this one.  FM and files sounded pretty good.  Touch screen was a bit finicky but it worked.  I played a large file and it got "stuck."  I could not get it to even turn off holding down the power button.  I could have returned it to Walmart I suppose but it was more satisfying to stomp on it until the screen fractured and toss it in the trash barrel.  What do I have to do to hear Jazz on the radio?  I mean this is freaky.

[MilesAhead]

Not as bad as I thought.  It turns out the SandDisk does have an FM tuner.  Just no instructions how to get to radio mode.  Through trial and error I got to the settings that enable/disable all the modes.  FM was there.  So I just kept trialing and erroring until I hit on it.  Only took about three hours of frustration.

The $23 cheapie MP3/FM with the touch screen had a much better sound.  It was larger and heavier too.  This one requires Full Bass setting to be enabled to counter the too much treble sound.  But it is tolerable and light weight.  No touch screen so scrolling is deterministic.  Unfortunately there is no directory list mode to access folders explicitly.  I'll have to do some mp3 renaming once I find out what scheme it likes to use.  Otherwise accessing all my albums will not be feasible.

But I'll worry about organizing stuff after it lasts a week.  It has a flimsy feel to it.  I suspect the USB port has a life expectancy of weeks rather than months.  It is very tight and unplugging is bound to dislodge the guts eventually.

[Edvard]

I assume you got a Sansa Clip Sport or Clip Jam?  Too bad those aren't supported by Rockbox, and probably never will be due to the unusual chipset that was obviously chosen for better battery life alone.   

I had an original Sansa Clip that served me well for almost 6 years, even going through the wash 3 times.    Yes, the USB on that little thingummy was tight, but it got a little smoother after 10 or 20 recharges and music transfers.  After it finally died, I looked around at all the available Mp3 player options, and found that for my money, a $20 Wal-Mart Tracfone (the LG Sunrise which was on sale over Christmas; it's now $60...) with some extra MicroSD memory was going to serve me better as a music player, and upgrade my phone to boot, so I can recommend that route. 

[MilesAhead]

I can recommend that route

-Edvard (April 05, 2016, 11:01 AM)

Thanks.  I'll keep it in mind.  I think the next phone I get will either be an Obama Phone or something with some capabilities.  I need to have some screen and some web bandwidth and a decent camera/video hw.

I am going to try to find out more about this "free internet for everybody" stuff.  Although I said it jokingly to other street people that they should require an Associate's Degree before allowing someone to be homeless, it may come to fruition.  MDC is pushing for free two year college for everyone.  So if they do enforce my edict requiring an ASC. to live on the street I have the term already coined.  "Street Associates."   I cam see the joy spreading all over Miami.  Cowabunga!  I got my Street Associates today!  Now I can swill beer with a white shirt and tie!!! 

Edit:  My thinking is they may actually give people broadband and smart phones/tablets.  Since nobody below management level is working they need to give the stuff away(have government cover the cost) as an excuse to keep manufacturing stuff.   I hope it's at least 50 Mb/s on the down link. 

[MilesAhead]

@Edvard it turns out this Clip player does have a Folder mode after all.  I think they stuck it on as a response to user suggestions.  It is not in the obvious location.  When going through options for audio books, then sport, all of a sudden the heading opens to Folders!  Bingo!  I can navigate to and click on the folder to play all the files contained therein.   

I wish it had a fuller sound.  Some of the files that sound fine on my old Philips MP3 player sound faint on this player at max volume.  But it weighs almost nothing so I must assume the main design consideration is to have a clip-on device that will not drag you down as you jog or work out or whatnot.

I will say in its favor that the FM tuner seems to do a better job of screening out the cross talk than the other players I have tried recently.  And it does not force you to automatically scan for presets.  You can individually add stations without losing those already saved.

[Edvard]

Glad it turned out well for you.  Sansa has consistently put out some pretty good hardware, even though these latest ones aren't as full-featured as the earlier models.  As far as the sound, does your player have Replay Gain settings?  If so, and it is enabled, then try checking the Replay Gain numbers in your files using Mp3Gain:
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

Any quiet files you can crank up to about 96 or so without really noticeable clipping, and with this software it is undo-able if you don't like the results.

[MilesAhead]

That's great.  Thanks for the link and info.   

Edit: In the case of this "healing chant" file I have, even though the volume setting for the player is on Very High and I have the volume all the way up, it is not enough to enjoy the sound.  So I downloaded MP3DirectCut to try upping the volume for the file itself.

It is weird how the Philips has so much more volume for file play with the max sound enabled.  It is only the size of a stick of gum and must be 7 or 8 model years old.  But c' est la vie. 

[MilesAhead]

I found out the problem. The player does not have such bad sound after all.  The buds that came with it are dog sh*t.  I plugged in the $4 Koss buds I bought from Walmart and there was good bass and mucho volume!  No need to run everything through MP3Gain.  That's a relief because that was getting tedious to say the least.  I thought it was kind of tinny sound for a $50 player!!  Glad the Sandisk isn't such piece of crap after all!!