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General discussion

Sandisk Sansa - supported bitrates

Sep 1, 2005 7:59AM PDT

I have been informed by Sandisk's technical support that the Sansa mp3 players only support mp3 files with bitrates of up to 128 kbps, and wma files with bitrates of up to 64 kbps.

I was so blown away by this seemingly impossible limitation that I had them confirm this in writing, which they did. They went as far as stating that if I attempted to play back an mp3 file with a bitrate higher than 128 kbps, "the player would not play the file".

Can anyone out there with a Sansa (preferably the 1GB E140 I've had my eyes on) share their experiences with regards to playing back mp3 files with bitrates higher than 128 kbps (or WMA files with bitrates higher than 64)?

I just find it hard to believe that the player behaves like this, and no one is screaming about it in on-line forums (Google turns up nothing!).

Please, anyone... let me know. If this limitation truly does exist, I will finally bury my hopes of buying one of these and move on to another manufacturer (though, deep down, I sort of hope Sandisk's tech reps are simply clueless...).

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Sansa MP3 are not rated high in quality
Sep 1, 2005 8:46AM PDT

Sorry, No help in your MP3/WMA rate inquiry.

Butbefore buying, I recommend that you check epinions.com and dapreview.net for posts about quality in Sandisk Sansa.

If you want expandable memory MP3 on the cheap, you might check Surplus Computers. No name no memory no display (like Shuffle) player for SD memory at $17 + $0shipping.

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sansational player!
Sep 1, 2005 11:25AM PDT

I have the Sansa E 130 512mg. Same format exactly as 1 gig.
I have downladed 320, 192, and 160kb MP3's as well as 96 and 64kb WMA. You can even intermix them, and the Sansa won't blink. The tech support people gave you bad info.
The default 128kb is only for evaluating battery life.
BTW, 320 sounds Fantastic!!
This player gets some unjust critiques, but from the negatives I read, it appears the users don't care to RTFM! Even the included Earphones are hi q. They are rebadged Sony Fantopia series. If you use the large size pad, and fit it right, w the eq. set to rock..It is Sansational!!

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Workarounds to the biggest gripes?
Sep 1, 2005 6:19PM PDT

Thanks for your useful reply. I just couldn't believe a player would impose such limitations on bitrates and get away with it!

By the way, have you had any success overcoming the playback order limitation (i.e. alphabetic rather than track order)? I have read some people actually added track numbers as a prefix to mp3 file names, as well as to ID3 tag song title fields, and that the player still disregarded the track order. Any luck there?

Thanks...

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I added the track number to the id3 track name...
Sep 1, 2005 10:44PM PDT

...and it worked fine. It ignores the file names, so if that's what people did, it wouldn't help.

I used MP3TagTools to add the track numbers to the id3 tag track name. Ignoring the track numbers is still annoying because the list of all songs is essentially unusable -- all the track one songs on the player, followed by all the track two songs, etc. Really dumb.

One nice feature of the Sansa, though, is that it looks just like an external drive (if you have an expansion memory card, it looks like yet another drive). Since the Sansa is just a drive to the PC, you can leave your original mp3's untouched and just retag the files on the player. I think you want to retag the files before turning the player back on -- it only indexes the new files, so if it doesn't realize the files have been updated, it won't reindex the track names (which have had the track numbers added). So, the sequence would be:

1. Copy over the files
2. Retag the files
3. Turn the player on

If you do (3) before (2), then it may not pick up the track number + track names.

Hopefully, they will fix this one day with firmware, then I can just delete the files on the player and copy over the files from my computer again.

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Workarounds redeux
Sep 2, 2005 1:14AM PDT

Yes, as another poster mentioned, you have to tag the title with track # to play albums in order.
Just tag the Title, not the file name, and it's good to go.
Another slight gripe is as with most Digital players, you'll get the dreaded 2 second gap between tracks, so "Concerts", and suites will have an issue.
Here is a review that has some good info on the Sansa:
http://www.livedigitally.com/?p=277.
Actually, it was my buying decision clincher.
I've had the Sansa for over a month, and I have to say the little ****** grows on you!If you have a cassette adapter for your car, you'll really enjoy it there, as well.

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Seems to work fine with a 192kbps rate
Sep 1, 2005 10:55PM PDT

I checked through the files on my Sansa. Most were 128 kbps, but I found a 192 kbps that played just fine.

The manual makes no mention of bit rate limits. The only reference to 128 kbps is about the battery life.

By the way, it does have a flimsy feel, and the user interface is slow, but it sounds fine (although I disagree with another poster about the included headphones -- I went and got my own) and it's really, really light and portable. Plus, the FM tuner has very good reception, at least compared to other radios and mp3 players I've tried.

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I wish Sandisk read this forum...
Sep 2, 2005 3:39AM PDT

Thanks for the great, informative replies everyone.

Now if Sandisk just took the time to look at these messages and issued a firmware update that fixed all of this player's limitations, they'd wipe out every other vendor...

Thanks again!

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I own one, and I love it....
Sep 2, 2005 3:28AM PDT

and I can't believe that Sandisk said something so stupid about the bitrates. Almost everything I have is Mp3 VBR, with average bitrates like 173, 279 kpbs, or something like that. To see how many songs i could fit into the player (I have the 1 gig version) I encoded them with a third party application to 48 kbps wma, and they still work fine. I've had the player since May, with zero problems. You should get it too. here's a review I wrote for it:

http://www.epinions.com/content_186478988932

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Sandisk e140
Sep 17, 2006 3:33AM PDT

I just bought a SanDisk e140 inspite of the specs and discovered that it works with my MAC G5 iTunes after tweeking the MP3 ripper then dragging and dropping from finder.

The quality is still what I paid for but it's good enough for long and short distance travel. So far so good... whatcha got to loose by bumping up the bitrate and trying for yourself? It you've done that already, what's the result.

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Sansa E140 bitrates
Sep 17, 2006 9:31AM PDT

I use this player for the gym and put all sorts of stuff on it, nothing has failed to play. My cardio coach downloads are mp3, 192 kps. (can I make a plug for cardiocoach.com here?) I rip music from cds and usually use WMA 128 kps. I checked my downloads from emusic.com, they are WMA 128 kps. (Seems odd they aren't mp3). Everything plays. I only wish Sandisk would update the firmware to include bookmarks, I'd play audiobooks on this player, too. Not much hope of that happening, though, if their tech support is as clueless as they seem.