This is kind of a hard subject to search for, so I’m sorry if this has been addressed before.
Here’s my deal: I currently have about 11 GB of music that I want on my MP3 player. I toyed with the idea of getting a 160 GB ipod ($220), but that’s just so overkill with the space. I don’t have any interest in playing video on my MP3 player. I’ve had a 4 GB Fuze and (currently have) an 8 GB Fuze, and both have served me very well. I’ve always been very pleasantly surprised at how well these little guys work for being so cheap (I spent about $60 on both of them).
Like I said – 11 GB of music, but only an 8 GB Fuze. I see two options for myself:
Route #1: Get a 16 GB View
Cost on Amazon is $90. That’s very reasonable. The downside to going this route is the price… although it’s “only” $90, I just bought this Fuze like two months ago…
Pro’s of this route:
all internal memory
Con’s of this route:
more expensive
Route #2: Get a 8 GB SDHC Card for my Fuze
I’ve browsed through the forums, and it seems like staying away from a Kingston cards is something that’s strongly recommended. A 8 GB SanDisk card (class 4) would cost me $25. I’m partial to this idea…
Pro’s of this route:
a Fuze over a View (it seems like the Fuze’s are generally rated better, but maybe they’re basically the same thing?)
cheaper (I’d save $60-70)
Con’s of this route (this two are really important):
with my Fuze, it seemed like the library refreshing took a serious hit when I was loading music off the SD Card. This is a huge concern for me. However, I think I went with the cheapest card I could find, so this very well could have been a nissue.
Maintaining a library. I use MediaMonkey for management of my MP3 player; as it stands, it doesn’t play very well with the Fuze to begin with. For some reason, I sincerely doubt it’s giong to view my Fuze’s internal memory and my Fuze’s SD memory has one collective library, and that I’ll instead be forced to try and micro-manage two “mini” libraries. Anyone have any experience with a situation like this?
These forums seem pretty active, and really helpful. I’m really interested in what people think about my situation, and am genuinely interested in what possible feedback you guys have. Thanks for the help! By the way, I’m also open to other routes as well, if someone has a better idea…
Message Edited by winniethepujols on 08-09-2010 01:29 PM
Mediamonkey works just fine with the Fuze, but no program will see internal and external as one memory. The answer is simple…start loading the internal at the beginning of the alphabet, and when it is almost full, move on to the external memory. Easy as pie.
For another, just over $30 will get you a 16GB microsdhc card, rather than an 8GB. Theoretically you could load a class 4 card faster, but not while it is in the Fuze, it would have to be in a separate card reader that actually supported those higher speeds. Better to get the extra space, as far as I am concerned.
Refresh times…a big mystery. My 8GB Fuze with a 16GB class 2 card refreshes in about 3 minutes. I read people here saying it takes them a long time, I think some of it is due to cluttered tags, and some perhaps to bloated album art, but it’s hard to pin down.
Like I said – 11 GB of music, but only an 8 GB Fuze. I see two options for myself:
Route #1: Get a 16 GB View
I vote a resounding
Take a stroll through the View board and see if you can “feel the love” there.
winniethepujols wrote:
Route #2: Get a 8 GB SDHC Card for my Fuze
For some reason, I sincerely doubt it’s giong to view my Fuze’s internal memory and my Fuze’s SD memory has one collective library, and that I’ll instead be forced to try and micro-manage two “mini” libraries.
But, no software is going to be able to see 2 distinct and separate memory locations as 1 space. I don’t use Media Monkey, but I’ve used Winamp and you can set it to monitor, or look at both the internal memory drive and the external memory card drive and populate as 1 ‘library’. I’m sure MM has the same capability.
The only issue comes when you’re loading them up. You have to designate which drive you want what files to go to. You can’t just fill up the internal memory and have it ‘automatically’ switch over and start filling the card.
Like I said – 11 GB of music, but only an 8 GB Fuze. I see two options for myself:
Route #1: Get a 16 GB View
I vote a resounding
Take a stroll through the View board and see if you can “feel the love” there.
winniethepujols wrote:
Route #2: Get a 8 GB SDHC Card for my Fuze
For some reason, I sincerely doubt it’s giong to view my Fuze’s internal memory and my Fuze’s SD memory has one collective library, and that I’ll instead be forced to try and micro-manage two “mini” libraries.
Or better yet, a 16GB card (you know you’ll be getting more music). But, no software is going to be able to see 2 distinct and separate memory locations as 1 space. I don’t use Media Monkey, but I’ve used Winamp and you can set it to monitor, or look at both the internal memory drive and the external memory card drive and populate as 1 ‘library’. I’m sure MM has the same capability.
The only issue comes when you’re loading them up. You have to designate which drive you want what files to go to. You can’t just fill up the internal memory and have it ‘automatically’ switch over and start filling the card.
Well, first of all, thank you guys for the quick reponses. Like I said, I knew this place was awesome!
Here’s my biggest concern with managing the library: I’d really, really, really like to have have my library auto-sync. It’d be so convenient to just be able to plug my MP3 player in and have it synchronize everything as I add music. I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I had to do it myself (I could just sort by the date I added it to the library and it’d be relatively simple), but that’d be great if I could avoid that.
So let me ask this again, just to clarify: as far as managing the library goes, you’d just fill up the internal memory as far as it can go, and then from then on, just direct your media player to send files to the SD card? Is that what you guys are saying?
Here’s where I get really concerned: what if I make a playlist locally on MediaMonkey that consists of songs spanning both the internal library and the SD library? I’m almost positive that what’s going to happen in this scenario is that I’ll get duplicate versions of the internal library songs on my SD library… And that seems like it’s going to present many, many headaches. It’s not like MediaMonkey will say, “hey, wait, this song is already on his internal memory, I better not copy it!” And there’s no way the playlists that it builds would be able to point to two distinct libraries, right?
I can’t envision this not being a problem. I don’t build playlists using the MP3 player libraries, I do it on my computer, and then send them to the MP3 player… By the way, I’m sorry in advance if you guys already answered these questions. I feel like you kind of did, but it’s still kind of ambiguous such that I’m not 100% certain.
Message Edited by winniethepujols on 08-09-2010 03:16 PM
“Here’s my biggest concern with managing the library: I’d really, really, really like to have have my library auto-sync”
Synching often causes unwanted results. I suggest using msc mode and drag and drop or copy and paste if you have unprotected music and don’t use playlists.
"So let me ask this again, just to clarify: as far as managing the library goes, you’d just fill up the internal memory as far as it can go, and then from then on, just direct your media player to send files to the SD card? Is that what you guys are saying? "
I wouldn’t do that. I would put the music you are least likely to change, or your protected music(if you have any) in main memory. If a card goes bad you can easily swap it out. Some protected music might not play from card memory and needs to be in main memory.
As for playlists, I don’t use them, so I won’t even attempt to answer your question about those.
