atkinson217 wrote:I'm not sure how to explain it simply. Recording from FM is easy with both the default firmware and the much more awesome Rockbox firmware. Both also let you record from voice.

thanks

I have every single model of Sansa. The clip, the fuse, the e270 (a couple of them of them actually...), plus more. And I buy a new one almost everytime woot has them. They are awesome. I will never buy an iPod again. It is cheaper to buy this and add in a Mini SDHC card and get more space on them then the ipod touch has. Seriously, buy them now! Great gifts too, and they look decent!

Battery life is excellent also. And sound.

bookworm656 wrote:The video converting is an absolute NIGHTMARE. I think I finally got it to work for my brother's, but it took forever. So unless someone on here would like to post a link to a good tutorial about how to get videos into the right format, I wouldn't recommend buying this if what you really want to do is watch videos.

No tutorial here, but you have two additional options;

Video4Fuze is free and converts many formats into the secret Sansa Fuze format, and works well. Easy to use.

WinFF converts many, many formats into a format that works with Rockbox. Also easy to use. If you get a V1 (not V2) Fuze and wisely decide to install Rockbox, then go with WinFF. I used it just yesterday to convert 16 tv episodes, and they work flawlessly on my Fuze.

Some additional info I didn't think to say in my last post:

The Sandisk forum is very helpful. There are employees that post there are well as nerd hobbyists. :p

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board?board.id=sansafuse

You can get all the extended info about firmware updates, Rockbox and other miscellaneous tips there. It's active and dedicated to the Fuze, so all that can be said about it has been said there. Worth a look.

Had one of these... for less than a month. It actually decided to die on me just last night. I had it plugged in, and it just shut off and didn't come back on...

I would steer clear. I had a Sansa view before this Fuze... had problems with the battery. The problem with sansa batteries is that you can't just go to a battery store and buy a new battery, NO... you have to completely exchange the unit and get a new one, which means when your battery dies, the MP3 player is useless.

The only good thing about me buying this Sansa is I have a really sexy SD card carrier now...

just grabbed one hopefully it's a v1 so i can rockbox it really like sansa players last one i got from woot was a clip 2gb died after the first day hopefully this will get here soon

Anyone who has purchased one previously, is there any marking ("R" or "Refurb") on the back side of the player? I have a clip that has "R" etched into the back, which obviously cannot be removed. The e200's came with raised letters spelling "Refurb", but were actually removable metallic stickers. For gifting purposes, wondering what to expect. TIA

Ok, so I've been looking for a media player since my loved iaudio u2 endured The Strangers (2008) the bed (it was pretty rugged, though). I'm looking at this and the sansa clip. The refurbished kinda worries me, though I'm willing to take a risk.

My question is... since the video capability seems to be nerfed, what benefits are there of this over the clip, if any?

Does anyone know if Rockbox will enable this unit to play AAC files?

atkinson217 wrote:um... none. Pretty sure the Fuze does not output video. Also, it only handles one video format. You must convert videos using the (free and crappy) Sansa Media Converter or (if using Rockbox) the free WinFF. My point is, the supported formats are really low resolution. Unless you like watching videos where each pixel is a centimeter across, outputting to a LCDTV is a bad idea.

In every other respect, the Fuze is great.

I haven't tried WinFF but am happy with the free video4fuze. Here's a link to a thread about it on the Sansa site. It automatically converts perfectly to the fuze's screen res, looking nice and saving memory.

atkinson217 wrote:If you get a V1 (not V2) Fuze and wisely decide to install Rockbox, then go with WinFF.

Good to know, but do we know which version this refurb is (or did someone say and I missed it)?

bookworm656 wrote:The video converting is an absolute NIGHTMARE. I think I finally got it to work for my brother's, but it took forever. So unless someone on here would like to post a link to a good tutorial about how to get videos into the right format, I wouldn't recommend buying this if what you really want to do is watch videos.

we own 3 of these mp3 players that I paid full price for and have had for over 2 years. We have tons of video on ours and have had no problems. I would recommend this player to anyone who is looking for one.

yeawuteva wrote:can you save songs from the FM tuner onto the MP3 player?

That's what makes this so versatile...buy two!
I am a huge fan of these things.

wow... perfect timing.

i was mad at myself because i hesitated on buying it from buy.com for 37~ and now they ran out.

Note:
If you're on Windows XP and plan to buy this you should upgrade Windows Media Player to version 11.

Information here

You can use it to manage your player and it has a good interface.

bookworm656 wrote:The video converting is an absolute NIGHTMARE. I think I finally got it to work for my brother's, but it took forever. So unless someone on here would like to post a link to a good tutorial about how to get videos into the right format, I wouldn't recommend buying this if what you really want to do is watch videos.

I'll pass along the terrific advice I read here the last time the Fuze was offered- google Video4Fuze. It's freeware. You'll never use the official converter again.

edit: didnt see the post above. Consider this a "me too"

Seriously thinking about buying a backup. I understand the praise here after getting one- its a great player and this price is practically a steal (refueb or not)

chirho wrote:Had one of these... for less than a month. It actually decided to die on me just last night. I had it plugged in, and it just shut off and didn't come back on...

I would steer clear. I had a Sansa view before this Fuze... had problems with the battery. The problem with sansa batteries is that you can't just go to a battery store and buy a new battery, NO... you have to completely exchange the unit and get a new one, which means when your battery dies, the MP3 player is useless.

The only good thing about me buying this Sansa is I have a really sexy SD card carrier now...

I would much rather spend 30 bucks for something that you can't replace the battery on than a over 100 bucks like we did the first time on the dell mp3 players. My husbands battery died along with the money we spent on the player. We have 3 of this exact player and we all love ours. The battery life has been excellent and I highly recommend them to anyone.

bookworm656 wrote:The video converting is an absolute NIGHTMARE. I think I finally got it to work for my brother's, but it took forever. So unless someone on here would like to post a link to a good tutorial about how to get videos into the right format, I wouldn't recommend buying this if what you really want to do is watch videos.

Try FuzeVidz:

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=39242&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

From Woot's Description:

Heck, stick a microSDHC card in the thing, and our eventual overlords would be able to enjoy even more madcap of our madcap songs, photos, and movies.

So.... is "madcap" some newfangled term for quantity (like a "murder" of ravens, or a "ke$sha" of prostitutes) or did the Woot gods actually have a typo???!!!!

chirho wrote:. The problem with sansa batteries is that you can't just go to a battery store and buy a new battery, NO... you have to completely exchange the unit and get a new one, which means when your battery dies, the MP3 player is useless.

Unfortunately this is kind of par for the course for pmp's . Cowon, Sansa, Apple, etc

Does anyone know if Rockbox will enable this unit to play AAC files?

My 8GB Fuze (that I got new from Costco) died recently, so I'm thinking about this.

Actually, it didn't die, I sort of killed it with a botched surgery. I tried to remove the volume wheel to clean the grit from it because it was jamming (not jammin').

Once the wheel was toast (it comes off way easier than it goes back on--oh wait it didn't go back on), I decided to do a high school frogendectomy but without the nasty formaldehyde.

So, I'm concerned that the Fuze is only good as long as the wheel stays clean--but at the refurb price I guess it's not a big problem.

Any thoughts on volume wheel issues?

sdwilkins wrote:I would much rather spend 30 bucks for something that you can't replace the battery on than a over 100 bucks like we did the first time on the dell mp3 players. My husbands battery died along with the money we spent on the player. We have 3 of this exact player and we all love ours. The battery life has been excellent and I highly recommend them to anyone.

Not saying they're not great music players - I LOVED mine when it worked. I'm just saying that in my personal experience, Sansa has not been the most trusty brand. But then again, I had an E250 (or one that looked like that model) 1gb player, and it lasted me a couple years, even with a broken screen. So my guess is it's hit and miss...

For a good music/video player, I'd jump on this deal, but for something that you can trust to last you more than a couple months... I'd keep looking.

(My opinion is a bit biased, as I seem to have recieved two lemons... but I still have a little bit of hope in Sansa...)

chirho wrote:Had one of these... for less than a month. It actually decided to die on me just last night. I had it plugged in, and it just shut off and didn't come back on...

I would steer clear. I had a Sansa view before this Fuze... had problems with the battery. The problem with sansa batteries is that you can't just go to a battery store and buy a new battery, NO... you have to completely exchange the unit and get a new one, which means when your battery dies, the MP3 player is useless.

The only good thing about me buying this Sansa is I have a really sexy SD card carrier now...

Refurbs can be a crapshoot. But it comes with a 90 day warranty from Woot, so only lasting a month isn't a problem. Lasting four months? Well that's back to a crapshoot. :p My experience has been positive for nearly 7 months, though.

there is only one complaint I have about this sanza. That is the video's don't give you the option to repeat or random play so you have to keep picking a video to play. That is it. So I just converted all my videos to music mp3's when I want them to run continously. You know you can return these if they don't work when you get them. I wished I had only paid 30 bucks for mine but don't regret paying full price...Over 2 years and going strong. Battery life has been excellent.

AHAHA!!! I just smacked my Fuze and guess what?! IT LIVES!! :D

The old method works again! If it doesn't work, smack it a couple times!

The question is... how long will it live for until it requires another smack? lol!

Got one of these from woot! about a year ago, and now my Zune & my Sony don't travel or get to go on walks any more.
Lose the included earpieces and get some decent earbuds.
Battery life never disappoints.

Rockbox says that it can mount on V1 Fuzes but not V2. Any idea what version this Woot is?

I would buy one if I knew it was Version 1. The first one I purchased was a Version 1 and I installed Rockbox on it and loved it so much that I scooped one up again (few weeks later). Much to my chagrin it was a Version 2 and I have not even tried messing with it because I am not a fan of the Original Firmware. I was planning on giving it to my sister to replace her 3rd Gen Nano, but now that I cannot put Rockbox on it, I doubt it would be appealing to her that much, even if it added more space with a 8GB microSDHC. Sigh Woot, help us out please

kwelles wrote:Does anyone know if Rockbox will enable this unit to play AAC files?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbox talks about it.

And might as well include http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansa_Fuze for further reference here while we're at it.

And for fuze+mediamonkey users, check out SansaMonkey. It also works with rockbox.

chirho wrote:Not saying they're not great music players - I LOVED mine when it worked. I'm just saying that in my personal experience, Sansa has not been the most trusty brand. But then again, I had an E250 (or one that looked like that model) 1gb player, and it lasted me a couple years, even with a broken screen. So my guess is it's hit and miss...

For a good music/video player, I'd jump on this deal, but for something that you can trust to last you more than a couple months... I'd keep looking.



(My opinion is a bit biased, as I seem to have recieved two lemons... but I still have a little bit of hope in Sansa...)

I had the same problem with the smaller mp3's with sanza. When we got these we were sold. It has been great with no problems. This is one thing I can definitely say I have had no problems with. If you would like to e-mail me about a program you can use with this one if you are interested you can reach me at sdwilkins@comcast.net

Mattroid wrote:Also, while I really like the sansas, I prefer red LEDs. Has anyone ever tried to mod one with red LEDs instead of blue? If so, how difficult is it?

What about a custom OS/firmware with better format support like with the e200?

edit: I see Rockbox has already been mentioned.

If you have to ask, you're probably not going to be able to do it. Cell phones and MP3 players use surface-mount technology (SMT), while means you're going to have a hell of a time with a normal soldering iron. I'd recommend you find a friend in electronics with a hot-air rework station if you insist on red. (But how often do you look at it anyways? Or turn it off. Ipods don't have lights, do they? Not a rhetorical question, I really don't remember)

Some guy who replaced his:
http://old.drcheap.com/home/hoh/nokled/

He took 9 hours for 12 LEDs. YMMV.

hkpoohster wrote:Anyone who has purchased one previously, is there any marking ("R" or "Refurb") on the back side of the player? I have a clip that has "R" etched into the back, which obviously cannot be removed. The e200's came with raised letters spelling "Refurb", but were actually removable metallic stickers. For gifting purposes, wondering what to expect. TIA

The three I bought in the past were etched "REFURB" which cannot be removed. All three have worked flawlessly.

bookworm656 wrote:The video converting is an absolute NIGHTMARE. I think I finally got it to work for my brother's, but it took forever. So unless someone on here would like to post a link to a good tutorial about how to get videos into the right format, I wouldn't recommend buying this if what you really want to do is watch videos.

what he said

Does this have a clip?

chirho wrote:AHAHA!!! I just smacked my Fuze and guess what?! IT LIVES!! :D

The old method works again! If it doesn't work, smack it a couple times!

The question is... how long will it live for until it requires another smack? lol!

Next time try a reset. Hold the power button up at least 20 seconds. Though, my way doesn't have quite the same impact telling it who's boss does. :D

Vegdeg wrote:Does this have a clip?

No clip.

hkpoohster wrote:Anyone who has purchased one previously, is there any marking ("R" or "Refurb") on the back side of the player? I have a clip that has "R" etched into the back, which obviously cannot be removed. The e200's came with raised letters spelling "Refurb", but were actually removable metallic stickers. For gifting purposes, wondering what to expect. TIA

The two I bought from Woot in August didn't have the refurb marking. However, check out the rear image on this Newegg listing to see what it would look like if these do:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855125109&cm_re=fuze-_-55-125-109-_-Product

yeawuteva wrote:
can you save songs from the FM tuner onto the MP3 player?

Yes you can.

1. From the main menu select FM Radio.
   
2. Use the down button on the dpad to bring up the menu.
   
3. Scroll down to "recording" and select it.
4. Select "record now".
   

highly recommend this player. Mine were new not refurbs but I wish I had only paid 30 bucks