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Sansa View Re-Visioned
comment: 65 | Monday, September 10 (2007) 07:28AM | Posted by Dominic
Well, some of you may be wondering what is going on at Sandisk. We haven't seen an E200 series successor yet and it's kinda due, just the other day a thread was started in our forums questioning what Sandisk's plans were. Guess what!, we've got an answer... Added to the Sansa lineup is the Sansa View No, not that one, they've revamped it and basically created a whole new DAP.

Sandisk's newest addition comes only days after rivals Insignia announced their new product, the Pilot. Both units are quite similar, although they each have their own advantages, which one is right for you, is up to you

Spec:

  • Gapless Playback
  • Audio: Mp3, WMA (+drm), WAV, Audible
  • Video: MPEG 4, WMV, H.264 @30fps
  • Display: 2.4" TFT (320x240)
  • Expandable Micro SDHC
  • 8/16gb
  • Battery: 35hrs music or 7hrs video
  • FM Tuner
  • Integrated microphone and voice recording
  • Size: 110x48x8.8mm

Well here's a shocker, according to Sandisk the View has "Gapless playback for smoother music transition" I wonder how true this is? If it is true then how is that all of these smaller companies, like Insignia, are stepping up and really showing the bigger boys the finger. shocking like!

It looks like a pretty sexy upgrade of the E200 series to me and despite it using that tired GUI this will sell by the bucket load, and damn it is affordable. The 8gb model comes in at $149.99 but for an extra $50 you can pick up the 16gb model for $199.99. My specs sheet is pretty limited but I will be updating it as soon as I get more info.

Press Release + Pre-order at Amazon
Comments

ilh

Comments: 168
 		Sep 10 (2007) 08:11AM  

Woa, that is damn cheap.



Roger767

Comments: 206
 		Sep 10 (2007) 08:16AM  

this thing is a way better deal than what apple or creative has to offer.



storage

Comments: 4
 		Sep 10 (2007) 08:31AM  

Sweetness. They solved all the gripes I had about the Creative players I was considering. Smaller than the Zen. 15h battery life and expandable storage unlike the Zen V+ with it's 15h and no card slot. Cheaper than both and presumably real drag and drop music transfer (not MTP).

They really came strong with this one. With the gapless playback and expandable storage, it's as if they read this forum and listened to what half the posts are always bitching about with every other player. Except for removable battery of course:)
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 08:44AM ]



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 10 (2007) 09:01AM  

Maybe they made a deal with rockbox to get gapless playback




PouncePony

Comments: 6
 		Sep 10 (2007) 09:03AM  

But how will it sound? From what I've read about there other players, the sound quality is sub-par.

-Pony



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 10 (2007) 09:07AM  

"How will it sound" - that is the question we all ask with every new player. Hopefully better than the E200, which wasn't terrible, just lacking compared to the upper models of iriver and cowon.



Seija
Location: Moscow, Russia
Comments: 8
 		Sep 10 (2007) 09:14AM  

My only gripe is length of this thing, 110mm, holy!
oh well, at least it got some decently sized screen, yay to Sandisk



bloodycape

Comments: 705
 		Sep 10 (2007) 09:29AM  

Damn it, another player I have to add to the list. I guess my only gripe would be the fact that it uses MicroSDHC and the screen is 2.4in instead of lets say 2.7 oh well. I still like it and may even buy one if it meets my needs well. And at $250 for the 16gig model with a 4gig MicroSDHC that is a darn good deal.

more pics of it at engadget. [Linky]

[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 09:40AM ]



Pondlife

Comments: 507
 		Sep 10 (2007) 10:04AM  

It is slightly disappointing as the original appealed greatly, but it's not bad in it's own right I guess. Oh alright it's pretty interesting in it's own right.

I just read that 8gb is the max it can have on micro sdhc, is that a limitation on the player or that type of memory at the moment?

If it's the latter I'd be more interested.



Austin Vaughan
Location: Lenexa, KS
Comments: 768
 		Sep 10 (2007) 10:11AM  

nice price, but no Xvid/Dvix support? that makes it pretty much useless for the current supply of movie/tv rips. and would it really hurt to add free audio codecs like OGG and FLAC? even if they just included AAC, that would be decent. seriously, does anyone rip CDs to MP3 or WMA in 2007? this is lame.

[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 01:54PM ]



bloodycape

Comments: 705
 		Sep 10 (2007) 10:22AM  

pondlife I think that is the current limitation on the type of memory. I would except or at least hope to see 16gig by Q1 of 08.



Pondlife

Comments: 507
 		Sep 10 (2007) 10:54AM  

I suspect most people still rip to mp3 Austin, I certainly do, mp3 LAME vbrs, means they will work with almost all players.

(Have we had a poll on the encoding people use, if not would it be worthwhile?)

No interest in AAC, would consider OGG, but not re encoding all my cds at this juncture (and like to keep everything in one format), possibly when Flash devices large enough for me to use FLAC for all my cds are available.
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 11:13AM ]



RowaN

Comments: 3
 		Sep 10 (2007) 12:16PM  

Lets not forget that E200 also supports micro SDHC (and gapless, and someone mentioned before) via Rockbox. So the only reason for me to get this player would be the bigger screen I guess. Gotta love that VCD resolution lol. This might be too big and heavy to wear around the neck mind you.



Pondlife

Comments: 507
 		Sep 10 (2007) 12:25PM  

Apart from the larger capacity, longer battery life...

Doubt it would be too heavy I use a sony hd5h that way a lot of the time.



Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Sep 10 (2007) 02:44PM  

I think Sandisk has another winning DAP on their hands. I don't think they should have called it the Sansa View though. It looks more like what the Sansa e300 should be, while the View should be reserved for a future widescreen PMP of theirs.

edit: Just noticed, Dominic said the same thing
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 02:48PM ]



jbhitter24

Comments: 351
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:15PM  

i knew that name sounded familiar....


and holy crap that is very cheap!



zip22

Comments: 1809
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:29PM  

the battery is not replaceable like the e200 if that matters to anyone.



Steve

Comments: 1197
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:29PM  

Impressive in it's own right, but less so compared to the Zen or the Pilot, also I think they're going in the wrong direction with regard to style, this looks straight from the land of bland, c'mon Sandisk, at least put some newy in the gui.



Cacophony

Comments: 36
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:38PM  

I still prefer Creative ZEN for its slightly bigger screen and especially DivX support.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:47PM  

IMO steve this holds its own against the Zen, less so against the pilot. Both the ZEN and the View have their own respective pluses and minus. Battery life and price would be a couple for the View, SDHC and AAC would be a couple for the ZEN.



Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:48PM  

Yeah, I like the ZEN better overall, but I'll have to play with both to really declare a winner. There's not much to judge on here, but the interface doesn't look that different from the e200.

Also just a useless tidbit, on that Amazon link I added, it actually says the player supports non-DRM AAC files. I'm sure it's just an error since the Press release doesn't mention it.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:56PM  

so it does dude, i wonder if it's true? That's a big thing to leave out of the press release...

EDIT: Amazon also say the View supports H.265

[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 03:58PM ]



Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Sep 10 (2007) 03:59PM  

Yeah, lol. It also says "div". Wonder who typed this stuff in.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:08PM  

lol, Other than GUI I think this and the ZEN are very close. Maybe you could over look the GUI because you are getting a 16:9 screen, and gapless?

I'm after having a realisation, AAC and H.264 go hand in hand, it is very likely the View supports AAC I think
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 04:12PM ]



Pondlife

Comments: 507
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:19PM  

Surely they'd mention it?



RowaN

Comments: 3
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:21PM  

I just read that 8gb is the max it can have on micro sdhc, is that a limitation on the player or that type of memory at the moment?


I remember reading 32GB is the theoretical maximum for micro sdhc cards.. so the future is bright. Another little reason to stick to my e200... 40GB (8GB onboard + 32GB card) vs 56GB (16GB onboard + 32GB card).. not a world of difference.
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 04:22PM ]



Pondlife

Comments: 507
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:33PM  

40GB (8GB onboard + 32GB card) vs 56GB (16GB onboard + 32GB card)


16+32 = 48

But even that is significant to me, can envisage needing more than 40Gb soon enough.
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 04:34PM ]



Anthony7

Comments: 98
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:37PM  

If I had to choose between this and the Zen, it would be the Zen.
I have heard E200's sound, and I was far from impressed with it.
Although it is very good price wise, after hearing the E200 series, I would have to hold off a buy on this product, unless there was a vast improvement.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:44PM  

I dunno, I bought a E200 off steve and with rockbox it sounds quite decent, nothing amazing but certainly more than adequate for the masses.

side note: i have not listened to it without rockbox



Mr. Odd

Comments: 8
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:52PM  

The Sansa e280 sounds fine - you kinda get used to it, though when I listen to my Archos AV5100 I can certainly hear an improvement! My question is how will the SD slot behave? Because the way it works in the e200 series with a 2G card full of music there's a long (1+ minute) scan of the card EVERY TIME YOU TURN IT ON. It makes the feature useless to me.



Anthony7

Comments: 98
 		Sep 10 (2007) 04:58PM  

Maybe it sounds better with Rockbox. I heard the default SanDisk sound.



rejctchoir

Comments: 4
 		Sep 10 (2007) 05:47PM  

I wish it was not microSDHC, regular old SD is so much cheaper. The origional Sansa View also could output video in HD and supported h264. Somehow I doubt this one will be able to do HD. I think I would have bought the origional, but I'm not so sure about this one.



bloodycape

Comments: 705
 		Sep 10 (2007) 06:43PM  

I am with SSJ on this I have to play with both to see which I like the best. BTW, what advantage does the Pilot, over this and the Zen?



undesign

Comments: 786
 		Sep 10 (2007) 07:19PM  

Christ, the specs on this thing are badass. too bad for the battery not being replaceable, but other than that it looks near perfect. 16gb for 200 bucks? Any reasonable person should have a hard time deciding on this little thing.

BTW, AUSTIN;

divx/xvid IS mp4. Divx and xvid are just encoders to the mp4 format, nothing more (think of lame encoding versus something else, but still being MP3).



zip22

Comments: 1809
 		Sep 10 (2007) 07:24PM  

yes, but within MPEG4 there are different standards and levels. a player that supports MPEG4 may not support xvid or divx and that seems to be the case for this player.



undesign

Comments: 786
 		Sep 10 (2007) 07:32PM  

^what are those standards, zip? and what are levels?



zip22

Comments: 1809
 		Sep 10 (2007) 07:41PM  

[Linky]

mpeg4 can even just be a container format.

the ipod, for example, can play mpeg4 simple profile and h.264 (and aac - which is in another part of mpeg4), but cannot play divx. the zune software had the same restriction, and it appears the sansa does as well.



undesign

Comments: 786
 		Sep 10 (2007) 08:02PM  

^its a safe bet that by mp4 playback, the older less processor intensive codecs such divx/xvid are supported. they, in fact, are the same, ive used both to encode movies for my dads mp4 dvd player and both run without a glitch.

now, since apple pretty much owns h264, they will push it and support it on their own products, its no wonder its capable on ipods.

but anyway, xvid/divx is pretty much the standard for mp4.



zip22

Comments: 1809
 		Sep 10 (2007) 08:19PM  

well then, can you explain why the view claims to support MPEG4, but the press release states that Divx needs to be converted by their software? in addition, apple does not own h.264. in fact, i cannot find any info saying that they were involved in its creation at all. h.264 is just the direction the industry is moving (see HD-DVD and Blu-ray).

[Linky]
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 08:19PM ]



egloskerry

Comments: 410
 		Sep 10 (2007) 08:56PM  

It looks much cleaner than the E200. I always thought that was too busy.



gmeatfeet

Comments: 14
 		Sep 10 (2007) 09:01PM  

I’ve been looking for a 8 to 16 GB flash audio player for a few weeks and this player is nice. But, I think the Insignia Pilot is a better choice. The Pilot has BlueTooth and greater audio format support. This Sandisk does however have better battery life, but I still think the Pilot is better. I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing them side-by-side at BestBuy.

I was expecting a little more from their successor to the E200. This really isn’t too much better.
[ edited Sep 10 (2007) 09:34PM ]



kickenchicken

Comments: 59
 		Sep 10 (2007) 10:03PM  

oh god, did they include that dreaded back/menu/w/e button? on the e200 series, i had issues using it because of that. a bit confusing.
either way, i think there is a diff. when using divx and Mpeg-4 (isnt Divx like similair to the mpeg-4 codec but a bit different?)
anyways, this is what wiki says
"The DivX codec uses lossy MPEG-4 Part 2 compression, also known as MPEG-4 ASP"



Mike631

Comments: 43
 		Sep 11 (2007) 12:52AM  

Look pretty neat, I just gave my Ipod Nano to my sister! I thinking about getting another MP3 player
[ edited Sep 11 (2007) 12:52AM ]



epithetless
Location: Boston, Mass
Comments: 149
 		Sep 11 (2007) 01:24AM  

I wonder how the grip on that (apparently) smooth clickwheel's gonna be...



HipHopScribe

Comments: 126
 		Sep 11 (2007) 08:55AM  

Nice specs, but it all goes to crap if they didn't fix their sound quality from the e200, plus this thing is really long, 110mm? They should have reworked their design, especially the controls, to save space.

[ edited Sep 11 (2007) 08:56AM ]



Anthony7

Comments: 98
 		Sep 11 (2007) 09:03AM  

I agree with HHS, and as someone had said earlier, I would prefer the original View SanDisk was demoing earlier than this model.
Again, none of these are an option for me unless SanDisk does something about their SQ.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 11 (2007) 09:22AM  

I assume the super length of this thing is down to it's "widescreen" display... I'm looking forward to some live shots of the unit...



HipHopScribe

Comments: 126
 		Sep 11 (2007) 09:47AM  

It doesn't have a widescreen display, it says the resolution is 320x240.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 11 (2007) 10:09AM  

That actually doesn't matter as it could still have a widescreen display (depending on the type of pixels used in the screen, square or rectangular for instance). Sandisk are saying it is widescreen. I am a little unsure about that myself, but this is what sandisk are saying:

Sandisk wrote ...
The smooth, backlit scroll wheel and vibrant 2.4” widescreen display make it easy to navigate


HipHopScribe

Comments: 126
 		Sep 11 (2007) 10:55AM  

I don't believe 320x240 constitutes a widescreen aspect ratio with either a display using square or rectangular pixels. I think it's very unlikely they'd use deviate from every other DAP maker I know of anyway, it's far more likely it's the common mistake made when refering to screen oriented like this one, I've seen the screen on the S-Series and the Zune refered to in the same way, despite neither have a widescreen aspect ratio.



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Sep 11 (2007) 11:14AM  

I don't disagree, but the fact remains that Sandisk themselves are announcing it as a widescreen display, if it falls under the 4:3 ratio then clearly they are deceiving us.

If, however, the display is using rectangular pixels then the display would very well be widescreened at 320x240, however unlikely that may be.

Once again, let me reiterate. I do not think that it uses a widescreened display myself (based on the image above), I think it is a mistake on Sandisks part, but they are claiming it to be widescreen.



pecker

Comments: 501
 		Sep 11 (2007) 02:45PM  

I am glad I am at uni as i will no longer compulsively buy things, if i wasn't though i would get this thing in a shot!



rockinamigo14

Comments: 188
 		Sep 11 (2007) 09:45PM  

wow, that is a one hell of a price.



kickenchicken

Comments: 59
 		Sep 11 (2007) 10:25PM  

i've never seen a QVGA widescreen display, it would look pretty akward. the screen size/res is the same as the Toshiba Gigabeat, and as far as i know, that wasnt widescreen, either way, nice, havent seen another 2.4" verticle screen in a while. (like the gigabeat)



Three
Location: Tampa Bay
Comments: 92
 		Sep 12 (2007) 02:25AM  

If this sound quality on this player turns out to be good it's going to be very hard to justify not buying it.



The D

Comments: 12
 		Sep 12 (2007) 08:37AM  

zip22, why don't you zip your mouth?

Mpeg4 part 2 (what the ipod plays) is xvid/divx, It is just the most of the time xvid/divx is in an avi and can not be played on a player which only plays .mp4.



zip22

Comments: 1809
 		Sep 12 (2007) 12:07PM  

if you click on the wikipedia link, you can see that the the mpeg4 the ipod supports (simple profile) is different from that of divx/xvid (advanced simple profile).



Lacene
Location: Standing Here, Confused By Your
Comments: 827
 		Sep 12 (2007) 12:56PM  

I like the features, improved video codec support, battery life.

Don't like the design of the player as much: I didn't think the 1G Sansa was too thick at 0.5" - that's just right, IMO - and I think having a replaceable battery is a worthy trade-off for wafer thinness. Gapless is nice, we'll have to see if it's truly gap-less.

I also am disappointed with them retaining the old GUI...I figured Sandisk would introduce a newer one for the next gen, after they revised the GUI for the Connect.

I don't think Sandisk does software well: the 1G Sansa was buggy, and although Sandisk put out several FW updates, they almost HAD to, and the later ones seemed incomplete, or added new bugs of their own. Overall, the firmware was fairly solid, or there were work-arounds that minimalized bugs, but you never got the same experiences of "it just works" with the Sansa that you got from the ZVM or the iPod.

I will wait to read some "hands-on" reviews of the View. I hope Sandisk paid enough attention to correct the audio processor the Sansa used, or replaced it entirely...



undesign

Comments: 786
 		Sep 12 (2007) 01:35PM  

The GUI is lacking greatly, Sandisk really needs to hire some more experienced GUI designers. Hell, I might even take a stab at it and email them some samples. Designfabulous is pretty good too, i think he should give it a go.



Spamme

Comments: 17
 		Sep 13 (2007) 10:50PM  

Well MPEG-4 is a compression standard. What part of the standard can depend on Sandisk. Since they did not say divx/xvid, it's most wont support it. In fact, it will likely only support part 10 standard, which is H.264. The container it supports is likely going to be .mp4 with H.264 compressed video. Containers like .avi will probably not be supported, and .avi is usually the container for divx/xvid videos. You can have simple or advance profiles for xvid/dvix as well, it depends on what type of settings you turn on when encoding the videos. Oh well, just thought I'll get the confusion out of the way
Oh yeah, I think the player looks pretty nice, I might actually get this, but gonna see if they might have a widescreen PMP or something.
[ edited Sep 13 (2007) 10:50PM ]



Shippy

Comments: 22
 		Sep 15 (2007) 10:09AM  

This will have divx as sandisk said they would be releasing divx certified products in a press release



zip22

Comments: 1809
 		Sep 15 (2007) 07:29PM  

have you been following? if you read sandisk's press release they state that it will only support divx that is transcoded using software.



Shippy

Comments: 22
 		Sep 16 (2007) 01:38PM  

you are right zip

well the only other thing i want is acc



ild2

Comments: 52
 		Sep 19 (2007) 09:06AM  

amazon lists "non-DRM AAC" support on the view [Linky]

i wonder what chipset will be in the view. maybe they switched from portalplayer to sigmatel? (the featureset fits: gapless playback, longer battery life, format support)
[ edited Sep 19 (2007) 09:10AM ]



Pat8

Comments: 2
 		Oct 11 (2007) 11:52PM  

creative zen 16GB looks great, but this will give it it some serious competition with gapless, (supposedly) AAC support, longer battery life and comprable screen- 2.4 inch to 2.5 inch, same resolution and $50 cheaper
Sound quality needs to improved from e200 though



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TheDarkSide
Personally, I didn't buy any of those clips, great deal nonetheless - enjoy!!!!

DaHarder
TDS...

I couldn't help myself - In for 3 of those WOOTs - LOL!

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Yea! It's here Android 2.1 for the DROID

TheDarkSide
Sandisk Sansa Clip 8GB MP3 Player for $32.99 on woot: [Linky]

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lol

Step666
[Linky]

TheDarkSide
Forgot the link: [Linky]

TheDarkSide
OMG!!!! I can't post the meaning of my name, but #2 & #3 is actually me. But, I did get a decent amount of action cause I'm great @#1,............

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That's great...my skills are average at best

Step666
Yeah but my one's true


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