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99 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent.....Well Mostly, December 5, 2007
I bought my Sansa View 16GB two weeks ago and I am mostly satisfied. After downloading the latest firmware (.06A) I found most of the initial quirks have been addressed.
First, you will notice the construction which is very solid and, despite those who think the Sansa View is ugly, I find it elegant. The size is very appropriate, fitting easily in the palm, without feeling huge and not so small you will fumble and drop it (i.e. Zen V!)
Other reviewers have complained about the menu icons......This is really foolish since I did not purchase the View for it's "flashy" icons. Look it...the icons are obvious and glide smoothly along the screen in conjunction with the rotation of the data wheel.
The video functionality is very good. I use a Neuros MPEG Recorder II and it works flawlessly. I have had a bit of trouble with syncing videos with WMP 10, but I would sooner blame Microsoft not the Sansa View.
The downloaded Sansa Media Converter utility is not the best software, taking a long time to transcode files and lacking a lot of file support but I have many applications for this so it's not a problem.
Music files transfer easily with WMP with fast transfer speeds. (USB 2)
It's important, however, to make sure that "one off" downloaded songs and such are properly tagged, otherwise they will end up difficult to find.
The sound quality of the Sansa View is exceptional with no clicking, pops, or distortion. Volume levels are easily able to get above noisy environments, even without isolation type ear buds. The equalizer functions very well and your settings are held in memory.
Building playlists can be done with WMP or simply on the View. Browse your tunes and just press and hold the center function button and the song gets added to the playlist. Unfortunately, only one list can be assembled on the unit, although multiple lists can be imported with WMP.
You can also drag and drop audio and jpeg files right into the Sansa View Explorer pane. Non jpeg photos can be quickly transcoded with the Sansa Media Converter.
The Cons: Presently, there is no audio bookmarking function for long podcast files or audiobooks. (Bookmarking is available for videos)
Some video files within the advertised specs will not play.
Uses a proprietary usb cable
Virtually no cases available as of yet except one DLO case (which I bought) that is "hodge-podgy" and obscures the beauty of the Sansa View.
Although battery life is quite good, it is not as good as advertised.
The battery is not accessible and would require a factory replacement.
Other than these few cons, the Sansa View is a truly exceptional player. I am banking on future Firmware upgrades that allow Audio Bookmarking and better Video File Support, as well as address a few other quirks and stability issues. The hardware is excellent and obviously capable.
Considering prices for the 16GB around $200. (the price of the 8GB Nano) you really cannot go wrong with this device.....and, yes it does support non-DRM AAC files from your present itunes collection.
I'd say....."Buy it!"
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58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love mine, November 7, 2007
I've read some pretty negative reviews about this thing, but now that I own one, I don't know why these people are knockin it. I don't think it is cheaply made, it feels pretty sturdy and it is indeed gorgeous. I didn't really have to read the manual to get this thing to work. I just plugged it into the USB port on my laptop and dragged and dropped my music folders and movies into the device. You don't have to install any drivers to get this thing to work either. I love how it displays the album art. The earbuds it comes with are pretty crappy. I replaced the stock earbuds with a pair of gunmetal black V-MODA Vibe ear canal headphones ($75.00 from Amazon) and this MP3 players sounds pretty damn amazing. People have knocked this thing for poor audio quality. You can't buy a 200 dollar mp3 player and use a pair of cheapo headphones. Buy a decent set and I guarantee you will be impressed with the sound. I am also impressed with the FM Tuner, I'm in Kuwait and it picks up the U.S. military AFN radio network with awesome clarity, my alarm clock radio hardly picks up the signal but my View picks it up perfectly and it sounds great. The voice recorder works and I have fun recording myself saying absolutely ridiculous things. Video looks great as well! I have watched Bruce Almighty on this thing. While the screen size is small, the picture is damn fine! I can't comment on using a music service because I don't use one at all. Inside the package comes with a mini CD that has some Best Buy Music Service on the disk. This is the only thing on the disk, no drivers or anything, junk IMPO. Another thing this player gets knocked for is that it is supposed to have gapless music playback, I really can't tell the difference so this isn't important to me, maybe to some it is, but I haven't really noticed if there is a gap or not. If you have a bunch of DRM protected songs that won't work, I recommend purchasing DRM removal software such as soundtaxi or tunebite which will turn DRM protected music to non protected files. I have used soundtaxi in the past and it works wonderful. To convert DVD's into MP4, I use a program called CuCusoft Ultimate DVD + Video Converter and I make my own MP4 movies which I can then drag and drop into the View itself, again, the videos look amazing. A couple of things worth mentioning. The package does include a quick start guide, but no user manual. Not even on the CD, the user manual must be downloaded from the sandisk website.
I have also spoken with techsupport and they recommend that the optimal video size to use while recording video should be 480x272. I have been using 320x240 so I will start using what they recommend. There is also an unofficial firmware update going around but according to the techsupport person I talked to, they don't recommend using it. I spoke with them on NOV 7, 2007 so if you flash to the new firmware, you do so at your own risk. I will be waiting untill the firmware is officially released on Sandisk's website. Sorry for the rambling, but this is an amazing MP3 player and is worth your consideration. I love mine, and I use it the gym every morning. I had originally purchased one from Amazon but it was backordered untill DEC 1, 2007. Best Buy has them in stock and they are shipping.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I like it, but I'm not impressed., December 26, 2007
I bought this 16GB Sansa View for my wife as a Christmas present. To make it an even better Christmas present I loaded all of her music, some choice pictures, and a few memorable videos. At first I was very satisfied with the View. It initializes fast and picks-up at the same screen that I shut it off at. Media transfer is super fast! The scroll wheel works great, in fact, I approve more of the View's physical wheel than the iPod's tactile wheel. The screen has amazing clarity and resolution isn't a problem. However, in opposition to these features that I liked, I did encounter a few disappointing glitches with the View that has me wanting to return it and try another brand. Perhaps I just got the one bad egg out of a hundred; but I'll inform anyone who wants to read on of my experience.
The music loaded just fine with one exception; I had to use a rear USB port to do it. For whatever reason my front USB port wouldn't identify the device. I have only one complaint as far as the View's capibility of to handle music. It doesn't have a method (as far as I know) to allow you to quickly scroll thru the Play/Song/Artist/Album List. Your only option is to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll until you get to the bottom. A minor inconvenience.
The pictures appeared to load just fine. After loading the pictures I could go to the Thumbnail gallary and view all the pictures. Choosing a picture would display it in landscape view. You turn the player sideways to view the pictures and the controls even rotate to make navigation in landscape mode easy! Sweet feature. I had no problems until after running the first slideshow. All of a sudden two of the pictures became an unsupported media type and no longer showed up as a Thumbnail; they showed up as a generic Icon of a camera?!?! Another major problem will be mentioned below with the Video section.
The videos loaded fine as well. With the screens excellent resolution I was extremly satisfied with video quality. I watched all of the videos several times and I knew that my wife would really get excited once she saw how clear they were displayed. However, she never got to see them. I got everything loaded about two weeks before Christmas. I made sure that the battery was fully charged, then I boxed it up, and I wrapped it. Come Christmas morning my wife fired up the View and I just sat back in eager anticipation of her to stumbling upon the preloaded music, pictures, and videos. When she went into the pictures menu she asked me, "Why can't I see the pictures?" During the two weeks that the View spent under the Christmas tree it somehow lost the ability to display pictures and videos!!! Instead of the picture/video it displays the title of the file. With videos it'll play sound but no picture. I downloaded the latest firmware and that didn't fix the problem. It does the same thing with any new pictures/videos that I load also. However, a simple "Reset to Factory Default" feature fixed this problem
In the end there are just too many unacceptable aggravations for me to want to keep this MP3 player. Barring any firmware miracles, I'm going to return this and try the 16GB Zen.
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