[AudiA4B6US]

I recently ordered a Transcend 4GB 150x SLC SD card to give it a try in my RNS-E.

The card arrived yesterday and I tried to use it with the same PCMCIA adapter I used with the 2GB and 512MB SanDisk Ultra but the card was not recognized at all. Put it in my Treo 650 and the Treo immediately asked me if I wanted to format the card. After confirming with yes it put a single 2GB FAT16 partition on the card but the card was still not readable in my PCMCIA card reader. After some more research I found out that many older readers have issues with 2/4GB cards (see http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/ModDetail.asp?ModNo=87&LangNo=0 for details).

So I gave it today another try, now using an IBM X40 with an internal SD card reader and the card was immediately recognized. After reformatting using FAT32 I ripped a CD (Windows Media Player 10, 192k) and duplicated the files/folder until I got 4GB of MP3 (3.7GB actually). Moved everything over to the SD, about 480 files in 80 folders and went to my RNS-E (US software 0020).

It took a while to load the contents (about twice as long as with the 2GB which itself took about twice as long as with my 512MB card) but at the end it was accepted without complaints. The known issue where the RNS-E displays the file name until it plays a song the first time exists but I had no issue playing each song.

So was does this confirm? A 4GB SLC, FAT32 formatted, does work in the RNS-E, giving you a max of 8GB storage right now. The a 400 files limited mentioned in the manual is as real as the max size of 256MB, another number mentioned in the manual. And the Treo 650 doesn't like FAT32.

I guess I will spend the weekend ripping some more of my CDs.

 

[Haaggie]

That's very good news!! Also very strange because the manual says the RNS-E only takes FAT16 cards, and that's also I experienced with the 1 gig card. Because FAT16 only supports max. 2 gig card we all assumed the max. total gig music for the RNS-E would stop for 2x2 gig = 4 gig, despite the coming of bigger cards. You proof the max isn't reached.. ;-) Thnx!

 

[fritzner]

that kick a$$!!.. 4GB per slot is a crap load of music.. now if only the MIX/shuffle worked right..

though, i think i am going to have to wait a few years for the price to come down :shock: i see they are going for ~$350..

i still only have (1) 1GB card -- ~$40 from ecost.com..


you are cutting edge as always, thanks for the info..

 

[AudiA4B6US]

The card I got was $275,- shipped (newegg.com)

 

[AudiA4B6US]

I have to correct myself. When I made my test earlier today I used Windows to count the number of files and folders. What I didn't know was that Windows Media Player creates some hidden files which were copied to the SD card together with the MP3. That's the reason why I got 480 files shown but in reality I had only 410 MP3 files on the card.

I did another test this evening and it looks like the max number of MP3 per medium is 460. I copied 60 folders with 10 MP3 (2MB each) onto the SD card and the RNS-E would only show and play the files in the first 46 folders. After deleting the first folder, the 47th folder appeared and was used by the RNS-E. It looks like the full capacity of 3.7GB can be used (e.g. for higher bitrates) but the max number of files must not exceed 460.

I think I'm going to use the 4GB SD card for songs I have ripped (or am going to rip) with 256k or even 320k. This will make use of the space without exceeding the file limit.

Sorry for not being more thorough during my first test.

 

[Stoodo]

Dirk, don't worry about it. Thanks for the writeup.

 

[benw123]

It took a while to load the contents (about twice as long as with the 2GB which itself took about twice as long as with my 512MB card) but at the end it was accepted without complaints. The known issue where the RNS-E displays the file name until it plays a song the first time exists but I had no issue playing each song.

How long does each sized card take to load?

 

[AudiA4B6US]

I didn't take exact times but I would guess the 512MB takes about 2-3sec, the 2GB maybe 7-10sec and the 4GB about 15-20sec. I guess it depends on how many songs you have on the card, not really how large the card is.

 

[rvarg]

max number of songs

I'm going on pure speculation here, but my suspicion is that the maximum number of songs is more like 512, and that folders are also included in the count. Therefore, 46 folders with 10 songs in each would fit because 10*46+46 = 506, whereas 47 folders with 10 songs in each did not fit because 10*47+47 = 517.

-Roy

 

[AudiA4B6US]

Re: max number of songs

I'm going on pure speculation here, but my suspicion is that the maximum number of songs is more like 512, and that folders are also included in the count. Therefore, 46 folders with 10 songs in each would fit because 10*46+46 = 506, whereas 47 folders with 10 songs in each did not fit because 10*47+47 = 517.

-Roy

Could very well be. When I get the card out of the car the next time I'll try to put a couple of songs on the root or add them to one of the existing folders to see if this makes a difference.