Got my 2 Glaciers back
 

Received the 2 Glaciers back yesterday, 1 month after sending back the 2 that died.
They both have the latest firmware now, 9.0.50.
Different usb chargers too.
So, unpacked the 2 boxes. Put one of the 1900mah batteries in one, and put it to the wall charger, it charged. Too bad Uxcell once again did not pack the proper adapter for European wall sockets, lucky I held behind the only converter thingy from the first 2 Glaciers, they failed to send 2 converters then.
Connected the other player to an usb port, and filled the 1 gigabyte memory with mp3 and ogg files, bitrates at least 128, but mostly vbr @ 192kb minimum.
After the green light disappearing from the one that was charging, I put that one on the computer, and filled it with the same set of files just put on the other.
The one with the original battery was now attached to the wall charger, a loud crackling sound came from the adapter, a bad chemical smell too, and the lights went off, one charger dead!
Got the other charger out, connected, and it works. The screen came on, and I noticed the right side top corner of the screen is a lot brighter then the rest, seems like the backlight(s) are not aligned right, nasty.
A first battery test gave 9 hours of continuous play @ volume 23, with playing intro's/skipping songs for 2 minutes every hour, to pretend a sort of real life usage.
The upgraded battery still plays, will report on that one later.

For both players:
I had trouble with the one I bought earlier and the one I won in the lucky draw here, using the radio. A lot of distortion (static) when changing volume or station, recording from radio only with a lot of static distortion in the recorded file, unusable.
On both the new players, I've got the same problems again, annoying.

Pro:
-nice clear sound when proper headphones are used
-plays vbr without a problem
-plays ogg too
-nice screen, lot's of info on it
radio picks up stations well
not too bad battery life with the standard battery, better than most clones

Minus:
-quality of chargers too low, lifespan 1 charging cycle?
-quality of assembly/inspection not good enough, see comment about the bright spot on the screen of one of the players, I wouldn't give that one as a present.
-need more attention when packing the players, non-fitting chargers for European sockets!
-players seem to max out at transferring 1 MB per second, on 2.0 usb ports.
-radio function needs work, hardware or software, the recording function is not usable for the 2 players

Sofar a 6.5/10.

Re: Got my 2 Glaciers back
 

Just to balance out your comments.... My chargers have more than 1 charging cycle to them. As far as I know, they've not given problems. I'm in NA, and maybe that makes the difference. These generic chargers are cheap. They need to be to sell the players at their selling price. You're not the first to complain about them blowing up or getting the wrong type for your country, and perhaps the problems are greater on the220v grid; that seems to be the case from what I'm reading.

Again, your comments about assembly / inspecition, as with the chargers, can be applied to ALL chipod mp4 players, not simply Glaciers. I've had that problem with one of my MP4 players (Nano style), where you could see the LED's of the backlight. Some of the Nano clone screens are even physically larger than others, some brighter than others, some brighter in certain areas. No real consistency, again, consistency costs $$$.

Static in between changing radio stations is NORMAL. I've not seen an mp4 player that had an auto mute switch, so you must be used to home tuners. If you depress the left/right keys it will advance to the next good station it can tune to, thus avoiding the white static noise of a detuned station. I haven't tried recording FM on my Glacier yet, so I dont know if they're all like that. I think I read someone saying theirs didn't produce staticky files.

The USB transfer function on the Glacier is iffy, AFAIC. It periodically fails to connect at USB 2.0 (but 1.1), and you have to do a few extra clicks to tell Windows its a 2.0 device. I have seen it cut out in the middle of a transfer. It regularly cuts out (disconnects) after its left in the computer doing nothing. I have tried it on a friend's computer, with different USB cables and used a different Glacier, both Glaciers on all computers produce dodgy USB connections. But after my Glacier stopped being able to charge a battery, the USB problem really didn't seem so bad.... There may be others who have not had any problems connecting the Glacier, that it never fails to connect at USB v2.0 and never disconnects. Werent you saying to me you were one of them, at the beginning?

As for your claim of VBR/ Ogg files playing without a problem, again, I have different experiences. I find it don't play VBR mp3's and only some OGG files. WAV files produce problems too. I believe I have the same firmware.

Que , i'll agree with michiganjfrog's comments.

Abit more on the radio station reception thing. When i was in Australia, the reception worked fairly well, some occasional static, but usually when i'm moving around. Now in Singapore, the reception got worse, more static.
Mainly due to the fact of low-level buildings in Australia as compared to mostly high-level buildings in Singapore. The FM signal gets weaker when there are many obstacles that the signal needs to get through to the player.

I am not talking about a little static noise when changing stations, but bout a lot, when changing volume (sounds like a ticking clock through the signal) you see the speaker icon blinking for a while, the static follows it. When you press M while listening to the radio and get to the menu, the static is enormous, hardly bearable to ones ears. All received stations play crisp and clear itself on the Glacier, it is just that any other action of the player gives interference.
Here's a sample of a radio station recording:
[stream:15972f80a2]http://www.pc123912.concepts.nl/REC003-1.mp3[/stream:15972f80a2]
About the usb slowness, did not have it on the first 2, took less than a second average per song to copy over. Now a song takes between 5 and 10 seconds. Usb ports aren't changed, a cardreader works at 2.0 speeds on the same ports. May be a glitch of the .50 firmware, the .48 players transfered faster, but that's just a guess.
Now that I have/had 4 Glaciers, 3 failing the euro converter, 4 having radio issues, 1 having a uneven lit screen (not just a bit brighter led out of those three, but an area about 1/5th of the top right side of the screen), 1 has a dead earphone, 1 usb charger dead, well, is it strange that I think a little more attention to quality might help them with their business?
I love these players, everybody that I show it to loves them. I just wished that a feature I was about to use worked like it should.

I only have one Glacier, and it works perfect. The standard battery life is 10 1/2 hours, and the extra battery I bought can play 13 hours nonstop music. Both tests were done after the first charging. The battery is charging now, using the AC adapter, I will update how long the battery life is after a second charge. (the first charge was done over the USB cable connected to my PC)

Que , i get what you're trying to mean about the static. Seems like it's the clock pulses generated by the FM demodulator chip. It'll be very difficult to rectify the problem, as it'll involve filtering the output sounds with additional components to cut out pulses.

Also, when you press other buttons like Menu while listening to the radio, the extra noises you hear are because of insufficient processing power by the ATJ processor.
If you had used a computer like 7-8years ago where the fastest was only Pentium 1 - 133MHz, you'll also notice the extra noises when you play mp3s and process large data (eg transfering large files around the harddisk) at the same time. It's all due to the low capability of multitasking.

I'm not sure of the USB transfer rate, as it could be a hardware or firmware problem.
However, if you're really interested, i'll recommend USB Info at http://www.usbinfo20.com , it's a USB diagnostic tool, and is able to benchmark real time of the USB device's speed.

Thanks for the link. Everything reports 2.0, the player however shows speed unknown, as the usb wireless that's on the same hub does. I hung a 2.0 cardreader on it, reports speed unknown too, but it works at 2.0 speeds.
If the radio distorts because of the slowness of the chip, there must be different chips, or another type of modulator mounted on some, because not all suffer.

Michiganjfrog, the first 2 glaciers worked at 2.0 speed, that's why it is so odd these don't, because nothing's changed here with my computer.
About vbr mp3's, maybe try another ripper, I use jetaudio for ogg and mp3 converting.
Another oddity, forwarding through songs goes very slow with mp3, jumps 3 or 4 seconds and takes ages to get halfway a large live-set. Forwarding through ogg files goes with progressive speed after some seconds.

A good solution to avoid problems with the FM radio is to do what Apples did, simply no radio.

Now that I am actually listening to the players after letting them play the battery empty to see how long they would hold, I notice distortion in mp3's and oggs too. In between songs or at silence parts in songs you hear a woosh-woosh-woosh in the background, like something is scanning.
The 1900mah battery I bought off ebay lasted only 2 hours longer than the standard one. Will test the other 1900 tonight. Crappy batteries or the charger can't fill 'm full?

Right, the second usb charger just went up in smoke too.

Que,

"Up in smoke"?
Literally?

Yes, and a nasty smelling one too! Funny how the little red light went off slowly, reminded me of HAL. "this sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error", if I remember right. lol So I have to find some new usb chargers, but I'm afraid everything on ebay is low profile stuff. Keith asked for my order number, when I asked if I could buy a new one and the converters 1 month ago. Oh well, can still charge off the computer.

Great thing about the Glacier, is you dont need to look around for special chargers. You can find them on eBay and dirt cheap! (Well under $10 shipped). That's because of the Nokia battery of course. I ordered one recently that can charge the BL4c, and plugs directly into an AC outlet (not requiring the special Nokia power adapter). I expect it will charge better (and safer) than the cheap $2 charger that these players all come with (plus it has overcharging feature and some other features).
I will post my findings if I find a difference.

It seems that the $2 chargers thta come with the players are too cheap to take 240v on European outlets, because the problems I'm hearing seem to all come from using the foreign conversion adapters. I'm very wary about using these cheap AC chargers on my NA voltage also, because I have experienced weird (not good weird) results when first trying to charge my replacement Glacier using the included AC charger. I now charge solely through USB for fear of frying another Glacier, and I have had no problems. In fact, for the moment... I am able to connect with no USB errors either! (I"m keeping an eye on that to see if its consistent.... All I can say at the moment is I changed many system settings on my XP Pro system recently, and theres a possibility of a link between that and the USB connections).

PLAYING VBR MP3's:

Finally, I mentioned in this thread problems playing VBR Mp3's on my Glacier. Well I no longer have that problem for some reason?! I have seen VBR's play on it, and the kps rate will change in the Glacier while the song is playing, to reflect the fact that its a VBR.

Now that I'm finally able to actually use my Glacier, now that I currently have no USB problems or charging problems (& its pretty slow to drain), no current format playing problems, and it fits perfectly in the leather mobile phone case I found (see Gallery), and can be used 100% without ever taking it out of the case.... must say, very happy with the Glacier! It's what the mP4 experience was meant to be...... ;-)

A dedicated bl-4c charger, great idea. I found 1 on ebay from Hong Kong, comes with 2 batteries for 3 GBP, 6,5 extra for shipping. Can you give me a link for yours, or isn't it bought online? Have to check local shops for usb chargers, can't take my laptop with me on vacation just to charge my glacier. About the ac voltage, it is 230 in Europe. We (the Netherlands) went to 230 from 220 some time ago. Must be the quality of the chargers that came with the glacier, never had anything blown in that manner.
Had the player laminated btw, well, looked great, but no sense of the buttons, had to look at the player to operate it, so removed it again.
Are you able to fast forward in a mp3 song normally, or only in ogg ones like I am?

Sure thing, Que. This is the one I bought (below). It was the best quality I could find on ebay, but I dont know that I did an exhaustive search, you may even find better (but not at the price, it was only $7US shipped!). One Nokia BL4C battery seller on eBay says in his ad to use the AC charger to first charge a new battery, and do it for 14 hours. Then after use, a second 14 hrs, and this will ensure a longer life, so I will try that.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=012

The ones that come with batteries wasn't that appealing to me, because their batteries are always the cheapa$$ ones. When you can get genuine Nokia's (with the holographic logo) for way under $10 shipped, I dont see the point in saving $1 or $2 on the knockoffs, if even that. So I bought the charger, and a true Nokia in separate auctions.

You know, for all we know, this separate Nokia-specific AC charger may be the panacea for some of the Glacier's deficiencies (Im suggesting the player itself may not be the ideal device to charge its battery - thats why I wanted to try a separate charger. Besides, it couldn't hurt, it gives you a chance to charge one battery while you're still using the player).

230v? That's even worse than 220v! I mean these chargers are small and light... seems like there's almost nothing in them! I'm surprised why they are not ALL blowing up in people's faces each and every time. Over here on this side of the pond, on our 120v system, 240v plugs are massive, you could take an elephant out just swinging one around. If these USB chargers passed certification, well... given all I've heard and everything, I'm not sure they should have. For now, I continue to use my computer.

Why not just laminate the screen. I used to retain the plastic film that the player comes with to protect it, but I have removed it completely because the mobile phone case I've put it in has a plastic window that protects the screen from scratches (hopefully, unless the case itself scratches the player! Guess I'll end up finding out).

I am indeed able to fast forward normally in an mp3 song, both in my new player (9.0.50) and the old one (9.0.48 firmware). Not sure why you might not, perhaps try mp3's from various sources, it may not like the encoding used on the ones you tried.

Thanks! Just bought one too. Strange those mp3's, tried a lot for fast forwarding, none, encoded with jetaudio, winamp, oh well....