Living with a ChiPod

In early 2007 I acquired the "ChiPod" portable music player shown below:

This player has decent sound quality and was inexpensive. It's also cross-platform (it should work on any computer that supports USB 2.0 flash drives) and plays Ogg Vorbis files, even though it doesn't claim to support that format.

However, I can't recommend this player. For one thing, it was fraudulently advertised as having a 4GB capacity although its true capacity is 1GB. It also has terrible documentation and rather non-intuitive operation.

Nevertheless, I've managed to work around most of the problems, as described below.

Setting the True Capacity

As mentioned above, my player was advertised as having a 4GB capacity, and in fact has a sticker on it to that effect. However, it really only has a 1GB capacity, and the previous owner's attempt to load more than 1GB of files resulted in corrupted files. The issue is often described as "hacked firmware," but I believe it's actually a partioning issue.

My first step was to find the true capacity and to set it accordingly. Although the player itself is cross-platform, this step requires access to a Windows PC. Instructions can be found here, with an alternative version here.

My player only had one drive letter assigned (not two as described in the instructions) but the procedure worked fine.

Documentation

The manual that came with my player is the single worst set of instructions that I've ever seen. A better online manual is available here, and various manuals can be downloaded here.

Accessories

The accessories that came with the player don't appear to be good quality. As far as I know, the earbuds never worked. The USB cable worked initially, and still works as a power cable, but no longer works to transfer files. Fortunately I was able to use a cable from another player.

Update (November 11, 2008): Several months ago the charger unit broke. I was able to repair it (after a fashion) but have observed that the player seems to charge better via the USB port than by using the charger. Also, the original USB cable doesn't seem to work at all now.

Ogg Vorbis Support

My primary interest in this player is that it plays Ogg Vorbis files, although that feature is apparently unsupported as it's not listed anywhere. I haven't had any issues playing Ogg Vorbis files encoded at quality level 0. However, the player had problems with files encoded at quality level 3 (the default level); less than half of the files I tried worked. Fortunately, I only use quality level 0.

File Organization and Navigation

The biggest weakness of this player is its file organization and navigation. The player has three issues with regards to browsing files:

Normal file navigation stops working if the number of sub-folders within a folder exceeds a certain limit. The limit appears to be seven sub-folders but may be less in some circumstances.
There's a bug in the firmware's file browser. The player displays up to five folders and files per screen page; however, the folder or file that should appear at the top of each page (other than the parent directory at the top of the first page) isn't displayed correctly.
The player makes no attempt to sort the files -- all browsing is based on the sequence that that folders and files were added to the player.

I developed the following work-arounds for these issues:

I organize the music folders on the player so that no folder contains more than four sub-folders (in order to work around issues #1 and #2 above). For example, I have the following top-level folders: A-F, G-L, M-R, and S-Z. Within those folders I place the artist folders. If there are more than four artists I break those into further sub-folders (e.g., A-C and D-F) as necessary.

I work around issue #3 above by making sure that my music library and the music folders on the player are built in the sequence the player requires. Here's how: for each album I add to my music library, I display the files in the desired sequence. In my case I include the track number as part of the file name and therefore sort the files by name to display them in track number sequence. I select the first file and then Shift-Click the last file in order to select all files. I then select the Cut command (Ctrl-X), press Backspace to move up a level to the parent folder, and select the Paste commmand (Ctrl-V). With the files still selected, I select Cut again, move back to the now-empty album folder, and select Paste again. The files within that folder are now in the proper sequence for the player. I repeat the process for the files in each album folder, for the album folders within each artist folder, and for all artist folders in the library. This doesn't have to be done again for a given folder unless a change is made to that folder.

Once the music library is built correctly, I add and delete folders and files on the player, being careful to do so in alphabetical sequence or to repeat the cut/paste steps listed above if necessary.

Advanced users may be able to verify the folder/file sequence by using the command prompt. For Linux, I change directories to the music library (or player) and enter the following to list all subdirectories in date/time sequence:

find . -type d -print | pg

Remove the -type d if you'd like to list the files as well.

Update (February 28, 2008): See Sorting Music Player Files for an improved method of sorting files and folders under Linux.

This find command may also work on Mac OS X.

For Windows, change directories to the music library (or player) and try this:

dir /od /ad /s /p

Remove the /ad if you'd like to list the files as well.

Miscellaneous

To charge my player, I connect the charger to the player and then plug the charger into an AC outlet. I then power the player on. The screen displays briefly and then shuts off. When the player is charged, the screen displays and stays on. (Apparently the red LED on some chargers goes off when the player is charged, but that's not the case with mine.)

My player runs for about 150 minutes between charges.

Update (February 28, 2008): Run time is considerably less than 150 minutes now and the battery seems to discharge rather quickly when not in use.

Files transfer to the player at a rate of about 11 minutes per gigabyte.

Last Updated: February 28, 2008