Album grouping & multiple bookmarks for ordinary MP3 files in MSC mode?

[James_Newbie]

I'm considering purchasing a 4 GB Vibe (model SA2VBE04KW/17).

I plan to use it almost exclusively to play home-made MP3 "audio books", in MSC mode.

That is, I would use a text to speech program to generate my own MP3 files. I would not be using Audible's "audio book" file service.

I need the following capabilities in an MP3 player:

1. Ability to group together several of my MP3s into an "album".
I would use an MP3 tagging program to set the "album" and "track" fields. The MP3 player needs to display my MP3s by album, and within each album, sort by track number.

2. Automatic bookmarking of where I left off in the audio book "album".
Specifically, the player needs to remember which MP3 file I left off in the album, as well as the specific time location in that MP3 player.

3. Multiple bookmark support.
The player needs to be able to retain a separate bookmark for each audio book "album" I'm listening to. For example, if I'm listening to five of my home-made audio books, it needs to retain five bookmarks, remembering both the specific MP3 file within the album, as well as the time location within that MP3.

I currently have a Sansa Clip, which provides this functionality. But unfortunately, after 2.5 years, my refurbished Sansa Clip died. So now I'm in the market for a new MP3 player, and am looking at this specific Philips model.

I downloaded the Philips manual for this model, but it isn't clear if this player will do these things.

Thanks in advance for your time in responding to this request for information.

[Philips - Gary]

Hi James_Newbie,

Provided your MP3 files do have the appropriate information in the ID3 tags the Vibe will be able to group the files by album or by artist, with the album view they will be listed in album order so again provided the ID3 tags are complete it will be possible to play the tracks in order by album.

Unfortunately, while some of our players do have auto-resume playback, it is not possible to create bookmarks within audio files. This is only available in conjunction with audio books from Audible.

I would like to thank you for your comments regarding your desired use of our players and will pass this valuable information to our development teams.

Kind regards,

Gary

[James_Newbie]

Thank you, Gary, for taking the time to look into this and respond.

Much appreciated.

I will definitely keep Philips in mind in the future.

[kwinnie]

hi James,

as a current user of a philips mp3, i think i can give you some advise:

1. Ability to group together several of my MP3s into an "album".

i m not sure if that caters your need or not. but for philips mp3, there is "folder view" option which i find very awesome!
so basically you just create new folders and put all the audio book chapters in... to make it in some sequence, you just have to name it from 1, 2, 3 etc... (easy to look up and playback)

2. Automatic bookmarking of where I left off in the audio book "album".

there is exactly same feature there, remember where you leave it...

3. Multiple bookmark support.

i m afraid i dont find this so far.

hope this helps!

[James_Newbie]

Thank you, Kwinnie.

Yes, points one and two are covered. But point three isn't, and I do need that feature.

Thanks again for your time.

James_Newbie

[Philips - Gary]

Hi James_Newbie,

It's my pleasure, I'm just sorry it wasn't better news.

As promised I've fed back to our development teams the features you're interested in, many thanks for your input.

Kind regards,

Gary