MuVo - When new track begins I cannot rewind back into the end of the previous tra

Question

Hi all, here is my problem. i tried to put it in a formal way to ease the reading.
Player: Creative MuVo 52MB TX FMFirmware: Creative MuVo TX FM Audible Firmware Upgrade Version .3.03
Problem: When new track begins I cannot rewind back into the end of the previous track. If I want to hear the end of a track I have to start from the beginning and fast <SPAN>froward through the tracks entirety towards the end of the track. This is especially frustrating when listening to a 20+ minute podcast or audiobook and all I want is to here the last couple of minutes. As stated in the user manual "frequent use of fast <SPAN>froward/reverse" will use more battery power and this is not an acceptable solution for wanting to hear the last couple of minutes. (Usually this happens when i am interrupted and the next track has already started, etc.)
Suggested solution: If a user is at 00:00:00 and the user holds the rewind button then user shall start rewinding from then end of the last track. An analogy of this would be if you fast <SPAN>froward to a new chapter on a DVD player and then press and hold rewind, it allows you to rewind through the end of the skipped chapter. Please include this functionality in the next firmware update.
thanks for your time, nickc

Answer 1

Nick,
Great suggestion. FYI, I have similar hardware to yours:
Player: Creative MuVo 256MB TX FMFirmware: Creative MuVo TX FM Audible Firmware Upgrade Version .3.03
I imagine there are several ways to implement your idea. One way would be to have the firmware let you: () begin rewinding from any point in the current program; (2) when rewind reaches the 00:00:00, a tone could be emitted (this would alert the user that s/he has reached the beginning of the current program); (3) then the user could either decide to stop there or (4) by holding down the rewind, say, 2-3 seconds, the rewind would be forced to 'skip' back to the end of the previous program.
If the user is not listening to the program while rewinding (and thus cannot hear the tone), this should not be a problem, as the display would make clear what is happening.
On another issue...
Regarding your comment "...creative does a good job with the timing of the fast-foward/rewind feature available now," I beg to differ. In my experience, the timing of the TX FM's rewind makes it very difficult for a user to do an 'instant replay' of a short audiobook section. This is frequently needed when a narrator's voice is unclear, or the user is distracted by something.
For example, say I want to review the last 5 seconds. This is impossible, as the rewind specifications cause the rewind to behave approximately as follows:
- First 3 seconds realtime rewinds program 6-7 seconds
- After that, each second realtime rewinds 30 seconds; so each additional second rewinds 30 seconds
- Of course, it gets faster and faster thereafter (in 30-second, 5-minute, and 5-minute segments)
You see, therefore, that it is impossible to efficiently skip back 5 seconds, as the rewind goes back 6-7 seconds, then skips all the way back to the 37-second point. The only way to go back 5 seconds (a couple of sentences) is to: () overshoot your target by an unknown number of seconds, then wait a long time until your desired segment appears, or (2) tediously rewind 5-6 seconds; wait until the TX FM is ready for another rewind; rewind another 5-6 second segment; wait again; then rewind another short segment to get to the 5-seconds-back point. For the most part I use method (2), but do not always release the rewind button in time each of 3 times before the accelerated rewind kicks in. What a drag!
The Audible Otis player, as I recall, did not have this particular problem, though its buttons were harder to manipulate.
I would doubt whoever designed this rewind specification has experience listening to audiobooks.
CREATIVE: We need a rewind function that eventually picks up speed, but I would recommend that the most recently played approx. 30 seconds of program time be accessible via a rewind compressed to appox. 5 seconds realtime.
Catherina & Jeremy, are you listening?
Roger