How to Eliminate Frame Skipping and Audio Sync Videos Problems on the Sansa E200 Series

The Sansa series has quickly become one of the most popular players on the market, aside from the iPod. It has made quite a name for itself, and there are currently several different models of the player available.

The e200 series is perhaps the most beloved of the Sansa line, simply because they were the first larger flash players from SanDisk and a great deal of Sansa owners possess this model. The video was a big plus for many users, who were looking for a device that could play video on a larger screen while offering all the features that Apple didn't.

Unfortunately, it was discovered that video on the Sansa e200 series was buggy. The only supported video was MOV, a bloated Quicktime format ideal for editing, not movie watching. This lead to issues with not only large file sizes, but also severe issues with frame skipping and the audio going out of sync.

If you've experienced these problems and would like to fix them, read on. After trying over a dozen different methods with my player, I found one that allows me to add videos that play perfectly smooth, with audio in sync and small files sizes (full movie, 300MB).

Items Needed:

SanDisk Sansa e200 series (this won't work with any other Sansas).
PC
Video file
SUPER
Rockbox

Step 1: Let me start off by saying that the only way you will get small, perfect videos onto the device is if you load it will Rockbox. Rockbox is a free, open source firmware for the device. This will not affect the original firmware. You will still be able to turn it on to the normal firmware and use it just like normal. The only difference is, you will be able to boot into Rockbox for watching videos. Think of it like 'Audio mode' and 'Movie mode'.

You can find instructions for loading Rockbox onto a Sansa e200 here. Once finished, proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Now that you have Rockbox, you'll need to download two software apps onto your PC - you must be running Windows. The two programs are SUPER, a free video converting program, and WinFF, another free program. We are going to use both.

Step 3: Now that you have downloaded the software you need, we're going to edit the video. Make sure you have a video file that you want to put on. If you have a DVD that you want to put on, you'll need to rip it to your hard drive first.

Open SUPER. If you're running Vista, you will need to right click on it and choose 'Run as Admin', or it won't work right. Once it starts up, right click inside the white box and load your video file.

At the top, in the codec box, choose MPEG. In the next box, choose MPEG I. In the audio box, choose MP2. Set the resolution at 240 x 192. Set the video bitrate at 288.

The audio settings will vary based on your preferences. I can't stand watching anything with bad audio, so I keep it high. This also results in a higher file size. If you aren't using high quality headphones, or if you don't care about the audio being less than theater quality, then you can make it lower. Choose the settings you want.

Finally, hit the encode button and leave it be for awhile. When finished, the file size will be smaller than the original. For example, I converted a 300MB file with this method and the resulting file was 175MB.

Step 4: Now you need to open WinFF. You should check to make sure the audio in your converted video plays correctly, however.

In WinFF, click the ADD button and choose your converted video. Below, choose ROCKBOX in the Convert To... box, and then choose your model and version in the next drop down box. Choose an output location - I recommend saving it to your hard drive, and then transferring it to your player. Finally, in the Frame Rate box, type '15'. This is very important - anything higher, and the videos will be jumpy and skip frames.

Now, click CONVERT and wait for it to finish.

Step 5: Plug in your Sansa and open the video file. Transfer the video to the folder, then disconnect and unplug the device. Turn on the player. Rockbox will start automatically (note: to boot into the original firmware, simply press and hold the left arrow key while turning the player on).

Navigate to the videos and choose the video you uploaded. It should play smoothly and without any issues.