Some Navigation Questions

[eth]

I'm looking at buying an X5, but there are a couple of uncertainties I have, particularly involving navigation:

Someone mentioned that it wasn't possible to enqueue songs on the player, is this true? i.e. can you not listen to one track while finding another, putting it on the current playlist? Would this not make using the thing a nightmare?

When using the folder tree system, can you enqueue all tracks within any folder? I.e. if you have your music sorted by genre/artist/album could you play or enqueue all tracks within any stage?

And (if it is possible to enqueue music) can you then shuffle within that playlist?

Finally, one of the main uses will be recording lectures at Uni- how does the use of the subpack work out? Are either the subpack or the player port badly contructed or vulnerable at all? The port is probably more important here, as it can't be replaced.

That aspect of this player isn't ideal, but very few other players seem to have the same removable drive setup, battery life, ability to record straight to mp3, and use of other formats which would seem to balance it out.

Eh rambled on a bit, anyway any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, James

[BlueHawk]

Yes you can add to your on-the-fly playlist (either from existing m3u's, song by song, a folder or all songs in a folder). You can do this while listening (well, at least it works with 2.10b5-e). And you can of course, choose a shuffle mode for playing that playlist. Hopefully, once the DRM functionality has been sorted out, developers will start working on some of the stuff on the wishlists.

Not sure what you are asking with the recording. The subpack is not needed if you are using the in-built mic for recording, only when you want to use the line-in for recording.

[eth]

Yes you can add to your on-the-fly playlist (either from existing m3u's, song by song, a folder or all songs in a folder). You can do this while listening (well, at least it works with 2.10b5-e). And you can of course, choose a shuffle mode for playing that playlist. Hopefully, once the DRM functionality has been sorted out, developers will start working on some of the stuff on the wishlists.

Not sure what you are asking with the recording. The subpack is not needed if you are using the in-built mic for recording, only when you want to use the line-in for recording.
Thanks for the answer, it did seem a bit farcical not to be able to enqueue, must've just misunderstood.

I think I'll have to use a separate (unidirectional) mic for recording, the internal one seems a bit dodgy. It was a bit of a vague question, I mean are the subpack and port solidly built, or do either look/feel like they wouldn't stand up to regular use (hopefully a number of times a day for four years give or take). And just generally how much of a pain is it to cart it around, attach and use etc?

btw if anyone's interested, I emailed Cowon about when the ID3 tag update would be available, and the answer was "hopefully by mid 4th quarter of this year"

[BlueHawk]

The metal case wraps around the subpack socket so it won't bend easily or distort. My subpack is quite secure, even with the zCover. But I am not sure how repeated frequent use would go. It should probably be ok as long as you take care with it. The X5 is a sturdy piece of equipment so if it doesn't make it I doubt anything else would fare any better.