I need to know everything about SDHC compatibility

I recently purchased an 8GB iPod, and regardless of how sexy or cool it is, I still love my 8130 Pearl much more. The thing is I like to live my life as simply as possible, and if I can have one device that can do everything, why not?

So this is mostly a two-part question. I'm wondering what the deal is with the 8GB SDHC card? A friend of mine told me it is only compatible with the Curve 8330. I've also read some people on this forum are having trouble with it... Is this true? I've also read on this forum that BlackBerry could release firmware updates that would make the Pearl compatible with SDHC cards. This I don't believe...

Now the second part of the question: Will uploading music in an SDHC format compromise quality? I really would hate to get a Curve, get an 8GB SDHC card, and then have it sound like crap when I plug it into my car's AUX port.

Thanks in advance.

I will tackle the sound quality issue but only to suggest that you will need to personally figure out if the quality is there. I have a Creative ZVM and was active in one or two forums and the debate about sound quality was never ending over whether the zvm, the ipod the zune, the xyz was better. Then the sound was also supposedly dependent on the quality of the headphones and the quality of the rips and mp3 size/quality.

I guess at my age, I'm not sure that I could detect that many differences. I don't know that any of the mp3 player type reviews includes reviews and comparisons of the BB devices or other phones as music players. So my suggestion - buy a small card for testing, put music on it and give it a whirl. I have not had any problems returning cards to Bestbuy when they did not suit my purpose. 1 gig cards are cheap.

As for size, I guess it does depend on your current device and OS. The size support, as you note, is suppose to increase with the release of a newer OS but if that will happen..... I did purchase an 8gig in hopes that my 8830 will eventually support it. Right now it is formatted and working like a 4gig.

Good luck

The 8130 has OS 4.3 which supports 8GB cards. I can't speak for the people who've had issues but I've seen quite a few threads on this and it appears that most people running 4.3 do not have issues.

There isn't an SDHC format - the same file types are supported regardless of if you have an SD card or an SDHC card. With the bigger card, however, you can probably afford to put on higher quality files (bigger files) so you'll have better sounding music.

Originally Posted by F2

I will tackle the sound quality issue but only to suggest that you will need to personally figure out if the quality is there. I have a Creative ZVM and was active in one or two forums and the debate about sound quality was never ending over whether the zvm, the ipod the zune, the xyz was better. Then the sound was also supposedly dependent on the quality of the headphones and the quality of the rips and mp3 size/quality.

I guess at my age, I'm not sure that I could detect that many differences. I don't know that any of the mp3 player type reviews includes reviews and comparisons of the BB devices or other phones as music players. So my suggestion - buy a small card for testing, put music on it and give it a whirl. I have not had any problems returning cards to Bestbuy when they did not suit my purpose. 1 gig cards are cheap.

As for size, I guess it does depend on your current device and OS. The size support, as you note, is suppose to increase with the release of a newer OS but if that will happen..... I did purchase an 8gig in hopes that my 8830 will eventually support it. Right now it is formatted and working like a 4gig.

Good luck

Thanks for the info. I think that's what I'm going to do - just buy one and if it doesn't work, return it. As far as sound quality goes, I'm guessing it's close to impossible to discern the differences between all of those devices. So many factors go into sound quality...

Originally Posted by Flurrycat

The 8130 has OS 4.3 which supports 8GB cards. I can't speak for the people who've had issues but I've seen quite a few threads on this and it appears that most people running 4.3 do not have issues.

There isn't an SDHC format - the same file types are supported regardless of if you have an SD card or an SDHC card. With the bigger card, however, you can probably afford to put on higher quality files (bigger files) so you'll have better sounding music.

Please tell me I'm understanding this right...

You're saying that there's basically no SDHC format? The data would be formatted the same way as in a regular SD card?

I was going to buy a big SD card for my camera but on the package it read that I should make sure the device supports SDHC... Maybe this is where my confusion is coming from. So my 8130 from Sprint should work fine with an 8 GB card? If this is the case I'm going to run out and buy one tomorrow to give it a shot.

I don't understand something though: How come some phones have issues running an 8 GB microSD card and no issues running something like a 2 GB one?

Originally Posted by HelloGoodSir

Please tell me I'm understanding this right...

You're saying that there's basically no SDHC format? The data would be formatted the same way as in a regular SD card?

I meant that it supports the same file formats - mp3, etc. (I don't remember them all but you can check the manual, or the help if you still have it installed). I only use mp3 format so I can guarantee that works, and I know the WMA doesn't work whether the card is SD or SDHC.

I should tell you that I don't have an 8GB card, but I want one (hopefully one will come for my b-day in 2 weeks), so I did a lot of research. I'd recommend the SanDisk card - it's gotten great reviews on this site and elsewhere and I've been very happy with all the SanDisk cards I've owned (I use them in my cameras and I have a 2GB in my BB). The OS determines how big of a card the BB can handle. OS 4.3 definitely supports 8GB. I have read of issues where it takes longer for all the music to load so if you open a music player app sometimes all the music won't show right away, but that's about it.

1. SDHC = SD High Capacity (i.e 4GB, 8GB, etc)...thats all. Its not a different technology
2. Pearls 8120 and 8130 or for that matter any BB with OS 4.3 support upto 8GB.
3. I have a 4GB SDHC card which works super and the sound quality is amazing! I uploaded MP3s w/o compromising on sound quality and man what an output! I recently started using my BB as my primary MP3 player and leave my 30GB IPod at home now. I am very happy with my decision.

Originally Posted by ADberry

1. SDHC = SD High Capacity (i.e 4GB, 8GB, etc)...thats all. Its not a different technology
2. Pearls 8120 and 8130 or for that matter any BB with OS 4.3 support upto 8GB.
3. I have a 4GB SDHC card which works super and the sound quality is amazing! I uploaded MP3s w/o compromising on sound quality and man what an output! I recently started using my BB as my primary MP3 player and leave my 30GB IPod at home now. I am very happy with my decision.

That's what I hope to do...

Well thanks for the info everyone. I think I'm gonna go out and try to find a place today that sells 8GB SDHC cards. I'll report back to tell you how things go if I find one.

I can add my 2 cents worth about the sound quality. I got the 4 gb media card, first had in my Pearl, and now in my Curve, and sound quality with the standard stereo headset sounded as good as my ipod and I quit carrying ipod a long time ago...

And, there are better headsets that you can get too.

Originally Posted by stevebtx12

I can add my 2 cents worth about the sound quality. I got the 4 gb media card, first had in my Pearl, and now in my Curve, and sound quality with the standard stereo headset sounded as good as my ipod and I quit carrying ipod a long time ago...

And, there are better headsets that you can get too.

That's the goal. Oh and I already have an awesome headset - thank GOD RIM was smart enough to put a 3.5 mm jack on this thing. Seriously I wouldn't have done this if it weren't for that.

Anyways so here's what happened. Went to Circuit City today, they had 8 GB microSD cards in stock. I paid $105 for one, and I have 30 days to return it. I also ordered one for $45 off Amazon, you can probably guess where this is going...

I fit literally my entire music library onto it. It's absolutely astonishing, the size of a fingernail and it contains DAYS worth of songs. Sound quality is fine, the only thing the iPod beats it in is that it does a better job of minimizing the faint "hissing" noise in the background when songs are starting or ending - but I'm assuming that's because there's a lot more stuff going on inside a BlackBerry than an iPod.

Now I tested it in the beginning with only 30 songs uploaded, and the processing speed was on par with my iPod's. Now I just finished stuffing it with 7.2 GB worth of music, and it's having a bit of trouble loading everything. Some of the lists are still blank and are showing only a fraction of the music that's on there. However, as I let it sit there it continues to populate the All Songs, Genre, and Artists categories. It's struggling right now with even basic functions since I'm assuming this is taking up a LOT of resources, but it's getting faster and faster as it loads more and more. I just hope it doesn't have to do this every time I turn it on (or even reset it... hopefully). If anyone with a 4 GB SDHC has had a similar experience with this part of the process, please share some insight.

So far things are looking good though. It plays totally fine through my car's AUX port and fine through my V-MODA headphones. I was also surprised by how powerful and useful the media player is, I honestly wasn't expecting something so comprehensive and versatile. The only real bothersome thing until now is that it took SO LONG to upload all of my music, but oh well. If this works well, from now on I'll just be adding/deleting a few songs at a time.

I'll be very happy if this works out... I'll be one step closer to having everything on one device. Again, if anyone has any experience on this topic, feel free to share.

Oh and now for a quick question...

There's an option in the media player settings that asks:

Device Memory Limit: 12 MB || 15 MB

Is this referring to how much of the memory can be reserved for music, or something like RAM?

Originally Posted by HelloGoodSir

There's an option in the media player settings that asks:

Device Memory Limit: 12 MB || 15 MB

Is this referring to how much of the memory can be reserved for music, or something like RAM?

This is how much memory you want reserved for media (music, pics, ringtones, etc) in your device memory. Now that you have your media card you should set this to 12MB to free up device memory for other things like running apps.

Originally Posted by Flurrycat

This is how much memory you want reserved for media (music, pics, ringtones, etc) in your device memory. Now that you have your media card you should set this to 12MB to free up device memory for other things like running apps.

Thanks for the info, it's still at 12.

Still loading them up... Finally started spilling over into the Rock folder. I'm guessing it's about halfway through.

Okay so it takes a bit for it to load up all the songs, which is fine by me. If you turn it off and on, it goes through the whole process again, but loading everything takes way less time. Take out the battery or SDHC card, and again it has to load everything up.

The problem is that I know there are 1048 songs on the card, but it only loads 995. I deleted two directly off the device, so the number was down to 993 and stayed at 993 until I turned it off and on again, in which case it stopped at 995 again. Anybody know why this is, or if there's a way to fix it?

I would never use my cell phone as my primary music player, if I needed to use it in an emergency and the battery was dead....eesh.

Plus, I hate the media interface on Berrys. I love my iPod Touch and 80 Gb Classic, and they go with me everywhere. The sound for me is better, the interface is LIGHTYEARS better, and it leaves my phone free to do what it does. Be a phone.

Originally Posted by reeneebob

I would never use my cell phone as my primary music player, if I needed to use it in an emergency and the battery was dead....eesh.

Plus, I hate the media interface on Berrys. I love my iPod Touch and 80 Gb Classic, and they go with me everywhere. The sound for me is better, the interface is LIGHTYEARS better, and it leaves my phone free to do what it does. Be a phone.

How relevant! A+++++++++ to you. Plus wrong on every count, but I'm not going to get into it if you like the way Steve Jobs feels inside you that much.