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View Full Version : BlackMask DVD from Silk Pagoda
dhbailey 04-10-2007, 05:05 AM I know that Silk Pagoda has had a supposed Sony Reader version of the BlackMask DVD of 10,000 titles for a long time, but those files were simply PDF files, and as such they had the normal problems which PDF files have on the Reader.
They are now offering a real Sony Reader version, with all the files being LRF files, and as such they can be used with all three font sizes, and they work much better than the PDF files do.
I just thought I would mention it here because it contains many of the files from PG which others are working on turning into LRF files, so that people might want to make the $25 investment and save themselves lots of work. The BlackMask DVD titles have tables of contents which work, and I am delighted with mine.
I have no relationship with Silk Pagoda or BlackMask other than as a happy customer. :)
HarryT 04-10-2007, 06:40 AM That's good to hear, but I'm still going to carry on with my "manual" conversions, because they will always be better than the automatic conversion which SP must be using.
I shall order one of SP's DVD's however - $25 is a great buy!
Thanks for letting us known about it.
Bob Russell 04-10-2007, 07:15 AM Thanks DHBailey. Good find. It looks like this is the URL, in case anyone is trying to find it... http://www.silkpagoda.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=650
I already bought a MS Reader DVD with the zipped HTML, but I may also get this DVD. Not bad for a full Sony Reader library, ready to go.
But, like most people, I'll probably be reading Harry and other peoples' manual conversions first! It's the compulsive collector in me that drives this purchase more than anything... you know, to have those books ready "just in case" I want to read them! ;)
KlondikeGeoff 04-10-2007, 11:51 AM OK, folks, this really sounds great, saving the hassle of downloading PG books, sucking them into Word, saving as .rtf, then importing into the reader.
I've been doing that for years for my old Rocket eBook, and now for the Reader.
However, I've been disappointed numerous times, buying Sony books, and finding that many do NOT permit large enough font, even at the max size in landscape mode, for me to read comfortably.
Before springing the 25 bucks for this DVD, I have to know how large the fonts are once in the Reader. I don't see any place on their site to contact them with such a question, so will somebody who has tried it on the Reader, please let me know if the largest size is big enough for people with vision problems?
I don't know how you will quantify this, but it has to be size or two larger than most of the Sony books. :)
silkpag 04-10-2007, 01:02 PM OK, folks, this really sounds great, saving the hassle of downloading PG books, sucking them into Word, saving as .rtf, then importing into the reader.
I've been doing that for years for my old Rocket eBook, and now for the Reader.
However, I've been disappointed numerous times, buying Sony books, and finding that many do NOT permit large enough font, even at the max size in landscape mode, for me to read comfortably.
Before springing the 25 bucks for this DVD, I have to know how large the fonts are once in the Reader. I don't see any place on their site to contact them with such a question, so will somebody who has tried it on the Reader, please let me know if the largest size is big enough for people with vision problems?
I don't know how you will quantify this, but it has to be size or two larger than most of the Sony books. :)
Sorry, there was a contact on the site.
Just test it on the files here:
http://www.munseys.com/index.php
Does allow all three sizes for Sony, and the Tables of Contents and so forth.
Note, not quite the same as the PG DVD. They've several hundred books that I don't, and vice versa.
RWood 04-10-2007, 01:52 PM I have the older Silk Pagoda Sony PDF DVD and while the formatting is rather harsh and mechanical, it is very sericable. I will most likely also get the LRF version. I'm (almost) as bad as Bob in that respect.
hn_88 04-21-2007, 09:55 AM I was about to post about the Sony Reader formatted files on BlackMask.com , but this thread is dealing with the same subject - blackmask.com and munseys.com go to the same site where a large number - 10,000? - books are available for free download as eBookwise ,Plucker ,Rocket eBook, Isilo, PDF, Sony Reader LRF , Mobipocket and MS-Reader in addition to HTML. Most of the stuff from gutenberg.org seems to be here...
LaughingVulcan 04-22-2007, 10:53 AM Wow! Now I know what I'm buying next.... ;) Having it on one DVD sounds like a convenience that the price is worth.
Now I'll have to deal with storage strategies seriously. ;)
RWood 04-22-2007, 01:16 PM Wow! Now I know what I'm buying next.... ;) Having it on one DVD sounds like a convenience that the price is worth.
Now I'll have to deal with storage strategies seriously. ;)
It will all fit on 2 2GB SD cards that you can interchange as needed in the Reader. :D
silkpag 04-24-2007, 03:56 PM I was about to post about the Sony Reader formatted files on BlackMask.com , but this thread is dealing with the same subject - blackmask.com and munseys.com go to the same site where a large number - 10,000? - books are available for free download as eBookwise ,Plucker ,Rocket eBook, Isilo, PDF, Sony Reader LRF , Mobipocket and MS-Reader in addition to HTML. Most of the stuff from gutenberg.org seems to be here...
Let's see, it's around 17,000 books now :)
Depending on whether or now the t-3 is working at Montgomery College...
Gravitas 04-24-2007, 04:13 PM bear with me I'm new to all this ebook malarky and it's getting late, but lets say I bought this DVD...it contains 10,000 books I can read on my Sony Reader, and I can search for the books I want?
My Reader hasn't arrived yet, butI'd just put the CD in my PC, connect up my reader (or my SD cards) and transfer over the books I wanted and that's it?
RWood 04-24-2007, 08:13 PM bear with me I'm new to all this ebook malarky and it's getting late, but lets say I bought this DVD...it contains 10,000 books I can read on my Sony Reader, and I can search for the books I want?
My Reader hasn't arrived yet, butI'd just put the CD in my PC, connect up my reader (or my SD cards) and transfer over the books I wanted and that's it?
It was that simple with the PDF version although the file names were a bit (ok, a lot) cryptic. However the indexing around it was very good. Maybe it was a production glitch (detailed scientific term); but I did find a few books missing from the disk that were to have been there.
dhbailey 04-25-2007, 05:43 AM I've found the same thing. What I've been doing is going through the html-page index of the Blackmask DVD and then copying/renaming the files to be more meaningful. I've just gone through the categories I'm most interested in and then moving on to the less important categories and eventually will have renamed most of the files.
The Reader will index them all by the title/author fields within the files, but trying to find the ones to load into the reader can be difficult.
On the other hand, using the Connect software, you can open the sonymax folder on the DVD and the files will list by title or by author, depending on how you sort them.
BUT -- the Connect software will choke on 10,000 titles, so if you want to go this route, my advice would be to simply copy the files into a lot of smaller folders, maybe 20 folders each containing 500 files.
Personally, I figure renaming them, while more time consuming, will ultimately provide more flexibility.
Unless some great programmer on this list can program a utility which can be added to the right-click menu in Windows Explorer and will show title/author data for .lrf files. :-)
Gravitas 04-25-2007, 06:35 AM sounds good to me - order placed ;)
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