First: I love using this thing. The technology is somewhat "rough around the edges" but I find it truly useful and, for me, a good value.

Second: I expect Sony to issue software and firmware updates. Sony should acknowledge the "young" nature of their product and allow current owners to benefit from the feedback we have provided them.

The most significant issue I've found with the PRS-500 is missing text at the top of a page turn when viewing a book in the "Medium" font size. I've seen this in multiple books purchased from the Sony site.

When I notice missing text I switch to the "Small" font and the missing text is displayed, often as much as four lines of text. When I switch back to the "Medium" font and page back and forth the text is again missing - always at the top of a new page after a page break.

Given the repeatable nature of this problem I seriously doubt the cause is a manufacturing problem specific to a single unit.

An e-book reader which drops text is equivalent to a book missing pages. Neither should be acceptable to Authors, Publishers or Readers.

I look forward to Sony's response, which I hope to soon find in the form of a firmware update.

...Mike

First off, welcome to MobileRead, MikenVA. :nice:

Secondly, that's a really weird bug you've found, I don't think anyone else has mentioned it (and, around here, they would have! :)), I know I haven't seen it.

You might ought to contact the support folks, and check with them, because it may be some kind of fault in the display controller. :sad:

I look forward to Sony's response, which I hope to soon find in the form of a firmware update.

...Mike

Presumably you've reported this bug to them, Mike? You can't expect them to fix it if they don't know about it, and you seem to have found a new bug - I've not seen it reported here.

Could you clarify - when you say that "text is missing", do you mean that there's a blank area at the top of the page where the text should be, or that the page turn is "skipping over" some text, so there are "missing lines" between the bottom of one page and the top of the next?

i know we have a wishlist here. but what's the proper sony channel to report bugs and suggestion features?

I don't seem to have that problem. Ofcourse the text will shift between pages if the size is increased but none is lost.

I don't seem to have that problem. Ofcourse the text will shift between pages if the size is increased but none is lost.

And when you change text sizes the text which starts the page is the same in all sizes.

i know we have a wishlist here. but what's the proper sony channel to report bugs and suggestion features?

Go to the "Connect" web site and click the "Send us an e-mail" button. They seem pretty good at responding - I've sent them 2 questions and had an answer within 24h in both cases.

And when you change text sizes the text which starts the page is the same in all sizes.


No, the text shift for both top and bottom. Maybe it depends on the font used in the file? I use 16pt.

You're right - my mistake. If you cycle through the sizes, though - S, M, L - the page start positions are "constant" for each size. ie if you switch from "M" to "L" to "S" and back to "M" you'll finish up with the same boundaries you had initially, although you won't necessarily be on the same page; you can finish up one page before or after the point you started out at.

Hey Folks,

Thanks for the welcome.

As I sat down to type my reply to this thread the phone rang. It was Sony support calling to follow up on the report I made yesterday. I was impressed to learn they are spending some time investigating this.

To clarify and and answer some questions:

This happens only in the medium font.

It appears text is skipped between the bottom of one page and the top of the following page.

Text formatting is clean and normal at both the bottom of the first page and the top of the second. The only clue that text is missing is, well, missing text. I first noticed a sentence which left off at the bottom of one page did not make sense with the text which began at the top of the next.

To see the "missing" text, page back to the first page, change the font to "small," then read down. I was able to see where the text, formerly displayed in medium font, had endend at the bottom of the "medium" formatted page and where it had picked up again at the top of the next. In the "small" font I was able to see the missing text in between.

I hope this explanation adds a bit of clarity.

I don't claim this behavior will happen to anyone other than myself <G>, but if you notice it, please give me a shout.

Best,

...Mike

Thanks for clarifying the issue, Mike.

When you add a new title to the library, the Connect software "paginates" the file for each of the text sizes. It sounds as though the bug might perhaps lie there rather than on the Reader.