MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sony Reader 505

davlewis · 06-07-2009, 12:59 PM

So, if I use Calibre, how do I get the books purchased on the Sony eBook connect site into Calibre so I can manage them?

What I would like to do is add the copyright year, or at minimum a count to titles in a series, such as the John Sandford Prey series so that I know which title to read next. It appears there is no way to do that with the Sony software, it sounds as if Calibre can do it, but I need a SAFE reliable way to get the books purchased from Sony into the Calibre application.

And I must admit, I saw a thread in the Calibre forum about a corrupted PRS-505 and the response was that the use of both the Sony library software (required to buy books from Sony) and the use of Calibre caused the corruption (NOT a fun thought that if I use Calibre and the Sony library software that I risk trashing my content). The recommendation was reset the device and reload from Sony library and use only one or the other of the applications. And yes I have checked out Fictionwise, Books On Border, etc. for the titles I have purchased from Sony. Invariably the title if available on an alternate to the Sony site is not not in a format that the Sony supports (mobiread, ereader, etc.). I did download one book from BoB in the Sandford Prey series that was in Adobe Digital Editions format, and beyond the hassle of activating the computer, activating the PRS-505 under Windows to ADE, then using ADE to get the title to the PRS-505, when I checked out the book on the PRS-505 and compared it to other Prey series books purchased from Sony I find the ADE format to be sub optimal. For example the ADE format does not scale very nicely if you increase the font size, the page breaks are totally messed up (a page with only two or three lines of text on it).

So for now, I prefer the Sony formatted books, but would love to have a SAFE way to manage the library to add additional meta data to make reading series easier. If Calibre can import the Sony ebooks it is not obvious how to do it.

Dave...

06-07-2009, 12:59 PM	#5
davlewis Member Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	So, if I use Calibre, how do I get the books purchased on the Sony eBook connect site into Calibre so I can manage them? What I would like to do is add the copyright year, or at minimum a count to titles in a series, such as the John Sandford Prey series so that I know which title to read next. It appears there is no way to do that with the Sony software, it sounds as if Calibre can do it, but I need a SAFE reliable way to get the books purchased from Sony into the Calibre application. And I must admit, I saw a thread in the Calibre forum about a corrupted PRS-505 and the response was that the use of both the Sony library software (required to buy books from Sony) and the use of Calibre caused the corruption (NOT a fun thought that if I use Calibre and the Sony library software that I risk trashing my content). The recommendation was reset the device and reload from Sony library and use only one or the other of the applications. And yes I have checked out Fictionwise, Books On Border, etc. for the titles I have purchased from Sony. Invariably the title if available on an alternate to the Sony site is not not in a format that the Sony supports (mobiread, ereader, etc.). I did download one book from BoB in the Sandford Prey series that was in Adobe Digital Editions format, and beyond the hassle of activating the computer, activating the PRS-505 under Windows to ADE, then using ADE to get the title to the PRS-505, when I checked out the book on the PRS-505 and compared it to other Prey series books purchased from Sony I find the ADE format to be sub optimal. For example the ADE format does not scale very nicely if you increase the font size, the page breaks are totally messed up (a page with only two or three lines of text on it). So for now, I prefer the Sony formatted books, but would love to have a SAFE way to manage the library to add additional meta data to make reading series easier. If Calibre can import the Sony ebooks it is not obvious how to do it. Dave...