Calibre's eBook Viewer buggy

[JayKindle]

Most of the time the eBook Viewer that is built in calibre fails on me.

Sometimes it takes a long time for me to skip the first page (cover) of a book. "Loading Flow"

Other times it never skips to the next page and it just freezes up and crashes.

I am wondering if there is any workaround?

Or if I am the only one having this issue?

I only use the eBook Viewer to check the conversion results before I move the book to my Kindle. I don't use it to read an entire book.

I also wonder if it has an issue skipping the cover that sometimes the image cover can be huge in size? Some ebooks have a large size cover. I tend to edit the metadata and choose a smaller sized image when I can (Amazon).

But like I said before, I find the eBook Viewer quite buggy.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JayKindle

I am wondering if there is any workaround?

Or if I am the only one having this issue?

I don't use the viewer extensively, but I've never had a problem with calibre's viewer so I'll take a guess that you might be the only one having this issue. Hopefully others who use it more will weigh in on your problem.

[PeterT]

@JayKindle; remember that the calibre viewer actually only supports ePubs; other book formats undergo a on the fly quick conversion to ePub, so using it to validate material intended for a Kindle does not make a great deal of sense.

[cybmole]

try installing kindle for PC then set mobi to be read in external viewer.
Then see if the books in question play nice in the Kindle app.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by cybmole

try installing kindle for PC then set mobi to be read in external viewer.
Then see if the books in question play nice in the Kindle app.

That's the setup I have, the Kindle for PC opens mobi books when I open a book within Calibre.

The viewer within Calibre is flawless for me for epub format.

[speakingtohe]

Someimes I have a short delay loading flow, but it has never crashed on me.I use the viewer extensively for both epub and mobi and have (accidentally) opened a hundred books at the same time. Then I got an error when I tried to close some of the books but never on less than 20 open at same time. Has never crashed, never skipped cover, never frozen.

Maybe a memory problem?

Helen

[JayKindle]

Here is an example.

I tried opening a Mobi file that I had converted from PDF. It took aprox. 5 minutes to unfreeze in the reader after I wanted to skip the cover page. At the end it said that a script was a problem and if I should stop the script or something. Once I did this, it skipped the cover page and finally I was able to read the text.

Here is a screenshot (see attachment below) on how high my CPU was during this process. I think there is a bug. I recall in my early days of using calibre, this problem did not happen before. Hopefully it can be fixed.

BTW, my OS is XP Pro with a 4GB RAM -- I have enough memory to convert videos swiftly fast on this PC, so I doubt it's a memory problem on my machine, but I am willing to help troubleshoot it, if you guys have some steps to offer.

[PeterT]

@JayKindle; why not do a conversion from mobi to ePub and then open the ePub in the viewer; that is after all basically what the viewer has to do.

[speakingtohe]

Converting to epub might help troubleshoot. I understand that you don't want epub, but if the epub displays the same symptoms it would indicate a problem with the file. I have not used XP in quite a while so no help there.

Good luck.
Helen

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JayKindle

Here is an example.

I tried opening a Mobi file that I had converted from PDF.

What program did you use to do the conversion - I have had some similar performance issues as you're having - and I think PDF conversions may have been a factor.

I find that MobiCreator is both the simplest and the best.

It works straight out the box, apart from some folder locations there are no settings to tweak. Its free, development has ceased, so no upgrades to worry about - I've used on XP, Vista and W7. It's never misbehaved.


MobiCreator Download

BR