Nook HD+ Questions

[javyn]

Hey all,

I am looking for a good color tablet/ereader to read large sized color PDFs (like textbooks) and some CBZ comic files.

I was considering a Nook HD+....but have a few questions about it.

If anyone could chime in, I'd really appreciate it!

1) How easy is it to sideload PDF and CBZ to this HD+? I have Nook ST, and it's as easy as dragging and dropping the files to My Books folder...is it the same on a Nook HD+?

2) Proprietary charging cable? Yikes! Any cheap sources online for this cable? I don't like the idea of proprietary cables, especially for what BN charges for replacements.

3) Rooting....what is this? Is it something I want to do? I never bothered looking up 'rooting' for my Nook ST, because frankly, all I need it for is to read streaming text...which it does perfectly out of the box. Would you recommend rooting this? I assume rooting means wiping the BN OS off of it, and replacing with with a stock Android OS...will this break any of the reading functionality of the device?

4) Weight...this looks to weigh a bit less than the ipad 2...is it comfortable to hold for long periods?

5) What's it like on the eyes trying to read text files like epub? Good, or should I stick with the Nook ST for epub and text files?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'd appreciate any help/advice!

[javyn]

Oh yes, what other media will this play out the box? I assume mp3 is a given, but what about say...H264 MKB, Xvid AVI, etc?

[afv011]

Originally Posted by javyn

Hey all,

I am looking for a good color tablet/ereader to read large sized color PDFs (like textbooks) and some CBZ comic files.

I was considering a Nook HD+....but have a few questions about it.

If anyone could chime in, I'd really appreciate it!

1) How easy is it to sideload PDF and CBZ to this HD+? I have Nook ST, and it's as easy as dragging and dropping the files to My Books folder...is it the same on a Nook HD+?

Just as easy. The Nook HD+ uses MTP to transfer the files, so it appears as a drive on your PC.

Originally Posted by javyn

2) Proprietary charging cable? Yikes! Any cheap sources online for this cable? I don't like the idea of proprietary cables, especially for what BN charges for replacements.

No idea about this one.

Originally Posted by javyn

3) Rooting....what is this? Is it something I want to do? I never bothered looking up 'rooting' for my Nook ST, because frankly, all I need it for is to read streaming text...which it does perfectly out of the box. Would you recommend rooting this? I assume rooting means wiping the BN OS off of it, and replacing with with a stock Android OS...will this break any of the reading functionality of the device?

Rooting means getting superuser access to the device, it does not mean wiping the device and installing a new software. Rooting allows you to change settings that are not available (like installing from unknown sources), or doing more advanced things like installing a firewall. If you only want to sideload apps, you can do that without rooting.

Originally Posted by javyn

4) Weight...this looks to weigh a bit less than the ipad 2...is it comfortable to hold for long periods?

I still find it a bit heavy, for ePubs, an eInk device is much better, I only read those on the Nook Glow and use the HD+ for media consumption.

Originally Posted by javyn

5) What's it like on the eyes trying to read text files like epub? Good, or should I stick with the Nook ST for epub and text files?

The screen is superb, but as said above, I still prefer eInk for reading.

[javyn]

Thanks! I'm definitely keeping the Nook ST because I love eInk. But I noticed on a Nook HD+ review there was a screenshot of the device reading an ebook that looked like an e-ink screen.

Would rooting be worth it in your opinion? I have an 8G MicroSD card I can pop into it right now if I decided to get one.

[Ravensknight]

Unless you like tinkering, and possibly cleaning up a bricked device [yes, some people LIKE fixing things they broke. Not me], I'd stay away from rooting.

As to what types of files it will play, according to the BN.com website, it does NOT support .avi, which I was kind of surprised at. My old 'super'pad knockoff plays .avi, and it is a piece of trash.
NookHD+ does support:
MP4, 3GP, WEBM
at least according to the website.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by javyn

Thanks! I'm definitely keeping the Nook ST because I love eInk. But I noticed on a Nook HD+ review there was a screenshot of the device reading an ebook that looked like an e-ink screen.

Would rooting be worth it in your opinion? I have an 8G MicroSD card I can pop into it right now if I decided to get one.

If you only intend to install a few extra apps, then I wouldn't root, simply install from the desktop using ADB. Last I read about it, the rooting process is quite delicate and simple mistakes will trigger a factory reset, so you have to start over (there appears to be some kind of check on the system partition to detect tinkering).

[jeankap]

I rooted one device just to say I did it, and wouldn't do it again. Too much work unless hacking is a hobby or obsession. Some people do it because they can't stand to to have a machine where they don't have access to root, or have not changed the root password for their own sense of security.

I'd rather spend my time reading or building ebooks.

-Jean

[kevinp]

The stock reader program doesn't work well with PDF files. I read magazines in PDF form. Pages will appear blank and you can't turn past them or in the middle of turning a page, it will stop with the page half off the screen and no new page entering the screen.

Apparently, the answer is to buy a PDF reader app for $3 or $4. My answer was to run Android from an SD card and use whatever free reader app I want.

[javyn]

kevin: I'm reading about this Cyanogenmod people run on SDcards....can you tell me or link me a little more info on this?

Would putting this mod or Android on an SDcard, would that 1) make the Nook HD+ run slower since it's loading off SD and 2) require me to root to boot of the SD or not?

Thanks!

edit: I played with it a little at Best Buy today, I love the device itself, dislike the BN OS.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by javyn

kevin: I'm reading about this Cyanogenmod people run on SDcards....can you tell me or link me a little more info on this?

Would putting this mod or Android on an SDcard, would that 1) make the Nook HD+ run slower since it's loading off SD and 2) require me to root to boot of the SD or not?

Thanks!

edit: I played with it a little at Best Buy today, I love the device itself, dislike the BN OS.

If you install on a fast SD card, you won't really notice any slowness. And you don't need to root, you burn the SD image to your SD card, insert it on the device, and off you go. If you want to use the stock software, simply remove the SD card.

[kevinp]

I'm using a GSkill 32 GB class 10 Micro SD that I bought on sale from Newegg for $15 delivered. It runs just as fast as the original Nook OS.

Here's a link to the page at the XDA Developers site.

The directions might be a little hard to follow. Just ask if you have questions.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by javyn

Hey all,

I am looking for a good color tablet/ereader to read large sized color PDFs (like textbooks) and some CBZ comic files.

IMO the Nook HD+ is the best value on the market right now for digital versions of color print media: magazines, comic books, children's books and probably yes, textbooks. The stock reader handles CBZ pretty well, but I did see some weird artifacting in some files where the bottom several rows of pixels would appear as a long smudge at the bottom of the page. I'm guessing you won't see that in B&N purchased comics, and they do have a solid selection of both comics and magazines.

To get the best experience out of comic books and PDFs, though, you will probably want to at least sideload a couple of Android apps like Perfect Viewer and EZPDF. As others have said, B&N left that option open by way of the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a developers' tool for sending commands from a PC to a connected Android device. Getting the proper drivers installed for ADB to recognize your HD+ can be a finicky process, but once you've done that the rest is pretty easy, assuming you can overcome whatever anxiety you might have about typing in a command window.

It may be simpler to go ahead and root and enable Unknown Sources, which no longer requires ADB. You can burn a popular Android recovery utility, ClockworkMod, to a microSD card and then boot directly to that card in your HD+ to install packages which will allow root access, enable Unknown Sources, or install a custom Google Apps package including Google Play (the main Android app and media market). You can also use ClockworkMod to make full backups of your stock install at any point, or restore backups you made earlier.

If you're happy using the device solely as a reader and aren't interested in productivity apps or games, you can probably stop there. If you want a full-fledged tablet experience, you can do what I'm doing and run a custom Android ROM from a bootable SD card. Setting up that card will require either ADB or a PC running Linux (a virtual machine or live CD/USB will work, too) or MacOS, just because Windows doesn't believe flash media can have more than one partition. The process has already been simplified for the Nook HD, and we'll likely see the same happen for the HD+ at some point. One thing to remember: it's still early days for development on this device.

Originally Posted by javyn

4) Weight...this looks to weigh a bit less than the ipad 2...is it comfortable to hold for long periods?

5) What's it like on the eyes trying to read text files like epub? Good, or should I stick with the Nook ST for epub and text files?

Even with the smaller Nook Color, I found the comfort factor vastly enhanced by a cover that could also function as a stand. While a cover adds weight, it also adds a lot more options for how to hold onto--or not hold onto--the device.

I can't comment much on #5 because I've been on a comic jag and hardly read any epubs since I bought the thing, but reading two columns in landscape seems quite comfortable. Granted, I've always preferred LCD over eInk, but you should find the HD+ at least serviceable for reading sessions, especially if you have the ST to fall back on.

[kevinp]

Originally Posted by taosaur

IMO the Nook HD+ is the best value on the market right now

I agree. That's why I bought one.

[Apache]

Me three.
Apache