Large book library handling on prs-505

[acidzebra]

After a week or so of testing, it is fairly obvious that the prs-505 was not built with large book libraries in mind. I bought a 8 Gb memory stick shortly after I bought the reader, and initially I felt cheated: 1500 books fill only a small part of the stick (and cause a long wait on disconnect) - if I wanted to carry around a library (and call me weird, but I do), I would be waiting forever after every disconnect. Then I found the excellent comic-to-lrf script and I suddenly found a use for the remaining 7.4 Gb .

Anyway, since I recently downloaded half of Gutenberg (torrent info here) I tried loading lots of books and checking the response times.

At 1500 books, the reader took 15 (!) minutes after disconnect to rebuild its internal database or whatever the hell it does. Once it is done, it behaves pretty much as normal. But still: large libraries cause a long wait on the Sony.

QUESTION 1: How long does it take for your reader to get to the state where you can start reading after a disconnect (also, with what number of books?) Does a minute added per 100 books seem like a reasonable estimate?

QUESTION 2: Is it me or does the reader sometimes "flake out" with large collections, so that not all newly loaded books are shown in the reader interface? When it does this, if I open the last book it managed to load, it reads "page NaN" in the 'end' section (that lets you jump to the last page). Opening that book will crash your reader, others work fine. For me this seems to start at 1400+ books.

One way to solve the issue , if the Sony looks at file extensions to determine content type, would be a hack that can rename books one the fly from the settings page would work. That way, you could load your memory stick full of books (with an "unreadable" file extension) and then just "toggle" books you want to show up from the settings page.

QUESTION 3: Is there already a hack like this or another way to manage a large amount of books (without using a host computer)?

[dordale]

Acidbeza--Don't really have answers to questions #1 or 2, as I've only used internal memory on my Sony--I've got an SD card, but so far it only has a few pictures on it.

That being said, as far as Question #3--I do know that what some people who want to carry large collections of books around have done is bought multiple SD cards/Memory Sticks. You could store various types of books on each card, and then insert the card with the book your interested in reading at the moment into the player.

Good luck--and I hope you get some better answers from others.

dordale

[moz]

I suggest buying a PSP charge/power lead. It'll fit the 505 and let you power off USB so you can charge or just use external power during the 5 minute rebuild. I'm in the "lots of cheap SD cards" camp as I know a few photographers so it's easy to beg old, small SDs.

[JeffElkins]

IMHO, the 505 is useless for managing a large collection of ebooks. The Sony software stinks, plain and simple. You need a folder-based system (FBReader) which Sony does not offer. OpenInkPot has hope, but it's nowhere near soup yet

[ZenEngineer]

I've got 700+ files on a 2Gb SD card, 85% .RTF, 10% .PDF, and 5% .LRF. It takes about 90 seconds after disconnect to be ready, but I don't use the CONNECT software anymore. I just use drag and drop like it was a thumb drive. I think the 505 has the hardest time with .pdf's, since the rebuild time is higher when I have a higher percentage of .pdf to .rtf.

[acidzebra]

Ah, yes, the format. That has impact too. I convert everything to .lrf, the handling on the device seems quicker (especially the 'formatting' part when you first open a book), and of course the margin and font size issues I see with rtf and pdf.

Dammit, I really want to tinker with my 505 but as I bought it in the USA and I live in NL, returning a bricked device poses an issue