Currupt Files from Mobi2Mobi/Mobi2obi_GUI

[phossler]

Real happy to find this forum and the Perl and GUI tools.

I have a number of PDB files that I renamed to PRC (hope that wasn't a dumb thing to do) to so I could edit metadata (like everyone else wants to do it seems) to get my Christmas present Kindle to show the books correctly.

mobiperl-win-0.0.41.zip and Mobi2Mobi_GUI_v016.zip

Net3.5 and everything else on Vista is current

GUI convert 'seems' to go OK, but MobiReader won't open the .mobi file, and Kindle says it's currupt, BUT the Kindle it does show the Author and Title I put in the GUI

Attached are the PRC and the MOBI files

... please

Thanks

Paul

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by phossler

I have a number of PDB files that I renamed to PRC (hope that wasn't a dumb thing to do) to so I could edit metadata (like everyone else wants to do it seems) to get my Christmas present Kindle to show the books correctly.

My first thought if that they are PDB files they are NOT mobipocket format but eReader or Palm DOC. Renaming them to .prc doesn't magically make the mobipocket books.

What reader software are you using to read the PDB books.

BOb

[tompe]

I assume that the .mobi file does not work on the Kindel or in MobiPocket reader?

The .mobi file does not work on my Cybook.

I could reproduce the problem on Linux. I will debug this but maybe not tonight... And it can take some time since I have to transfer the file to the Cybook for each test iteration.

[phossler]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

My first thought if that they are PDB files they are NOT mobipocket format but eReader or Palm DOC. Renaming them to .prc doesn't magically make the mobipocket books.

What reader software are you using to read the PDB books.

BOb

I'm using MobiReader -- it reads the renamed PDB's fine, but doesn't seem to recognize the MOBI output file.

The PDB/PRC is a TEXtREAd, and the MOBI file is a MOBIBOOK

HTH

Paul

[phossler]

Originally Posted by tompe

I assume that the .mobi file does not work on the Kindel or in MobiPocket reader?

The .mobi file does not work on my Cybook.

I could reproduce the problem on Linux. I will debug this but maybe not tonight... And it can take some time since I have to transfer the file to the Cybook for each test iteration.

Correct -- does not read in either

MobiReader does not seem to find it (double click does nothing) and Kindle Home shows it in the list, but says it's currupt when I try to open it

THANKS

This ebook stuff is a whole new territory for me, and I haven't begun to even learn the language yet.

Paul

[tompe]

A workaround for this file is just to do mobi2html and then html2mobi on the unpacked html file.

[tompe]

As pointed out in the MobiPerl thread the problem is that the prc file is just a packed text file. And since mobi2mobi does not touch the content of the file you will get a MobiPocket (MOBI) file with corrupt html code so it will not open on some devices.

The flag --rawhtml to mobi2html can be used to get the raw content from a prc file.

[phossler]

Tommy - thanks for your help and explainations

I did the mobi2html (with --rawhtml) and html2mobi with --title ... and -- author ...) and MobiReader and Kindle like the file, except that the line breaks are gone (in the .html and in the .mobi)

Is there an option I'm missing?

Dumb question: Is there a exth option in the GUI that I could use to get it to work?

Side observation: I did try the ABC Amber Palm converter to make the html and then used html2mobi, and the line breaks were there.

Dumb question #2: Is there a way to convert a PDB to a PRC that would be GUI-compatible, so I could just edit the metadata and make a good MOBI file?

Thanks again for your help

Paul

[tompe]

Originally Posted by phossler

Tommy - thanks for your help and explainations

I did the mobi2html (with --rawhtml) and html2mobi with --title ... and -- author ...) and MobiReader and Kindle like the file, except that the line breaks are gone (in the .html and in the .mobi)

Is there an option I'm missing?

No. I suppose it would be possible to do something more clever but i feel that these kind of files are not common and you can probably do other things in the conversion chain to preserve some markup.

Dumb question: Is there a exth option in the GUI that I could use to get it to work?

No, I do not think so but since the format is secret there could be such a field or some flag to set in the header to indicate a text file.

Side observation: I did try the ABC Amber Palm converter to make the html and then used html2mobi, and the line breaks were there.

Yes, this is as expected. What format did you start with?

Dumb question #2: Is there a way to convert a PDB to a PRC that would be GUI-compatible, so I could just edit the metadata and make a good MOBI file?

pdb or prc just indicated that it is a container format. If you have a TEXt file type with html in it it will work. Is it a text file that is packed in it it will not work.

[phossler]

I found a lot of PDB files in Usenet, and if I rename them to PRC, I can just copy them to the Kindle where they work "sort of" OK, except for the expected display formatting and the mal-formed or missing Title/Author.

but i feel that these kind of files are not common and you can probably do other things in the conversion chain to preserve some markup.

I just assumed that PDB (renamed to PRC) was a common format.

Two things I've been doing (not knowing any better)

1. a) I used the ABC Amber Palm converter to make MS Word or RTF files from the PDB's, b) MS Word to edit the RTF, add pictures, and apply Heading 1 styles for the Kindle TOC enteries, and c) MobiCreator to convert the DOC file to make a HTML and a PRC. d) I just copy the PRC file to the Kindle, .

Some books are worth the effort to do that so I can re-format, fix typos, and add a TOC


2. But for the majority, I just rename the PDB as PRC and then copy to the Kindle, where they display "OK", except for the metadata in the Home page Index on the Kindle. I was looking a easy way to edit the metadata in the PRC (or PDB).

3. The GUI seemed the way to go. Rename the PDB to PRC, open it in the GUI, add Title/Athor, and Convert. Onlly problem is that it doesn't work

Yes, this is as expected. What format did you start with?

Started with the original PDB file, but I would have expected the line breaks to convert over. Instead it's just a huge block of text.

Once again, thanks for your time explaining things.

Paul

[tompe]

Originally Posted by phossler

2. But for the majority, I just rename the PDB as PRC and then copy to the Kindle, where they display "OK", except for the metadata in the Home page Index on the Kindle. I was looking a easy way to edit the metadata in the PRC (or PDB).

The easiest way is probably to run "mobi2html --rawhtml file.pdb > book.txt". Then run some text to html program on the book.txt file and then run create the mobifile from this html file. And you can create a batch that do all these steps.