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Old 07-26-2009, 01:11 AM   #1
ccpraveen
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Two doubts from a potential 505 buyer

Hi all

I am relatively new here, and I guess fire-dragons wont start breathing down my neck if I reveal my naivete in this section of the forum about the suave 505.

I got couple of questions. One I asked elsewhere, but that being an intro section, didn't get answered, so venturing out here, at the right section.

Its my understanding that when the 505 originally came into existence almost two years back, its pdf re-flowing abilities were poor but then Sony came up with the update which fixed it. Now I thought that PDF renders equally well in 700 and 505, if not for the slower page turn on 505 because of the less powerful CPU.

Is the scenario as I thought it is? Or is the PDF rendering of 505 including page re-flow and others sub par compared to 700? Please clarify. PDF is a major factor for me, and if 505 is inferior as far as PDF is concerned compared to 700, I should think about buying the costlier 700. I do not mind the slower page turn, but if the actual display is comfortable as much as the 700, I will go ahead with 505.

Here is the second doubt. This is for all readers in general and not limited to 505. See, I have this graphical kind of memory. Which means I actually remember the page, than I actually remember the words. So, in a book, if I was to check back for a certain phrase, I will go back and start looking at the PART OF THE PAGE where I saw it. Like, left bottom, right middle, left topmost, right towards the top etc. Trying to read books in a pda never gave me that luxury. Each time I go back, the actual text will be at a different location, reasons being altered font and font size as well as different formatting and justification.

In the sony 505, as long as the font size, font family, formatting etc are all fixed, do we get to read the same line at the exact same spot over and over again? Or do the sentences move all over the page every time you open the book? This is not a major concern, but just another figment of my bibliophilic paranoia.

Hope I didn't irk too many wise ones with my rather lengthy babble. Expecting the answers from the learned and experienced....

With warm regards

Dave
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Old 07-26-2009, 01:15 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ccpraveen View Post
In the sony 505, as long as the font size, font family, formatting etc are all fixed, do we get to read the same line at the exact same spot over and over again?
Welcome to MR!

I can't answer your first question. But, the answer to the question above is yes.
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Old 07-26-2009, 01:40 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ccpraveen View Post
PDF is a major factor for me, and if 505 is inferior as far as PDF is concerned compared to 700, I should think about buying the costlier 700. I do not mind the slower page turn, but if the actual display is comfortable as much as the 700, I will go ahead with 505.
I don't have a 700 so I'm unable to answer this part. Could you let us know why pdf files are important to your decision?

I have a 505 and prefer to not use pdf. I know from reading other threads on pdf format that how pdf appears on a Reader depends on how it was made. So pdf files will not all be the same on your Reader.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ccpraveen View Post
In the sony 505, as long as the font size, font family, formatting etc are all fixed, do we get to read the same line at the exact same spot over and over again?
Yes.

I hope you are able to make your decision soon. I love my 505 and take it with me everyday.
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Old 07-26-2009, 03:09 AM   #4
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I have a 505 and my husband has a 700. The 505 and the 700 handle PDF's similarly with one big difference. Both devices have the same ability to "reflow" pages to make the fonts bigger. This works fairly well for most PDFs as long as they are text based. Reflowed documents can have some funny page breaks and if they contain graphics the graphics can sometimes appear in weird places or not at all.

Now, the big difference is that the 700 also has the ability to zoom in on a page--something that the 505 does not do. This allows you to keep all the formatting the same as the original page and then you can just pan left/right and up/down to see everything on the page. This is a very useful feature for PDFS with graphics, because it actually allows you to see what the graphic is displaying. The only annoyance with this feature is that the 700 will not remember your zoom settings when you turn the page on the device--it reverts back to the original size of the PDF.

Hope this helps! If you're interested in the 700 though you'll need to grab one up--they seem to be disappearing and there are rumours that Sony has stopped production on the 700 and maybe the 505 as well. They could be working on a different reader--no one knows. If they are producing one with a larger screen (akin to the 9.7" Kindle DX) that would be much better for viewing PDFs on.

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Old 07-26-2009, 03:17 AM   #5
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Smile PDF and Sony Devices

I have a 700 and a 505. Most of the formats I use, except for academic documents, are the bbeb format or epub. I also have text docs, but read those on my jetbook. However, I did happen to download a book in pdf this evening. I transferred it to my SD card and checked the text on both devices. It reads well on both. And, if you read a book in the same font consistently, it will always go back to that page. If not, the book mark function would not be useable. Actually, I prefer the 505, as I believe the clarity is better on the 505 than the 700. Hope this was helpful.
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Old 07-26-2009, 04:54 AM   #6
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I am extremely thankful to doreenjoy, dreams, dordale and Richard (Journier) for clarifying my doubts.

And a special thanks dordale for specifying the exact difference I was looking for and for the tip about the new upcoming models.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dreams View Post
Could you let us know why pdf files are important to your decision?

I know from reading other threads on pdf format that how pdf appears on a Reader depends on how it was made. So pdf files will not all be the same on your Reader.
doreenjoy seemed to wonder what kind of pdfs I have in mind, I have a sample taken here. It is from the book Trading For Dummies, 2nd Edition from dummies.com (http://tinyurl.com/smplpage) and I have taken a snapshot of the kind of data I might be needing from the sample file given there. And the actual screenshot is attached.

So seeing the screenshot of this pdf, and using the available reflow and zoom options for the 505 as they are now, I believe I will be comfortable enough. Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks and regards

Attachment:


Last edited by ccpraveen; 07-26-2009 at 04:57 AM. Reason: For attaching pdf screenshot
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Old 07-26-2009, 06:43 AM   #7
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Hi ccpraveen ---

I tried that sample pdf on my Sony 505. With "Small Font" selected, whole pages display on the screen, but way too small to view. On "Medium" the text is quite readable.

But... be aware that the Sony rearranges stuff. Here's pictures of that page 13 from the book. It spreads over two screens. The shaded box that housed some of the text disappears and there are breaks in the text at odd locations.

I also photographed page 18. You can see how the bullet points are mucked up a bit. Notice also that the little icons Dummies Guides use, have disappeared completely. So... the pdf does display but it is a bit mucked up. (The blurriness is all my fault - the text is actually crispy clear).

There were no illustrations, such as charts, in the sample. These might display badly or disappear completely on the Sony. I had this problem with a Lonely Planets Guide in pdf. There's a thread about that somewhere.

Edit: I've had time to experiment with another Dummies Guide in pdf now. When the font is set to "Small" the illustrations show as they should. But of course everything is too small to read. When the font is set to "Medium", illustrations disappear.
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Last edited by RCR; 07-26-2009 at 07:53 AM. Reason: additional thoughts.
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Old 07-26-2009, 09:31 AM   #8
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Dear RCR.

Extremely grateful to you for taking the pains to do all the extra work. Now I know exactly how it gets displayed, and I guess its good enough to read, even with a little bit of adjusted formatting. Plus, I hear that I can rotate the display to landscape whereby I will be able to see the graphics in not so small a size. Thanks from my heart.

Regards

Dave
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