Sony 505 Problems With eBook Library

crusader666 · 12-02-2007, 09:59 PM

Everything went fine for a few weeks with my new Sony 505 Reader and using the Sony eBook Library for downloading and reading books of all genres until sometime last week.

disappoinNumerous books, be they classics or best-sellers, are now not being displayed in the proper font on my device. Also, the feature that eBook Library offers to notify me when a certain author has a new book does not work!

The issue with author notification was documented when I added Dean Koontz to my "notify list" a few weeks ago. Despite the fact the Sony eBook Library released a new book of his, I was NEVER notified as promised. I had to manually add the book to my wish list when I accidentally discovered the new title. Sony has confirmed in several e-mail responses to me that they are researching the problem.

They also have corresponded with me several times and have admitted there appears to be a SYSTEM WIDE problem with the fonts related to the books they sell in their store. They said that I do NOT have to provide them will all the affected titles, since they are aware of the problem and are working on it.

This is very frustrating, but at least they keep in touch with me every day or so about the issue. Will be nice once they get it fixed, because I am very happy with my reader, but can't read the books the have defective fonts and do not appear in the standard LARGE size in LANDSCAPE the way my other Sony eBooks have in the past.

On an unrelated note, I really like the nifty tool on Feedbooks to download popular RSS feeds. Sometimes it is a little "touchy" and some feeds I can't get to convert, but most work fine for me. One trick using Feedbooks (on certain browsers) is if you do receive some type of error after converting a feed, simply hit the REFRESH button on your browser, and that might do the trick. At least that works for me when using my Avant Browser.

As far as converting books from text to the format needed for the Sony Reader, I am not thrilled with the PDF format for converting books on the Feedbooks web site. They just don't real all that well on the Reader because of the way they are formatted. After testing SEVERAL similar web sites to convert books for the Reader, the one that works best for me happens to be ManyBooks

RWood · 12-02-2007, 10:50 PM

Welcome to MobileRead crusader666.

(Our official greeter, NatCh, is taking a few hours off.)

Many others have had problems with both the Sony store and the Sony books. Many feel that the fonts in the books are too large and the margins around the pages are too big thus allowing far too few words on each page. I am glad that they are keeping in touch with you about the problems that you are having.

Some people like PDF, most dislike it as an ebook format. Once it is generated there is no way to change the font size. Feedbooks does the best of anyone in generating great PDF formatted books for the Sony.

While Manybooks does a workman like job, they are an automated conversion. Check out the free ebook download section here at MR. There are over a thousand titles available for the Sony Reader.

There are also several free tools available to convert files to the LRF format that Sony uses. Among the best are libprs500 and BookDesigner. Both have been used to create the ebooks in the MR download section.

Also, Fictionwise has a great selection of books and magazine is Sony format (Analog for example) created with libprs500.

Glad that you are with us. If you have any questions, just ask. We're a friendly bunch here.

12-02-2007, 09:59 PM	#1
crusader666 Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 11 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Palm Springs, CA Device: Sony PRS-505; EB-1150	Sony 505 Problems With eBook Library Everything went fine for a few weeks with my new Sony 505 Reader and using the Sony eBook Library for downloading and reading books of all genres until sometime last week. disappoinNumerous books, be they classics or best-sellers, are now not being displayed in the proper font on my device. Also, the feature that eBook Library offers to notify me when a certain author has a new book does not work! The issue with author notification was documented when I added Dean Koontz to my "notify list" a few weeks ago. Despite the fact the Sony eBook Library released a new book of his, I was NEVER notified as promised. I had to manually add the book to my wish list when I accidentally discovered the new title. Sony has confirmed in several e-mail responses to me that they are researching the problem. They also have corresponded with me several times and have admitted there appears to be a SYSTEM WIDE problem with the fonts related to the books they sell in their store. They said that I do NOT have to provide them will all the affected titles, since they are aware of the problem and are working on it. This is very frustrating, but at least they keep in touch with me every day or so about the issue. Will be nice once they get it fixed, because I am very happy with my reader, but can't read the books the have defective fonts and do not appear in the standard LARGE size in LANDSCAPE the way my other Sony eBooks have in the past. On an unrelated note, I really like the nifty tool on Feedbooks to download popular RSS feeds. Sometimes it is a little "touchy" and some feeds I can't get to convert, but most work fine for me. One trick using Feedbooks (on certain browsers) is if you do receive some type of error after converting a feed, simply hit the REFRESH button on your browser, and that might do the trick. At least that works for me when using my Avant Browser. As far as converting books from text to the format needed for the Sony Reader, I am not thrilled with the PDF format for converting books on the Feedbooks web site. They just don't real all that well on the Reader because of the way they are formatted. After testing SEVERAL similar web sites to convert books for the Reader, the one that works best for me happens to be ManyBooks

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12-02-2007, 10:50 PM	#2
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Welcome to MobileRead crusader666. (Our official greeter, NatCh, is taking a few hours off.) Many others have had problems with both the Sony store and the Sony books. Many feel that the fonts in the books are too large and the margins around the pages are too big thus allowing far too few words on each page. I am glad that they are keeping in touch with you about the problems that you are having. Some people like PDF, most dislike it as an ebook format. Once it is generated there is no way to change the font size. Feedbooks does the best of anyone in generating great PDF formatted books for the Sony. While Manybooks does a workman like job, they are an automated conversion. Check out the free ebook download section here at MR. There are over a thousand titles available for the Sony Reader. There are also several free tools available to convert files to the LRF format that Sony uses. Among the best are libprs500 and BookDesigner. Both have been used to create the ebooks in the MR download section. Also, Fictionwise has a great selection of books and magazine is Sony format (Analog for example) created with libprs500. Glad that you are with us. If you have any questions, just ask. We're a friendly bunch here.

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