Book freezes PRS-505

mflood · 12-07-2007, 05:54 AM

Hey guys. You've helped me before, hopefully you can do it again.

I have a recently purchased PRS-505. I love it, and have had no problems with it until now. The issue is that one particular book freezes the reader. I can select the title, but then when I hit "begin" the reader freezes. Won't go past that screen. The power switch will turn the display off, but not back on (or at least nothing is displayed). A soft reset fixes the problem.

The book is an LRF file which I created using libprs500. As far as I can tell there are no issues creating the file. I can view it just fine in Sony's ebook reader sofware, and there's no weird formatting, text loss, or anything. In short, everything seems as it should be with the conversion. In fact I've even converted others in the same series, and had no problems. I use libprs500 for all my conversions and have never had an issue.

Any ideas? I can't really think of what could cause this. The reader in general works fine, which makes me think it's the file that has problems. On the other hand the conversion goes smoothly and seems to work, so. . .? Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

NatCh · 12-07-2007, 11:17 AM

Hmmm. That's what my grandma would call a poser.

Is there anything unusual about the fonts or characters in the book? Is it unusually large (like over 5 MB)?

The only off-hand suggestions I can think of is to see if it works as an RTF, or to try converting it with something else such as BookDesigner, just in case it's some sort of obscure conversion quirk in libprs500. But both of those are just random thoughts, not really based on anything.

Thing · 12-07-2007, 11:31 AM

Hello,

I've experienced similar problems with an html document with images and links converted to lrf using html2lrf: Reader freezing when trying to open LRF, Library software can open it just fine.

So after resetting a couple of times I got pissed and put the reader (in frozen state) aside to look for answers. When I came back a couple of hours later the reader was alive, and the document was open.

My conclusion is that it is just too slow sometimes and it is hard to tell whether it is frozen or just working silently.

Now some speculation from my part: The RLF is not that big (about 1.6Mb - I have bigger LRF documents converted using the same process that working fine), it has a few small-sized images and lots of back-and-forth links to footnotes. The reader's CPU is not that bad, so there has to be something wrong with the internal software when it comes to open LRF files with lots of links...

Thing

mflood · 12-07-2007, 12:25 PM

NatCh: Thanks for the help. I'm embarrassed to say that I never thought of just loading it in a different format. I may give that a try and see what luck I have. BookDesigner is another good thought for a workaround, though I like the first idea better. Overall, thanks muchly.

Thing: That's interesting that you say the book eventually opened. I'd actually considered the possibility that it might be moving very slowly, but I waited 10-15 minutes, and figured it couldn't possibly be longer than that. Little did I know. As to your speculation regarding the cause, I'm afraid I can't back up your theory. The book I'm trying to view has very few links (the only ones I'm aware of being the 15ish chapter table of contents) and no footnotes or other oddities whatsoever. It's just a typical novel. 0.4 mb in size.

Anyway, thanks to you both. I expect one of the workarounds NatCh suggested will probably do the trick, but if anyone else happens upon this thread with new ideas, I'm still very interested, and plan to continue watching this space. So don't hesitate to post. Thanks!

slayda · 12-07-2007, 12:43 PM

Had a similar problem that worked after using BD to recreate the LRF.

mflood · 12-07-2007, 12:45 PM

Good to know Slayda, I'll definitely give that a try. I'll post here after I do.

kovidgoyal · 12-07-2007, 12:50 PM

SONY's page layout routine is a little foolish, in that it often runs out of memory on complex documents (typically a document that has too few page breaks). Try using one of the chapter detection options to increase the number of page breaks, that should fix it.

mflood · 12-07-2007, 12:56 PM

Somehow, kovid always knows what to do. I'm at once impressed and annoyed. :P

I'm going to have to admit that I'm unsure of how to use the chapter detection options to add more page breaks. It's automatically trying to break before h[12] so obviously that's not doing it, and I should force some breaks in there somewhere with one of the next two options. Erm. . .how exactly do I do that?

kovidgoyal · 12-07-2007, 12:59 PM

As a first step use
--force-page-break-before-tag=h[12]

If that doesn't do the trick, look at the HTML source and try to figure out the correct argument to --force-page-break-before-tag or
to --force-page-break-before-attr

You can check how many page breaks are in the output lrf by using lrf2lrs and then counting the the number of <Page elements. On linux

Code:

grep -c "<Page" book.lrs

mflood · 12-07-2007, 01:01 PM

Thanks. I'll see what I can figure out. . .

12-07-2007, 05:54 AM	#1
mflood Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 14 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	Book freezes PRS-505 Hey guys. You've helped me before, hopefully you can do it again. I have a recently purchased PRS-505. I love it, and have had no problems with it until now. The issue is that one particular book freezes the reader. I can select the title, but then when I hit "begin" the reader freezes. Won't go past that screen. The power switch will turn the display off, but not back on (or at least nothing is displayed). A soft reset fixes the problem. The book is an LRF file which I created using libprs500. As far as I can tell there are no issues creating the file. I can view it just fine in Sony's ebook reader sofware, and there's no weird formatting, text loss, or anything. In short, everything seems as it should be with the conversion. In fact I've even converted others in the same series, and had no problems. I use libprs500 for all my conversions and have never had an issue. Any ideas? I can't really think of what could cause this. The reader in general works fine, which makes me think it's the file that has problems. On the other hand the conversion goes smoothly and seems to work, so. . .? Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

12-07-2007, 12:59 PM	#9
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	As a first step use --force-page-break-before-tag=h[12] If that doesn't do the trick, look at the HTML source and try to figure out the correct argument to --force-page-break-before-tag or to --force-page-break-before-attr You can check how many page breaks are in the output lrf by using lrf2lrs and then counting the the number of <Page elements. On linux Code: grep -c "<Page" book.lrs

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12-07-2007, 11:17 AM	#2
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Hmmm. That's what my grandma would call a poser. Is there anything unusual about the fonts or characters in the book? Is it unusually large (like over 5 MB)? The only off-hand suggestions I can think of is to see if it works as an RTF, or to try converting it with something else such as BookDesigner, just in case it's some sort of obscure conversion quirk in libprs500. But both of those are just random thoughts, not really based on anything.

12-07-2007, 11:31 AM	#3
Thing Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 12 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: PRS-505	Hello, I've experienced similar problems with an html document with images and links converted to lrf using html2lrf: Reader freezing when trying to open LRF, Library software can open it just fine. So after resetting a couple of times I got pissed and put the reader (in frozen state) aside to look for answers. When I came back a couple of hours later the reader was alive, and the document was open. My conclusion is that it is just too slow sometimes and it is hard to tell whether it is frozen or just working silently. Now some speculation from my part: The RLF is not that big (about 1.6Mb - I have bigger LRF documents converted using the same process that working fine), it has a few small-sized images and lots of back-and-forth links to footnotes. The reader's CPU is not that bad, so there has to be something wrong with the internal software when it comes to open LRF files with lots of links... Thing

12-07-2007, 12:25 PM	#4
mflood Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 14 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	NatCh: Thanks for the help. I'm embarrassed to say that I never thought of just loading it in a different format. I may give that a try and see what luck I have. BookDesigner is another good thought for a workaround, though I like the first idea better. Overall, thanks muchly. Thing: That's interesting that you say the book eventually opened. I'd actually considered the possibility that it might be moving very slowly, but I waited 10-15 minutes, and figured it couldn't possibly be longer than that. Little did I know. As to your speculation regarding the cause, I'm afraid I can't back up your theory. The book I'm trying to view has very few links (the only ones I'm aware of being the 15ish chapter table of contents) and no footnotes or other oddities whatsoever. It's just a typical novel. 0.4 mb in size. Anyway, thanks to you both. I expect one of the workarounds NatCh suggested will probably do the trick, but if anyone else happens upon this thread with new ideas, I'm still very interested, and plan to continue watching this space. So don't hesitate to post. Thanks!

12-07-2007, 12:43 PM	#5
slayda Retired & reading more! Posts: 2,764 Karma: 1884247 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Alabama, USA Device: Kindle 1, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S+, Kobo Aura One	Had a similar problem that worked after using BD to recreate the LRF.

12-07-2007, 12:45 PM	#6
mflood Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 14 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	Good to know Slayda, I'll definitely give that a try. I'll post here after I do.

12-07-2007, 12:50 PM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	SONY's page layout routine is a little foolish, in that it often runs out of memory on complex documents (typically a document that has too few page breaks). Try using one of the chapter detection options to increase the number of page breaks, that should fix it.

12-07-2007, 12:56 PM	#8
mflood Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 14 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	Somehow, kovid always knows what to do. I'm at once impressed and annoyed. :P I'm going to have to admit that I'm unsure of how to use the chapter detection options to add more page breaks. It's automatically trying to break before h[12] so obviously that's not doing it, and I should force some breaks in there somewhere with one of the next two options. Erm. . .how exactly do I do that?

12-07-2007, 01:01 PM	#10
mflood Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 14 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	Thanks. I'll see what I can figure out. . .

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