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Old 12-04-2009, 09:05 AM   #1
HomeSweetHome
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k2 p2, mp3 (Knitting with the 505)

My 505 is a fabulous workhorse for carting around my collection of pre-copyright classic literature, but I've recently taken up the sport of knitting and would like to be able to keep my eyes on the stitches rather than the words.

Knowing that the 505 has "Audio" capability, the first few experiments in downloading music and books have been rather exasperating. Perhaps The Single Most Annoying Habit of my 505: It ignores file hierarchy and insists on placing all music titles in alphabetical order by song title. I truly expected it to handle an “album” just like a “book,” using the “song titles” as “chapter titles.” (((sigh))) I had such high hopes for the twenty-first century—LOL!

Music While You Knit, however, is not my top priority—I would much prefer to listen to audiobooks on my eReader. Is this possible? Aside from the same alphabetizing “feature” of the audio files, I have yet to download an entire audiobook without crashing the download process.

So, my questions include:
--Any foolproof sources for audiobooks that will work on the first go round? I’ve tried Audiofile, OverDrive, NetLibrary . . .
--What specific formats do I need to look for?
--How do I manage these files? Would storing these types of files on an SD card facilitate the process?

Feel free to direct me to information sources on this site, forums or wiki, although I have spent a few hours reading and skimming already, without much illumination. And, while I’m obviously a techy novice, don’t hesitate to use specific technological vocabulary—I’m married to a very clever, computer-guru-for-a-living sort of gentleman, who would love to see his bibliovore sitting quietly in a cozy chair surrounded by her earphone wires, yarn, needles . . . and softly mumbling, “knit two, purl two, knit two together . . . “

Danelle in Kansas
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Old 12-04-2009, 11:32 AM   #2
BookishDreamer
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I've had a 505 for about 2 years and haven't played with the audio function. I listen to audiobooks regularly using a separate mp3 player. I'll have to pull out the user manual to confirm, but I think one of the reasons I haven't tried audiobooks on my Reader is because I didn't see a way to bookmark my place in the audiobook if I was in the middle of a chapter. I'm not sure if that will be a point of consideration for you.

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Originally Posted by HomeSweetHome View Post
I’m married to a very clever, computer-guru-for-a-living sort of gentleman, who would love to see his bibliovore sitting quietly in a cozy chair surrounded by her earphone wires, yarn, needles . . . and softly mumbling, “knit two, purl two, knit two together . . . “
Lucky girl!

Dreamer
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Old 12-04-2009, 04:16 PM   #3
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"bibliovore" - Like it!
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Old 12-04-2009, 06:34 PM   #4
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I agree with BookishDreamer. No resume nor bookmarking, so just get yourself a cheap MP3 player that's well-designed for audiobooks. Cheapest are the Sansa
- Clip,
- Clip+ (adds μSD slot and fast and slow playback for audiobooks, but only accessible from Settings menu), and
- Fuze (adds 1.9" screen for video and pics, and adds fast or slow playback speed for podcasts and audiobooks and that setting is reachable from each podcast and audiobook, as well in the general settings [it also goes from mini-USB connector of the Clips to proprietary Sandsisk connector]).
I've seen the 2GB Clip refurbished for $20.

For these Sansas, there's one trick to get the resume function: You must put the audiobooks into the Clip's/Clip+'s/Fuze's "Audiobooks" folder (or podcasts into the "Podcasts" folder). If you're not dragging-and-dropping unprotected audiobooks (i.e., you're using a program to load a DRM'd audiobook), you have to interrupt somehow the loading into the default folder the program chooses, and make it load into folder "Audiobooks". For OverDrive audiobooks, during the OverDrive Media Console app's Transfer process, you come to a screen that says "Advanced Options...". Click that and alter the default directory from "\Music\..." to "\Audiobooks\..."

Clip and Clip+: really small. Fuze: a little bigger, I like its easily reachable fast-playback speed setting.

Last edited by jj2me; 12-04-2009 at 06:54 PM. Reason: Changed because Clip+ also offers fast playback
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Old 12-05-2009, 09:16 AM   #5
HomeSweetHome
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BookishDreamer View Post
I didn't see a way to bookmark my place in the audiobook if I was in the middle of a chapter. I'm not sure if that will be a point of consideration for you.
Very good point--I hadn't even considered the capability of bookmarks, etc in a listening device. Sounds like I have some homework to do over the holidays . . . !
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Old 12-05-2009, 09:20 AM   #6
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"bibliovore" - Like it!
Isn't that a great word! It's not original with me . . . I found it on another forum of booklovers.
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Old 12-05-2009, 09:32 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by jj2me View Post
I agree with BookishDreamer. No resume nor bookmarking, so just get yourself a cheap MP3 player that's well-designed for audiobooks.
(((sigh))) I'm beginning to see that this may be the best answer. Perhaps I was dreading the addition of another little electronic mouth to feed and care for--LOL!
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Old 12-05-2009, 09:55 AM   #8
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Another reason to avoid audiobooks on the Sony, they won't play books downloaded from Audible.com (not too surprising since Audible belongs to Amazon) but really the Sony doesn't play anything that is DRM.
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Old 12-05-2009, 10:09 AM   #9
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It plays books just fine, as long as they are not DRM'ed. Librivox is a good source for non-copyrighted books.

Spoiler:
Or Google for the title and maybe you will find an anonymous friend who has deDRM'ed it and will share it with you.

Otherwise, you can always download Overdrive and get books from the library, and then play them on the computer while you knit.
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Old 12-05-2009, 03:41 PM   #10
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As to playing in order...you may want to look at the tags..and tag and rename if you have to...then they should play in order.
I listen to audiobooks constantly..had a Creative Zen Micro which was GREAT for bookmarking. Now have a Sansa Fuze...no bookmarking..but it was what I could afford at the time.
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Old 12-05-2009, 05:10 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Novasea View Post
As to playing in order...you may want to look at the tags..and tag and rename if you have to...then they should play in order.
I listen to audiobooks constantly..had a Creative Zen Micro which was GREAT for bookmarking. Now have a Sansa Fuze...no bookmarking..but it was what I could afford at the time.
I have both the Zen Micro and the Fuze, and prefer the Fuze for audiobooks. No worry about setting a bookmark, it always resumes all audiobooks and podcasts at exactly where I left off, whether or not it powers off automatically or I manually power it off. (If the Zen Micro automatically powers off due to inactivity, it loses its place, and you have to hope you set a recent bookmark.)

If your Fuze doesn't have perfect and effortless resume, then it could be due to one of the following:
1. Do you have the latest firmware installed? Very old versions may not resume properly.
2. Do you load your audiobooks in the "Audiobooks" folder? (Or alternatively, tag each audiobook file as genre "Audiobook"?) Similar for podcasts, store them in the "Podcasts" folder.

As I said in a post above, if your audiobooks have DRM, you therefore have to use a companion application to load the files and the license. In such cases (i.e., where you don't drag-and-drop directly to folder "Audiobooks"), you generally need to take steps to ensure the application loads the audiobook files in the player's folder "\Audiobooks".

The Fuze and the Zune are my favorite audiobook players. They both resume perfectly. The Fuze's advantage is optional fast playback, while the Zune's advantage is easy turn-on-and-play--it goes from off to playing the audiobook in two presses of the Play button.
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