Content Kindle 3 audio format

[Paulinafrica]

Probably the wrong forum, please forgive me in advance . I have recently purchased a kindle 3 and I am considering using it to play audio books, not the greatest sound quality I know but needs must, I currently have some files in mp3 format which will play, but what I want to know if there is a conversion tool to convert these into a native format for the kindle audiobook format-whatever that may be.
Cheers
Paul

[dwig]

Using a K3, simply placing MP3 format audio books into the "audible" folder work fine for me.

When they're in the "audible" folder, instead of "music", they are listed on the home screen as a book. Also, when selected they play using a player with some basic visible controls and the K3 bookmarks the play location when you quit to the Home screen so you can resume where you left off later.

[Paulinafrica]

Thanks dwig, that's what I'm currently doing, I was just wondering as to what the native format for audiobook files is in the K3 and if there's any conversion software to convert from mp3 to that specific format.
BTW, what a great name for where you live, sounds great.
Paul

[TheKindleWorm]

The latest kindle can accept unprotected .mp3 files OR Audible audio format 4 and Audible Enhanced AAX - the audiobook files can only go into the audible folder.

As for conversion software - sorry but I do not have any to suggest.

[HelenaJole]

If you have a mp3 book in multiple tracks, is there a way to get it all into one book (rather than having each track show up as a separate book), or do I have to physically combine them into one track before adding them to the Kindle?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Paulinafrica

Thanks dwig, that's what I'm currently doing, I was just wondering as to what the native format for audiobook files is in the K3 and if there's any conversion software to convert from mp3 to that specific format.
BTW, what a great name for where you live, sounds great.
Paul

If we call 'native format' Audible format, it is proprietary and so are the tools to create it. As far as I know nobody has managed to crack it.

One impetus for wanting to do this would be the ability to have 'chapters' within the audiobook file. There's a MP3 tagging specification called ID3v2 which supports this notion, but I doubt that Kindle supports it (assuming you get a tool to do the tagging). So I think we're left with either very long, difficult to navigate MP3 files, or splitting those up into smaller MP3s which you have to select and play individually.

You might want to check with Amazon CS to see if they support ID3v2 or have any plans to, but I suspect they'll just say the entire feature is 'experimental'.

When I first got my K3 I was infatuated with the idea of using it to listen to audiobooks instead of my 3 year old iPod Nano, which I never really came to love (never did get comfortable with the darn touch wheel). I did so for several weeks. But now I also have an iPT4 with the Audible app, and the whole idea seems ludicrous. I doubt Amazon has any plans to enhance or improve the audiobook player for Kindle (though I've made several brilliant suggestions for doing so). And they should: it is really awkward to navigate to previous chapters. You can only download the biggest fattest audiobook format (enhanced) over wifi. And the audio is a little noisy for some reason - static, whiney noises, and little dropouts (at least on my K3).

My one remaining fantasy is that at some point they'll offer a text-enhanced audiobook format, or an audio-enhanced ebook format, that will let you listen to the audiobook and follow along in the text - or just read the text without audio, make annotations, text search etc. At that point, Kindle might for once be a good platform for audiobooks. As it is, virtually any MP3 player is better, and I believe many newer ones would support ID3v3...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by HelenaJole

If you have a mp3 book in multiple tracks, is there a way to get it all into one book (rather than having each track show up as a separate book), or do I have to physically combine them into one track before adding them to the Kindle?

You'd need to combine them before adding them to the Kindle.

To be perfectly honest, though, even the cheapest "real" MP3 player is enormously better at playing audiobooks than the Kindle is. You can get really good players for ridiculously low prices these days. No need to pay anything like iPod prices.

[HelenaJole]

That's true. I do have an mp3 player that I'm happy with. Was just curious.

[Francesco]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To be perfectly honest, though, even the cheapest "real" MP3 player is enormously better at playing audiobooks than the Kindle is.

Well, yes and no.
Three things I like about the K3 audiobook player:
1- you can keep track of where you left off for several different audiobooks or podcasts.
2- you can skip ahead or back in 30 seconds increments (I can't do that with my cheapo mp3 player, I have to press the FF button until my thumb gets blue). This could be improved, but..
3- yes, the interface is a little clumsy, but that makes me pay more attention to what I'm listening to, you know what I say? If it's a pain to navigate the podcast, I'd better pay full attention the first time around!

[peter12345]

To bring audio files together is easy, just use an audio editor like AUDACITY which is free. You can also EQ the sound to you liking....

[thayerwilliams]

For the record, in case someone comes back here looking for a solution...yes, you must first combine the mp3 files into a single file (or groups of files) to create continuous-flowing chapters. I usually convert my mp3 audiobooks into 10-chapter chunks.

For Linux users:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Navigate to the directory containing the mp3 files (e.g., cd ~/blah)
3. Enter: cat *.mp3 >> Sample.mp3

For Windows users:

1. Open a command prompt
2. Navigate to the directory containing the mp3 files (e.g., cd c:\blah)
3. Enter: type *.mp3 >> Sample.mp3

The above steps concatenate (join) all mp3 files in a given directory to a single file, leaving the original file in tact.

Cheers

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by thayerwilliams

For the record, in case someone comes back here looking for a solution...yes, you must first combine the mp3 files into a single file (or groups of files) to create continuous-flowing chapters. I usually convert my mp3 audiobooks into 10-chapter chunks.

For Linux users:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Navigate to the directory containing the mp3 files (e.g., cd ~/blah)
3. Enter: cat *.mp3 >> Sample.mp3

For Windows users:

1. Open a command prompt
2. Navigate to the directory containing the mp3 files (e.g., cd c:\blah)
3. Enter: type *.mp3 >> Sample.mp3

The above steps concatenate (join) all mp3 files in a given directory to a single file, leaving the original file in tact.

Cheers

That will copy the files in whatever order they exist in that directory (not necessarily sorted by filename). You could get lucky (sometimes), or not... You can do a somewhat more advanced command that sorts filenames then concatenates the files in the sorted list...

[erfling]

The kindle will actually allow you to make a collection out of all of the mp3s in a book.

Put all the mp3s of your audiobook into the Audible folder, then from the home screen of the Kindle, click menu, then Create a New Collection. Name the collection whatever you like (the name of the audiobook or what have you). You will then be see all of your items with checkboxes. Just check and add all of the chapters of your audiobook to the collection.

You will then have one entry on your home screen, under Audible, for the whole book. If you click on the collection, you will be able to choose the individual file.