Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Formats > Kindle Formats

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 09-23-2010, 05:57 PM   #1
JeremyR
Guru
JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JeremyR's Avatar
 
Posts: 973
Karma: 2458402
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: St. Louis
Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+
Baen Books and Mobi/PRC formatting

Last night I was browsing Baen Books and noticed they sold the ebook version of their Lord Darcy for $4. So I snapped it up.

Anyway, I downloaded the version they labeled as Kindle (which turned out to be a PRC file). And while it's mostly okay, it doesn't have any chapters. Which is sort of annoying in a huge omnibus.

So I downloaded the epub version instead and saw that it was broken up in chapters. So I used calibre to convert it and that carried over to my Kindle.

Getting to my question, are all Baen books formatted like this? Should I simply not bother with downloading in Mobi? Or was this just somewhat poorly done because it's an older file? (Does PRC even support chapters? I have no idea)

While I'm not a real fan of their current authors (I swear, the same 3-4 write new books every month) I did used to be a big fan of theirs in the 80s so will probably buy some more books in their back catalog.

Last edited by JeremyR; 09-23-2010 at 06:40 PM.
JeremyR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2010, 06:33 PM   #2
bwaldron
Wizard
bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.bwaldron ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
bwaldron's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,229
Karma: 543210
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Device: Kindles: Paperwhite Signature Ed., Oasis 2, Voyage
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyR View Post
Or was this just somewhat poorly done because it's an older file?
Bingo. Newer Baen books, though, do a good job with Mobi files (formatting and metadata). For the older ones, I convert with Calibre rather than use the .prc directly. Epub works fine, but I've found the .lit versions to be the best for these older Baen conversions.
bwaldron is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 09-25-2010, 02:52 AM   #3
JeremyR
Guru
JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JeremyR's Avatar
 
Posts: 973
Karma: 2458402
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: St. Louis
Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+
Thanks!
JeremyR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-25-2010, 04:44 AM   #4
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
If a Mobi book at Baen has a ".prc" extension, it's in a very old Mobipocket format. In this case, download the ePub version and convert it to Mobi with Calibre.

All their recent Mobi books have a ".mobi" extension. These are in the up-to-date Mobi format and should be absolutely fine.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-25-2010, 04:56 AM   #5
Terisa de morgan
Grand Sorcerer
Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Terisa de morgan's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,211
Karma: 11766195
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Madrid, Spain
Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
If a Mobi book at Baen has a ".prc" extension, it's in a very old Mobipocket format. In this case, download the ePub version and convert it to Mobi with Calibre.

All their recent Mobi books have a ".mobi" extension. These are in the up-to-date Mobi format and should be absolutely fine.
What's the difference between formats? I have prc files that I can read at my Gen3 and no problem with them (and they're not new).
Terisa de morgan is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 09-25-2010, 05:01 AM   #6
HarryT
eBook Enthusiast
HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HarryT ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
HarryT's Avatar
 
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
A PRC file can indeed be a modern Mobipocket format - eg all the ones that I've uploaded here at MR are. It just so happens that the ones used by Baen specifically are not; they are a very old version of Mobi that doesn't have any metadata other than the book title, doesn't have hard page breaks, and many other restrictions. It's a Baen-specific issue; most PRC files you download elsewhere will be just fine.
HarryT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-26-2010, 06:57 AM   #7
JeremyR
Guru
JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JeremyR ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JeremyR's Avatar
 
Posts: 973
Karma: 2458402
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: St. Louis
Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+
Hmmm. When I took their epub straight from their site and converted it with Calibre, I got chapter marks, but not a TOC.

And actually, the chapter marks turned out to be the section marks (it's a big book, broken up into sections and then stories and then chapters within the stories), so I apparently missed 1/3 of the book when I skipped "Too Many Magicians" (I have that in hardback and have read it dozens of times, while the other Darcy stories in it are new to me).

Only noticed when I decided to see if I could get a TOC. I loaded it up in Sigil first, then saved, then converted with Calibre and the TOC showed up properly (and I have chapter marks for each actual chapter, not just sections).

So I guess in the future, I will do that (load it in Sigil and save).
JeremyR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-26-2010, 07:26 AM   #8
Terisa de morgan
Grand Sorcerer
Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Terisa de morgan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Terisa de morgan's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,211
Karma: 11766195
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Madrid, Spain
Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
A PRC file can indeed be a modern Mobipocket format - eg all the ones that I've uploaded here at MR are. It just so happens that the ones used by Baen specifically are not; they are a very old version of Mobi that doesn't have any metadata other than the book title, doesn't have hard page breaks, and many other restrictions. It's a Baen-specific issue; most PRC files you download elsewhere will be just fine.
Thank you for the explanation. In other forum another person talked too about .mobi and .prc different in terms f Mobipocket and I couldn't understand it. As a publisher issue, like you say, I can easily understand.
Terisa de morgan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-18-2010, 10:20 PM   #9
st_albert
Guru
st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'st_albert gives new meaning to the word 'superlative.'
 
Posts: 688
Karma: 150000
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: none
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyR View Post
Hmmm. When I took their epub straight from their site and converted it with Calibre, I got chapter marks, but not a TOC.

And actually, the chapter marks turned out to be the section marks (it's a big book, broken up into sections and then stories and then chapters within the stories), so I apparently missed 1/3 of the book when I skipped "Too Many Magicians" (I have that in hardback and have read it dozens of times, while the other Darcy stories in it are new to me).

Only noticed when I decided to see if I could get a TOC. I loaded it up in Sigil first, then saved, then converted with Calibre and the TOC showed up properly (and I have chapter marks for each actual chapter, not just sections).

So I guess in the future, I will do that (load it in Sigil and save).
You could probably also tweak the regex that calibre uses to detect chapters, so that calibre would do it directly.
st_albert is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[KOBO] Strip existing formatting to apply my own default formatting to all books digital_steve Calibre 2 08-10-2010 06:34 PM
Formatting issues with .prc files generated from Kindle ebooks PressEnter Kindle Formats 2 06-07-2010 07:30 PM
MOBI format, Baen Books and Kindle questions. NormHart Workshop 5 08-11-2009 05:43 PM
Cover Pages Not Detected In Baen Books PRC Files? sirbruce Calibre 9 03-06-2009 05:09 PM
Unable to view a .prc ebook from baen rkaramc Calibre 3 02-12-2009 02:22 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:52 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.