Mobi to Epub Conversion of Dictionaries Fails

Jaws · 02-19-2020, 11:18 PM

I have several (expensive!) multilingual dictionaries in .mobi format. The one consistent problem is that they're not converting to .epub in Calibre 4.10.1 (or prior versions back to 3.something). Unfortunately, that's where the consistency ends. The conversion "fails"; scrolling down the details, one sometimes finds a timeout, sometimes a memory failure, sometimes a Python variable out of range. So I'm not sure that any kind of an error dump would help.

I don't have this difficulty with other reference works from the same publisher(s) (mainly Oxford UP, but also a couple of German publishers). The one difference for multilingual dictionaries is that they tend to use a lot of unusual-for-ebooks Unicode characters (primarily, but not exclusively, as pronunciation aids), plus they tend to be quite large files (upward of 10mb with minimal illustrations).

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is there, perhaps, a workaround? It's probably unusual enough to not justify much diving into the code; it may also just reflect a memory or other limitation in Python that can't really be solved.

BetterRed · 02-19-2020, 11:31 PM

Dictionaries won't convert, see post #4 ==>> conversion error of a mobi file

BR

Jaws · 02-20-2020, 12:57 AM

Well, I cannot agree at all that lack of "lookup" (inside of Calibre's reader, presumably) is a problem for a multilingual dictionary that is not going be be "read" in Calibre... but Kovid's message implies that with Bigger Iron it's soluble, so I'll see about "borrowing" a machine with more than 6gb of memory.

And I despise .mobi in all of its implementations (and descendants for Kindle) — especially when dealing with both LTR and RTL languages in the same ebook — thus the desire to convert the files, even if it's "just a book" when I'm done.

stumped · 02-20-2020, 01:47 AM

as a last resort, I wonder if you could split the mobi files, convert, then join the output ones.
not sure how much damage is done to cross refs etc if a dictionary is split into say A-M, then N-Z, and not sure how easy it is to split a mobi without it first being concerted to aid the split.
Like I say, its a last resort, but I don't see how a machine with more RAM is going to help a lot. windows should be paging RAM to page file and back as needed
I have 24Gb RAM but the practicalities of you legally sending me a file to try to convert and return are probably as challenging as the previous ideas, if you could put a single test file on a shared dropbox link and PM me I'd be willing to try it, out of curiosity, and we can compare error messages

02-19-2020, 11:18 PM	#1
Jaws JCL Punch-Card Collector Posts: 48 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Antarctica Device: Aggressively Device Independent	Mobi to Epub Conversion of Dictionaries Fails I have several (expensive!) multilingual dictionaries in .mobi format. The one consistent problem is that they're not converting to .epub in Calibre 4.10.1 (or prior versions back to 3.something). Unfortunately, that's where the consistency ends. The conversion "fails"; scrolling down the details, one sometimes finds a timeout, sometimes a memory failure, sometimes a Python variable out of range. So I'm not sure that any kind of an error dump would help. I don't have this difficulty with other reference works from the same publisher(s) (mainly Oxford UP, but also a couple of German publishers). The one difference for multilingual dictionaries is that they tend to use a lot of unusual-for-ebooks Unicode characters (primarily, but not exclusively, as pronunciation aids), plus they tend to be quite large files (upward of 10mb with minimal illustrations). Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is there, perhaps, a workaround? It's probably unusual enough to not justify much diving into the code; it may also just reflect a memory or other limitation in Python that can't really be solved.

02-20-2020, 12:57 AM	#3
Jaws JCL Punch-Card Collector Posts: 48 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Antarctica Device: Aggressively Device Independent	Well, I cannot agree at all that lack of "lookup" (inside of Calibre's reader, presumably) is a problem for a multilingual dictionary that is not going be be "read" in Calibre... but Kovid's message implies that with Bigger Iron it's soluble, so I'll see about "borrowing" a machine with more than 6gb of memory. And I despise .mobi in all of its implementations (and descendants for Kindle) — especially when dealing with both LTR and RTL languages in the same ebook — thus the desire to convert the files, even if it's "just a book" when I'm done. Last edited by Jaws; 02-20-2020 at 01:00 AM.

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02-19-2020, 11:31 PM	#2
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,650 Karma: 26966376 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Dictionaries won't convert, see post #4 ==>> conversion error of a mobi file BR

02-20-2020, 01:47 AM	#4
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	as a last resort, I wonder if you could split the mobi files, convert, then join the output ones. not sure how much damage is done to cross refs etc if a dictionary is split into say A-M, then N-Z, and not sure how easy it is to split a mobi without it first being concerted to aid the split. Like I say, its a last resort, but I don't see how a machine with more RAM is going to help a lot. windows should be paging RAM to page file and back as needed I have 24Gb RAM but the practicalities of you legally sending me a file to try to convert and return are probably as challenging as the previous ideas, if you could put a single test file on a shared dropbox link and PM me I'd be willing to try it, out of curiosity, and we can compare error messages

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