My first day with a 505

AnemicOak · 10-19-2007, 10:17 AM

Just wanted to thank everyone here for the info that helped me decide to pickup a 505. I was going to wait for the Cybook & perhaps Kindle to decide, but took the plunge & bought a Sony yesterday.

I love it.

I've only read about 350 pages on it so far, but I can already tell I'll be glad I finally bought an e-ink device. Definitely worth it for me.

I couldn't get lit2lrf to work right (ran the command line & everything seemed to work, but no file was produced), not sure why. However I was able to convert 4 of my Baen books using the GUI of libprs500, using default settings, & got pretty good results.

I do wish there was a way to set up folders (something the Bookeen folks said they'd be adding to their device eventually), but it's not the end of the world.

I've got the classics credit in my Connect account, but from what I've seen it's all just PG stuff you can get anywhere. So the question is, was Sony lazy & just ran some PG text files through a converter & that's it, or did they do a good job & take the time to format the books well? I guess I'm wondering if the credit is really worth anything. Better files on Connect or here on MobileRead?

Thanks everybody...

carchase · 10-19-2007, 10:57 AM

I recently took the plunge and I couldn't agree with you more. The device is just amazing. I tried a few of the Sony Classics and in my opinion you're better off with the versions found here if available: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebooks.php. The formatting is better and you don't have to worry about DRM.

DrMoze · 10-20-2007, 12:34 AM

Another low-hassle alternative is, for just $10, you can buy a DVD from Silkpagoda.com that has 10,000 'classic' ebooks in Sony lrf format. They look fine and will provide a lifetime of reading right there.

Hadrien · 10-20-2007, 10:09 AM

For public domain books, if you want custom PDF files for the Sony Reader with advanced typesetting support, TOC etc... you can try our PDF output on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover

We already support .epub files, a new standard for e-books that'll be supported on the Sony PRS-505 as soon as Adobe DE is available for it (stylesheet support is sweet).

There's also hundreds of LRF files available on this forum, created with BookDesigner.

AnemicOak · 10-20-2007, 01:23 PM

Thanks folks, looks like the Connect credit isn't real worthwhile I'll just dl them here.

JSWolf · 10-20-2007, 01:27 PM

What I am going to do on Monday is call Sony Connect and ask if they would not mind giving me $50 is real books and forgetting the other $50. I'll see what they have to say.

trippin · 10-20-2007, 07:16 PM

Today is my first day with the 505 too.

JSWolf · 10-20-2007, 07:34 PM

I've had my 505 a few days now and I really like the Vizplex screen.

AnemicOak · 10-23-2007, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I am going to do on Monday is call Sony Connect and ask if they would not mind giving me $50 is real books and forgetting the other $50. I'll see what they have to say.

Let us know what they say. It'd be nice to be able to get regular catalog books & not be restricted to the classics. Since the classics basically cost them nothing I don't know how likely it is they'll switch the credit over, but it'd be nice.

I've read three books on my 505 now & still loving it. The only downside to it I can see is DRM, but that's not a Sony only thing. I bought one book on Connect, since I had a $10 off code from Borders, but will probably be buying .lit stuff & stripping the DRM then converting it for most stuff (even if it's not really legal).

wmrawls · 10-23-2007, 04:10 PM

Don't forget that Baen.com, if your into SF, has a large amount of free e-books in several formats. I have been pretty happy reading the text versions on my 505. The text format is not fancy but its very readable and easy to load up.

AnemicOak · 10-23-2007, 04:17 PM

Oh yes, I love Baen stuff. I've bought a few things from them & have some CD's from pbooks I've bought. So far I've been converting the .lit versions using libprs500 to convert them.

JSWolf · 10-23-2007, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Oh yes, I love Baen stuff. I've bought a few things from them & have some CD's from pbooks I've bought. So far I've been converting the .lit versions using libprs500 to convert them.

and lit2lrf is so easy to use and does a very nice job of converting. makes it so easy to get LIT to LRF.

JohnP · 10-24-2007, 08:30 AM

My first day too. Beautiful design, well laid out buttons for the most part except for the right hand page flip which I find too small. Thin, light, solid. Easy to load books and recharge. The screen is a bit smaller than I expected, which is only a concern for the number of page flips for a book. Reads just fine, no real eye stain or adjustment needed. Pull the cover off and it is a lot easier to hold. Two good switches to toggle page. Don't go crazy like I did and load in 1600 books at once. Takes a good 8 minutes to catalog them whenever I unplug the USB. Battery life is fine and only takes 30-40 minutes max to recharge on the USB port. Have not tried a PDF yet. CPU is a little slow to load in a book but fine afterward. The change font size works well and is very useful to find the right size for my older eyes.
Books are all over the place including torrents. Trying to use book designer 4.0 to convert the books I really want from other types of formatted e book I downloaded. Page flips are noticable at first but I quickly ignored it. will read 10 books in a row just on the reader to get used to it.

wmrawls · 10-26-2007, 08:30 AM

Quote:

I do wish there was a way to set up folders (something the Bookeen folks said they'd be adding to their device eventually), but it's not the end of the world.

You can set up Groups which work the same way as Folders do. You have to play around with it to get the hang of the groups but they do work. However it appears that the group only works within each storage medium. I have to keep playing with it to figure out if there is a better way or I am overlooking something.
I will warn you that the more books you keep on it the slower it becomes when syncing up and I have had some issues with error messages when I pull one of the cards out.
But half the fun is in learning something new.
Remember that if you have a Baen book you can download it again with the text format.

AnemicOak · 10-26-2007, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmrawls

You can set up Groups which work the same way as Folders do. You have to play around with it to get the hang of the groups but they do work. However it appears that the group only works within each storage medium. I have to keep playing with it to figure out if there is a better way or I am overlooking something.
I will warn you that the more books you keep on it the slower it becomes when syncing up and I have had some issues with error messages when I pull one of the cards out.

Thanks for the info, I'll look into it.

Quote:

Remember that if you have a Baen book you can download it again with the text format.

Oh, I know but I've not seen any reason. The LIT files convert perfectly using the convert feature in libprs500.

Where I'm having trouble right now is DRM'd LIT files which I had hoped to buy as the main format I'd use.

I downloaded the 'test' file you can get from Fictionwise & ran it through clit.exe and had hoped I'd then be able to then convert it the same as a non-DRM'd file, but libprs500 errors out.

When I ran it through lit2lrf sans libprs500 I did get an LRF (a 10kb LRF from a 282kb LIT), but it was pretty bad (blank pages, images gone, text basically unformatted). It may be a matter of learning some of the commands for lit2lrf.

When I tried to load the LIT into BookDesigner it errors out too. Even the HTML clit creates errors BookDesigner out & won't load.

I know I could fiddle with the HTML in a regular editor, stripping some things out & merging multiple HTML files, & run it through html2lrf. At this point I'm hoping to avoid quite so much work.

I read anywhere from 3-8 books a week on general & it will get tiresome very quickly if each book turns into a major project. I'm really not keen on buying a ton of Sony DRM'd books at this point for various reasons.

If anyone has any advise or help on this I'd greatly appreciate it.

10-19-2007, 10:17 AM	#1
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	My first day with a 505 Just wanted to thank everyone here for the info that helped me decide to pickup a 505. I was going to wait for the Cybook & perhaps Kindle to decide, but took the plunge & bought a Sony yesterday. I love it. I've only read about 350 pages on it so far, but I can already tell I'll be glad I finally bought an e-ink device. Definitely worth it for me. I couldn't get lit2lrf to work right (ran the command line & everything seemed to work, but no file was produced), not sure why. However I was able to convert 4 of my Baen books using the GUI of libprs500, using default settings, & got pretty good results. I do wish there was a way to set up folders (something the Bookeen folks said they'd be adding to their device eventually), but it's not the end of the world. I've got the classics credit in my Connect account, but from what I've seen it's all just PG stuff you can get anywhere. So the question is, was Sony lazy & just ran some PG text files through a converter & that's it, or did they do a good job & take the time to format the books well? I guess I'm wondering if the credit is really worth anything. Better files on Connect or here on MobileRead? Thanks everybody...

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10-19-2007, 10:57 AM	#2
carchase Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 266 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	I recently took the plunge and I couldn't agree with you more. The device is just amazing. I tried a few of the Sony Classics and in my opinion you're better off with the versions found here if available: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebooks.php. The formatting is better and you don't have to worry about DRM.

10-20-2007, 12:34 AM	#3
DrMoze Booknut Posts: 858 Karma: 2852 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Palm Beach, Florida! Device: Sony Reader 500/505/300/350, Nook Glowlight Plus (6")	Another low-hassle alternative is, for just $10, you can buy a DVD from Silkpagoda.com that has 10,000 'classic' ebooks in Sony lrf format. They look fine and will provide a lifetime of reading right there.

10-20-2007, 10:09 AM	#4
Hadrien Feedbooks.com Co-Founder Posts: 2,263 Karma: 145123 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Paris, France Device: Sony PRS-t-1/350/300/500/505/600/700, Nexus S, iPad	For public domain books, if you want custom PDF files for the Sony Reader with advanced typesetting support, TOC etc... you can try our PDF output on Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover We already support .epub files, a new standard for e-books that'll be supported on the Sony PRS-505 as soon as Adobe DE is available for it (stylesheet support is sweet). There's also hundreds of LRF files available on this forum, created with BookDesigner.

10-20-2007, 01:23 PM	#5
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	Thanks folks, looks like the Connect credit isn't real worthwhile I'll just dl them here.

10-20-2007, 01:27 PM	#6
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,096 Karma: 144284184 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	What I am going to do on Monday is call Sony Connect and ask if they would not mind giving me $50 is real books and forgetting the other $50. I'll see what they have to say.

10-20-2007, 07:16 PM	#7
trippin Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505	Today is my first day with the 505 too.

10-20-2007, 07:34 PM	#8
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,096 Karma: 144284184 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I've had my 505 a few days now and I really like the Vizplex screen.

10-23-2007, 04:10 PM	#10
wmrawls Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 20 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rock Hill,SC Device: Sony PRS 505, Dell Axim X50V	Don't forget that Baen.com, if your into SF, has a large amount of free e-books in several formats. I have been pretty happy reading the text versions on my 505. The text format is not fancy but its very readable and easy to load up.

10-23-2007, 04:17 PM	#11
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	Oh yes, I love Baen stuff. I've bought a few things from them & have some CD's from pbooks I've bought. So far I've been converting the .lit versions using libprs500 to convert them.

10-24-2007, 08:30 AM	#13
JohnP Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Mancehster, CT Device: Sony Prs505	My first day too. Beautiful design, well laid out buttons for the most part except for the right hand page flip which I find too small. Thin, light, solid. Easy to load books and recharge. The screen is a bit smaller than I expected, which is only a concern for the number of page flips for a book. Reads just fine, no real eye stain or adjustment needed. Pull the cover off and it is a lot easier to hold. Two good switches to toggle page. Don't go crazy like I did and load in 1600 books at once. Takes a good 8 minutes to catalog them whenever I unplug the USB. Battery life is fine and only takes 30-40 minutes max to recharge on the USB port. Have not tried a PDF yet. CPU is a little slow to load in a book but fine afterward. The change font size works well and is very useful to find the right size for my older eyes. Books are all over the place including torrents. Trying to use book designer 4.0 to convert the books I really want from other types of formatted e book I downloaded. Page flips are noticable at first but I quickly ignored it. will read 10 books in a row just on the reader to get used to it.

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