using the v3 - anyone willing to share their experience

[redbaron101]

Can anyone with a v3 share their real life experience using it? I would be interested to hear about using different formats i.e pdfs and chm, or if they needed to be converted to be read properly? how well do doc's read - is this any version of word docs? And any other issues bad or good you had with this device.

[localj]

Well my V3 just arrived today. I will test it out for a couple of days and read a book or too and then post :-)

Okay had it for a week and very happy with it. I have found:
- the screen to be excellent with quick updates between pages.
- the design is elegant, slim, and easy to use.
- the default font is nice.
- the zoom feature (where it swaps the view from portrait to landscape) is very handy.
- firmware upgrade was simple and worked with my 1GB SD card.
- I might need to recharge the battery in a month.

Downside:
- you can't change the default font or font size.
- I use Linux so the the Hanlin Printer Driver (for producing WOL files) can't be used.

Having said that, I have read a Gutenberg TXT, a Sci-Fi HTML, and a Jane Austen PDF on it. Also played a bit with RTF and DOC.

As with any reader, the viewing depends on the original TXT / HTML / PDF / DOC / RTF file format. It can take a little playing to change the format to read well on the screen of the V3 if the original file isn't up to scratch. But I have found this to be quite simple on most occasions.

1) PDFs get shrunk to fit on the screen. So provided your A4 page PDF hasn't got more than the usual 25-30 lines / page you should be fine. The zoom feature comes into its own on PDFs - you can view the PDF in landscape and view half the page at a time.

2) HTML just seems to work.

3) RTF and DOC work well - just make sure you don't have more than 25-30 lines per page or the font tends to be too small to read easily.

3) Gutenberg TXT files needed to be reformatted because they put a Carriage Return (CR) at the end of every line, not just paragraphs. Turned out to be very simple to do in OpenOffice Writer.

OpenOffice Writer 2.3 - removing Carriage Returns from Gutenberg Text files.
- Open OpenOffice Writer
- Start with a new document
- File -> New -> Text Document
- Insert -> File -> choose your Gutenberg txt file
- Use the default ASCII filter options
- Highlight the whole document
- Format -> AutoFormat -> Apply
- Save document as a text file
- File -> Save As -> choose TXT(.txt) format and a name and save.
Your new text file is good for the V3 (and other eReaders I suspect).

[menhir73]

I bought the v3 last year in September. My v3's screen is not Vizplex. However, other than that, I like it very much. I've loaded many books onto it and I bring it along wherever I go. I've downloaded books from feedbooks.com in pdf format and they display beautifully. I've also bought books from Baen and Steve Jordan in rtf and converted them to pdf using my Mac. Again the books display nicely in pdf format. Although the software for the v3 cannot be used on the Mac, I'm not bothered by this as I normally load the books onto an SD card using an SD card reader and then insert the SD card into the v3 for reading. I just hope that Jinke can close the deal with Mobipocket so that books in mobi format can be read on the v3. That would be fantastic!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by menhir73

I just hope that Jinke can close the deal with Mobipocket so that books in mobi format can be read on the v3. That would be fantastic!

Do you have any indication that there is such a deal in the works?

Dale

[redbaron101]

Originally Posted by menhir73

I bought the v3 last year in September. My v3's screen is not Vizplex. However, other than that, I like it very much. I've loaded many books onto it and I bring it along wherever I go. I've downloaded books from feedbooks.com in pdf format and they display beautifully. I've also bought books from Baen and Steve Jordan in rtf and converted them to pdf using my Mac. Again the books display nicely in pdf format. Although the software for the v3 cannot be used on the Mac, I'm not bothered by this as I normally load the books onto an SD card using an SD card reader and then insert the SD card into the v3 for reading. I just hope that Jinke can close the deal with Mobipocket so that books in mobi format can be read on the v3. That would be fantastic!

Hi Menhir, This might sound like a silly question, but how do you know it wasnt a vizplex? I was told only really old v3 would be the non vizplex models, however no one i've spoken to really say conclusively how to tell if their model really is vizplex or not, other than if their packaging box has a little yellow sticker saying 'vizplex'. Dont get me wrong i know vizplex is meant to be a better screen, but i havent come across a post where their owners were 100% sure they really had a vizplex screen!

[HarryT]

Best thing to do would be to try and compare it to a device that you know has a VizPlex screen, such as a Sony 505 or a CyBook Gen3. There's all the difference in the world between the "old" eInk screens and the VizPlex screens - anyone who'd seen one would be able to tell you instantly.

[tribble]

Actually, i could not say instantly if i did not have a direct comparison. The iLiad V2 (not vizplex) has a slightly darker screen, but the black is mach blacker than the CyBooks. I can tell by the update speed of the screen, but other than that i could not tell by looking at a single device.

[ibat]

I have a V3 since November and am very happy with it.

The Hardware is simple and elegant but still rugged enough to survive being transported in my bicycle's basket in a backpack. I could geekishly, as I possibly am, carry on how cool the hardware and software is, and how infuriating it is that the GNU/Linux GPL is being violated. And, yes, I have photos of my children and some music on my V3.

But actually I got this gadget to read books and that is what I have been doing lately. I've been reading books in airports and at bus stops at home or in coffee shops. And have read about 15 books on my V3. Nowadays you can download magnitudes of books. I fetched some books from Gutenberg and read them as text files. Have read html-files, which rendered OK depending on the HTML code. PDFs work too though it is somehow the wrong medium for that. When you zoom into a PDF you always have the feeling your peeking through a hole in a fence. My favorite format is fb2, which is a very simple xml based format. You can get surprisingly many books in fb2 nowadays . And with a short perl script you can convert Gutenberg books into fb2.

So what I can say is: the books were good and the device did not get in the way.

[danara]

@redbaron:

Finally I have tested the files you sent me, but as I told you I don't think the V3 will do the work for you.
- The RTF and word files that you sent me do not display the picture. So assume that the V3 is only extracting the text of those types.
- The JPEG can be opened but the zoom doesn't seem to work.
- The PDF can be rotated, see if that could be enough for you.

I have also tried to find you a solution with other readers:
- If you have the money to buy it, I recommend you the iLiad, it is the closest to a comic experience.
- If not, the Cybook seems to do a reasonable good job because if you use the landscape mode, it scrolls about 33% each time so in my opinio the experiece is good.

[redbaron101]

thanks danara!! it was nice of you to take the time to do the tests. Yes it looks like the illiad and cybook both look okay for the pdfs. I would love the illiad, but the long startup time and huge costs of the illiad have def. put me off the illiad. So it looks like cybook is on my list., btw have the seen the pictures of the hanlin v9, it looks huge sat next to the sony one, i wonder when they will be available to buy?

[danara]

Yep, I think you should go for the Cybook.

BTW, knowing the track record of manufacturers in this industry, I don't think you should expect the V9 before Q4 2008.
We will carry it at Apollo XXI of course, but I don't expect it soon.

[mrdini]

Originally Posted by danara

@redbaron:

Finally I have tested the files you sent me, but as I told you I don't think the V3 will do the work for you.
- The RTF and word files that you sent me do not display the picture. So assume that the V3 is only extracting the text of those types.
- The JPEG can be opened but the zoom doesn't seem to work.
- The PDF can be rotated, see if that could be enough for you.

I have also tried to find you a solution with other readers:
- If you have the money to buy it, I recommend you the iLiad, it is the closest to a comic experience.
- If not, the Cybook seems to do a reasonable good job because if you use the landscape mode, it scrolls about 33% each time so in my opinio the experiece is good.

Were the original files in colour?

As it seems that the poor quality of some of these images is down to bad dithering from colour to grayscale. I wonder if you'd get a better result if you used something like Photoshop to reduce the colour palette to grayscale before putting in the iRex/CyBook/V3...?

[danara]

Yes, I used the originals that I got from redbaron, and they were all in color.

As you say, advance users can improve the performance with a little bit of photoshop work.

[mvoosten]

You could try Manga2Ebook to improve the comic experience:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11261

If you need more formats to test and compare:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16997

Originally Posted by danara

@redbaron:

Finally I have tested the files you sent me, but as I told you I don't think the V3 will do the work for you.
- The RTF and word files that you sent me do not display the picture. So assume that the V3 is only extracting the text of those types.
- The JPEG can be opened but the zoom doesn't seem to work.
- The PDF can be rotated, see if that could be enough for you.

I have also tried to find you a solution with other readers:
- If you have the money to buy it, I recommend you the iLiad, it is the closest to a comic experience.
- If not, the Cybook seems to do a reasonable good job because if you use the landscape mode, it scrolls about 33% each time so in my opinio the experiece is good.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by danara

Yes, I used the originals that I got from redbaron, and they were all in color.

As you say, advance users can improve the performance with a little bit of photoshop work.

Can you post one of the images so I can try it on the 505?