Sony and calibre complementary functions

[eljacob]

I would like to share an experiment, as it might help someone with the same problem.

The Pragmatic Programmers bookstore started offering it's ebooks in MOBI and EPUB in addition to PDFs.

I have quite a few books from then, but I was never able to read then in my Sony due to PDF formatting issues, so the moment I realized there were new formats available I downloaded EPUB versions and moved to the device using calibre.

Everything was fine, including text flow and different font sizes, except source code samples - they were flowing to the right out of the screen (not wrapping to the next line), and I couldn't read the end of most lines, but I found a workaround:

- I imported the EPUB and transferred again to the device using Sony's application - no effect

- I used calibre to convert from EPUB to LRF. The resulting file was much larger (2.8MB to 18MB). I transfered to the device using calibre, but couldn't open the book - after 30 minutes on the initial formatting screen I reset the device

- I imported the converted LRF file from calibre to Sony eBook Library, and used it to transfer the same file to the device. It took about 5 minutes to transfer, but it worked.

The book is opening normally on the device, without delays, and long lines like programming source code are wrapped to the next line, as it should be.

It seems that the complementary functions of calibre and Sony application did the job. calibre converted it to LRF and Sony's application reformatted it correctly before sending to the device, as already mentioned in other threads.

[dhbailey]

That's good to know -- thank you for sharing that with us. I'm happy you have gotten things to work properly now!

[eyp]

Thanks, I also buy Pragmatic books, so I'll try what you did...

[ooo]

Hey, could you post up some screenshots how the books look like on the reader? Thanks.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by eljacob

- I used calibre to convert from EPUB to LRF. The resulting file was much larger (2.8MB to 18MB). I transfered to the device using calibre, but couldn't open the book - after 30 minutes on the initial formatting screen I reset the device

- I imported the converted LRF file from calibre to Sony eBook Library, and used it to transfer the same file to the device. It took about 5 minutes to transfer, but it worked.

Is the resulting .lrf file still 18MB.?

Can anyone tell me if converting EBUP to LRF is always this much of a storage hog?

Was this a failure on Sony's part to not be able to properly display an EBUB book or a failure of the creator of the EPUB version for not using standards?

WDE.

[eljacob]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

Is the resulting .lrf file still 18MB.?

Can anyone tell me if converting EBUP to LRF is always this much of a storage hog?

Was this a failure on Sony's part to not be able to properly display an EBUB book or a failure of the creator of the EPUB version for not using standards?

WDE.

Yes, the resulting LRF is still 18MB.

I really don't know why the file is so larger, if the "useful" content is still the same – same book, same text.

I don't believe the LRF file format is so inefficient as to waste so much more space in tags than with the actual book's content – we are talking of an increase of 640%, or almost 7 bytes in tags for each byte of useful information.

I am guessing it is probably something to do with calibre's conversion algorithm. As any generic algorithm, capable of converting whatever structure the authors create in a book, it cannot be as efficient as someone manually formating a book and placing only the right tags at the right places.

Again, I am only guessing, as I have never seen neither these file format documentations nor calibre's source code.

And, by the way, even if the increased size is due to calibre's algorithm I cannot complain about the application. I really prefer to waste this space if the alternative is not being able to read the book...

I was also curious about why the EPUB version didn't display properly. I sent a message to Pragmatic informing the problem, and I will post the reply here if I ever receive it.

[eljacob]

Originally Posted by ooo

Hey, could you post up some screenshots how the books look like on the reader? Thanks.

Sure. I don't have the reader with me right now, but I will post some screenshots later, with both the EPUB and the LRF file versions.

[ooo]

Thanks I appreciate it.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by eljacob

....I was also curious about why the EPUB version didn't display properly. I sent a message to Pragmatic informing the problem, and I will post the reply here if I ever receive it.

Thanks for the info.

WDE.