New to Calibre: having problems

[rsraman123]

Hi All,
I am new to this forum, as I just got my new Kindle and want to convert a few PDFs that I have to Kindle format. The issue that i have with Calibre is that once I start the conversion from PDF, the progress bar is stuck at 1% even after 15 mins of conversion. So I am wondering if I have something set up wrong? I followed all steps accurately. So does it really take that long for calibre to convert PDF to Kindle format (it says Mobi in this case) ? Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Thank you
RSR

[wvcherrybomb]

Hello and welcome to MR!!

You might try posting your question on the Calibre section and I'm sure some nice people will be along to help you soon.

Here is the link:

Calibre section

[Manichean]

15 minutes for a PDF conversion is not a very long time. As long as you don't have any errors, the conversion is doing it's job. Conversions can run up to a few hours, depending on the quality of the source document. Personally, I've had conversions run up to 24 hours and still finish.

[gweminence]

uh...no. That doesn't sound right to me. I've never had a conversion go more then 2-3 minutes. And a 24 hour conversion...not to be mean or anything, but what are you using, a 286?

[FF2]

Originally Posted by gweminence

uh...no. That doesn't sound right to me. I've never had a conversion go more then 2-3 minutes. And a 24 hour conversion...not to be mean or anything, but what are you using, a 286?

Haven't you seen the Dos 5.2 version of Calibre?

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by gweminence

but what are you using, a 286?

If rsraman123 isn't as old as me, and obviously you, they might not know what a 286 is....

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

If rsraman123 isn't as old as me, and obviously you, they might not know what a 286 is....

Hell - I can remember punched tape on a spool - that makes me really old!

But 24 hours does sound like a very long time, are you using an old computer rsraman123?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by gweminence

uh...no. That doesn't sound right to me. I've never had a conversion go more then 2-3 minutes.

Count yourself lucky.

Originally Posted by gweminence

And a 24 hour conversion...not to be mean or anything, but what are you using, a 286?

That isn't mean it's just ignorant.

There are many books that take hours to convert no matter what cpu you're running. The longest I've seen is 6 hours. These books all have their origin as a MS Word doc. The css files are literally 10s of thousands of lines long.

[gweminence]

Ouch.

Sorry, I don't know what you're converting, but I'm converted hundreds of documents from all formats, and never gone longer than 2-3 minutes. Ever.

[adad]

Paper tape and basic....did that. I have my old 8088 in the basement too.
I must be old.

As for the original question, try a couple of different PDF files and see if the issue is that PDF file or the Calipre.

Originally Posted by CazMar

Hell - I can remember punched tape on a spool - that makes me really old!

But 24 hours does sound like a very long time, are you using an old computer rsraman123?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by gweminence

Sorry, I don't know what you're converting

Yes, you do, because I told you. Books that started out as MS Word books, whether they be HTML, LIT, PDF etc... These were complicated books that @font-face was specified on each html page and MS word stuff was strewn about throughout the book.

Originally Posted by gweminence

but I'm converted hundreds of documents from all formats, and never gone longer than 2-3 minutes. Ever.

Manichean and I aren't debating whether some books take forever. We are just stating for the record that these books exist and do take forever. Repeating yourself won't change the facts.

At the risk of repeating myself you should count yourself lucky that in your limited set of conversions you haven't run into a book that takes hours to convert.

I've converted around 5000 books and have only run into maybe 5 books that took multiple hours to convert. Three of those times I just used a different source file.

To the OP, the way to know if a book is still converting is to look at the job details window. As a rule of thumb, if it hasn't stopped with an error it is most likely still converting the book.

[gweminence]

lol...too rich.

Tell you what. Give me your longest, worst conversion file. If it takes my computer as long as you say, I'll publicly eat crow. If not...not.

Because here's a simple fact: conversions are a function of processing power, at their most basic level, it's a matter of how many cpu cycles it takes to make said conversion. It isn't a matter of what kind of file it is. It's a matter of what kind of muscle you bring to bear on it, and the algorithms used by calibre.

So. Tell me how you'd like me to acquire your worst nightmare-file. I'll even post the job results so you won't cry foul.

Deal?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by gweminence

Tell you what. Give me your longest, worst conversion file. If it takes my computer as long as you say, I'll publicly eat crow. If not...not.

I only keep the final epub output in my library. The other formats are sent to the bit bucket. But I'm sure someone must have an example lying around.

I recall that the original epub to epub conversion of Eldest by Christopher Paolini was one that took hours, but now that it has been cleaned up a epub to epub conversion takes only 2 minutes.

Originally Posted by gweminence

Because here's a simple fact: conversions are a function of processing power, at their most basic level, it's a matter of how many cpu cycles it takes to make said conversion.

If this was so simple the epub to epub conversion that took hours the first time wouldn't take just 2 minutes the second time.

Originally Posted by gweminence

It isn't a matter of what kind of file it is. It's a matter of what kind of muscle you bring to bear on it, and the algorithms used by calibre.

This is mostly true. It isn't a matter of what kind of file it is but a matter of what kind of crap is in the file. I have seen epubs that had started as Word docs. These epubs had 100+ separate html files within and each html file had 20-30 thousand lines of style crap that calibre had to sort through, flatten out and reassemble.

I may be wrong but unless some recent optimization has been done in this area each conversion is handled by one process and utilizes essentially one core at a time.

You are right file type is not a determinate factor but experience shows what is in the file is critical to how long it takes.

[gweminence]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I only keep the final epub output in my library. The other formats are sent to the bit bucket. But I'm sure someone must have an example lying around.

Mmm. There's a reason for this, eh.

I recall that the original epub to epub conversion of Eldest by Christopher Paolini was one that took hours, but now that it has been cleaned up a epub to epub conversion takes only 2 minutes.

This is sort of like saying that the sun will come up tomorrow. It's been converted once, ergo the work has been done once, ergo, the second time you do it...hey! Less work!

I just converted eldest.pdf to mobi. Took 12 seconds. Let me know if you'd like me to post a screen shot, I'd be happy to.

Readers take note: there's a REASON he's 'deleted' the source file.

On another note, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to prove what a tool you are, if you hadn't stooped to insulting me.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by gweminence

Mmm. There's a reason for this, eh.

Yes there is a reason, my library is kept in Dropbox and the space is limited.

Originally Posted by gweminence

I just converted eldest.pdf to mobi. Took 12 seconds. Let me know if you'd like me to post a screen shot, I'd be happy to.

I'd say 97% of the books I convert take 6-8 seconds to convert this has nothing to do with the conversation.

Originally Posted by gweminence

Readers take note: there's a REASON he's 'deleted' the source file.

The reason was stated above, again letting your ignorance show.

Originally Posted by gweminence

On another note, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to prove what a tool you are, if you hadn't stooped to insulting me.

I only stated that you weren't mean just ignorant. This is not an insult, it is just the state of being which you are apparently still wallowing in at this moment. The info I have presented is common knowledge on this forum and if you weren't so new to this forum you wouldn't be ignorant of this very fact.