Help me!!

[iqapple]

I want to buy a e-reader now,but I haven't decided which one to buy.
I have a lot of PDF files so the supporting of PDF is important.
Because I am very sensitive to my eyes,I don't read books on my laptop computer.Which one is the best to protect eyes and can support PDF files better?(also can support Chinese words)

By the way,comparing with LCD(14 inch),E-ink Technology is better for protecting eyes? How about comparing with reading page?

[TimCotterill]

Have a read of the device comparison matrix on the Wiki part of this site, it's really very good. I just bought the BE Book from Endless Ideas BV, and I'm very happy with it because it reads just about every format under the sun.

I too have very sensitive eyes and the last thin I want to do after all day looking at a computer screen is look at another one. However e-ink/e-paper is not backlit and has not strained my eyes at all.

I just bought Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban the other day, and I read it cover to cover, strait through (took about 6-7 hours on the plane and it was fine).

PDFs are a difficult format to re-size and I would encourage you to copy and paste the contents of your PDFs into rtf or txt or doc formats (as long as it's legal for you to do that). =;->

The The BE Book is excellent and I'm very happy with it, but I live outside the US so I can't compare with the Sony or Kindle as we Foreigners are not permitted to own them.

Hope this helps, and good luck

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TimCotterill

I just bought Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban the other day, and I read it cover to cover, strait through (took about 6-7 hours on the plane and it was fine).

I'm sorry - you bought a Harry Potter eBook? No Harry Potter book is legally available as an eBook because Ms. Rowling is vehemently opposed to their release as eBooks. Where did you buy it from?

[pdurrant]

I'd love to know too -- if they were available legally, I'd buy them (well, unless they were really silly prices).

Hmmm... "Harry Potter and the Unauthorised eBook" :-)

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm sorry - you bought a Harry Potter eBook? No Harry Potter book is legally available as an eBook because Ms. Rowling is vehemently opposed to their release as eBooks. Where did you buy it from?

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by iqapple

I want to buy a e-reader now,but I haven't decided which one to buy.
I have a lot of PDF files so the supporting of PDF is important.
Because I am very sensitive to my eyes,I don't read books on my laptop computer.Which one is the best to protect eyes and can support PDF files better?(also can support Chinese words)

By the way,comparing with LCD(14 inch),E-ink Technology is better for protecting eyes? How about comparing with reading page?

Getting back on topic...

I can highly recommend the BeBook reader from Endless Ideas BV (see mybebook.com).

This is a truly great reader - I have put a very detailed review of my initial experiences with the BeBook in this forum here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30913

I was initially going to buy a Sony PRS-505 from B&H in the US (around $315 with shipping to Europe, and maybe some import duty), or possibly from Waterstones UK (around £200 plus shipping within EU). With the €25 on the BeBook you will be looking at €300 (which could be €50 more than the Sony). But I honestly think it is worth considering the extra expense!

The Sony is definitely nicer looking than any other reader, except maybe the iLiad. But the limitations in formats on any other reader, especially the Sony, just doesn't make sense. I was going to accept converting any eBooks I got to LRF format, since I often convert to FB2 anyway (personal preference, but FB2 is an open format). But then I realised the Sony Connect shop is also unavailable to non-US residents. How useless is that?

With the BeBook you have a mountain of formats that work - I've tried most of them, and the only one that you could be concerned with is PDF. People complain a lot about PDFs on eReaders, but the BeBook does a very good job handling them. But PDF display is problematic on any 6" eInk device (especially with PDFs formated for A4). There are 3 preset zooms, and the highest will usually display your PDF in a half-page landscape format, which is perfectly readable and quite clear (depending on source, of course - I generate PDF from work documents in Word, PPT and Excel format, then dump them on the BeBook).

I haven't tried this yet, but it is also possible to print to PDF in sizes more appropriate to the BeBook, using apps like CutePDF - I am keen to try soon. But for work docs I prefer to keep the A4 format, as this is the source document page size. As I said, I find the zoom functions adequate to handle most PDFs I have.

I have also tried various eBooks on the Mobi reader and find it quite good. To be honest, the FB2 Reader is better, but if you want a wide range of choices for eBooks, Mobi is the way to go. The reader can also handle Palm Doc and Microsoft LIT eBooks!

In summary, the BeBook for me has handled Mobi/PRC, Palm Docs, TXT, RTF, native MS Word docs (including images), MS PPT slides (although this has been hit and miss for me), PDF, Microsoft LIT, html, chm, bmp, rar, jpg, zip, png, mp3, gif, rtf, tiff, wol, fb2, djvu, epub. Only Mobi can support DRM eBooks at this time (i.e. epub, LIT, etc. DRM books will not be read yet). I can confirm most of them work, as I've tried at least one file from each format.

The BeBook tech team has a great track record of delivering the updates they've promised (e.g. Mobi and Mobi DRM implementation as of 1 Oct 2008). SO you can have some confidence that if there is a format not in the list yet, if you ask it could be there soon (although the list seems pretty comprehensive to me, except for DRM support on some formats - but DRM sucks anyway!).

Check out the Hanlin V3 forum here (no BeBook dedicated forum yet) and the mybebook support forum page for more info. PM me or reply here if you have more specific questions. Then if you want to take the plunge, get the €25 discount by using my e-mail address during checkout in the Coupon section:

mybebook@hotmail.com

Or there are other e-mails people have posted on this site that should also give you the discount.

Best of luck!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by TimCotterill

but I live outside the US so I can't compare with the Sony or Kindle as we Foreigners are not permitted to own them.

The Sony's available in the UK (No idea why they don't like Australia though!)

[iqapple]

to orwell2k :

the bebook is same as the hanlin v3,but i heard of that hanlin v3 can't support PDFs perfectly if they are larger than A4.Can you show me some pics of it's screen when opens a A4 pdf file?.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by iqapple

to orwell2k :

the bebook is same as the hanlin v3,but i heard of that hanlin v3 can't support PDFs perfectly if they are larger than A4.Can you show me some pics of it's screen when opens a A4 pdf file?.

See the attached pics of A4 PDF displayed on BeBook - I purposely chose a reasonably complex document with graphics and text to push the BeBook to the limits!

Plus just for comparison I included an example of a PDF eBook (text only) formatted correctly for the BeBook screen size (an obvious improvement in readability) - you can use various tools to achieve this reformatting (e.g. CutePDF), but for A4 source documents (like MS Word docs) I prefer to keep the PDF in A4 to preserve formatting.

When using the BeBook for PDF, there are generally 3 zoom levels:

z1 - default or Zoom level 1 is whole page (usually difficult to read as it is A4 shrunk down to fit the BeBook display).

z2 - Zoom level 2 is an intermediate zoom that essentially crops the left/right margins and the trailing portion of the page, so that you have to turn the page to read the last few lines (the last 2 lines are greyed so when you get to them you realise there is more over the page - a nice feature!), this zoom level is not bad for PDFs with decent sized text.

z3 - max Zoom or Zoom level 3 displays one A4 page in two halves, in landscape mode, so you turn the device sideways and read the top half, then page to the bottom half, then to the next page top, etc. Images in the centre of pages are split. This zoom level will display nearly all A4 PDFs in a readable format for the BeBook, essentially doubling the number of "pages" in the document.

The image descriptions are as follows (please excuse the glare from an overhead light - I couldn't quite get the angle right to eliminate it completely!):

20081028_BeBook_A4PDF_z1.jpg (A4 PDF at min zoom - whole page)

20081028_BeBook_A4PDF_z2.jpg (A4 PDF at zoom level 2 - side margins cropped and page footer on next "page")

20081028_BeBook_A4PDF_z3a.jpg (A4 PDF at max zoom - top half of page)

20081028_BeBook_A4PDF_z3b.jpg (A4 PDF at max zoom - bottom half of page)

20081028_BeBook_PDF.jpg (BeBook formatted PDF eBook - nice to read!)

20081028_BeBook_A4PDF__z2.jpg (A4 PDF at zoom level 2 - side margins cropped and page footer on next "page")

20081028_BeBook_A4PDF__z3.jpg (A4 PDF at max zoom - top half of page)

First of all I do not claim that the BeBook is perfect for PDFs, and it never will be with a 6" (91mm x 122mm) screen trying to reproduce an A4 page (210mm x 297mm). Whilst not perfect (degradation in image quality, text font not ideal, A4 sizing not ideal) I feel the BeBook does a pretty damn food job, and I actually find it quite comfortable to read. Mostly text-only A4 PDFs look even better, of course depending on source (GIGO always applies - "garbage in, garbage out").

I hope this helps. Unless you go for an iRex DR1000S, I think the BeBook does PDF pretty well, remembering it's never going to be the ideal format for a small screen on any reader.

Cheers!