Best format to buy books for Sony PRS-500

superglide · 12-14-2008, 11:56 AM

I'm looking for the best format to buy books for my Sony PRS-500. I don't want to start yet another DRM format discussion, but if I can't remove the DRM, I'm not interested in the format. I have books from when I used my Palm TX for reading, and I have used ereader2html.py to unDRM and convert them. This seems to work well. If it weren't for the unDRM capability, those books would be useless on my current reader. Sony lrs is undesireable for this reason.

Lit also works well with convertlit, but it requires using an authorized windows machine for the downloading of the books from the vendor. This is a significant disadvantage because I can't just buy and download a book while on travel since my only windows box is a desktop machine in my basement. Using some random computer, at a friend's house for example, would require installing MS Reader and authorizing the machine etc. So, lit is off the list for me.

I'm looking the rationale behind the following.

From the Calibre FAQ:

What are the best source formats to convert?
In order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, EPUB, HTML, PRC, RTF, TXT, PDF

Lit is a nice package with html inside, as is epub. Is the conversion software just more mature than the epub, or is lit inherently better for some reason?

I haven't tried mobi.

It's not clear what prc is. It could be any number of palm formats.

I know why pdf is last, it's a page layout format and the pages are usually too big for most ebook devices.

I have been seeing reader resets when using epubs directly on the reader, but I don't recall ever seeing them when using lrf. This is true for books converted with calibre as well as periodicals downloaded and converted by calibre.

What about the ereader format? It isn't even on the list, but books I have converted seem to work well. Does it have some limitations like small images or no tables or some other shortcoming that makes it less desireable?

Thanks for any inputs on these questions.

kovidgoyal · 12-14-2008, 05:46 PM

EPUB is lower than lit because support for it is not as mature, and in any case you dont need to convert EPUB, you can just read it directly.

Calibre doesn't support ereader directly, which is why it's not on the list

Andurian · 12-14-2008, 07:51 PM

I have had pretty well flawless results converting from .rtf and .html - plus I can muck about with the formatting as I please before sending it to Calibre to convert.

Really, though, Calibre converts almost everything (that it can convert) without any problems. If the competing formats are "on the list" I'd be more concerned with price and avoiding DRM.

Alfy · 12-16-2008, 03:26 PM

Isn't prc the same as mobi? I'm surprised to see the two formats at two different places in the list...

kovidgoyal · 12-16-2008, 03:33 PM

No MOBI is a more evolved version of PRC, usually has better metadata and larger pictures.

garygibsonsf · 12-17-2008, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

EPUB is lower than lit because support for it is not as mature, and in any case you dont need to convert EPUB, you can just read it directly.

Calibre doesn't support ereader directly, which is why it's not on the list

Unless something's changed recently, I think epub is only readable on the 505, not the 500...?

DDHarriman · 12-17-2008, 03:16 PM

Correct: 505, 700 and the Bebook (and clones I think).

superglide · 12-17-2008, 09:12 PM

Thanks Kovid, epub support in calibre being less mature than lit support is the sort of info I was looking for.

I have been reading an epub book on my PRS-505 for hours. The book was converted from ereader to html and from html to epub using calibre 0.4.114 and it seems to be working much better than the previous version of calibre. No more reader resets, so the fix in the changelog seems to be working, even though the log says the fix is for downloaded news.

I also saw in another thread that lit is preferred to mobi because lit uses html 4 + css whereas mobi is html 3.2 plus some custom markup. So, points for lit, but I still don't want lit except as a last resort for books that might be available only in that format.

As a long time palm user, I know that prc is a generic format (palm resource code) and can contain almost anything. It commonly contains Palm text documents which I'm assuming is what calibre is expecting since prc is on the list of extensions when adding books.

HarryT · 12-18-2008, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfy

Isn't prc the same as mobi? I'm surprised to see the two formats at two different places in the list...

PRC files can be MobiPocket files, but they can also be absolutely anything else. The "PRC" extension merely specifies a "Palm Resource" container format and tells you nothing about what's actually in the file.

12-14-2008, 11:56 AM	#1
superglide Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Massachusetts Device: PRS-505	Best format to buy books for Sony PRS-500 I'm looking for the best format to buy books for my Sony PRS-500. I don't want to start yet another DRM format discussion, but if I can't remove the DRM, I'm not interested in the format. I have books from when I used my Palm TX for reading, and I have used ereader2html.py to unDRM and convert them. This seems to work well. If it weren't for the unDRM capability, those books would be useless on my current reader. Sony lrs is undesireable for this reason. Lit also works well with convertlit, but it requires using an authorized windows machine for the downloading of the books from the vendor. This is a significant disadvantage because I can't just buy and download a book while on travel since my only windows box is a desktop machine in my basement. Using some random computer, at a friend's house for example, would require installing MS Reader and authorizing the machine etc. So, lit is off the list for me. I'm looking the rationale behind the following. From the Calibre FAQ: What are the best source formats to convert? In order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, EPUB, HTML, PRC, RTF, TXT, PDF Lit is a nice package with html inside, as is epub. Is the conversion software just more mature than the epub, or is lit inherently better for some reason? I haven't tried mobi. It's not clear what prc is. It could be any number of palm formats. I know why pdf is last, it's a page layout format and the pages are usually too big for most ebook devices. I have been seeing reader resets when using epubs directly on the reader, but I don't recall ever seeing them when using lrf. This is true for books converted with calibre as well as periodicals downloaded and converted by calibre. What about the ereader format? It isn't even on the list, but books I have converted seem to work well. Does it have some limitations like small images or no tables or some other shortcoming that makes it less desireable? Thanks for any inputs on these questions.

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12-14-2008, 05:46 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,209 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	EPUB is lower than lit because support for it is not as mature, and in any case you dont need to convert EPUB, you can just read it directly. Calibre doesn't support ereader directly, which is why it's not on the list

12-14-2008, 07:51 PM	#3
Andurian You really should try it! Posts: 57 Karma: 137 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: PRS-500	I have had pretty well flawless results converting from .rtf and .html - plus I can muck about with the formatting as I please before sending it to Calibre to convert. Really, though, Calibre converts almost everything (that it can convert) without any problems. If the competing formats are "on the list" I'd be more concerned with price and avoiding DRM.

12-16-2008, 03:26 PM	#4
Alfy Liseur de Bonne Aventure Posts: 374 Karma: 2176666 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Paris, France Device: PRS T1	Isn't prc the same as mobi? I'm surprised to see the two formats at two different places in the list...

12-16-2008, 03:33 PM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,209 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	No MOBI is a more evolved version of PRC, usually has better metadata and larger pictures.

12-17-2008, 03:16 PM	#7
DDHarriman Guru Posts: 860 Karma: 4380 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Almada, Portugal Device: Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS 505, Kindle DXG and Samsung Galaxy Note	Correct: 505, 700 and the Bebook (and clones I think).

12-17-2008, 09:12 PM	#8
superglide Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Massachusetts Device: PRS-505	Thanks Kovid, epub support in calibre being less mature than lit support is the sort of info I was looking for. I have been reading an epub book on my PRS-505 for hours. The book was converted from ereader to html and from html to epub using calibre 0.4.114 and it seems to be working much better than the previous version of calibre. No more reader resets, so the fix in the changelog seems to be working, even though the log says the fix is for downloaded news. I also saw in another thread that lit is preferred to mobi because lit uses html 4 + css whereas mobi is html 3.2 plus some custom markup. So, points for lit, but I still don't want lit except as a last resort for books that might be available only in that format. As a long time palm user, I know that prc is a generic format (palm resource code) and can contain almost anything. It commonly contains Palm text documents which I'm assuming is what calibre is expecting since prc is on the list of extensions when adding books.

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