PRS-900; can I buy ebooks from B&N?

[sp535]

I bought PRS-900 and waiting its arrival - and realized that I could not find an answer to the question above - can PRS-900 work with B&N online shop?

I found Sony ereader site has very limited selection -

kindly advise.

Thank you.

[Madam Broshkina]

B&N books will not work with the Sony unless you strip the DRM.

[sp535]

Thank you very much -
but does that mean there is a way to buy ebooks from BN and somehow modify DRM soon? does stripping DRM works for any book and is it legal to do so?

PRS-900 user

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by sp535

Thank you very much -
but does that mean there is a way to buy ebooks from BN and somehow modify DRM soon? does stripping DRM works for any book and is it legal to do so?

PRS-900 user

1. You can not buy eBooks from B&N directly from your reader; you'll need to use a computer
2. B&N sells books in two formats: PDB and EPUB. EPUB just requires DRM stripping, PDB will require both stripping and conversion.
3. There's no good way to know ahead of time whether the book you bought will be in PDB or EPUB
4. Stripping DRM is illegal in the US

[sp535]

wow - so many knowledgeable professionals here -

still not sure I understand the terminology you used -
what is Stripping and what is conversion - if I dare to ask? or is there any link to know what that is?

......
sorry for bothering..

[kennyc]

Yep, they will sell them to you. But unfortunately they won't work on your Sony and they won't refund your money either.

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by sp535

wow - so many knowledgeable professionals here -

still not sure I understand the terminology you used -
what is Stripping and what is conversion - if I dare to ask? or is there any link to know what that is?

......
sorry for bothering..

Striping is removing the DRM (Digital Rights Management). With DRM your book can only be read on the device it was designed for.

Conversion is converting your eBook into another format. For example Kindle books come in a PRC format and if you wanted to read the book on the Sony you would have to convert it to ePub or LRF format. Before you can do this you will have to remove the DRM. Calibre is an excellent program for converting your eBooks.

[lilac_jive]

Sony has a really good selection, in my opinion. You can check out what they have to offer by going to http://ebookstore.sony.com

It's been a while since I haven't found a book I was looking for on Sony.

[advocate2]

You should also look at Fictionwise which has an increasing selection of epub titles.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by sp535

I bought PRS-900 and waiting its arrival - and realized that I could not find an answer to the question above - can PRS-900 work with B&N online shop?

I found Sony ereader site has very limited selection -

kindly advise.

Thank you.

I think there is a pretty good chance that the Daily Edition will work with the B&N store (because it has Reader Mobile 9.1 firmware). I know it has the latest firmware because without it the Daily Edition couldn't do OTA downloads. And we can guess that the Epub sold at B&N need the latest firmware.

It's worth a shot, at least.

[rmm200]

Sounded to me like there was a lower-level problem, like the BN implementation of DRM was not compatible with the Sony implementation using ADE. If you can't get the book on your PC using the Sony PC software, it does not matter what your device firmware is.

Robert

[RonF]

I know a lot of people have had good luck with Kobo books. They may have what you are looking for without having to worry about the DRM...

[MerLock]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I think there is a pretty good chance that the Daily Edition will work with the B&N store (because it has Reader Mobile 9.1 firmware). I know it has the latest firmware because without it the Daily Edition couldn't do OTA downloads. And we can guess that the Epub sold at B&N need the latest firmware.

It's worth a shot, at least.

I think the problem is not knowing of a B&N book is sold in Epub or PDB format. I heard they recently switched back to PDB and I'm not sure how they are progressing towards going back to Epub.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

B&N books will not work with the Sony unless you strip the DRM.

How do you know, which format you get from B&N? I've bought 2 books yesterday for testing on my iRex 800. Both ended up being .pdb. That's okay, iRex 800 can read it, even with DRM. But I haven't found a way to tell before purchasing, could have been .epub as well.
Do you have to download a sample? Are samples available for all the books and are they always the same format you'll get later on?

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

How do you know, which format you get from B&N? I've bought 2 books yesterday for testing on my iRex 800. Both ended up being .pdb. That's okay, iRex 800 can read it, even with DRM. But I haven't found a way to tell before purchasing, could have been .epub as well.
Do you have to download a sample? Are samples available for all the books and are they always the same format you'll get later on?

I don't think there is a way to know beforehand. Furthermore, it's not very consistent even after the purchase. For instance, I bought Stuart Woods "Kisser" which was released last week from B&N and when I downloaded it using their desktop reader program it came as EPUB. When I downloaded it using the browser, I got the PDB file.