K5 FW 5.x ScreenSavers Hack - Page 131

NiLuJe · 04-16-2016, 11:23 PM

For reference, the issue with @topquark's specific book is that it's rather large. Since we basically read() the file in full, that probably fails on the Kindle for lack of RAM.

topquark · 04-16-2016, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

For reference, the issue with @topquark's specific book is that it's rather large. Since we basically read() the file in full, that probably fails on the Kindle for lack of RAM.

Thanks for this. I have no idea why a 20+ MB epub converts into a monster 130+ MB AZW3. But then that's another issue altogether I guess.

NiLuJe · 04-17-2016, 12:04 AM

@topquark: Large amount of mostly empty (i.e., white) PNG images, which compresses well as a ZIP (ePub), but apparently not so much as huffdisc (I don't actually remember to which extent Calibre even tries to compress stuff, not much, IIRC).

Anyway, the better solution, a round of optipng on the lot of them, yields a tremendous amount of space saved (130MB -> 11MB). The default aggressive bitdepth reduction settings might not play well with every reader out there, but I'm not versed enough in PNG capabilities of various readers to actually tell.

topquark · 04-17-2016, 12:41 AM

Brilliant lead! That did it. I compressed the large PNG images losslessly via Calibre's ebook editor and voila, the 130+ MB monster is now just 14+ MB. Best of all, the cover now properly shows up as a screensaver, which totally validates your explanation that Kindle couldn't handle a book that size. Thank you so much!

plutarion · 04-23-2016, 04:34 PM

Hi.

I have troubles with the covers.
I transferred new books onto the device, azw3 format.
The cover file is in the folder and my kindle touch already did covers with mobi format.
But there are no covers with the azw3 format.

I already restarted it and resetted the framework, but no covers.

How can I issue the cover creation manually?

NiLuJe · 04-23-2016, 11:55 PM

@plutarion: Usual suspects: Make sure the hack is up to date (i.e., snapshots). Make sure the date/time is sane. Make sure those books are actually sane, too, in terms of metadata pertaining to the cover. And double-check that they're not humongously huge.

(Processing manually is technically possible, but if the automatic processing fails, there's a good chance it's for a good reason, and doing it manually wouldn't help).

knc1 · 04-24-2016, 01:20 AM

Plus, that post is about a Kobo Mini, not a Kindle according to the poster's info box.

thirdfloornorth · 04-29-2016, 05:23 AM

Alright guys, I've dealt with it and dealt with it, but now I have to ask, to see if there is a solution.

I keep losing the screensaver hack. It'll work fine for days, weeks even. Then one day, it'll be back to the stock Amazon screensaver.

Sometimes doing a hard reboot solves it. Sometimes it doesn't, and I have to uninstall/reinstall python and the screen saver hack to make it work again.

I have found no rhyme or reason to it. My time is sane. It will happen to a book I'm currently reading (the cover will show up just fine at first, so it's not only when I change books). I have found no instigating reason for it to break.

It's a Paperwhite 2, on 5.7.4.

shamanNS · 04-29-2016, 08:11 AM

Probably because your Kindle firmware keeps updating?

Next time SS hack stops working check the firmware version number in Device Info.

knc1 · 04-29-2016, 08:16 AM

Wait for 5.7.4.1 to hit your device, and then fix it.

BrentB · 05-02-2016, 10:30 AM

Is there a brief tutorial on using the Cover Mode Behavior Screen? I'm a little confused about the buttons and what happens when I press them. For instance, the top button now shows "Letterbox (Default)". Is that the mode I am now in, or if I tap that button will I THEN be in that mode? Because when I do tap it, and then come back to the Cover Mode Behavior screen the top button now shows "White Borders (Default)". Also, when you tap some of the top three buttons, it seem to change what shows on the other two top buttons as well.

NiLuJe · 05-02-2016, 11:09 AM

@BrentB: As all KUAL buttons, those are *target* buttons. (i.e., they say what *will* happen if you tap them). Meaning you can only devise the *current* behavior by knowing all possible settings and proceeding by elimination (what's not shown is the current behavior).

Granted, it's far from optimal, but this 'radio button' usage of KUAL with more than two choices is fairly minimal, even if I'm prone to use it ;p.

The added trickery in this very specific instance is that the new behavior only applies to newly processed covers... So once you've made a choice, it might be a good idea to clear the cover cache right away to see how it actually behaves

.

For reference, the full set of choices (with a star to denote the defaults) is:

White Borders (*) OR Black Borders
Letterbox (*) OR Stretch OR Crop
PInfo Watermark OR No PInfo Watermark (*)
No Dithering OR FS Dithering (*) OR Riemersma Dithering
Periodicals OR No Periodicals (*)

BrentB · 05-02-2016, 03:35 PM

Thanks. I thought that might be the case, but was uncertain. I did see in a previous post to clear the cover cache after making changes, though. I'll just have to play with it to see what I prefer.

Just a suggestion, but would it be possible to put a delay option to make the book cover display for a second or two after the Kindle case is opened or the power button is pressed to wake the Kindle? I have taken to pressing the power button before I close my origami case so that the book cover is displayed, making it seem just a little bit more like a "real" book. It would be cool to have the same option when opening the case, if it is even possible.

If only we could have a "smell" hack to make the Kindle smell like a "real" book...

NiLuJe · 05-02-2016, 04:01 PM

@BrentB: That has come up a few times, and AFAIR, not really, not without basically doing the screensaver handling ourselves, which is out of scope of this hack (and, more importantly, pretty iffy, once you take the SO issue into account).

knc1 · 05-02-2016, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentB

- - - -
If only we could have a "smell" hack to make the Kindle smell like a "real" book...

Buy a K4 -
Then wait for the glue that holds it together to age.

04-17-2016, 12:04 AM	#1953
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@topquark: Large amount of mostly empty (i.e., white) PNG images, which compresses well as a ZIP (ePub), but apparently not so much as huffdisc (I don't actually remember to which extent Calibre even tries to compress stuff, not much, IIRC). Anyway, the better solution, a round of optipng on the lot of them, yields a tremendous amount of space saved (130MB -> 11MB). The default aggressive bitdepth reduction settings might not play well with every reader out there, but I'm not versed enough in PNG capabilities of various readers to actually tell. Last edited by NiLuJe; 04-17-2016 at 12:10 AM.

04-29-2016, 05:23 AM	#1958
thirdfloornorth Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 34 Join Date: Feb 2016 Device: Paperwhite 2	Keep Losing My Screensavers Alright guys, I've dealt with it and dealt with it, but now I have to ask, to see if there is a solution. I keep losing the screensaver hack. It'll work fine for days, weeks even. Then one day, it'll be back to the stock Amazon screensaver. Sometimes doing a hard reboot solves it. Sometimes it doesn't, and I have to uninstall/reinstall python and the screen saver hack to make it work again. I have found no rhyme or reason to it. My time is sane. It will happen to a book I'm currently reading (the cover will show up just fine at first, so it's not only when I change books). I have found no instigating reason for it to break. It's a Paperwhite 2, on 5.7.4.

05-02-2016, 11:09 AM	#1962
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@BrentB: As all KUAL buttons, those are target buttons. (i.e., they say what will happen if you tap them). Meaning you can only devise the current behavior by knowing all possible settings and proceeding by elimination (what's not shown is the current behavior). Granted, it's far from optimal, but this 'radio button' usage of KUAL with more than two choices is fairly minimal, even if I'm prone to use it ;p. The added trickery in this very specific instance is that the new behavior only applies to newly processed covers... So once you've made a choice, it might be a good idea to clear the cover cache right away to see how it actually behaves . For reference, the full set of choices (with a star to denote the defaults) is: White Borders () OR Black Borders Letterbox () OR Stretch OR Crop PInfo Watermark OR No PInfo Watermark () No Dithering OR FS Dithering () OR Riemersma Dithering Periodicals OR No Periodicals () Last edited by NiLuJe; 05-02-2016 at 11:14 AM.*

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04-16-2016, 11:23 PM	#1951
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	For reference, the issue with @topquark's specific book is that it's rather large. Since we basically read() the file in full, that probably fails on the Kindle for lack of RAM.

04-17-2016, 12:41 AM	#1954
topquark Connoisseur Posts: 58 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: K3, PW2	Brilliant lead! That did it. I compressed the large PNG images losslessly via Calibre's ebook editor and voila, the 130+ MB monster is now just 14+ MB. Best of all, the cover now properly shows up as a screensaver, which totally validates your explanation that Kindle couldn't handle a book that size. Thank you so much!

04-23-2016, 04:34 PM	#1955
plutarion Member Posts: 14 Karma: 83458 Join Date: Oct 2013 Device: different	Hi. I have troubles with the covers. I transferred new books onto the device, azw3 format. The cover file is in the folder and my kindle touch already did covers with mobi format. But there are no covers with the azw3 format. I already restarted it and resetted the framework, but no covers. How can I issue the cover creation manually?

04-23-2016, 11:55 PM	#1956
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@plutarion: Usual suspects: Make sure the hack is up to date (i.e., snapshots). Make sure the date/time is sane. Make sure those books are actually sane, too, in terms of metadata pertaining to the cover. And double-check that they're not humongously huge. (Processing manually is technically possible, but if the automatic processing fails, there's a good chance it's for a good reason, and doing it manually wouldn't help).

04-24-2016, 01:20 AM	#1957
knc1 Going Viral Posts: 17,212 Karma: 18210809 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Central Texas Device: No K1, PW2, KV, KOA	Plus, that post is about a Kobo Mini, not a Kindle according to the poster's info box.

04-29-2016, 08:11 AM	#1959
shamanNS Wizard Posts: 1,118 Karma: 12345678 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5, Kobo Libra 2, Kindle PW1	Probably because your Kindle firmware keeps updating? Next time SS hack stops working check the firmware version number in Device Info.

04-29-2016, 08:16 AM	#1960
knc1 Going Viral Posts: 17,212 Karma: 18210809 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Central Texas Device: No K1, PW2, KV, KOA	Wait for 5.7.4.1 to hit your device, and then fix it.

05-02-2016, 10:30 AM	#1961
BrentB Connoisseur Posts: 52 Karma: 30012 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle Voyage	Is there a brief tutorial on using the Cover Mode Behavior Screen? I'm a little confused about the buttons and what happens when I press them. For instance, the top button now shows "Letterbox (Default)". Is that the mode I am now in, or if I tap that button will I THEN be in that mode? Because when I do tap it, and then come back to the Cover Mode Behavior screen the top button now shows "White Borders (Default)". Also, when you tap some of the top three buttons, it seem to change what shows on the other two top buttons as well.

05-02-2016, 03:35 PM	#1963
BrentB Connoisseur Posts: 52 Karma: 30012 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle Voyage	Thanks. I thought that might be the case, but was uncertain. I did see in a previous post to clear the cover cache after making changes, though. I'll just have to play with it to see what I prefer. Just a suggestion, but would it be possible to put a delay option to make the book cover display for a second or two after the Kindle case is opened or the power button is pressed to wake the Kindle? I have taken to pressing the power button before I close my origami case so that the book cover is displayed, making it seem just a little bit more like a "real" book. It would be cool to have the same option when opening the case, if it is even possible. If only we could have a "smell" hack to make the Kindle smell like a "real" book...

05-02-2016, 04:01 PM	#1964
NiLuJe BLAM! Posts: 13,506 Karma: 26047202 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Paris, France Device: Kindle 2i, 3g, 4, 5w, PW, PW2, PW5; Kobo H2O, Forma, Elipsa, Sage, C2E	@BrentB: That has come up a few times, and AFAIR, not really, not without basically doing the screensaver handling ourselves, which is out of scope of this hack (and, more importantly, pretty iffy, once you take the SO issue into account).

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