Mobipocket.com

[Hellmark]

You'd think, that two similar products, produced by the same company, would be compatible especially when the company used the one as a basis for the other.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

You'd think, that two similar products, produced by the same company, would be compatible especially when the company used the one as a basis for the other.

.... and if you do, you run the risk of having the same problem the OP ran in to. There's a lot of incompatibilities in life.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

I was *amazed* how painless the Calibre plugins are. Even those pesky Amazon .tpz files.

I did finally get the plugin to work with a little help from another member. Don't know why I had such trouble in the past (bad download of the plugins maybe?). Only other problem I've had since is that some books are too large to import into Calibre and hang the system up. Only 2-3 books out of all of them have had that problem though so I figure that's a good average.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

.... and if you do, you run the risk of having the same problem the OP ran in to. There's a lot of incompatibilities in life.

True though the Mobipocket/Amazon incompatibility doesn't make much sense I think. Amazon's DRM is based on Mobipocket's DRM (or so I understand) so it is hard to understand why they don't support both. To take the Opel vs. Corvette analogy to its logical conclusion they may be different makes of cars but all cars share some basic things in common like the use of a gasoline engine for example. Anyway with the right tools it becomes a moot problem.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

You'd think, that two similar products, produced by the same company, would be compatible especially when the company used the one as a basis for the other.

Amazon made them incompatible on purpose.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by crich70

Only other problem I've had since is that some books are too large to import into Calibre and hang the system up.

Whoa! How big is too big. My largest is over 29M and doesn't have problems.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Whoa! How big is too big. My largest is over 29M and doesn't have problems.

Well two files I had trouble with were smaller than that, but I couldn't figure out any other reason but the file size for there to be a problem. Most of my ebooks are 1mb or less in size so if it isn't a size issue I'm stumped as to what the problem is.
Though one collection of mystery stories/novels is some 40.5 mb.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well two files I had trouble with were smaller than that, but I couldn't figure out any other reason but the file size for there to be a problem. Most of my ebooks are 1mb or less in size so if it isn't a size issue I'm stumped as to what the problem is.

The best thing to do is to ask for help in the Calibre forum. Have you done so?

If these were PDF files, Calibre can crash when trying to read the metadata from certain PDFs. There is an easy workaround for that issue.

But whatever the problem, the Calibre forum is the place to ask for assistance with Calibre problems.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The best thing to do is to ask for help in the Calibre forum. Have you done so?

If these were PDF files, Calibre can crash when trying to read the metadata from certain PDFs. There is an easy workaround for that issue.

But whatever the problem, the Calibre forum is the place to ask for assistance with Calibre problems.

Point taken. Actually I wasn't intending on it sounding like I was asking for help so much as answering jgaiser's posting. Didn't mean to sound like I was mis-posting in the wrong forum.

[HarryT]

No, no, I wasn't criticising you in any way . Just saying that I'm sure you'll be able to solve your problem if you were to ask in the Calibre forum .

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by crich70

I did finally get the plugin to work with a little help from another member. Don't know why I had such trouble in the past (bad download of the plugins maybe?). Only other problem I've had since is that some books are too large to import into Calibre and hang the system up. Only 2-3 books out of all of them have had that problem though so I figure that's a good average.

This has happened to me - with very large books.
You can add large books (>20 MB) by running calibre in debug mode at a command line prompt:
1. In Windows - open the command prompt window (under Accessories)
2. Change to the directory where the pesky book is located (My Kindle)
3. Type: calibredb add -d plus the file name of the book (the B00000.azw file name - not the book title)
4. Be patient - calibre will "decode" your book (using any plug-ins you have installed) and then add it to the Library. This can take 15 - 20 minutes.

This has allowed me to add those huge "Collected Works" books to calibre - that hang the calibre GUI interface.

[the -d option is the duplicates option - it forces calibre to add the book even if there is already a book with the same title in your library]

[crich70]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, no, I wasn't criticising you in any way . Just saying that I'm sure you'll be able to solve your problem if you were to ask in the Calibre forum .

Oh, ok Harry. Sorry for the mis-understanding.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

This has happened to me - with very large books.
You can add large books (>20 MB) by running calibre in debug mode at a command line prompt:
1. In Windows - open the command prompt window (under Accessories)
2. Change to the directory where the pesky book is located (My Kindle)
3. Type: calibredb add -d plus the file name of the book (the B00000.azw file name - not the book title)
4. Be patient - calibre will "decode" your book (using any plug-ins you have installed) and then add it to the Library. This can take 15 - 20 minutes.

This has allowed me to add those huge "Collected Works" books to calibre - that hang the calibre GUI interface.

[the -d option is the duplicates option - it forces calibre to add the book even if there is already a book with the same title in your library]

Thanks poohbear. I'll give it a try, and hopefully it will load now. I bought the book from mobipocket and there is no identical title for Kindle that I've been able to find so the only place I've been able to read it is on my computer. Not ideal if you bought a ereader for that same purpose so you didn't have to lug a netbook around everywhere.