Looking to confirm DRM compatibility

[sbtx99]

Originally Posted by pink_squirrels

Okay, I understand that we will not be able to purchase barnes and noble ebooks for the Sony PRS 600, but my question is- will we be able to in the future?

And, what other websites/ebook suppliers besides Sony can we use for the sony ereaders?
I am looking to buy the sony touch ereader, and so far the only names I have heard floating around are the sony store (obviously), and fictionwise...

Does anyone know of any other websites I can buy books on? And are fictionwise books compatible with sony readers?

Thanks a ton for your help!

pink_squirrels,

The PRS-600 should support both ePub and PDF (with or without DRM). My PRS-505 and PRS-300 support both formats. If you go to ebookprice.info, you can search by author or title, and it will give you a price comparison by format. The search results also include a tab for the Sony reader that show the ebook formats compatible for the device. Their search results aren't always accurate, but it will give you an idea as to who the major ebook retailers are. (e.g., Fictionwise or Books on Board or Powells might not turn up in the results for a specific ebook, but when I go to those sites I can find the ebook there.)

Fictionwise doesn't sell Adobe ePub (DRM), but they do have some Adobe PDF (DRM) which they call Secure Abode. They also have multiformat ebooks without DRM. If you buy one of their multiformat ebooks, you can download it in any of the available formats, including ePub and lrf.

I prefer ePub to PDF, but PDF is Ok. The newer Sony devices offer reflow support for PDF files so you can resize the text. But the pagination is sometimes strange on the reflowed PDF files. So I usually read PDF in landscape mode instead of resizing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kennyc

So epub format is already available on B&N ?

Not AFAIK; B&N are currently selling eReader format books. They're announced they'll be switching to ePub at some point in the future, but haven't done so yet, to the best of my knowledge.

[Katti's Cat]

Stupid question coming up

Why would B&N sell in a format that cannot be read on all readers? Wouldn't that be like a fuel company selling only to drivers of let's say Mercedes?

[nikkie]

@gcastro Great!!! That's what I was hoping to hear. As there are no legal or technical problems with Sony consuming B&N's DRM, it's all up to them. If they are working on it, I'm a happy camper!

@Katti's Cat Not a stupid question. There are two reasons.

1. B&N designed a new DRM implementation using Adobe's SDK that can do more than the old one does. That's why you can lend books to friends and whatnot.
2. Until the other hardware makers update their firmware to include B&N's update, the old readers will not be able to read B&N DRM'd files.

On a somewhat related note, Amazon may well stick with a DRM that no one else can use because they have the biggest ebook library and that's a huge selling point for the kindle. Other manufacturers seemed to have picked up on this and that's why they standardized (or tried to) on ePub with Adobe DRM.

@kennyc and HarryT: That is correct, B&N is not using ePub yet. Neither is Sony. (I've been buying files from all of the different libraries and testing them with different software configurations in preparation for my ereader purchase.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

Stupid question coming up

Why would B&N sell in a format that cannot be read on all readers? Wouldn't that be like a fuel company selling only to drivers of let's say Mercedes?

What did you have in mind? There is no format that "can be read on all readers".

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not AFAIK; B&N are currently selling eReader format books. They're announced they'll be switching to ePub at some point in the future, but haven't done so yet, to the best of my knowledge.

That's what I understand as well, which makes the original question null and void until it happens.

We can speculate til the cows come home, but the answers that have been forthcoming from B&N have been misleading at best already.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by nikkie

...

@kennyc and HarryT: That is correct, B&N is not using ePub yet. Neither is Sony. (I've been buying files from all of the different libraries and testing them with different software configurations in preparation for my ereader purchase.)

And that's the issue. Your initial post seemed to indicate that you'd downloaded an epub book from B&N(or so it seemed) -- as far as I know they are not available yet, only eReader files. (then someone said they'd downloaded epub from the Sony Story which is not there yet either) This all gets very confusing if you do not specify precisely the format and what you are trying to do.

The current B&N eReader software does not support epub, only eReader.

There has been much discussion about the B&N Epub, particularly with regard to the "lending" of books. This feature may change the implementation of epub format and it may or may not be compatible with readers other than the nook.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

Stupid question coming up

Why would B&N sell in a format that cannot be read on all readers? Wouldn't that be like a fuel company selling only to drivers of let's say Mercedes?

And that is hopefully what epub format will become -- the standard, but it's far from there yet.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What did you have in mind? There is no format that "can be read on all readers".

Harry - i might have misunderstood - but i thought B&N didn't have their own reader on the market. Based on that they would rely on owners on other models to purchase their eBooks. But I might just be misinformed.

btw - how do you do that quote thingy?

[HarryT]

A bit of history:

Back in the mists of time, there was a very popular bookreading program called "eReader". It was supported on pretty much all the popular handheld devices of the time - Palm machines, Pocket PCs, etc. The eReader format (and the associated bookstore) was owned by "Fictionwise".

B&N then bought Fictionwise, and the eReader format with it. Thus, when they created their eBook store, they naturally used the eReader format for it. So, it can be used with handheld devices, mobile phones, PCs, etc, but not with any currently available eInk Reader, although, as you may know, B&N are about to launch their own reading device in the USA called the "nook", which will support eReader format.

[Katti's Cat]

Thanks for that Harry - seems I need to go back to the start of the forum to avoid looking like total noob all the time

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

Thanks for that Harry - seems I need to go back to the start of the forum to avoid looking like total noob all the time

Not at all - the best way to learn is to ask questions! We all have to start somewhere.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not at all - the best way to learn is to ask questions! We all have to start somewhere.

Exactly!

[Katti's Cat]

What you mean 'we all have to start somewhere'? Aren't we born as geniuses. I know I must have been because first mum and now hubby call me 'now-it-all'

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by kennyc

And that's the issue. Your initial post seemed to indicate that you'd downloaded an epub book from B&N(or so it seemed) -- as far as I know they are not available yet, only eReader files. (then someone said they'd downloaded epub from the Sony Story which is not there yet either) This all gets very confusing if you do not specify precisely the format and what you are trying to do.

Yeah, I had (wrongly) assumed that the file I had downloaded from B&N was a DRM'd ePub. (The extension was .pdb and I thought that epub when DRM'd would have that extension. Stupid me. ) When it didn't work in Sony's software (which claims to support ePub, it even has a button for it), I assumed that Sony's software wasn't recognizing the DRM because it was B&N's new DRM. At this point I realize what I actually got from B&N was a DRM eReader file.

The Sony books had an extension of lrx, definitely not an epub.

So at this point neither maker is releasing books in ePub, that I have found.