PRS-650 Realistic number of books on 650

edbro · 11-06-2010, 07:01 AM

I just got my PRS-650 last night and I love it! I'm coming from a PRS-505 so with the extra storage I thought it would be great to load my entire library of 2700 epubs. I was impressed with how fast the device indexed after disconnecting. But, I found that number to be unwieldy on the device. Every time I hit the home button in a book there was a very significant delay before it would do anything. I didn't even get the busy icon. So, I deleted all the books and transferred about 300. Now it is pretty snappy.

How many books are the rest of you putting on the device. What is a reasonable number without it bogging down?

doreenjoy · 11-06-2010, 05:02 PM

I have 265 on mine right now and it's very speedy.

SkyDream · 11-06-2010, 05:24 PM

Today it's about 100 books i'm planning to read in the next weeks and months.

elizilla · 11-06-2010, 05:49 PM

edbro,

Were you just using the built-in memory of the device when you slowed it down, or were you using an extra memory card?

(I've only put 30 or 40 on mine so far, all in main memory. I don't have that many yet, since this 650 is my first reader.)

Thanks!

SeaBookGuy · 11-06-2010, 06:23 PM

I have about a dozen -- with my ADD I think I'd explode with hundreds of books to skip amongst!

edbro · 11-06-2010, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elizilla

edbro,

Were you just using the built-in memory of the device when you slowed it down, or were you using an extra memory card?

They were all in main memory. I know that 2700 books was pretty ambitious but I had to try. Previously I had a PRS-505. I tried loading that many books on an SD card on my old reader. While the device would read it, it took forever for it to index them. And of course, it ran very slow with them on there.

slantybard · 11-06-2010, 06:37 PM

edbro - it takes very little time to index the books, but the thumbnail generation of the book covers is done in the background only when the device has to show the cover the first time. When you are going to the home screen, the device is likely trying to make covers for you to show you the books. When I measured the cover generation, it takes about 2 seconds for each cover. For 2700 covers that is not an insignificant chunk of slowdown.

I have about 1000 epubs on my device and once every book had a cover generated, the speed went back to being quite fast. To do this, I simply added all my books, chose to view the books by there cover, and then browsed through my books in that collection and forced the device to make covers for each book. Now when I add more books, the covers are quickly generated and there is not really a noticeable slowdown.

yakuzaboss · 11-08-2010, 01:50 PM

As of right now, I have 134 books on my reader. I started off with 150 books but I delete them once I'm finished reading them.

grooks · 11-08-2010, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slantybard

edbro - it takes very little time to index the books, but the thumbnail generation of the book covers is done in the background only when the device has to show the cover the first time. When you are going to the home screen, the device is likely trying to make covers for you to show you the books. When I measured the cover generation, it takes about 2 seconds for each cover. For 2700 covers that is not an insignificant chunk of slowdown.

I have about 1000 epubs on my device and once every book had a cover generated, the speed went back to being quite fast. To do this, I simply added all my books, chose to view the books by there cover, and then browsed through my books in that collection and forced the device to make covers for each book. Now when I add more books, the covers are quickly generated and there is not really a noticeable slowdown.

I would agree that the most time consuming part is generating cover thumbnails for the first time. This could be done away with if a user with a large library used 'list view' instead of 'cover view'.

Under the Covers · 11-08-2010, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grooks

I would agree that the most time consuming part is generating cover thumbnails for the first time. This could be done away with if a user with a large library used 'list view' instead of 'cover view'.

Thanks for the hint -- after three days with my 650, I'm finally learning that the Options button is my friend -- it's the equivalent of right-clicking for a context menu on a PC with Windows.

vxf · 11-08-2010, 11:18 PM

I don't know about books - but I did try plugging in my SD card with 1000+ PDFs with annotations into my new PRS950 - after 3 hours of indexing, I gave up and shut it down.

Also, I noticed a significant slowdown when transferring over periodicals - by mistake I copied over ALL of the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times issues for the past year (so about 600 or so) and that did slow my device - not the indexing, but jumping to menus, opening books and similar. I am not sure it has anything to do with the thumbnail view - I was using lists.

Overall, while I love the SONY readers, I find it disappointing that you can't carry your library with you. Being able to have a large number of books/documents with you is supposed to be one of the main advantages of an ebook reader. I would love to be able to carry my PDF library with me - for reference purposes. I think SONY should be held accountable for extremely misleading marketing, in this case. Carrying 10,000 books, as they claim in their advertising, is just not feasible, unless you find 10-minute page turns acceptable.

slantybard · 11-08-2010, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vxf

I don't know about books - but I did try plugging in my SD card with 1000+ PDFs with annotations into my new PRS950 - after 3 hours of indexing, I gave up and shut it down.

Also, I noticed a significant slowdown when transferring over periodicals - by mistake I copied over ALL of the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times issues for the past year (so about 600 or so) and that did slow my device - not the indexing, but jumping to menus, opening books and similar. I am not sure it has anything to do with the thumbnail view - I was using lists.

Overall, while I love the SONY readers, I find it disappointing that you can't carry your library with you. Being able to have a large number of books/documents with you is supposed to be one of the main advantages of an ebook reader. I would love to be able to carry my PDF library with me - for reference purposes. I think SONY should be held accountable for extremely misleading marketing, in this case. Carrying 10,000 books, as they claim in their advertising, is just not feasible, unless you find 10-minute page turns acceptable.

Unfortunately, it is not really fair to expect any of the current eink devices to be able to handle 1000+ PDFs. PDFs are extremely poor and very bad format for an e-ink reader due to inherent weakness of pdfs - the inherent lack of reformatting since PDF's are geared to display in a specific layout which is often poorly resized/reformatted. Honestly, that format should be thrown in the garbage.

Bilbo1967 · 11-09-2010, 05:04 AM

I have about 480 books on my 650, all in main memory.

It still seems acceptably fast to me in all aspects (returning to Home page, page turns, opening books etc).

jackinca · 11-09-2010, 10:10 AM

Suggestion for numerous book load: Use your SD Card for the large load and the device memory for books in current reading and interest. As we know the transfer between the card and main memory is simple and Calibre does it more efficiently than Sony Reader. The Card holding a large number of books could be placed in your wallet or handbag. The lack of a large number of books in the main memory would accelerate boot up of the reader. Of course Sony would not consider adding a thin holder pocket to the cover.

Bilbo1967 · 11-09-2010, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackinca

Suggestion for numerous book load: Use your SD Card for the large load and the device memory for books in current reading and interest. As we know the transfer between the card and main memory is simple and Calibre does it more efficiently than Sony Reader. The Card holding a large number of books could be placed in your wallet or handbag. The lack of a large number of books in the main memory would accelerate boot up of the reader. Of course Sony would not consider adding a thin holder pocket to the cover.

But the i-nique tuff luv covers do have two SD card holders if such a thing is needed.

11-06-2010, 07:01 AM	#1
edbro Banned Posts: 640 Karma: 4911 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Grapevine, TX Device: iPad4	Realistic number of books on 650 I just got my PRS-650 last night and I love it! I'm coming from a PRS-505 so with the extra storage I thought it would be great to load my entire library of 2700 epubs. I was impressed with how fast the device indexed after disconnecting. But, I found that number to be unwieldy on the device. Every time I hit the home button in a book there was a very significant delay before it would do anything. I didn't even get the busy icon. So, I deleted all the books and transferred about 300. Now it is pretty snappy. How many books are the rest of you putting on the device. What is a reasonable number without it bogging down?

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11-06-2010, 05:02 PM	#2
doreenjoy 01000100 01001010 Posts: 1,889 Karma: 2400000 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Polyamorous	I have 265 on mine right now and it's very speedy.

11-06-2010, 05:24 PM	#3
SkyDream Wizard Posts: 1,377 Karma: 9400 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Europe Device: PRS-650, iPod touch 4G, iPad 3	Today it's about 100 books i'm planning to read in the next weeks and months.

11-06-2010, 05:49 PM	#4
elizilla Addict Posts: 271 Karma: 610286 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Michigan, USA Device: Kobo Elipsa, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Sage, others	edbro, Were you just using the built-in memory of the device when you slowed it down, or were you using an extra memory card? (I've only put 30 or 40 on mine so far, all in main memory. I don't have that many yet, since this 650 is my first reader.) Thanks!

11-06-2010, 06:23 PM	#5
SeaBookGuy Can one read too much? Posts: 2,029 Karma: 2487799 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Naples, FL Device: Kindle PW 3, Sony 350 and 650	I have about a dozen -- with my ADD I think I'd explode with hundreds of books to skip amongst!

11-06-2010, 06:37 PM	#7
slantybard my parent's oops... Posts: 491 Karma: 1477572 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Vx->Handera->Clie-> Axim->505->650->KPW/Aura ->L2->iOS/CBW	edbro - it takes very little time to index the books, but the thumbnail generation of the book covers is done in the background only when the device has to show the cover the first time. When you are going to the home screen, the device is likely trying to make covers for you to show you the books. When I measured the cover generation, it takes about 2 seconds for each cover. For 2700 covers that is not an insignificant chunk of slowdown. I have about 1000 epubs on my device and once every book had a cover generated, the speed went back to being quite fast. To do this, I simply added all my books, chose to view the books by there cover, and then browsed through my books in that collection and forced the device to make covers for each book. Now when I add more books, the covers are quickly generated and there is not really a noticeable slowdown.

11-08-2010, 01:50 PM	#8
yakuzaboss Groupie Posts: 171 Karma: 58 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Richmond, BC Device: Sony PRS-650	As of right now, I have 134 books on my reader. I started off with 150 books but I delete them once I'm finished reading them.

11-08-2010, 11:18 PM	#11
vxf Guru Posts: 944 Karma: 1490348 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Norman, OK Device: Sony PRS 350, 900, 950; Kindles (ALL of them!); Kobo Aura One	I don't know about books - but I did try plugging in my SD card with 1000+ PDFs with annotations into my new PRS950 - after 3 hours of indexing, I gave up and shut it down. Also, I noticed a significant slowdown when transferring over periodicals - by mistake I copied over ALL of the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times issues for the past year (so about 600 or so) and that did slow my device - not the indexing, but jumping to menus, opening books and similar. I am not sure it has anything to do with the thumbnail view - I was using lists. Overall, while I love the SONY readers, I find it disappointing that you can't carry your library with you. Being able to have a large number of books/documents with you is supposed to be one of the main advantages of an ebook reader. I would love to be able to carry my PDF library with me - for reference purposes. I think SONY should be held accountable for extremely misleading marketing, in this case. Carrying 10,000 books, as they claim in their advertising, is just not feasible, unless you find 10-minute page turns acceptable.

11-09-2010, 05:04 AM	#13
Bilbo1967 Not scared! Posts: 13,424 Karma: 81011643 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Midlands, UK Device: Kindle Paperwhite 10, Huawei M5 10	I have about 480 books on my 650, all in main memory. It still seems acceptably fast to me in all aspects (returning to Home page, page turns, opening books etc).

11-09-2010, 10:10 AM	#14
jackinca Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 34 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: sony 900	Suggestion for numerous book load: Use your SD Card for the large load and the device memory for books in current reading and interest. As we know the transfer between the card and main memory is simple and Calibre does it more efficiently than Sony Reader. The Card holding a large number of books could be placed in your wallet or handbag. The lack of a large number of books in the main memory would accelerate boot up of the reader. Of course Sony would not consider adding a thin holder pocket to the cover.