Sony PRS-T1 in Calibre

[jackie_w]

Well, an interesting result. I am now getting:

4 x epubs - all duplicated (2-3 times), for each book at least one of the entries has the correct plugboard info.
1 x pdf - no duplicate - no plugboard info, author & title = Calibre author & title
1 x txt - no duplicate - no plugboard info, author=blank, title=save template name

Thumbnails are being sent but then disappear and are replaced with one extracted by the Sony. This is like deja vu with the x50 models. In case it's relevant, the solution that time was to make sure the thumbnail had precisely the correct height that the Sony wanted (217px for the x50s, I think). chaley will know all about this.

Collections no longer working.

All filenames look correct as per save template. All books correctly saved to a single directory, e.g
V:\Sony_Reader\media\books\James, Peter - DS Roy Grace 07 - Dead Man's Grip.epub

[Kolenka]

I'd wait until the fixes come in before delving to deep into this. A lot of this looks exactly like the timezone + Windows path bugs. It'll be hard to separate out any new bugs from the existing ones when the symptoms are all the same.

[jackie_w]

OK no probs. I can get a workable system by removing the T1 plugboard and sorting by filename for as long as it takes.

Thank you for all your hard work, I expect you'll be glad when it's over

[Kolenka]

So now I'm not convinced that Sony screwed up anymore. I did more testing and it looks like it is really a Unix Epoch value. The real bug is that the Sony will do a full rescan after a shutdown even if the timestamps are correct. (EDIT: Ignore this, I'm insane and can't read the DB straight anymore... sheesh)

But the wrong date is being used on Windows (getctime has two different answers), which isn't helpful.

I'm submitting a patch for the Windows issues now.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

As long as the driver refreshes whatever the device has for metadata (media.xml, books.db) during 'sync_booklists', then automatic/manual doesn't really matter. And really, I find that the driver is simpler if you do your metadata work in 'sync_booklists'.

Not sure I understand what you are saying here.

The metadata management setting matters a great deal. If it is not on automatic, then sync_booklists is not called with the updated metadata, collections are not resorted, and collection renaming is turned off.

FWIW: I think that the non-automatic settings aren't useful, but others clearly disagree with me. Getting this functionality worked out in the early 0.7 versions was very painful.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by chaley

Not sure I understand what you are saying here.

The metadata management setting matters a great deal. If it is not on automatic, then sync_booklists is not called with the updated metadata, collections are not resorted, and collection renaming is turned off.

Yeah, I think we are talking past each other.

What I was trying to point out is that logic isn't integrated into the driver. Unless I missed something big, that seems to be the case. Calibre figures out what the metadata should be, based on that setting, and passes it along to sync_booklists as needed. At least that's how everything was behaving while I was developing. It'd be a pretty big thing to miss if I was wrong on that.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Yeah, I think we are talking past each other. ...

Ahh, I see. You are saying that from the driver's point of view, that setting isn't relevant as long as sync_booklists updates the metadata when asked. This is correct, at least for all the devices that I have had anything to do with. However, the setting is very relevant from the user's point of view.

My experience is that using automatic management works around a lot of bizarre sony problems that are usually caused by timestamps. Plugging in the device again will rewrite the database. Assuming a book is already in the database and has not been modified by a previous job step, as long as the driver doesn't mess with the timestamp(s) in sync_booklists, then this process will insert calibre's version of the metadata.

[Kolenka]

Yeah, the fact that they are using a local timestamp for modification time is kinda screwy. Any time the timezone changes or daylight savings time starts, you risk having it reload the whole database.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Yeah, the fact that they are using a local timestamp for modification time is kinda screwy. Any time the timezone changes or daylight savings time starts, you risk having it reload the whole database.

The problem arises because FAT32 filesystem times don't contain timezone information. The program must 'know' what it wrote there. My guess is that the Sony people decided to use localtime because people can access/view the files directly and would not understand why a file just added appears to have been changed 7 hours ago.

It took me *many days* to get timezone management mostly to work for the older sonys. And I wouldn't have been successful without databases and debug info provided by several people around the world.

[Kolenka]

That's a good point. I didn't realize that FAT32 wasn't standardized on any time zone. So it's a design problem introduced by a design problem.

Okay, I've submitted one final patch for the path issue (you and Kovid helped me realize the source of the bug, that and I finally have a slow Win7 setup to test with). As long as more bugs don't show up for Windows folks, I'm gonna take a break. Projects like this don't mix well with long work hours.

[azxswq]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Do you know if it was still scanning the books when you hit this behavior? I've noticed the T1 (unlike older models) scans for books in the background, and makes the device verrrry slow while it is doing it.

With the bug I'm seeing, the Sony is doing a full rescan of your books, which if you have a lot could easily cause this behavior. Once the Windows bug is fixed, the loading phase after an unplug should be a lot faster and on par with the Reader Library application.

I can't say enough about how much I appreciate the calibre effort. Kolenka, Chaley and Kovid are troopers!

Just a quick note:
The background process and the painful slowness of the T1 happens when I put in 20GB+ worth of mp3 as well. (Hence, I revert back to a 1GB MicroSD and probably use the 32GB card for my Samsung S2 phone instead for better re-purpose of the card.) I suspect that the T1 will be faster after this initial scan once it digest the info in some kind of a internal db that ensures file integrity. But after almost 8 hours of meddling with it. (And the fact that the Mp3/audio playback Interface is subpar... ) I decided that it is just not worth it...

Does anybody know if PRS+ is better with the audio playback?

Sad to say, I can't even get the player to play 2 songs sequentially across different album... (That unit test I can do, without a 20GB MP3 library.)

Anyways, don't mean to sidetrack the important work on collection, path and timestamps.

Thanks again and really appreciate the good work.

[kovidgoyal]

I've uploaded a new build with Kolenka's latest bug fixes, same place as before.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by azxswq

Does anybody know if PRS+ is better with the audio playback?

Sad to say, I can't even get the player to play 2 songs sequentially across different album... (That unit test I can do, without a 20GB MP3 library.)

I am not sure that PES+ improves things - I think that only the default options from the stndard firmware are available . I agree that this is an area that defiitely could do with improvement right across all the Sony models that support audio.

Rather then just music I was also interested in storing audiobooks on my Sony PRS-950 (I ahve a 9GB Memory stick for this). Although technically this is possible I find that the limited capabilities to select the order in which tracks are played, and to remember where you were make this less useful that I had hoped. As a result I find myself using my iPhone and/or iPad for audiobooks instead.

[gena0411]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I've uploaded a new build with Kolenka's latest bug fixes, same place as before.

Many thanks Kovid.

Could you tell please what is the correct way to update collections?
Should I delete everything and resend the books using your new beta?

Thanks
Genady

[kovidgoyal]

I have no idea, Kolenka is the one to ask.