Mibook - First Impressions - Page 2

Greg Anos · 07-05-2008, 11:17 AM

All I know is what I see. I watched several of the cookbook videos. Everything was blockily pixelated and blurry. When they said strawberries, all I saw was a red blob. This may be because the Divx overcompression instead of the player, I don't know. I don't use lossy formats for either video or audio, so I have no samples to compare with. I have a recently purchased Creative Zen that I use for music. It has a 2.5 inch screen. The picture on it's included video samples are clearer (at 1/5 the screen size) that the Mibook cookbook.

Also no pen drive adapter, so I can't test mpeg2 files easily, because it doesn't support SDHC. And no Wav audio files. Which were promised in the advert. Simply not impressed.

HarryT · 07-05-2008, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I don't use lossy formats for either video or audio, so I have no samples to compare with.

Is there such a thing as a "non-lossy" video format? DVD movies use MPEG-2, for example, which is most assuredly a "lossy" format, and most (digital) broadcasts are either MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.

I agree with you that blocky, pixelated video certainly sounds like an artifact of over-compression. I always rip video for my iPod at a bitrate which still looks good played full-screen on my PC.

Greg Anos · 07-05-2008, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is there such a thing as a "non-lossy" video format? DVD movies use MPEG-2, for example, which is most assuredly a "lossy" format, and most (digital) broadcasts are either MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.

I agree with you that blocky, pixelated video certainly sounds like an artifact of over-compression. I always rip video for my iPod at a bitrate which still looks good played full-screen on my PC.

Harry, I don't rip video, and I don't darknet. Yes, Mpeg2 is lossy, but the resulting picture is carefully tuned for high quality moving images. I guess I need to buy a USB DVD-player to test with. (I can reuse it with my EEE PC). Even if it does run Mpeg2, which I doubt, what kind of uncompressed audio will it run? Perhaps there are ways to make it into a silk purse, but to me it's still a sow's ear.

HarryT · 07-05-2008, 11:57 AM

As a bit of an "audiophile" myself, Ralph, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm a big fan of opera, and have an extremely good quality hifi system at home on which I listen to my CDs.

However, I travel a lot, and like to take music with me. I rip CDs for my iPod as 384k MP3 files, and at that bitrate I can personally hear no difference from the uncompressed original on the iPod. I could on my hifi system, to be sure, but not on the iPod. Nothing wrong with compressed audio if you can't tell the difference due to the limitations of the reproduction system.

The device being discussed here plays MPEG-4 video using, by the sound of it, the DivX video "codec". That's a very, very common one, and will give good results if used at a sufficiently low level compression and high bit-rate. As always, the higher the level of compression, the more "blocky" and pixelated the result with be - it's a matter of selecting the right level of compression for the device on which you're viewing the results.

daffy4u · 07-09-2008, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Finally they updated it. It used to say "Coming: Spring 2008".

The site is live.

Nate the great · 07-22-2008, 08:57 PM

Ralph was right and I was wrong. There is something odd about the screen.

I recently was looking for a portable DVD player for my mother. One of the first things I did was compare the screen geometries and resolutions. Curiously enough, almost all the screens had the exact same resolution as the one on the Mibook.

I've used a portable DVD player before, and I've never seen one with a screen as fuzzy as the Mibook. I don't know the cause, but I do know there is something wrong with the Mibook.

Sorry, Ralph.

basschick · 07-22-2008, 10:26 PM

i work with videos for the web a lot - usually pixelated or blurry videos are low quality. a lot of sites use low quality videos to lower the file size. they should try the h.264 codec, which can be used for flash or quicktime. it's incredibly efficient - a 500k video using the h.264 codec can be as high quality as a 1.5 Mbps WMV - i was blown away when i first saw it!

Greg Anos · 07-22-2008, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Ralph was right and I was wrong. There is something odd about the screen.

I recently was looking for a portable DVD player for my mother. One of the first things I did was compare the screen geometries and resolutions. Curiously enough, almost all the screens had the exact same resolution as the one on the Mibook.

I've used a portable DVD player before, and I've never seen one with a screen as fuzzy as the Mibook. I don't know the cause, but I do know there is something wrong with the Mibook.

Sorry, Ralph.

Don't be. Different people, different perspectives. Shucks , I don't even get offended when I'm going hammer and tongs with Steve Jordan...There's a lot of room for different opinions. Just as long as there's room for me to have mine....

RickyMaveety · 12-05-2008, 11:07 AM

Calling the MiBook an e-book reading device does not make it so.

The Review

and

My Response

rickroth · 12-08-2008, 11:59 AM

The MiBook is sooo close to being a true ebook reader it is sad. Other have mentioned the ability to play music display pictures and video files. None of this is new, these all features of any modern electronic picture frame. The addition of a battery and the ability to read a text file bring the MiBook very close to being a decent ebook reader.

The battery life while viewing a text file is not great but seems to be decent, the size and weight are acceptable, the page turning is smooth and I did not find the slight flicker to be tiring or detract from the reading experiencing.

There are only two things keeping the miBook from being a Sony or Kindle killer. This is the lack of bookmarks and the ability to navigate through a file beyond turning a page. This would not be a problem if you read a book from start to finish in one sitting. Without these features, forget it.

The mibook does not remember your position in a file you are reading so every time you turn it on and open a book, you start at page 1 and have to page through the book one page at a time until you find the last page you read. The addition of bookmarks and/or the ability to move through the file in mylti-page jumps would correct this.

Until there is an upgrade or a hack to address these two problems the Mibook is worthless as a reader, Great for looking at pretty pictures but...

I will stay with my Rocket eBook!

Agent 30978 · 03-18-2009, 02:12 AM

I checked the folders on the recipe chip
with my recently acquired miBook
and found the video file types as thus :

Video: DivX 5 480x234 23.98fps 236Kbps [Video 0]
Audio: MPEG Audio Layer 3 24000Hz stereo 64Kbps [Audio 1]

simply labeled 00.divx 01.divx 02.divx so on and so forth

they are quite highly compressed files
and appear soft and a bit blocky when viewed on a PC as well

The JPG's were :

200 pixel width
150 pixel height
72 dpi
24 bit

but the interesting thing I found was there didn't seem to be any accompanying text, or some menu structure on the chip.

simply folders with files.

now the formats listed above are not the only file types that are viewable, of course. And that's where my curiosity has got me. As I can't seem to find a definitive answer as to what file types it will handle.

so far I know AVI of a DIVX format...
as I've downloaded some Death Note videos off the internet that my girl told me about. We stayed up last night cuddling while watching said videos then drifted off to sleep. Quite enjoyable and the resolution was acceptable, tho I found if we had the brightness turned down too far we couldn't read the subtitles, so keep this in mind - you can lose some detail if it's set too dim.

anyways, it's brand new for me and i'm trying to find out what else you can view on it. they say text. does this just mean just plain .TXT files?
or could you do a :
.DOC Binary Document
.RTF Rich Text Format
.WRI Windows Write format
.PDF Adobe Acrobat
.ODT OpenOffice Text

and they mention it not only does sound, but "all filetypes" of sound.
I read above .WAV is out...
so does this mean all MP3 formats, or does it really do :
Ogg Vorbis
FLAC
AAC
there's at least a couple dozen audio formats out in the world
so I won't bother. you get the idea.

I just want to know specifics, and I can't seem to find them listed.
I can find reviews, and press announcements, but i want solid documentation about the ins and outs of this thing. like i want to open the bad puppy up and put an RCA input on it so i can plug in the video out from my Fujifilm Finepix S6000 fd.

prolly be easier to just buy a 7 inch LCD or a portable DVD player with a video in port, but these are things I wanna know. cuz if it's a simple thing like finding the right solder point, this would be an accomplishment and I'd feel some sense of being the only one with a hacked miBook that does this, ya know?

plus upgrading the firmware. is there a way we can put our own OS on this toy and give it the ability to read file types it wasn't originally designed for?

i'd imagine so, but i'm on a hunt for better documentation and am coming up short. looking for help. holler back, and i'll check back.

Thanx

Alhazred · 04-10-2009, 02:46 PM

Agent, I've tried both RTF & PDF files and it failed to recognize them. So far I've not had any problem with plain Txt, regardless of size.
I haven't tried to play any audio files save for Mp3s & have had no difficulty. Please let me know if you find any info on updating the firmware or a way to play additional formats - Thx

Renaldo · 04-11-2009, 11:53 AM

I'm still trying to figure out the purpose of this device. It looks like you spend $130 to be able to play short SD card films at $20 a pop of the same content that's available all over the web for free, and available all weekend long on HGTV, TLC and FoodTV.

Am I missing something here?

12-05-2008, 11:07 AM	#24
RickyMaveety Holy S**T!!! Posts: 5,213 Karma: 108401 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: San Diego, California!! Device: Kindle and iPad	Stupidest review I have ever read Calling the MiBook an e-book reading device does not make it so. The Review and My Response

12-08-2008, 11:59 AM	#25
rickroth Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: reb1100, prs500,mibook,iphone	Almost there The MiBook is sooo close to being a true ebook reader it is sad. Other have mentioned the ability to play music display pictures and video files. None of this is new, these all features of any modern electronic picture frame. The addition of a battery and the ability to read a text file bring the MiBook very close to being a decent ebook reader. The battery life while viewing a text file is not great but seems to be decent, the size and weight are acceptable, the page turning is smooth and I did not find the slight flicker to be tiring or detract from the reading experiencing. There are only two things keeping the miBook from being a Sony or Kindle killer. This is the lack of bookmarks and the ability to navigate through a file beyond turning a page. This would not be a problem if you read a book from start to finish in one sitting. Without these features, forget it. The mibook does not remember your position in a file you are reading so every time you turn it on and open a book, you start at page 1 and have to page through the book one page at a time until you find the last page you read. The addition of bookmarks and/or the ability to move through the file in mylti-page jumps would correct this. Until there is an upgrade or a hack to address these two problems the Mibook is worthless as a reader, Great for looking at pretty pictures but... I will stay with my Rocket eBook!

03-18-2009, 02:12 AM	#26
Agent 30978 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: miBook	to do I checked the folders on the recipe chip with my recently acquired miBook and found the video file types as thus : Video: DivX 5 480x234 23.98fps 236Kbps [Video 0] Audio: MPEG Audio Layer 3 24000Hz stereo 64Kbps [Audio 1] simply labeled 00.divx 01.divx 02.divx so on and so forth they are quite highly compressed files and appear soft and a bit blocky when viewed on a PC as well The JPG's were : 200 pixel width 150 pixel height 72 dpi 24 bit but the interesting thing I found was there didn't seem to be any accompanying text, or some menu structure on the chip. simply folders with files. now the formats listed above are not the only file types that are viewable, of course. And that's where my curiosity has got me. As I can't seem to find a definitive answer as to what file types it will handle. so far I know AVI of a DIVX format... as I've downloaded some Death Note videos off the internet that my girl told me about. We stayed up last night cuddling while watching said videos then drifted off to sleep. Quite enjoyable and the resolution was acceptable, tho I found if we had the brightness turned down too far we couldn't read the subtitles, so keep this in mind - you can lose some detail if it's set too dim. anyways, it's brand new for me and i'm trying to find out what else you can view on it. they say text. does this just mean just plain .TXT files? or could you do a : .DOC Binary Document .RTF Rich Text Format .WRI Windows Write format .PDF Adobe Acrobat .ODT OpenOffice Text and they mention it not only does sound, but "all filetypes" of sound. I read above .WAV is out... so does this mean all MP3 formats, or does it really do : Ogg Vorbis FLAC AAC there's at least a couple dozen audio formats out in the world so I won't bother. you get the idea. I just want to know specifics, and I can't seem to find them listed. I can find reviews, and press announcements, but i want solid documentation about the ins and outs of this thing. like i want to open the bad puppy up and put an RCA input on it so i can plug in the video out from my Fujifilm Finepix S6000 fd. prolly be easier to just buy a 7 inch LCD or a portable DVD player with a video in port, but these are things I wanna know. cuz if it's a simple thing like finding the right solder point, this would be an accomplishment and I'd feel some sense of being the only one with a hacked miBook that does this, ya know? plus upgrading the firmware. is there a way we can put our own OS on this toy and give it the ability to read file types it wasn't originally designed for? i'd imagine so, but i'm on a hunt for better documentation and am coming up short. looking for help. holler back, and i'll check back. Thanx

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07-05-2008, 11:17 AM	#16
Greg Anos Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,529 Karma: 37057604 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Pocketbook	All I know is what I see. I watched several of the cookbook videos. Everything was blockily pixelated and blurry. When they said strawberries, all I saw was a red blob. This may be because the Divx overcompression instead of the player, I don't know. I don't use lossy formats for either video or audio, so I have no samples to compare with. I have a recently purchased Creative Zen that I use for music. It has a 2.5 inch screen. The picture on it's included video samples are clearer (at 1/5 the screen size) that the Mibook cookbook. Also no pen drive adapter, so I can't test mpeg2 files easily, because it doesn't support SDHC. And no Wav audio files. Which were promised in the advert. Simply not impressed.

07-05-2008, 11:57 AM	#19
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,548 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	As a bit of an "audiophile" myself, Ralph, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm a big fan of opera, and have an extremely good quality hifi system at home on which I listen to my CDs. However, I travel a lot, and like to take music with me. I rip CDs for my iPod as 384k MP3 files, and at that bitrate I can personally hear no difference from the uncompressed original on the iPod. I could on my hifi system, to be sure, but not on the iPod. Nothing wrong with compressed audio if you can't tell the difference due to the limitations of the reproduction system. The device being discussed here plays MPEG-4 video using, by the sound of it, the DivX video "codec". That's a very, very common one, and will give good results if used at a sufficiently low level compression and high bit-rate. As always, the higher the level of compression, the more "blocky" and pixelated the result with be - it's a matter of selecting the right level of compression for the device on which you're viewing the results.

07-22-2008, 08:57 PM	#21
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Ralph was right and I was wrong. There is something odd about the screen. I recently was looking for a portable DVD player for my mother. One of the first things I did was compare the screen geometries and resolutions. Curiously enough, almost all the screens had the exact same resolution as the one on the Mibook. I've used a portable DVD player before, and I've never seen one with a screen as fuzzy as the Mibook. I don't know the cause, but I do know there is something wrong with the Mibook. Sorry, Ralph.

07-22-2008, 10:26 PM	#22
basschick Wizard Posts: 1,096 Karma: 4695691 Join Date: May 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	i work with videos for the web a lot - usually pixelated or blurry videos are low quality. a lot of sites use low quality videos to lower the file size. they should try the h.264 codec, which can be used for flash or quicktime. it's incredibly efficient - a 500k video using the h.264 codec can be as high quality as a 1.5 Mbps WMV - i was blown away when i first saw it!

04-10-2009, 02:46 PM	#27
Alhazred Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: miBook	Agent, I've tried both RTF & PDF files and it failed to recognize them. So far I've not had any problem with plain Txt, regardless of size. I haven't tried to play any audio files save for Mp3s & have had no difficulty. Please let me know if you find any info on updating the firmware or a way to play additional formats - Thx

04-11-2009, 11:53 AM	#28
Renaldo Addict Posts: 294 Karma: 250590 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: The Great Pacific Northwest Device: Kindle 3G + WiFi	I'm still trying to figure out the purpose of this device. It looks like you spend $130 to be able to play short SD card films at $20 a pop of the same content that's available all over the web for free, and available all weekend long on HGTV, TLC and FoodTV. Am I missing something here?