Want to buy PRS-505

[PieOPah]

Hi,

I am looking to buy the PRS-505 however, with the £200 price tag, I need to know a few things first...

What is the best format that the reader takes? I understand that it can cope with a number of formats, but I would assume that it handles each differently.

How would the e-books be catalogued? I have seen screenshots that show list by author, title etc. however, how are these tags added to the different file formats?

Looking at the prices of E-books, waterstones seems quite expensive. Would there be any problem purchasing from some of the US websites which seem to have a much cheaper cost?

How simple is it to convert some of the public domain e-books to the best format?

Many thanks in advance - I am sure I will be asking a few more questions before I buy...

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Welcome to the forums!

So far I've read .lrf, epub and PDFs on my 505. It seems to handle epub and lrf better than standard pdfs.

Most of the books I have already have the author and title embedded in them. If they don't, I change them before I copy them onto the reader - I use a program called Calibre to organise and transfer my ebooks.

There shouldn't be any problem buying ebooks from US sites - I've used Books on Board successfully, and I know others who use Fictionwise. And there are others.

There are tutorials on the site for how to convert books; plus there are an awful lot of public domain books available here on Mobile Read.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

What is the best format that the reader takes? I understand that it can cope with a number of formats, but I would assume that it handles each differently.

The LRF format is the best for the reader. However, some say ePub is better... depends on who you talk to.

Originally Posted by PieOPah

How would the e-books be catalogued? I have seen screenshots that show list by author, title etc. however, how are these tags added to the different file formats?

Personally I think using calibre is your best bet. It allows you to sort your ebooks by various methods. Or did you mean cataloged on the device?

Originally Posted by PieOPah

Looking at the prices of E-books, waterstones seems quite expensive. Would there be any problem purchasing from some of the US websites which seem to have a much cheaper cost?

Problem? No. However, you will probably need to strip the DRM in order to convert and use on the Sony. However, this is pretty easy to do. Most popular stores seem to be fictionwise.com and booksonboard.com.

Originally Posted by PieOPah

How simple is it to convert some of the public domain e-books to the best format?

Once again pretty easy. Also, many sites already have the LRF and/or ePub formats so no conversion would be needed.

Hth,
BOb

[PieOPah]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Personally I think using calibre is your best bet. It allows you to sort your ebooks by various methods. Or did you mean cataloged on the device?

Thank you for the quick response. I am hoping to be able to get to a store with a number of files I have already downloaded to see if I can test the reader first.

Regarding the cataloguing, I meant on the device. How easy is it to search for a specific book if the device was full (around 600 books) ignoring any potential SD cards...

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

Thank you for the quick response. I am hoping to be able to get to a store with a number of files I have already downloaded to see if I can test the reader first.

Regarding the cataloguing, I meant on the device. How easy is it to search for a specific book if the device was full (around 600 books) ignoring any potential SD cards...

It depends on what you consider "easy". There is no searching facility. So, you basically have a list of books on the "books" screen. You can sort them by author or Title. You can also create "collections" which is basically a single layer folder system. A book can only be in one collection.

Personally, I wouldn't keep that many books on the device. Just keep some unread and maybe any favorites etc. But, that's up to you.

BOb

[PieOPah]

I probably won't be keeping that many books on the device at a time - I don't imagine many situations that I would need a choice of 600....

The main reason for me wanting this is that a bout 18 months ago the wife made me get rid of most of my books as we had no storage space for them. The room that housed them was being turned into a bedroom for our eldest daughter (who was moving rooms to make way for her new sister).

Even now when I buy a new book, I see the look she gives me thinking about the space. It makes me feel guilty as I am almost at a 1 in 1 out scenario. With the reader it is a win win situation (although there will be a few key books I will still buy the hardback of).

Again, thank you for your help. I am trying to read as much as I can - currently lurking through the current posts

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by PieOPah

The main reason for me wanting this is that a bout 18 months ago the wife made me get rid of most of my books as we had no storage space for them. The room that housed them was being turned into a bedroom for our eldest daughter (who was moving rooms to make way for her new sister).

Ah... so you store all your ebooks on your PC... you can store thousands of them in less than 1GB of space. This doesn't take up any room other than what your PC already takes up. You could also grab a 2-4GB thumb drive for $20 or so and back them up all to that, assuming you don't already back up your PC... which I know many people don't.

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Ah... so you store all your ebooks on your PC... you can store thousands of them in less than 1GB of space. This doesn't take up any room other than what your PC already takes up. You could also grab a 2-4GB thumb drive for $20 or so and back them up all to that, assuming you don't already back up your PC... which I know many people don't.

BOb

I have well over 20,000 eBooks. I keep them on a little external USB hard disk I can plug into any PC, and occasionally back it up to DVD. The total size of my collection is currently around 17GB, so it fits onto 4 DVDs.