[Conversion Output] KFX Output

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Any advantage in upgrading it ?

No. I didn’t find any obvious new features, bugs, or bug fixes in the new version.

[Gandulf]

Thx, well i know the current version works so will stay till someone says new version is better/

[Magic815]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have never allowed a conversion to run for that long.

The conversion time can increase drastically for larger, complex books. Splitting a large omnibus and converting each book separately will often result in a shorter overall conversion time.

So I let it continue to run, and it was still going after ~50 hours, but then my PC forced a restart overnight, haha.

I'd prefer to have the omnibus on my Kindle in the end, if possible - so that I don't need to separately manage 14 Wheel of Time books. Is there a way to split it, convert each piece to KFX, and then re-merge back into one KFX file?

It's a shame that conversion time increases exponentially. My 1,300 page books take 2-3 minutes to convert. Whereas this 13,000 page book was 50 hours and counting. I'm not a programmer, but is there anything that can be done in the conversion algorithm to allow for better efficiency at higher page counts? Have you determined what the max book size ends up being for you with conversion times that stay reasonable?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Magic815

Is there a way to split it, convert each piece to KFX, and then re-merge back into one KFX file?

There is no way to merge KFX files.

Originally Posted by Magic815

I'm not a programmer, but is there anything that can be done in the conversion algorithm to allow for better efficiency at higher page counts?

The problem of slow conversion is rare enough that it has not been investigated, at least not by me. Slow conversions happen even when KFX isn't involved so at least some of the problem lies with calibre's conversion infrastructure.

The KFX Output plugin has a CLI mode that bypasses most of the work done by calibre. You could try using that on your book and see if it is able to perform the conversion in a more reasonable amount of time. See the first post in this thread for instructions.

Originally Posted by Magic815

Have you determined what the max book size ends up being for you with conversion times that stay reasonable?

It appears to have more to do with the complexity of HTML markup and styles than actual size.

[ZeFilozofur]

Hello jhowell!
Your plugin is fricking amazing.
I'm just having one issue, I used the regular unplug and replug method to restore my book's cover, but the problem is that every time I open the book and go back to the home screen, the cover disappears. When I open another book and go back the home screen, the cover appears again, and disappears when I open that book-you get the point.

I'll be thrilled if you manage to fix this ONE issue, I'll check this thread regularly to check for replies. Thank you so much for this awesome plugin!

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ZeFilozofur

I'm just having one issue, I used the regular unplug and replug method to restore my book's cover, but the problem is that every time I open the book and go back to the home screen, the cover disappears. When I open another book and go back the home screen, the cover appears again, and disappears when I open that book-you get the point.

I haven't heard of that exact problem before and do not know what could be causing it.

My first suggestion is to restart your Kindle. That often clears up odd problems.

If not then possibly removing and resending some or all of the sideloaded books might help.

Originally Posted by ZeFilozofur

Hello jhowell!
Your plugin is fricking amazing.

Thanks.

[ZeFilozofur]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I haven't heard of that exact problem before and do not know what could be causing it.

My first suggestion is to restart your Kindle. That often clears up odd problems.

If not then possibly removing and resending some or all of the sideloaded books might help.

Yep lol
One day later and the problem fixed itself
Thanks again

[hvinh]

I've been trying to get page number info for my Kindle and decided to try KFX since it seemed relatively doable. I've made sure to check the box for "approximate page numbers" with a custom pages column and the conversion seems to be successful. However, when I send the file to my device and open it up I'm still left with arbitrary location information. Am I missing some step?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by hvinh

I've been trying to get page number info for my Kindle and decided to try KFX since it seemed relatively doable. I've made sure to check the box for "approximate page numbers" with a custom pages column and the conversion seems to be successful. However, when I send the file to my device and open it up I'm still left with arbitrary location information. Am I missing some step?

Did you try tapping the bottom corner of the Kindle screen where the location number shows to cycle through all of the display options?

If that doesn't help you can post a conversion log and I will see if anything stands out.

[hvinh]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Did you try tapping the bottom corner of the Kindle screen where the location number shows to cycle through all of the display options?

If that doesn't help you can post a conversion log and I will see if anything stands out.

omg i cant believe i missed that thank you!

[jhowell]

Version 1.62.0 - 30 May 2022

Detect Kindle Previewer versions up to 3.65.0.

Allow conversion of Turkish language books by changing their metadata to indicate that the primary language is English. (Turkish is not a supported language for the Kindle Previewer.)

[anca2604]

Hi.

"Allow conversion of Turkish language books by changing their metadata to indicate that the primary language is English. (Turkish is not a supported language for the Kindle Previewer.)"

Could you please also include Romanian language support, the same way as you did with the Turkish language? It would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

[thetyrantcbass]

Thanks yet again for all your hard work, jhowell.

I’ve managed to generate a KFX book which has soft-locked two PW5s (both signature edition). When opening it the device will display a blank screen with no menus available. Locking the device shows the cover, but unlocking it returns to the white screen. The only recourse is a forced restart via button (the restart/screen off dialog does appear before the full reset begins).

The same file opens without issue on an Oasis 3, which is confusing to me because aside from the screen I was under the impression that the PW5 and OA3 are similar if not identical in hardware specifications.

No devices are jailbroken and the behavior is identical on 5.14.2 and 5.14.3.0.1. Previewer, Calibre, and the plugin are running on Intel macOS Monterey 12.4.

The source file before converting is the product of WebToEpub. There is a very large number of ToC entries, around 2250. File size is around 40MB despite the only image being the cover art, but other KFX books I have converted with comparable numbers of ToC entries and as large or larger file size open without issues.

Please let me know if you’re interested in taking a look at the file.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by anca2604

Could you please also include Romanian language support, the same way as you did with the Turkish language? It would be much appreciated.

Sure. It will be in the next release of the plugin.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by thetyrantcbass

I’ve managed to generate a KFX book which has soft-locked two PW5s (both signature edition). When opening it the device will display a blank screen with no menus available. Locking the device shows the cover, but unlocking it returns to the white screen. The only recourse is a forced restart via button (the restart/screen off dialog does appear before the full reset begins).

I have also had that happen when opening large KFX files.

Originally Posted by thetyrantcbass

File size is around 40MB despite the only image being the cover art, but other KFX books I have converted with comparable numbers of ToC entries and as large or larger file size open without issues.

There seems to be no exact size cutoff where problems start to occur.

Because they include everything in a single file and lack compression the KFX files produced by this plugin are far larger than those produced by Amazon. (Amazon's KFX files typically are 4MB or less each.)

Originally Posted by thetyrantcbass

Please let me know if you’re interested in taking a look at the file.

I would be happy to take a look at the KFX file to see if there is anything abnormal about it. You can stash it somewhere and PM me a link.

It is likely that the only solution will be to split your source file into pieces and convert them into smaller individual books.