New Sony model to be called PRS-300 and PRS-600

[sircastor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If OGG Vorbis is used in more and more devices, then eventually, people will come to know it and use it and MP3 can hopefully die off.

That's why it requires a big player like Apple to adopt it and make it their standard. People still liked mp3, but lots of folks started using AAC (somewhat because they didn't know any better).

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Yes I agree. With Jinke, Bookeen, iRex, Jetbook, and Sony all supporting or announcing soon to be supporting ePub with Adobe DRM and B&N finally getting ebooks mainstreamed rather than just via their eReader and Fictionwise business units and able to match the 9.99 price for best sellers that Amazon is doing I have to say that Kindle is quickly becoming the odd-man-out.

funny how things change in such a short time.

As much as I would prefer no DRM at all and I can strip DRM from most formats... I would much prefer to be able to get a "best of class" device in various sizes and the ability to buy my books from any book store.

I think Amazon really needs to get on the ePub bandwagon with either NO DRM or join with the rest of the pack using Adobe DRM and selling ebooks to ANYONE rather than just Kindle owners.

BOb

seems like it would be the smart thing to do, yes. i wonder if they're considering it ?

[kazbates]

For those who want to keep track: JR has pulled the Sony 300/600 that were available for preorder.

Things are curiouser and curiouser.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by kazbates

For those who want to keep track: JR has pulled the Sony 300/600 that were available for preorder.

Things are curiouser and curiouser.

when the pages were still up, i left my email address to be notified of availability. i wonder whether that will still happen ?

[kaan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If OGG Vorbis is used in more and more devices, then eventually, people will come to know it and use it and MP3 can hopefully die off.

OGG Vorbis is actually winning market shares by way of being implemented in many embedded products (like toys).

[ProDigit]

One of the reasons why OGG is 'less known' than AAC, is because OGG came in a time where DRM audio became everything!
AAC supported DRM'ed 'encryption', while OGG did not.
So most manufacturers went for AAC. AAC is very good, but it's compression ratio is not so very good. In the end customers hardly ever used DRMmed audio in their devices, perhaps just like here the case with ebooks, and got off AAC. That's where I have the impression (between 2002-now) that AAC has been in a dark corner somewhere, rotting for a couple of years... Sure, some devices had the playback ability, like the PSP, but I don't think I ever used an AAC audio file, except perhaps if they where included in the PSP games.

Implementing OGG in a device costs less to the manufacturer than implementing AAC.

OGG is found more often in encoded movies (OGV, and even more in MKV containers).
AAc can be found in Mpeg4 AVC encoded videos. AVC (or H.264/MPEG-4) is one of the better video encoders out there (perhaps even better than Xvid or DivX).

But I'm less fond of the audio.

I also bought a Cowon D2 for the simple reason that it was one of the first touchscreen DAP's that could play back OGG, back in 2005.
Likewise in 2000 I bought one of the first CD DiscMans that could play back lower bitrate WMA data cd's from Panasonic.
I didn't even knew that my D2 supported AAC (with a firmware upgrade); I just didn't find the free encoder tools to encode audio neither the files to that format online (like I found from OGG).

I think people who prefer to use Windows will prefer to use ogg.
Most of the (few) .m4a files I have on my HD (supposedly a sort of aac encoded files) I reconverted to OGG for saving disk space.

I only push OGG because I work with it day to day.
On my windows PC, I only get in touch with AAC very infrequently (like when downloading a sample file from a MAC freak website or so...).

For audio books, WMA does make a lot of sense, because of it's internal harmonic booster, which will make lower bitrates (sub 48kbits) still sound very clear, and bright.
Sub 48kbits with good audio I have not yet seen in AAC, MP3, nor OGG formats.

.WMA 9 is an old codec, but it should not be underestimated in the lower bitrates.
For higher bitrates than 128kbits, I'd recommend another encoder than WMA.

[Abecedary]

If you're going to make recommendations for audio codecs that are well suited for audiobooks, shouldn't Speex be on that list?

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by Abecedary

If you're going to make recommendations for audio codecs that are well suited for audiobooks, shouldn't Speex be on that list?

I've heard of it, but honestly never used it,neither found many audio books converted in this format.
If speex is superior to .wma it could become an option for audiobooks.
Though some audiobooks use background music.
I can't remember it clearly but I thought Speex was more some sort of audio encoding like used in cell phones? Like there's a serious quality deterioration in the higher frequencies?
I'm not sure, I read about it a couple of years ago, but can't remember why I never continued working with that codec.


*Edit: They've updated Speex samples, and sounding pretty good in 20kbps!*

*Edit 2: Could have been due to Speex not having an easy installer in windows*

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by Abecedary

If you're going to make recommendations for audio codecs that are well suited for audiobooks, shouldn't Speex be on that list?

Perhaps, but I wouldn't use my reader for listening to audio books. I use my Sansa Clip to listen to books from my Audible account. On my readers I keep soft "reading" music that I'll listen to while I'm reading digital books.

[komugi]

Dictionary is nice and all, but what I really want to see is full unicode support, so I can load any documents in any language (mainly Japanese or Traditional Chinese) and be able to read it without hacking the firmware. If they have that in the PRS300/600 or possible 800? I'll sell my 700 in a heartbeat and buy that.

[stustaff]

Is there any actual info on the new sony devices in this thread? looked a the first few pages and nothing it then went into a discussion of something else so i jumped to the end and its a discussion on Audio formats??

If anyone has read all 20 odd pages already and could point me in the right direction it would be helpful thanks.

Looking for release date Ideally as will be in the US at start of Sept and would be great if i can pick one up.

[Gaurnim]

All we have is rumors and speculation, there is nothing official from Sony.

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Is there any actual info on the new sony devices in this thread? looked a the first few pages and nothing it then went into a discussion of something else so i jumped to the end and its a discussion on Audio formats??

If anyone has read all 20 odd pages already and could point me in the right direction it would be helpful thanks.

Looking for release date Ideally as will be in the US at start of Sept and would be great if i can pick one up.

That's pretty much what happens here at MR. It's nice that conversations are so fluid, but sometimes tough if you're looking for answers.

The facts are that there were copies of Service Manuals for a Sony PRS-300 and PRS-600 floating around, the links to which were posted here at MR and have since been shut down (I'm assuming my Sony). Other web and tech sites have reported on these 2 new devices, but most site MR as their source of information. The online electronics store J&R listed the two new devices for pre-order sales, but those have also been taken down. Now we wait.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by kazbates

That's pretty much what happens here at MR. It's nice that conversations are so fluid, but sometimes tough if you're looking for answers.

The facts are that there were copies of Service Manuals for a Sony PRS-300 and PRS-600 floating around, the links to which were posted here at MR and have since been shut down (I'm assuming my Sony). Other web and tech sites have reported on these 2 new devices, but most site MR as their source of information. The online electronics store J&R listed the two new devices for pre-order sales, but those have also been taken down. Now we wait.

The site I previously linked to has removed the two Service Manual due to Sony's request. I quote:

"Sony has requested we remove these service manuals, but with the PRS-700 mysteriously disappearing from the SonyStyle store, its fair to say something is afoot."

I recommended that interested viewers should download these to one's hard drive for further perusal. I took my own advice.

Don

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The site I previously linked to has removed the two Service Manual due to Sony's request. I quote:

"Sony has requested we remove these service manuals, but with the PRS-700 mysteriously disappearing from the SonyStyle store, its fair to say something is afoot."

I recommended that interested viewers should download these to one's hard drive for further perusal. I took my own advice.

Don

So did I (if only because it was much easier to open the file from my desktop instead of having to find that link again and again...)