Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Unless the PDF support has changed since the original Kindle DX firmware (as described in its manual), only the metadata in PDFs is available for global search (i.e. indexing) - not the text. However, it is possible to search for a word within an open PDF.

Has anyone tried searching within an ebook (all formats) on the DR800S?

I've tried it in some open books in PDF and ePUB format. Search/find is almost instantaneous.

[dhiru]

Originally Posted by steffi

I just bought a kindle dx international for $375 new in sealed box. That will have o do m for my asian trip. How is PDF on irex vs
dx?

would you please tell us where to get it at this price?

thanks

[andrys]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Kindle DX does show PDFs "as is". On iRex 800, you can change font size, trying to optimise the ratio readability:amount of information.
That's far from perfect. For PDFs, personally I prefer leaving the layout intact and just zooming to the area of interest. iRex 800 (with the actual firmware) can't do that, whereas iRex iLiad and iRex 1000S can do so.
But at least, by changing the font size, you can change a bit, whereas Kindle DX doesn't allow even that.

What about the rotation to Landscape? It certainly helps a lot with mine.
See http://pbase.com/andrys/kindleplus (photos)

I've got quite a few PDFs, which simply don't make any sense on Kindle DX.

Same question. It certainly "makes sense" for me but not enough for your needs. I'd like to try the iRex but not when they don't even have BASIC annotation features.

Still am more interested in the Que. The iRex DR800s is simply too small if you're totally focused on PDFs.

[andrys]

Originally Posted by HarryT

- Change the font size.
- Follow hyperlinks.
- Use the table of contents.
- Search for words.

The Kindle DX's PDF support is primitive in the extreme. It will display them, and that's all. No hyperlinks, no TOC, no searches; no anything, really.

The not having active hyperlinks for Table of Contents is the biggest flaw of the Kindles with PDFs.

And I think that's rather huge.

Since I don't want to get any of the other units (yet), I convert a -copy- of a needed PDF to mobi and use the original PDF for layout reference. Then, with the mobi file I have the regular, very effective Kindle search, inline dictionary, and font size changes

Then I can highlight a word or phrase (or chapter title, end it with a spacebar instead of a 5-way button click, which pastes the item to a searchbox, and then ask it to Find the item, which works for table of contents.

As for the 'Search a word' not working with PDFs - it certainly does work, for text-based PDFs, but it's the irritating Adobe PDF search, one find at a time. Fatiguing.

IMAGE-based PDFs of course won't work with text-searches - I try to avoid image-based PDFs and have been successful. Those tend to be the books scanned, no OCR, and each page is just an image. Those will always have slow loading on e-ink screens.

[andrys]

Originally Posted by steffi

how can I convert existing PDF files to azw then?

I just run it through the free MobiPocket Creator. Once you know how to do it, it's fast.

But Amazon will convert it for you, for free, if you send it to [you]@kindle.com (this Kindle address for your device is made in your 'Manageyourkindle' page at Amazon).

Using the email address that you use for orders correspondence with Amazon, you send them the attachment, put "Convert" into the Subject field, and within a couple of minutes, you get back the converted file and can move it to the Kindle.

But be sure to keep the actual PDF for reference. For Kindle 2 users who wanted a copy of the Avatar screenplay, which is in PDF, but with TINY print in Portrait mode, I had Amazon do the conversion (which was exactly the same as my own conversion using MobiPocket Creator -- Amazon owns MobiPocket outfit and mobi format is just Amazon format without the DRM, so that makes sense) and then offered the file to people who preferred to just have the .azw file.

The layout is always changed somewhat, so if you have any question about what you're reading in the mobi, you can check the PDF version.

[andrys]

Originally Posted by dhiru

would you please tell us where to get it at this price?

thanks

Must have been eBay ? Or someone who decided to get an iRex instead? :-)

How weird. I'd like to know too.

Refurbished DX's from Amazon go for $399 and they give a standard 1-yr warranty with it. But those are the U.S. versions and not global. I should add that the U.S. one has the Sprint access while the global one uses AT&T. Some people don't get AT&T in their areas and therefore will do better with the old Sprint model. I know that is strange but it's true.

http://bit.ly/kwrefurbdx

[mgmueller]

It's implied in my former descriptions. But to explicitly state it:
You cannot add comments or change author's name or book title "on the fly", like you could do it on iRex iLiad. It wasn't possible anymore on iRex 1000S as well, so no big surprise - still I miss this feature, as so many publishers/bookstores don't stick to the naming conventions. Just changing directly on iLiad was so much more convenient, than changing the metadata in calibre or similar applications. Well, iLiad was the only reader capable of that, so you can't really blame iRex for not having that feature anymore.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Well, iLiad was the only reader capable of that, so you can't really blame iRex for not having that feature anymore.

On a different market with a different unit with a rather similar firmware-question were easily solved as we (I mean, the customers) pushed the manufacturer to put back the formerly common function. We won. We're thier customers, so simply ask them to do, whatever we want. IMHO

(PS: See your visitors' messages.)

[mgmueller]

Professzore's test file, some first snapshots.
I need a new camera...
All iRex 800.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Professzore's test file, some first snapshots.
I need a new camera...

Unbelievable. I thought that it could be much worse. On the other hand, as I thought, it was resized, so resampled. Theoretically, 160 dpi test pattern should be dead pixel-by-pixel without any kind of moire pattern (as it has some). I asked the tech support at irex about the "optimal" PDF size for 100% uncropped view without any resampling.
As soon as I get some relevant answer to this question, I'll make another PDF.

Anyway, many thanks for your support. It helped me a lot.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by professzore

Unbelievable. I thought that it could be much worse. On the other hand, as I thought, it was resized, so resampled. Theoretically, 160 dpi test pattern should be dead pixel-by-pixel without any kind of moire pattern (as it has some). I asked the tech support at irex about the "optimal" PDF size for 100% uncropped view without any resampling.
As soon as I get some relevant answer to this question, I'll make another PDF.

Anyway, many thanks for your support. It helped me a lot.

You're welcome.
Later in the afternoon I'll do some comparison snapshots with Sony 900 (wrong display size, I know. Just to compare touchscreens), Kindle DX (quite a few members have asked about DX's PDF capabilities). Any other of my units of interest for you?

[professzore]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Any other of my units of interest for you?

Not at the moment.
Kindle is interesting indeed. As far as I know, its display is way better than any mass-production readers (Hanlin, Hanvon, Sony touchscreens etc.).
On the other hand, it's very hard to take "real" photographs. Good quality light source seems a must.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by professzore

Unbelievable. I thought that it could be much worse. On the other hand, as I thought, it was resized, so resampled. Theoretically, 160 dpi test pattern should be dead pixel-by-pixel without any kind of moire pattern (as it has some). I asked the tech support at irex about the "optimal" PDF size for 100% uncropped view without any resampling.
As soon as I get some relevant answer to this question, I'll make another PDF.

Anyway, many thanks for your support. It helped me a lot.

These sizes apply to the iLiad, which afaik has the same size screen. (though 158 ppi/dpi in stead of 160) Hope this helps, though the sizes seem weird. I generally create PDFs with an ISO B5 size, 9.5pt font (latex), which yields perfectly readable documents. (I imagine the 160dpi means that you can use a smaller font and still have the same clarity, but I'm just guessing here.)

2.2
Paper size
The area for displaying content is 124x152mm (close to A6) while most office documents are generated in A4 or letter paper size. The iLiad can handle A4/letter sizes (or any other size) by resizing this automatically so it fits the display size, for an A4 paper this results in decreasing the height of text and images by 50%. Due to the high resolution and brightness of the iLiad display in many cases the resizing from A4 to an A6 size will still be readable, but an original 11 point height text will result in a 7 point height text on the iLiad.
This can be prevented by using a custom paper size for the document, however, existing documents will require a full editing of the layout size the paper size has changed. This document explains how to optimize the printer settings so A4 documents are represented optimal and how to create optimized content using a custom paper size.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by professzore

Not at the moment.
Kindle is interesting indeed. As far as I know, its display is way better than any mass-production readers (Hanlin, Hanvon, Sony touchscreens etc.).
On the other hand, it's very hard to take "real" photographs. Good quality light source seems a must.

Kindle 2 and DX really have great displays. But most members still seem to consider Sony 505 benchmark. And although I don't like BeBook (Hanlin) because of its "cheap design", I consider its display quality at least close. Same for Cybook Gen3 and Opus. I haven't got my Nook yet, but I expect it being equal from what I've read. So, even being Kindle fan, I don't think "its display is way better"....

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

You're welcome.
Later in the afternoon I'll do some comparison snapshots with Sony 900 (wrong display size, I know. Just to compare touchscreens), Kindle DX (quite a few members have asked about DX's PDF capabilities). Any other of my units of interest for you?

Both the dr800 and prs900 have the same vertical resolution, so maybe you should take the resolution chart, cut it down the middle vertically so you can compare each slice at the same resolution.

Also, this old post shows poorness in irex's grayscale rendering engine. Perhaps you can use some of the bitmaps in that thread to see if IREX has improved anything:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43021

Thanks!