Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by professzore

Don't you think that the difference may downlodable just a few seconds after the release to let anyone make Pro from a non-Pro device?

It depends on how they do it.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by electrotype

I would buy a DR800 today if it has PDF zooming.

I'll never buy one without this feature, and I know I'm not the only one in this situation. There are a lot of regular users (not profesionnals) who want to buy an ebook reader only for complex/technical/scanned book PDF.

My suggestion would be to let iRex know that. I believe they are monitoring this forum for suggestions, but it wouldn't hurt to send them an email as well. The more feedback they hear requesting zoom, the more likely it is that they'll reconsider the decision to leave it out.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

It depends on how they do it.

The question is: does iRex want to do it or not. I don't think so.

On the other hand: most of forum users are right, since the difference between a "far eastern" mass-product and any iRex is far bigger than it should be. It may be something like you get the seats of a Malibu into your Corvette, which is priced like a used Ferrari.

The most serious problem with the consumer-support of iRex is far more serious here in Europe. We don't have almost any source for ePub. Native mobi/prc support isn't here (yet?), PDF support is very limited. Conclusion: there is not too much to read. With a better pdf support, a lot of users may read thier original (existing) e-book library without any problem. I don't have too much at the moment. (All is about 200 books I made in the last 18 years.) But I can reflow them to fit 8.1" perfectly with the desired font, spacing, overall look within just an hour (or two) in professional (press-grade) quality. But I know, most of the people here can't do this, so all of them rightly miss the better PDF handling.

iRex, just do it!

[Kolenka]

So, another request for some of the guys who have the DR800S in Europe.

Again, I've been playing with the emulator, and some of the behavior of image rendering in ePubs concerns me. Not so much that the iRex seems to lack dithering (although it seems like it'd be fairly straight-foward to at least add a simple one... at least from adding it to my feeds tool)... but rescaling.

So the problem I have is this: I have a CBZ file I convert using either a tool I'm writing, or Calibre. It sets the image to be somewhere in the range of 670x974 pixels, which should fit the screen. The CSS I use is a bit different from Calibre, but works just fine on the 505 and 900, as does Calibre's method.

I take either one and drop it onto the DR800SG emulator though, and the images are forcibly rescaled into a space about 2/3rds the height of the screen. (~770 pixels). Even if the CSS tells it to render at a specific height or width, it ignores it and rescales it down anyways. If I take out one of the images in the ePub, throw it into the images folder and open that, it looks just fine and isn't scaled down at all, so I know it fits the screen correctly.

I was wondering if someone with a real device could reproduce this, or if it might be an emulator-only bug. If it repros on real hardware, it basically kills my desire to pick one up.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I believe they are monitoring this forum for suggestions, but it wouldn't hurt to send them an email as well. The more feedback they hear requesting zoom, the more likely it is that they'll reconsider the decision to leave it out.

Absolutely agree.

The're really monitoring this forum.

As I mentioned a few days ago, once "we" (the customers/users) once pushed a company (actually the bigest in its segment) to put a feature back in the unit. They did it.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by professzore

...far more serious here in Europe. We don't have almost any source for ePub.

In Germany, that's not a problem anymore. libri.de or weltbild.de (and lots of others) offer tons of ePUBs. English and German. Prices, in comparison to p-books, are okay. Quality is about the same as you get directly from Sony or others.
But it's kind of annoying, that you rarely get any non-English eBooks from Amazon, B&N or other manufacturers, focusing on the US market.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

So the problem I have is this: I have a CBZ file I convert using either a tool I'm writing, or Calibre. It sets the image to be somewhere in the range of 670x974 pixels, which should fit the screen. The CSS I use is a bit different from Calibre, but works just fine on the 505 and 900, as does Calibre's method.

I take either one and drop it onto the DR800SG emulator though, and the images are forcibly rescaled into a space about 2/3rds the height of the screen. (~770 pixels). Even if the CSS tells it to render at a specific height or width, it ignores it and rescales it down anyways. If I take out one of the images in the ePub, throw it into the images folder and open that, it looks just fine and isn't scaled down at all, so I know it fits the screen correctly.

I'm not exactly sure what you are doing. The dr800x doesn't support .CBZ so what type of file are you ultimately trying to view on the device? A CBZ is simply a zipped file of images. If you say you took an image from an ePub, put it into the Images folder, and it looked fine, wouldn't an image taken from the CBZ and put into the same Images folder look the same?

I don't think the DR800x even has .ZIP support (a .cbz is a .zip file with the extension renamed), unlike the Kindle, which is reported to be able to view images from a .zip file. I'm guessing you're converting the .cbz content into a PDF and what you are seeing are the margins of the document.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

But is this possible for them?
If Mercedes would reduce their prices by, let's say 40%, their market share certainly would triple.
But their profitability?
I don't think, these are engineer driven decisions. I guess it's more about competition, target price, margin expectations, manufacturing workflow, ...

1.)Thanks for the comparison pictures, there really is very little difference in overall size between the Sony 505 and the DR 800. That part is done very nicely.

2.)I don't think it is accurate to compare Irex to Mercedes. Nobody buys an Irex for prestige. The fact that they can sell the DR 800 for $399 clearly shows that the DR 1000 would still be profitable at $550 since the units are very similar. And with the Plastic Logic, Skiff, and a slew of 9.7" readers about to hit the market (and tablets getting better), how can the DR 1000 still be sold at all? They will only find a few unsuspecting buyers who haven't done their homework. While at the right prices and with the right features they would be very competitive.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by professzore

But I can reflow them to fit 8.1" perfectly with the desired font, spacing, overall look within just an hour (or two) in professional (press-grade) quality. But I know, most of the people here can't do this, so all of them rightly miss the better PDF handling.

iRex, just do it!

Can you let us in on your secret??? Drop a few hints, maybe?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Can you let us in on your secret??? Drop a few hints, maybe?

I use BookDesigner. I take most of the Mobipocket/PDF/whatever eBooks that I have, and use the BookDesigner software to turn them into a PDF specifically designed for an 8" screen with whatever font and fontsize that I want.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Professionals who need the larger screen and additional features that the DR1000 provides? The DR1000 is not meant to be a consumer device and compete with the DX, etc. It's in a completely different market. That's why you're not going to see the DR1000 on shelves at BestBuy, etc. It's not intended to be competitively priced against the DR800, DX, Sony's, etc.

What feature does the DR 1000 provide that the Plastic Logic won't? Seems the PL does offer a lot more for a lot less. So will tablets. At least these two play in the same league?

Furthermore, I would argue that the DR 1000 could be successfully repositioned and also appeal to consumers. They have milked the price long enough, now it would make make sense to take action before the competition comes out.

I agree with you they work on that "professional/consumer" model basis. That must be the reason why they are crippling the DR 800. The problem with this thinking is that they are not alone anymore. Others are making their readers viable for business uses at much better prices.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I use BookDesigner. I take most of the Mobipocket/PDF/whatever eBooks that I have, and use the BookDesigner software to turn them into a PDF specifically designed for an 8" screen with whatever font and fontsize that I want.

Maybe I should give that another try, had problems with pictures and diagrams in BD.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Furthermore, I would argue that the DR 1000 could be successfully repositioned and also appeal to consumers....

I agree with you they work on that "professional/consumer" model basis. That must be the reason why they are crippling the DR 800. The problem with this thinking is that they are not alone anymore. Others are making their readers viable for business uses at much better prices.

I don't disagree with you. I'm just stating what I think they are doing, not necessarily what I think they should be doing.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Maybe I should give that another try, had problems with pictures and diagrams in BD.

There's a DLL that you have to manually register after installing BookDesigner in order to get graphics to work properly (at least on Vista and Win7, not sure about XP). There's an old thread around here somewhere that has a lot of really good advice for how to install BD and get it working. It's kind of a pain, but once you get it all setup right, IMO, it works really well.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by badbob001

I'm not exactly sure what you are doing. The dr800x doesn't support .CBZ so what type of file are you ultimately trying to view on the device? A CBZ is simply a zipped file of images. If you say you took an image from an ePub, put it into the Images folder, and it looked fine, wouldn't an image taken from the CBZ and put into the same Images folder look the same?

I don't think the DR800x even has .ZIP support (a .cbz is a .zip file with the extension renamed), unlike the Kindle, which is reported to be able to view images from a .zip file. I'm guessing you're converting the .cbz content into a PDF and what you are seeing are the margins of the document.

Converting it to ePub, should have mentioned that (although the mentions of CSS are a bit of a give-away here). I'd personally hold off on the lecture about how stuff works when the other poster gives blatant hints as to their technical level, it saves time.

What's happening is this:

- Image from CBZ copied to images folder: displays fine.
- Image from converted ePub (Calibre or my own tool) into images folder: displays fine.
- ePub from either Calibre or my tool on iRex: image is forcibly rescaled.
- ePub from either tool on Sony 900/505: displays fine, with my CSS experiment even formatting the page correctly (horizontal and vertical centering of the image, regardless of the image's aspect ratio using one bit of CSS with the screen's usable pixel rectangle).

So the jist of the problem is that the emulator seems to be overriding the CSS telling it how to render images, and downscaling them to a certain fixed size, no matter what the CSS/XHTML is telling it to do. I was curious if the real device has the same bug or not (and yes, it is a bug).