Current Audiobook Specials

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by avantman42

It frustrates me slightly that Downpour don't make it more obvious that books aren't available to me. I have to look up purchasing options to see that.

I hear ya. I'm annoyed that most of these sites don't have pricing filters.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Katie1

I haven't look at the beginnings of this thread in 10 months! I just click on the last page LOL Well I still think we need a Forum of our own... Who wants to but into some one talking about a book to ask about players?? Seems rude to me! On this thread we are not really talking about 1 ebook or abook LOL since its mostly about whats free or cheep at the moment so asking a quick question not so intruding to me.

I agree that a dedicated forum would be great. As it is now, audiobook info is all over the place--I do look at the "what are we listening to" thread, but it's unwieldy. This thread is great but even though we go off on tangents sometimes, it's not really a place to discuss narrators or different versions of classics, etc.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Ya know, it sure would be nice to have a separate audiobook forum, hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod, etc, etc

I would like to +1 this! After all audiobooks are and ebook "format" just like mobi and ePub.

[sharphamster]

Yes, Please! to an audiobook forum. Many thanks to tubemonkey for this thread - Downpour is a find!

Santa gave me a Sansa player, and I've been searching around MR for hints and tricks, as digital audiobooks are a whole new world to me. The last audiobook I bought came on cassette, so I have a lot of catching up to do, obviously.

Is there a Calibre equivalent? I've downloaded Audible, Nightengale and iTunes, and am fumbling my way with mixed results. iTunes scrambled the chapter order on the Downpour's 1984 DL - this is no good. Is it better at ripping CDs to audiobooks? I have a bunch of radio dramas I'd love to digitize.

[Barbara1955]

For Audible books go to audible & Download the Manager follow the steps for it to reconize the sansa then you down load the books to the mgr & transfer to sansa.

A lot of my Audiobooks I transferred into my computer & Windows Player riped them to MP3 & I put them on 1-2 CDs! I still have the software & player to do it LOL Haven't run into any cassettes lately tho LOL Anyway once on your computer plug in the sansa & sync & your computer should do the rest.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by sharphamster

Yes, Please! to an audiobook forum. Many thanks to tubemonkey for this thread - Downpour is a find!

Santa gave me a Sansa player, and I've been searching around MR for hints and tricks, as digital audiobooks are a whole new world to me. The last audiobook I bought came on cassette, so I have a lot of catching up to do, obviously.

Is there a Calibre equivalent? I've downloaded Audible, Nightengale and iTunes, and am fumbling my way with mixed results. iTunes scrambled the chapter order on the Downpour's 1984 DL - this is no good. Is it better at ripping CDs to audiobooks? I have a bunch of radio dramas I'd love to digitize.

Thanks; and congrats on your Sansa. Which one do you have? The Clips are very versatile and support quite a few different formats. I wouldn't mess with iTunes unless you have an iDevice you're using for audiobooks.

To better help you, please answer a few questions. Are you in the US? What kind of computer do you have - Windows or Mac (and which version)? Do you belong to a library? Does it use OverDrive for ebooks and audiobooks?

[sharphamster]

Thanks Katie - I grabbed Audible Manager and it worked great on their books, but it looks like I can't add books from other sources. I'm doing the rips of their WMAs to MP3s anyway, so I'm going to have a big disorganized pile on my hands here before too long. I haven't used Media Player in years - may give it a shot too.

Can't give up my cassette - it's Christopher Lee reading Poe's The Raven! Even if I could get an MP3 I'd keep it for the coverart.

[sharphamster]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Thanks; and congrats on your Sansa. Which one do you have? The Clips are very versatile and support quite a few different formats. I wouldn't mess with iTunes unless you have an iDevice you're using for audiobooks.

To better help you, please answer a few questions. Are you in the US? What kind of computer do you have - Windows or Mac (and which version)? Do you belong to a library? Does it use OverDrive for ebooks and audiobooks?

Thanks! I've got a 4gb Clip+ (with an 8gb msd card - yay for memory expansion!) No iThings, but I had to install itunes for my ripping program to function. It was helpful for editing some metadata, but again, it scrambled chapters and had to be manually sorted out. I am just trying out Nightengale for cataloging - it seems to have metadata editing capabilities too.

I'm on Win7, and yes, belong to a few libraries. I download an (WMA) audiobook yesterday through Overdrive, but I haven't transferred it yet. My DLs from Downpour are zipped, so I've been manually unzipping them to Author directories and drag/dropping them to the Sansa's 'Audiobook' folders. Some come up 'Unknown' in the playlist, and that's going to drive my OCD nuclear in a short while.

Thanks for the help and the thread :]

[Tarana]

Is there a Calibre equivalent?

No. What some do is create a separate audiobook library and then create an 'empty book' to mark off what they have. I have over 400 audiobooks at Audible alone and that was after having them delete stuff that I didn't like at all. I download them or rip them into MP3 copies and store them on an external. I found a folder system to be easier to use, but I have to admit, I am considering doing a separate Calibre library to keep track of what I have on the main computer. This is because of all the sort of random audiobooks I've been acquiring for cheap through the Whispersync program. While it's pretty easy to scroll through the list using the Android App, it's not so pleasant when I'm on the desktop.

As far as the Sansa Clip, I have found that the Audible manager works very well. I can't tell you about Downpour since I have only loaded Ipods with Downpour purchases.

[Barbara1955]

Clips work great with WMA Have you Downloaded Overdrive? You can add WMAs from that. Using Win Media player to download & rip ... with the proper software gives you a CD Backup for your cassettes. And an easy way to transfer them to the clip. I use Easy CD & DVD Burning by Roxio...purchased at Best Buy.

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by sharphamster

Some come up 'Unknown' in the playlist, and that's going to drive my OCD nuclear in a short while.

If they are mp3s drag them into mp3Tag (free program) first. It will show you the 'real' information that the Sansa Clip will read. You can fix it from there.
Little hint, always check your track numbers in mp3Tag. Often they say 1,2,3 etc when you look at them in Windows, but the Sansa won't read them correctly, thus playing them out of order. With this program you can fix them.
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

S

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by sharphamster

Thanks! I've got a 4gb Clip+ (with an 8gb msd card - yay for memory expansion!) No iThings, but I had to install itunes for my ripping program to function. It was helpful for editing some metadata, but again, it scrambled chapters and had to be manually sorted out. I am just trying out Nightengale for cataloging - it seems to have metadata editing capabilities too.

I'm on Win7, and yes, belong to a few libraries. I download an (WMA) audiobook yesterday through Overdrive, but I haven't transferred it yet. My DLs from Downpour are zipped, so I've been manually unzipping them to Author directories and drag/dropping them to the Sansa's 'Audiobook' folders. Some come up 'Unknown' in the playlist, and that's going to drive my OCD nuclear in a short while.

Thanks for the help and the thread :]

YW

I just got a new PC and it has Win 8, so I'm still learning to navigate around it. I hate it ...anyway, my default browser is Firefox and my default media player is MediaMonkey.

To transfer audiobooks to my Sansa Clips, I use three programs. For Audible audiobooks, I use AudibleManager. For library audiobooks, I use OverDrive Media Console. For MP3 audiobooks from other stores, I use MediaMonkey. I've yet to encounter any major problems.

I run my Downpour books through MediaMonkey, then to my Clip. No unknowns or tracks played out of sequence yet. But then; I only have a few from Downpour, so rarely play them.

[sharphamster]

Originally Posted by Katie1

Clips work great with WMA Have you Downloaded Overdrive? You can add WMAs from that. Using Win Media player to download & rip ... with the proper software gives you a CD Backup for your cassettes. And an easy way to transfer them to the clip. I use Easy CD & DVD Burning by Roxio...purchased at Best Buy.

Just tried Overdrive and it worked like a charm - Thanks again Katie
Filled my Holds list up while I was at it.

Will look into Roxio - can never have too much backup.

Originally Posted by silverraven

If they are mp3s drag them into mp3Tag (free program) first. It will show you the 'real' information that the Sansa Clip will read. You can fix it from there.
Little hint, always check your track numbers in mp3Tag. Often they say 1,2,3 etc when you look at them in Windows, but the Sansa won't read them correctly, thus playing them out of order. With this program you can fix them.
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

S

That's exactly the stuff - Sorted out the tracks and added missing metadata really easily. No more 'Unknown's in the list, everything right where I want it.



Thanks to you both - you've no doubt saved me hours of fiddling and frustration, and a very messy playlist.

(Now I just have to let my player re-charge so Neil Gaiman can finish telling me a funny story about the Apocalypse.)

[Barbara1955]

Me Windows 8. Its just a combo of win 7 & tablet [aka my Kindle Fire HD] Even my son had no problems with it he never had a tablet & went from Vista which I hate!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

YW

I just got a new PC and it has Win 8, so I'm still learning to navigate around it. I hate it ...anyway, my default browser is Firefox and my default media player is MediaMonkey.

I don't like it either. I have it on my new labtop. I did get my start menu back by installing a free add on and have it set to boot directly to desktop which really helps.