Going beyond ebooks - looking for inspirations

[Joanna]

Going beyond ebooks - continued

I've decided against using Calibre for music, and I'm looking for some nice music library & player solution. I might be too picky, as I've tested six applications or so today, and haven't fallen in love with either of them (any tips would be appreciated ).

I'm still thinking about using Calibre for movies; I really like fidvo's ideas. Still not sure what to do with subtitles, though. Embedding subtitles doesn't appeal to me as I would prefer to keep the original files.

For the same reason I've decided against converting audio books into a single file. But... I do have an audiobooks Calibre library, as of yesterday

I chose the 'zip' approach and added zipped audiobooks to the records. Each record is one audiobook, and the zipped file includes a folder with files (so if I unpack the zip, I will have the full folder name, not the shortened Calibre version).

The use of zipped files might not be the most convenient one (e.g. when I open the file in Windows Explorer, I can't see the length of the files like in the case of audio files in regular folders) but I don't have many audiobooks nor do I send them to devices / listen to them very often. Unzipping a couple of them once in a while should not be a lot of hassle.

The advantages (in comparison to the 'one audiobook = one series' approach and to audio managers):
clear and nice overlook of my collection, very intuitive (one book = one audiobook), no need to 'clean' the folders, edit file tags etc. (I'm a big fan of using MP3Tag for music but never cared about the metatags for my audiobooks). Furthermore, when I find some time to go through my CD collection, I'm going to add 'empty records' for the audiobooks - and this seems much more convenient if one record = one audiobook.

Hopefully, in a couple of months I'll be just as happy about this solution as I am today

One question: what kind of custom column and number format would you use for the length of an audiobook? Right now, I am entering the number of minutes but something like 2 h 56 min / 2:56 would probably be nicer (whereas I want to keep the option to sort the audiobooks by length). Any thoughts?

Although I'm pretty happy with the .zip solutions for audiobooks, I'm not particularly eager to use .zips for my 'language learning materials' library. As I've written before, the library would include various courses, language books etc. The biggest problem is that I have materials of various kinds and frequently there are multiple files of one format (e.g. audio or a couple of pdfs - a book, an anwswer key etc.). I also tend to store my notes in the folder with a given course.

It's a pity that Calibre, with its one file per format policy, does not support natively the option of adding (additionally) one 'folder' item per book. This would be great for all kinds of additional stuff one may want to store with a book.

Looking for some workaround, I'm thinking about having a folder for my 'language files', stored in subfolders, making shortcuts to these subfolders and adding them (as .lnk files) to Calibre.

Has anyone tried this? This would obviously work on Windows only (but this doesn't bother me). A fix letter drive would be absolutely necessary.

Any ideas what folder structure should I use for those 'external files'? (I would probably want to treat them as a 'black box', i.e. open the subfolders only through Calibre).

What's the screwup potential?

Using relative paths would probably be much better - do any other workarounds come to your mind?

Originally Posted by fidvo

That's why if I ever do write the plugin, it's not likely I'll upload it here. Inevitably people would (rightly) complain because it doesn't handle the way they manage their recipes.

I wish I was capable of writing custom scripts and plugins, and adjusting Calibre to my needs

[phossler]

For the same reason I've decided against converting audio books into a single file. But... I do have an audiobooks Calibre library, as of yesterday

I also have a lot of ABs, but I just keep them organized on a 'Author-Title-mp3' folder tree since I decided that using Calibre was overkill for me.

What do you see as the advantages of using Calibre to manage them?

[fidvo]

Originally Posted by Joanna

One question: what kind of custom column and number format would you use for the length of an audiobook? Right now, I am entering the number of minutes but something like 2 h 56 min / 2:56 would probably be nicer (whereas I want to keep the option to sort the audiobooks by length). Any thoughts?

If you're careful about how you enter the time, you can use a regular text field. Specifically, use zeroes as placeholders.

For instance, 2:07 for 2 hours 7 minutes. 0:25 for 25 minutes. If you do it this way, sorting the column alphabetically will sort it by length.

This also works if you want to track the seconds as well, even if you track the seconds in some files and not others.

0:03:45 (3 minutes 45 seconds) would come before 0:04 (4 minutes). And 0:00:30 (30 seconds) would come before either.

[BetterRed]

Adding .LNK files has become a lot easier since version 2.44, just drag 'n drop the .LNK file into the book details panel (right sidebar).

Before 2.44 the only ways to add a .LNK file to a book was either via the command line or via Windows Send To. In the Add Books dialogues Windows jumps in and opens the link target. I assume it still does that - not tried it for a couple of years. It's a Windows behaviour nothing calibre can do about it - and in most contexts that's exactly what you would want Windows to do.

OSX has an equivalent to Shortcuts called Aliases. Not sure if they are a regular files al'la Windows shortcuts that can be DnD'd.

Yes, the problem with putting things in archives is that you lose visibility of the file properties (duration, frame size etc) - it's one of the reasons I gave up on them.

I use the Date column type to store video/audio duration, the format can be used to 'hide' the day. month and year parts - these work for me 'hh mm ss' and 'mm ss'.

BR

[Joanna]

@phossler, the biggest advantage of using Calibre to manage audiobooks is in my opinion the ability to easily search for them, to browse through the collection and to add detailed information about the audiobook (e.g. short review/summary).

For years I used no special software for managing my electronic media: just a structure of folders and subfolders, and that was it. Sometimes it was quick and convenient, sometimes it would get messy. With Calibre, I found a powerful tool to manage my ebooks. Now, thanks to the cover grid, I get an almost 'physical' feeling of collecting books: I get to see the covers, let my eyes wander , look at a summary from time to time. With paper books, I would sometimes go to my bookcase and look for something I felt like reading - you don't get that pleasure if you're just clicking through numerous folders .

This is why I wish my other media were also catalogued in a nice, detailed, visual way. This, and the search options obviously (although I don't need them for my audiobooks yet).

These days, I don't buy many paper books, regular music and audiobook CDs etc. - most media are purchased as downloads, but I want to feel like an owner of music and books, not an owner of thousands of files .

OK, I might be getting way too philosophical. That's what spending a couple of days cleaning your hard drive may do to you

@fidvo, thanks for your tips! I guess I'll use the hours:minutes format; putting the total length in minutes has not been very intuitive.

@BetterRed, the date column is also an interesting option.

I didn't realize adding .lnk files had not always been that easy! Just tried it and it worked. I guess I'm lucky

Going through some older threads on the forum, I've found your posts about using .lnk files and hyperlinks. Which of the two solutions do you prefer? And, most importantly, how has it been working out for you?

The thing I'm most afraid of is that at some point shortcuts / hyperlinks could stop functioning (because of files being moved, drive letters being changed etc.). One thing I can do is using a fixed drive letter for the external drive on both of my computers.

It would be great to be able to use relative folder/file paths but there is no way to do that, right?

I want to catalogue lots of files that haven't been properly ordered for quite some time (some have been put into neat folders and subfolders, whereas others have ended up in folders such as 'new', 'latest', 'old', 'to be classified' etc. - you get the picture ). That's why I would not only have to catalogue stuff in Calibre but also order it somehow on my hard drive: which brings the question what would be the best way to do that (e.g. using some meaningful folder-subfolder structure or just one folder to put all the folders with the title of the item and Calibre number - a quasi black-box, so to say). Or maybe it's completely irrelevant? (One potential problem about the 'meaningful' folder structure is that it is tempting to change the structure/move folders later on, and that would obviously require manual modifications in Calibre).

On another topic: I've decided to go with another program for cataloguing movies: EMDB. It's not as perfect, flexible and customizable as Calibre (I feel spoiled now ) but it looks like it does quite a good job. It does offer some customization possibilities, decent options for searching/filtering/sorting, both the table and the cover view, and it downloads covers and information about movies (this was the decisive factor for me, when I realized how much time I would need to enter the data manually into Calibre).

After a long search, I've also found my music library of choice , which I can recommend if anyone needs a change: MusicBee. Great piece of software, I keep discovering new options and features. Like Calibre, it gets better with time (and no, they don't pay me for advertising ).

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Joanna

@BetterRed, the date column is also an interesting option.

@joanna - Using a Date type and a format that hides year, month and day prevents inadvertent entry of invalid duration e.g. '01:65:71'. I enter all my metadata via the book list not via the Metadata Edit dialogues, but at a glance it looks like it should be OK in there too.

Originally Posted by Joanna

I didn't realize adding .lnk files had not always been that easy! Just tried it and it worked. I guess I'm lucky

Going through some older threads on the forum, I've found your posts about using .lnk files and hyperlinks. Which of the two solutions do you prefer? And, most importantly, how has it been working out for you?

In a word - Both. I no longer use archives (I used 7zip archives for a while)

For Authors, hyperlinks (URIs) is the only available option. Extra Author data was my starting point. Initially I used file-links to an AuthorInfo folder (e.g. AuthorInfo/Charles Dickens) but as the content of the folders expanded I became 'fed up' with the limitations of the file system. Then I stumbled on the idea of using Evernote to 'take care' the extra things. IIRC, Kovid changed calibre to allow any type of URI in the Author Link field, and in long text column links. If I move notes around within an EN Notebook (database) the evernote-links don't change - such is not the case with file-links.

For extra things relating to Books I often use shortcuts (LNK files) to a folder. Such as where there are several MP3 'episodes' for one book, or a multi-part series of lectures. Provided you don't disable Windows Distributed Link Tracking service then Windows will 'repair' a LNK file should you move its target. If a lecture series is given over a period of time (e.g. the annual Reith lectures), adding an episode into a 7-zip archive is fiddlesome, plus there's the loss of visibility of the archive member metadata, such as duration, frame size etc.

If the 'extra things' for a book already are, or if they become disparate (i.e. a mixture of different type of data - audio, images, web links, pdf, html etc) then I'll create a note in Evernote and put the evernote-link in my Book Notes long text custom column.

Many common file types can be embedded directly into an Evernote note - pdf's, jpegs, mp3s etc. In which case you have the option of removing the originals from the file system, and/or moving them somewhere for backup purposes (I use a commercial FTP service).

The Evernote 'solution' has a bonus, thanks to chaley it integrates with Calibre Companion. So what you see on your desktop via a calibre->evernote link, you can also see on your Android device via CC.

BR

[BetterRed]

@Joanna - also see the last few posts between jecilop and and me in this thread ==>> REQ: input on Database Structure and testing a workaround input

The bottom line is that Distributed Link Tracking doesn't work if LNK target in on a removable drive. I should test that on Win 10 - you'll never ever know . . .

Added 1 - a little birdie suggested I should test it - preliminary tests suggests that the limitation of DLT not handling removable drives is no longer the case. You'd think MS would have told me. Needs more research - but . . .

Added 2 - watch my MS Technet post if you're minded ==>> Windows 10 and Distributed Link Tracking Be Warned: could be like watching paint dry or grass grow

BR

[darryl]

Kodi is excellent for both movies and music.

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by darryl

Kodi is excellent for both movies and music.

I use mediamonkey for my non-iTunes solution, had never heard of Kodi. Thank you for the hint, it looks fantastic (from the screenshots at least. ). I'm going to have to give it a whirl when I'm home.

Does it do any syncing with devices at all?

[darryl]

@glennd. Kodi is actually a complete media centre type application. You may have heard of it under its former name, XBMC. It is not designed to sync with other devices, though there are many addons.

[shadith]

Since I am such a heavy goodreads user I love using calibre for audiobooks. The ease of downloading all the information and categorizing on my pc in author/title format is great. For any audiobooks that is broken into parts I move the first part into calibre. Tag it download Metadata and make it look the way I want then right click on the title go to the open file container function and paste in the remaining parts to the folder the first part is in. This keeps the entire book together.

I tend to listen to audiobooks from my phone with an app called smart audiobooks. I transfer over the root folder author/title and it automatically detects the book and plays in order.

[Subtext]

Originally Posted by darryl

Kodi is excellent for both movies and music.

Never heard of Kodi, but I can recommend EMDB for movies/series

[MontyJ]

This is in a little different category than most of the posts so far, but let me put this out there as a "new" way to use Calibre!

I run a small Yahoo group that specializes in tech issues an topics that expats often run into when living in or travelling to Mexico, or South-of-the-Border (SoB). Many, if not most, are senior citizens and avid readers, thanks to the proliferation of ereaders like Kindle tablets and Paperwhites, along with others.

To those forum members interested (<100), I started sharing my Calibre library, which contains around 50k titles in Fiction, NonFiction, and Science fiction categories. It is a hobby effort, no fees of any kind are charged to the forum members.

I use the Calibre-Server program in a Linux environment for this web server feature and provide 3 separate libraries via Calibre to those interested.

The problem arises with security as I can find no way within Calibre or any available plugins, to have individual user logins. Currently I am using a single username and password for login and I pass that out to any of the members wanting access to the ebooks.

Even though I am not charging members for access, it is a valuable resource that has taken years to accumulate and organize, so I do want to make users accountable for what they download (no "bulk" downloading is allowed). A few have tried to take advantage of this resource to use my efforts to start their own repositories which they tried to charge for. The individual login helps to keep users accountable and not "share" their login with others not a member of the forum.

So, my suggestions is to incorporate an optional method, perhaps a plugin, that would allow individual logins when accessing the ebook database through the Calibre web server feature, and provide logging of times, dates, and titles downloaded.

Doable?

Monty

[kovidgoyal]

If you want more sophisticated user management you can always put the calibre server behind apache or nginx as a reverse proxy, then use the user management features of those servers. That said, the calibre server is getting multi-user support in calibre 3.0

[MontyJ]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If you want more sophisticated user management you can always put the calibre server behind apache or nginx as a reverse proxy, then use the user management features of those servers. That said, the calibre server is getting multi-user support in calibre 3.0

Kovid,

Calibre, and its esteemed developer continue to amaze me! With its power, features, and continued development, I recommend it to all that I come in contact with that needs to organize their ebooks. I also recommend they donate to help keep this marvellous development project going.

I missed the announcement (if there was one) about 3.0...is there a time frame for its release? I will certainly be on it quick like, LoL.

Keep up the great work!

Monty