Jetbook Lite DRM compatiblity?

[coconur]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

I get the same with a B&N Epub file. Apparently they still don't support those correctly (at least with this version). As long as I can get the DRM'ed stuff working from some of the other sites, I'll be fine. Besides that, I have so much stuff to read as it is, it'll take me months before I REALLY need to load DRM'ed files, lol.

:-) Yeah, but I'm about to go on a weeklong trip, and there are a few books I'm dying to read. Which other websites have DRM books that work on the Lite? (All the free stuff I've downloaded from gutenberg.org is working great, but there are a couple of new releases I would really like to get.)

Thanks!!! :-)

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by coconur

:-) Yeah, but I'm about to go on a weeklong trip, and there are a few books I'm dying to read. Which other websites have DRM books that work on the Lite? (All the free stuff I've downloaded from gutenberg.org is working great, but there are a couple of new releases I would really like to get.)

Thanks!!! :-)

You can download DRMed eReader books from Fictionwise.com and ereader.com websites.

[JeePea]

I just received my Jetbook Lite today and after turning it on and playing with it a bit, flashed it to the .14k firmware from the .14i firmware that was on the machine. It flashed all right and then the rest of my evening slipped away. I spent several hours trying to understand why I couldn't get books I'd purchased from ereader.com to work on the Jetbook Lite. These are books I'd bought for another device but re-downloaded freshly for the Jetbook Lite. These ebook files require your name and a credit card number to open correctly. I installed these to an 8GB card I'd bought for the Jetbook Lite and then tried to open them. I entered my information, hit OK and then there was a flash and I'd see what looked like a very small image of the cover of the book and then I'd be at the main menu. So I'd work my way back to that book and try to open it again and get the same results. The book seemed to accept the required security information but wouldn't open. I tried this on half a dozen different books with the same basic results.

Finally, I decided to flash back to the original .14i firmware to give that a try and of course then the books opened. But they opened very slowly. I mean, the page count at the top of the page ran up at maybe two or three pages per second, which means it took a long time for a 400 page book. You can begin to read the book while the page counter rings up, but the paging is slow. Most annoyingly, the font size can't be changed either and the opening font is very small and thin, maybe 10pt. The font doesn't seem to be affected by trying to change the system font. If fictionwise.com is actively promoting the Jetbook Lite for their DRMed ebooks, why don't they allow for increasing the size of the font? Also, the green activity light flashes slowly the whole time I have one of these DRMed books open. It doesn't do that with non-DRMed books.

I didn't try ebooks directly from the Barnes and Noble site when I had the .14k firmware installed because I don't want to buy them if I'm not sure they don't work on the Jetbook Lite and from what I've read, they still don't work on this firmware. I really wanted to report a positive experience when flashing to this new firmware, but it turns out I'm not even very happy with the older version when it comes to DRMed ebooks. I'd like to hear other people's experiences with DRMed books on the Jetbook Lite using either of these latest firmware versions because maybe I'm missing something.

[ngrant]

Originally Posted by JeePea

...
Finally, I decided to flash back to the original .14i firmware to give that a try and of course then the books opened. But they opened very slowly. I mean, the page count at the top of the page ran up at maybe two or three pages per second, which means it took a long time for a 400 page book. You can begin to read the book while the page counter rings up, but the paging is slow. Most annoyingly, the font size can't be changed either and the opening font is very small and thin, maybe 10pt. The font doesn't seem to be affected by trying to change the system font. If fictionwise.com is actively promoting the Jetbook Lite for their DRMed ebooks, why don't they allow for increasing the size of the font? Also, the green activity light flashes slowly the whole time I have one of these DRMed books open. It doesn't do that with non-DRMed books...

Hello JeePea

I had the same experience opening ereader books on my new jetBook (firmware .14i); my name and credit card number were accepted (although this is a tedious exercise using the T9 entry) and the font was tiny and non-adjustable. I will just read those on my laptop in the ereader program as the conversion to html process (for me) produces odd punctuation and splitting of sentences and paragraphs. I am probably doing something wrong but it is not a major problem as I have only bought 8 books from fictionwise and can wait to buy compatible books from other sources when I'm ready for more reading after I get through my backlog of non-DRMed epub, txt, html, pdf and other books... only some 150 or so (ha ha). Not to mention that lovely source of FREE books, both pbooks and ebooks - the public library!

Other thoughts:
Absolutely LOVE my new jetBook and have logged over 8 hours of reading already. No change in the "battery remaining" icon - still 4 bars, and I have AA rechargeables installed. I am a very happy user of high capacity Powerex rechargeables from www.thomasdistributing.com - they really do seem to last longer than others so I am not concerned about having to change the batteries that frequently; certainly not "every 3 or 4 days" even with heavy usage! I also find the screen extremely pleasing to the eyes, compared with my laptop and my ebookwise, and the page turning very quick. I have no experience with e-ink so I can't comment on that comparison. The jetBook is my new favorite toy!

[coconur]

Originally Posted by JeePea

These ebook files require your name and a credit card number to open correctly. I installed these to an 8GB card I'd bought for the Jetbook Lite and then tried to open them. I entered my information, hit OK and then there was a flash and I'd see what looked like a very small image of the cover of the book and then I'd be at the main menu. So I'd work my way back to that book and try to open it again and get the same results. The book seemed to accept the required security information but wouldn't open.

Huh! I had the same experience after flashing to .14k last night, but from Books on Board.com. They have a free trial to see if your setup works. I downloaded the ereader DRM of the trial to my 8GB card, put in my name and credit card, and had the exact same experience. I was just about to try something from fictionwise, but if you get the same thing from there, maybe I should wait.

Do you know if the ereader DRM works on the internal card instead of the SD card? I'll try that next. If it works, I'll put my free books on the SD card and my DRM books on the internal.

Thanks

[coconur]

Originally Posted by ngrant

Hello JeePea
Not to mention that lovely source of FREE books, both pbooks and ebooks - the public library!

I went to my public library's web site, clicked on ebooks, and was taken to a really cool public library consortium for my entire state. They have tons of ebooks -- all on adobe epub, which doesn't work on the Lite. Adobe says they're working on supporting more ereader devices, but no word on whether they're working on the Lite, or on how long it will be before they do. :-(

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by coconur

Adobe says they're working on supporting more ereader devices

It is up to the vendor (Ectaco) to implement Adobe DRM, using Adobe software.

It is possible to strip AdobeID DRM from ePubs, see Adobe ADEPT DRM for EPUB circumvented. This is probably legal for personal use of ebooks you bought, but probably not legal for lending library ebooks even if you then use them exactly as the library intended.

[JeePea]

Originally Posted by coconur

Do you know if the ereader DRM works on the internal card instead of the SD card? I'll try that next. If it works, I'll put my free books on the SD card and my DRM books on the internal.

Thanks

I didn't try using the built in memory to open a book with the .14k firmware but I did with the .14i. The ebook still did the slow paging and wouldn't let me increase the font, behaving exactly as if it were on the card. I'm going to reload the .14k firmware and play around some more and when I do, I'll check how the DRMed ebooks act on the internal memory.

[coconur]

Originally Posted by JeePea

I'm going to reload the .14k firmware and play around some more and when I do, I'll check how the DRMed ebooks act on the internal memory.

On mine it did the same thing on the internal card as it did on the SD card. In a way, that's a good thing -- I *want* the two cards to behave the same way. It's a bummer that I still can't get the DRM to work, though.

[JeePea]

I've been experimenting with firmwares .14i and .14k and here are my findings:

To recap, I got my Jetbook Lite yesterday. I opened a couple of the included books and then flashed from .14i to .14k. I downloaded some DRMed books from ereader.com and tried to open them on the Jetbook Lite. I could enter the required security information, but the ebooks wouldn't open. I tried this on several different books with the same results. So I flashed back to the .14i firmware and found that I could open these books just fine. In viewing them, however, I was not able to increase the size of the tiny font which made the ebooks very hard to read. Then I decided to experiment.

I flashed back to .14k and found to my surprise that I could now open the ebooks that I'd opened in .14i even though I originally could not open them in .14k when I entered the security information. On top of that, I was able to increase the font size and change from Arial to Verdana. However, the fonts were very ragged looking as if they'd been typed by a typewriter that needed a new ribbon. The fonts were not fuzzy, just not fully rendered as if some information were missing to fill in parts of the edges of the fonts.

Confused by all of this, still with the .14k firmware, I downloaded some different DRMed books from ereader.com and after entering security information, found that the books would not open as before with this version. One of these ebooks was not DRMed and did not require security information, but it still wouldn't open.

So, just to be sure I was starting to understand this, I flashed back to .14i and found that I could open both of these ebooks as I'd expected. Then I flashed back to .14k and found that I could open the DRMed ebook but not the non-DRM book. I tried to recall if I'd actually paged through the books and I know that I did with the DRMed book but I'm not sure about the non-DRM book.

I'm done fooling around with this for the day and will probably call tech support on Monday. But there is obviously something wrong with the way that the .14k version accepts security information and then tries to open a DRMed book. Apparently if the DRMed book does get opened correctly and the pages turned, then it will open in .14k. Increasing font size works in .14k once the DRMed books have been opened but there is something wrong with the way the fonts are rendered. It's clear that the firmware from the Jetbook Lite is a work in progress since it seems like we're taking two steps forward and one step back.

[heffe2001]

I'm beginning to wonder if the build they had on the server isn't finalized, and has some stuff missing.

[JeePea]

You're probably right. I have a feeling it won't be long before they get these bugs squashed. As it is, I really like the Jetbook Lite. I think it's very well designed and actually quite ergonomic with the battery bulge. Like you, I have many Non-DRMed books to read, so I can wait until they figure things out with the DRM stuff.

[coconur]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

It is possible to strip AdobeID DRM from ePubs, see Adobe ADEPT DRM for EPUB circumvented. This is probably legal for personal use of ebooks you bought, but probably not legal for lending library ebooks even if you then use them exactly as the library intended.

Just for the record, the scripts to do this seem to have disappeared from the pastebin website sometime after Dec. 11, 2009, based on the blog entries.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by coconur

the scripts to do this seem to have disappeared from the pastebin website sometime after Dec. 11, 2009

There was a interesting post on November 7 in the comments to the original blog.

[coconur]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

There was a interesting post on November 7 in the comments to the original blog.

Ooh! That works great! Thanks for pointing that out. <huge grin>