sort of English Duokan

[WS64]

Fehtry, here's a sample "book" with the missing characters, as EPUB and as MOBI.
Sample Book

Check the EPUB on your computer to see how it should look.

[curstpriest]

Honestly the only thing worth using in duokan is the PDF viewer, possibly DJ-VU (if you really need it) because it's got better features like darkening/zoom and it's faster.

Other than that, it just doesn't do much that the kindle doesn't do already or can't be done with conversion.

DOC/CHM/EPUB support VIA duokan appears to be accomplished only through temporary conversion. This conversion takes place each time you open the book into the temp folder.. so the reader doesn't view the file natively... you might as well just convert it to MOBI and use that.

This problem with conversion leads to other problems - formatting errors, missing/misaligned graphics/images, and missing characters.

The TTS engine is poor, and every time you initiate it, it spits out a string of Chinese.

3-g browser doesn't work (because amazon's proxy uses a device-specific encryption key) Even if they did do this and it worked, it's quite likely that amazon would be able to EASILY detect their version of the browser.

Overall, it's just not finished enough to be anywhere close to being useful. Too many bugs, too few features. Not only are there some bugs with random crashes/restarts, but USB sometimes does not work. Even if you can get around all of these flaws - the poor translations, truncated text, misaligned menus, malformed/misaligned images in books - you still have to deal with missing characters with accents and whatnot that cause words to lose meaning.

If amazon were to do an update allowing for the following, this type of custom firmware would not be necessary:

1) custom user fonts (through GUI menu, so you can easily change multiple fonts)
2) better pdf tools: darken, crop, scroll/zoom faster
3) file browser / directory structure based "collection" view
4) proper image viewer (with archive support)
5) metadata search tools + cover display (some people just want that)

[gamermic]

think i'll wait till the next duokan comes out...

[FethryDuck]

Originally Posted by WS64

Fehtry, here's a sample "book" with the missing characters, as EPUB and as MOBI.
Sample Book

Check the EPUB on your computer to see how it should look.

Ich scribe an der computer, aber ist est nicht möglich ! Ich kann da noch sprechen Deutch ?
Ha ! - Ich habe eine idee. Gutenberg. Alices Abenteuer im Wunderland.

( here I quote something ) Sie überlegte sich eben, ( so gut es ging, denn sie war schläfrig und dumm von der Hitze,) ob es der Mühe werth sei.............als plötzlich ein weiẞes Kaninchen mit rothen Augen dicht an ihr vorbeirannte..

(and jumping up one paragraph - nope, I can not figure out how zou enter those signs -)
»Und was nützen Bücher,« dachte Alice, »ohne Bilder und Gespräche?«

( took a screenshot, so when I cop/paste those double arrows give an E and C here )

-----------

So, what is all this nonsense all about ?? - well, I have been confused.

[FethryDuck]

@WS64
Results of your files:

1. The little "u" fill the whole screen in Calibre, the mobi version.
2. The epub version shows up nice.
3. Amazon don't accept epub, but the mobi file are nice.
4. Duokan mobi - don't show images ( not supposed to ) but - you are correct, missing letters.
5. Duokan epub - show the images - but fail to show the text.
6. For both, the last test character is "spacy".

----------------

Here is my excuse for being so slow in understanding this:
- I don't have any German or Norwegian books. And for several available, when Calibre did thing like it did with your mobi file - I blamed the source.

The spacy letters are due not using "spacing modifier letters". I am unsure how to classify it. It shows the character, but not exactly in a nice way. But the missing character are much more serious. Tested K3 and DXG, same results, while
mobi don't show on the last, according to specifications. I made a similar test case in Norwegian - and the font table or the program are faulty.Which ?

Both it turned out. My crazy writing - is in fact duokan font files running on the computer. I wanted to feed character codes, and started to wonder where you found those German "umblauts" - Highly surprised, never knew the keyboards were so much different. In the test case - all system fonts are duokan. No other fonts allowed. Then using german input..

On top of this, a lot of faults turned up with the 2012 release, which also removed the Beijing Founder fonts, which I would expect to be more reliable.

@curstpriest - yeah, yeah, I cannot argue with you, honey - except, if Amazon had everything covered, we would not do any of this. We would find something else to hack and modify, right ? I am the owner of several kindles now, not for reading, but for hacking ! And Amazon are probably laughing

[WS64]

Fethry, I guess you have 4 and 5 mixed up, if I remember right the duokan mobi shows the pictures and epub does not... (but I might be wrong, don't wanna reboot now to switch to Duokan especially since this is really not important)

Can I help somehow to make things clearer?

Btw, you are aware that 1218 is out already? (no change though, and since the missing letters are still missing I do not use Duokan at all)

[FethryDuck]

Originally Posted by WS64

Fethry, I guess you have 4 and 5 mixed up, if I remember right the duokan mobi shows the pictures and epub does not... (but I might be wrong, don't wanna reboot now to switch to Duokan especially since this is really not important)

Can I help somehow to make things clearer?

Btw, you are aware that 1218 is out already? (no change though, and since the missing letters are still missing I do not use Duokan at all)

Yes -1218 is out I am exhausted
I think you do great at making things clear - gee, you even have me attempt to write German, he he... and so many things crashed, so I haven't had time to go over all my notes. But Beta is risky - sometimes things fall backwards instead of getting forward.

[SkyDream]

Installed Duokan and booted successfully but unable to switch to english on Kindle DXG international edition.

Already checked all hints but Settings only has 3 pages, and the second page has no language setting.

Any hints ?

[biodu]

Hello SkyDream,

on your DXG
(1) From your home Screen press Menu button and choose 0 (Settings)
(2) go to 2nd screen
(3) choose H (Language)
(4) choose 2 (English)

I have the previous version though (BETA1205) - maybe they changed menus...

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by biodu

Hello SkyDream,

on your DXG
(1) From your home Screen press Menu button and choose 0 (Settings)
(2) go to 2nd screen
(3) choose H (Language)
(4) choose 2 (English)

I have the previous version though (BETA1205) - maybe they changed menus...

Thanks,

(3) changed to I (Language).

Opening the first PDF (German Zeit Magazin) Duokan rebootet
Switched back to Amazon firmware.
Seems to be Duokan is still very beta

[max99]

Originally Posted by curstpriest

Honestly the only thing worth using in duokan is the PDF viewer, possibly DJ-VU (if you really need it) because it's got better features like darkening/zoom and it's faster.

Other than that, it just doesn't do much that the kindle doesn't do already or can't be done with conversion.

DOC/CHM/EPUB support VIA duokan appears to be accomplished only through temporary conversion. This conversion takes place each time you open the book into the temp folder.. so the reader doesn't view the file natively... you might as well just convert it to MOBI and use that.

This problem with conversion leads to other problems - formatting errors, missing/misaligned graphics/images, and missing characters.

The TTS engine is poor, and every time you initiate it, it spits out a string of Chinese.

3-g browser doesn't work (because amazon's proxy uses a device-specific encryption key) Even if they did do this and it worked, it's quite likely that amazon would be able to EASILY detect their version of the browser.

Overall, it's just not finished enough to be anywhere close to being useful. Too many bugs, too few features. Not only are there some bugs with random crashes/restarts, but USB sometimes does not work. Even if you can get around all of these flaws - the poor translations, truncated text, misaligned menus, malformed/misaligned images in books - you still have to deal with missing characters with accents and whatnot that cause words to lose meaning.

If amazon were to do an update allowing for the following, this type of custom firmware would not be necessary:

1) custom user fonts (through GUI menu, so you can easily change multiple fonts)
2) better pdf tools: darken, crop, scroll/zoom faster
3) file browser / directory structure based "collection" view
4) proper image viewer (with archive support)
5) metadata search tools + cover display (some people just want that)

you seem to be reviewing Duokan as if it were a potential replacement for Kindle OS, but it's not designed in that way. also, i can't say i've found any random crashes with yet, i think you're being overly harsh.

i think it's pretty obvious that Duokan is geared towards PDF users, and as a PDF viewer it's leagues ahead of my Kindle DXG, i can crop everything perfectly and darken text. it's also much more efficient and quicker at rendering. for me that alone is worth the download.

other great things about Duokan:

- proper folder support so i can have sub catagories

- i can access existing Kindle library without having to duplicate anything

- quick dual booting so i can switch back to Kindle OS in about a minute or so

- PDFs: text flow, font change, note taking and dictionary look up.

- built in support for user screensavers

- fully customisable fonts

- can change page flip speed

i'll admit i don;t use it for ePUB or mobi reading because i can quickly use calibre and go back to Kindle OS for that. i'm sure the missing character thing will be fixed quite soon, they only just released the english support afterall.

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by max99

i think it's pretty obvious that Duokan is geared towards PDF users, and as a PDF viewer it's leagues ahead of my Kindle DXG, i can crop everything perfectly and darken text. it's also much more efficient and quicker at rendering.

Well, the first PDF i tried was a german weekly magazine "Die Zeit".
I've reduced the PDF down to 9 pages that i want to read. But when i opened it with Duokan my KDXG rebootet shortly after showing the first page. This happens each time.

For me PDF support of Duokan is very bad.

I admit that this PDF seems to be not easy to handle but Kindle firmware at least didn't reboot when i open it.

Maybe later version will handle this better.

[daffy4u]

SkyDream,

Have you tried the Calibre periodical recipes? I see German periodicals called "Zeit Online" and "Zeit Online Premium". If these are the same as your "Die Zeit", it may be the way for you to go (for now).

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

SkyDream,

Have you tried the Calibre periodical recipes? I see German periodicals called "Zeit Online" and "Zeit Online Premium". If these are the same as your "Die Zeit", it may be the way for you to go (for now).

No, didn't tried it.
Downloaded ePub and PDF from Premium account. It's not the same content as the "Zeit Online".

[max99]

SyDream. I admit i had this problem with one PDF in my collection but the rest were ok