PRS-T1 Calibre or Sony

[banjobama]

Regarding the original question, I use Calibre for 98% of everything I do with my Sony. I use the Sony software to buy (rarely) or download free (slightly less rarely) books from the Sony store. I also use it to import notes, once in a long while. Anything to do with loading the books or making collections, I use Calibre. Even the books I buy from Sony, I save in Calibre and load from there.

[spindlegirl]

What I love about calibre + T1 is the ability to download and fetch news and put it directly on there, I've just configured CBC's recipe so the Provincial portion is for Nova Scotia (where I live) and have it as a daily magazine on my T1 now!

I am looking at all kinds of other news to fetch and have fun putting it on there. I have always had the highest praise for Calibre. I love that it works well with my T1.

[vishcompany]

Originally Posted by BlackVoid

Well, Calibre has a horrendous file management system, it saves every book in its own directory on your hard drive. This wastes a lot of space (may not be an issue if you have a smaller collection) and makes the management of these books nearly impossible with a normal file manager.
So if you switch to Calibre, then you have to stick with it, as managing the collection any other way is nearly impossible.
I use the standard Sony Connect software to move the books to the Reader. I only use Calibre if I have to convert something that BookDesigner 5.0 cannot convert.

If you do not want to manage your book files with a normal file manager ever, then Calibre is a good option though.

The point of calibres file management has been discussed exhaustively in the calibre forum. The gist being, that the file management is done like this for technical reason AND: If you use calibre as your library management, you are anyway not supposed to rummage in the actual folder/file-structure but let calibre do this for you. That's why you use it.
I can't believe, that you are going to run out of space due to books. Backing up a single video will use up a multitude of space than 99.9% of all the book collections there are.

When it comes to storing books on the reader, where space might be an issue), you can change the settings to any kind of folder/file-structure of your liking.

Anyway, when using calibre in combination with a T1, you are going to use tags/collections, so why bother with the folder structure.

[Hopskinny]

I had a horrendous experience with Sony Reader installation, and it didn't get any better when I found that as a New Zealander and New Zealand resident, I had to register my residence as Australia! There is no worse insult to a Kiwi

Then I found that there is no Reader Store that we can access in NZ, so there is really no use for the Sony software.

I converted to Calibre, and have been a happy camper ever since. I have found that it enables me to get the best of all possible ereader worlds, using the creative plugins available for Calibre...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nosnoop

Yes.
In the order of preference from best (LIT) to worst (PDF):

LIT > MOBI > EPUB > FB2 > HTML > PRC > RTF > PDB > TXT > PDF

ePub definitely goes before LIT and HTML can easily be better then the rest if it's made right.

PRC & MOBI are the same thing.

[nosnoop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

ePub definitely goes before LIT and HTML can easily be better then the rest if it's made right.
PRC & MOBI are the same thing.

That list/ranking was not my opinion or experience.
It was the recommendation by Calibre's author.

[spindlegirl]

With calibre, you don't *have* to store everything on it. You have the "Save to disk" option which will save only the files you want to any directory you point it to. I rarely use it because I love having calibre as my "on my computer" library manager, but for "disposable books" (books that I plan to read for the heck of it and then delete anyway) you can also select "send and delete from library", so even less space is used.

Most books are only about 500-800k and some even less, unless you are talking War & Peace or an encyclopedia, but there are management actions a person can take.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nosnoop

That list/ranking was not my opinion or experience.
It was the recommendation by Calibre's author.

Gotcha!

The problem with MOBI as a format is that no matter how good the source is that you used to make the MOBI, the resulting code underneath won't nearly be as good.

I don't really know much about FB2 under the hood.

LIT can almost be as good as ePub in terms of the code under the hood.

PDB is not wonderful. It sort of takes after MOBI in terms of conversion.

RTF is usually from Word and that means usually a big mess.

TXT can be OK is the formatting is simple and text markup is used to show where bold and italics belong.

HTML can work quite well if it's well formatted with a separate CSS.

PDF as we all know is ghastly.

[khalleron]

I'm on my 3rd Sony and I've never used anything but Calibre. I used to use the Sony software for the occasional book purchase or freebie, but since I can do that now directly over WiFi, I never use the Sony software at all. I had to reinstall it to do the latest update, but then I uninstalled it again.

So far from needing it for the WiFi, the WiFi renders it unnecessary.

[nosnoop]

Originally Posted by khalleron

I had to reinstall it to do the latest update, but then I uninstalled it again.

You don't need to. There is a standalone firmware installer at Sony web site.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by nosnoop

You don't need to. There is a standalone firmware installer at Sony web site.

Yeah, the next day.

[pelenor]

Will Calibre transfer collections in correct order or will the sony reader alphabatize them as per usual?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Yeah, the next day.

It was posted on the UK site the previous day to the US site.

[Tattncat]

Calibre, I only use the sony google and library links.

[log]

Originally Posted by pelenor

Will Calibre transfer collections in correct order or will the sony reader alphabatize them as per usual?

calibre will use order you set in metadata (I only use series for collections and I know it works for that)