Clara HD Mediocre user experience with new Clara HD

[slkissinger]

Maximus83, it looks like you solved your issue, without changing out the SD Card in your Clara HD. Just because I 'could' I updated in my Clara HD from the existing 8gb to a 64gb. I followed the instructions exactly in this thread (note, I use Windows, if you use something else you'll probably need different instructions): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=261362

I used Samsung UHS-I Evo Plus, 64GB; because of an article I can't find anymore where someone compared a lot of different sd cards, and for the small file writes, the Evo Plus was the best in his opinion.

I did have one issue--which someone else had as well. After transferring and extending, and adding it into the Clara HD; when connecting to the computer, the computer would prompt me that the drive had a problem and needed to be 'fixed'. I did a factory reset on the Clara HD (yes, I lost everything...); and the prompt on the PC when connecting to Clara HD no longer occurs.

Worth adding an update. After trying the KOReader app, it helps significantly with both issues I listed in the OP.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by slkissinger

Maximus83, it looks like you solved your issue, without changing out the SD Card in your Clara HD. Just because I 'could' I updated in my Clara HD from the existing 8gb to a 64gb...

Updating the SD card is cool, but I don't think it will impact how the reader handles a very large, poorly formatted book.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Updating the SD card is cool, but I don't think it will impact how the reader handles a very large, poorly formatted book.

nor will it stop it from reducing to basically a navigating crawl if 1000's upon 1000's of books are piled onto it, especially if there are many collections to go in and out of.

best wishes koboy

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by koboy

nor will it stop it from reducing to basically a navigating crawl if 1000's upon 1000's of books are piled onto it, especially if there are many collections to go in and out of.

As I've said often enough, when you get to the point where you have that many collections, time to dump collections and go with search. With the 8000+ books on my Clara HD, search does not appear to slow noticeably. I dumped collections years back when I realized that I had over 400 collections with 100s of ebooks in each. Searching on author, title and series works just fine with the CPU doing the scut work.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by koboy

nor will it stop it from reducing to basically a navigating crawl if 1000's upon 1000's of books are piled onto it, especially if there are many collections to go in and out of.

Can you quantify that a bit?

By "1000's upon 1000's" are you talking 2000? 5000? 10000? 30000? 100000? Me, I expect that it gets slower as books are added. The question is when it slows enough to be noticeable and gets too slow to be useful. When I was using the Glo HD as my primary device, it had reached about 5000 books. But, there is no way I would consider using the word "crawl" describe using it.

And I are you talking about your experience on your devices? The ones you list all have 256MB of RAM compared to the 512MB in the newer devices. The extra memory will help. And it is noticeable when I compare my Glo to the Glo HD.

And the firmware version? From memory, you were staying away from the recent versions and using somewhere around 3.12 or 3.14. Or maybe 3.19. If that is still the case, then there is a severe performance bug in collection management. Opening the collections list slows down as more collections are added, and it gets worse as the collections get bigger. Opening a collection from the list was quick, but returning to the collections list was as slow as getting there in the first place. This was largely fixed in firmware 4.6.9960. Opening the collections list is quick, but does slow down with a lot of collections or large collections. Opening a collection and returning to the list is now quick.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As I've said often enough, when you get to the point where you have that many collections, time to dump collections and go with search. With the 8000+ books on my Clara HD, search does not appear to slow noticeably. I dumped collections years back when I realized that I had over 400 collections with 100s of ebooks in each. Searching on author, title and series works just fine with the CPU doing the scut work.

hence the reason why i said especially if you have many collections. i concur search doesn't seem to slow down with a large amount of books, although i personally prefer using collections it's a much better/easier way to organize my library.

and of course once you have 8000+ books like you do (i'm not quite there yet) you have very little choice in the matter.

best wishes koboy

[koboy]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Can you quantify that a bit?

By "1000's upon 1000's" are you talking 2000? 5000? 10000? 30000? 100000? Me, I expect that it gets slower as books are added. The question is when it slows enough to be noticeable and gets too slow to be useful. When I was using the Glo HD as my primary device, it had reached about 5000 books. But, there is no way I would consider using the word "crawl" describe using it.

And I are you talking about your experience on your devices? The ones you list all have 256MB of RAM compared to the 512MB in the newer devices. The extra memory will help. And it is noticeable when I compare my Glo to the Glo HD.

And the firmware version? From memory, you were staying away from the recent versions and using somewhere around 3.12 or 3.14. Or maybe 3.19. If that is still the case, then there is a severe performance bug in collection management. Opening the collections list slows down as more collections are added, and it gets worse as the collections get bigger. Opening a collection from the list was quick, but returning to the collections list was as slow as getting there in the first place. This was largely fixed in firmware 4.6.9960. Opening the collections list is quick, but does slow down with a lot of collections or large collections. Opening a collection and returning to the list is now quick.

i'm using 3.16.0 on my first choice ereader (original Aura) and i have the latest firmware on my Kobo Touch, but as you rightly point out i don't like the newer firmwares because i can't stand the new home screen and that's putting it mildly.

i have just short of 3100 books about 1740 of them are on the external micro SD card the rest are obviously on the device. i have 14 pages of collections and your right it's slower going back out of a collection to the collections list than it is to open the collections in the first place. that's why i like the old home screen because i can have a dozen or so collections on it and get almost instant access to them.

at the moment yes it does take awhile to go back to the collections lists but i wouldn't say i had time to read war and peace so it's not that bad for now.

my earlier post was aimed mainly at if you do put a 64GB micro SD card in the device and were then tempted to fill it, you could quite easily end up with the higher numbers you mention. if so having pages upon pages of collections might not be the best/wisest idea.

it's good to know the newer devices do have double the memory that as you say will indeed help the cause.

best wishes koboy

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by koboy

i'm using 3.16.0 on my first choice ereader (original Aura) and i have the latest firmware on my Kobo Touch, but as you rightly point out i don't like the newer firmwares because i can't stand the new home screen and that's putting it mildly.

I knew that, I just couldn't remember exactly where you stopped. And I really can't remember any reason to choose 3.16 over 3.19, but the ones in between are bad. One of the versions I mentioned earlier is apparently the last one were the two finger light adjustment worked properly. There is at least one person here staying on that for that reason.

i have just short of 3100 books about 1740 of them are on the external micro SD card the rest are obviously on the device. i have 14 pages of collections and your right it's slower going back out of a collection to the collections list than it is to open the collections in the first place. that's why i like the old home screen because i can have a dozen or so collections on it and get almost instant access to them.

I still lament the tiled home screen. But, the other changes are making up for it.

at the moment yes it does take awhile to go back to the collections lists but i wouldn't say i had time to read war and peace so it's not that bad for now.

Just create a collection or two with 500 books in it and see how long it takes. The number of books on the shelves (could be the same book on multiple shelves) seemed to affect it more than the number of shelves.

my earlier post was aimed mainly at if you do put a 64GB micro SD card in the device and were then tempted to fill it, you could quite easily end up with the higher numbers you mention. if so having pages upon pages of collections might not be the best/wisest idea.

The books being on the SD card do not affect the collection list. Building the list is from the database. Opening a collection will be the same as for opening the the book list. For books on the card, the cover isn't stored is generated each time. That slows down paging through the collection.

it's good to know the newer devices do have double the memory that as you say will indeed help the cause.

I want to see 1GB or RAM. I think that would make a big difference. But, I don't know how it would affect the battery life.

Well here's the update to the thread: I gave up on the Kobo Clara and returned it (there were some issues with the sleep and the wifi connectivity, so the return was justified). And I don't plan to replace it with any e-ink device soon.

For me, personally, the e-ink devices just lag too far behind the Android phone/tablet software in terms of functionality, user experience, and inter-operability. For a brief moment, I found KOReader here on Mobileread, and thought maybe that was the answer to some of these issues as it tries to do address some of the Kobo app limitations. But in the end, there were too many limitations there as well. After you've used slick reader apps like Moon+ or the many other great options, which allow you to run your own library, interop with other devices, and put your books on any cloud, it's really hard to go back to limited/locked ecosystem options like Kindle or Kobo.

This is my third brief fling with e-ink devices in the last 8 years or so. Each time, I end up going back to Android and my phone or tablet due to the limitations of the e-ink device software. I already have a 5+ year-old Google Nexus 7" tablet that has a beautiful screen, runs Moon+, and still has far better specs than the latest Kobo e-ink devices including the one I just returned. Not to offend anybody, as I know there's lots of e-ink fans on this forum, but that's where I'm at in terms of device preferences.

Not to offend anybody, as I know there's lots of e-ink fans on this forum, but that's where I'm at in terms of device preferences.

Horses for courses, whatever boils your crawfish, to each his own, etc. etc. I doubt anyone will be offended by your personal preference - it is just that. I fired up Moon Reader Pro on my 8.4 inch Android tablet over the weekend, the first time in well over a year, and after less than 15 minutes, ran screaming in horror back to my Kobo, having been reminded of why I love e-ink over backlit for reading. It's a great thing we're not all the same