Converting EPUB's for Kindle Paperwhite - AZW3 or MOBI?

[cybmole]

Perhaps when you return it will be with less of the condescending superior attitude
Amazon cs may be less tech proficient than you but at least they have manners.
Or have the other mods promoted you to Mr Nasty?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I don't know, but perhaps some lab126 developers saw us discussing PDOCs and send-to-kindle... about the same time they were peeking at our jailbreak... and decided to do something useful in addition to nuking our usability addons.

Now I wonder about emailed+converted documents... can you test it? I can't email attachments from my Kindle Touch, it seems counterintuitive anyway and I may be away from the PC for a while.

What do you mean about "emailed+converted documents"? Are you asking about emailing an original mobi to see if it converts it to a dual mobi? If so, then the answer is no. I did test out that scenario, too--sorry I didn't mention it in my other post.

So...to recap.

calibre --> dual mobi --> email to kindle = original mobi for older devices, KF8 for newer

<any accepted format> --> Send to Kindle app = original mobi for older devices, KF8 for newer

<any accepted format except original mobi> --> email to kindle = original mobi for older devices, KF8 for newer

original mobi --> email to kindle = original mobi only


Shari

[eschwartz]

I didn't expect MOBI to be upconverted, but it is good to hear their other accepted formats get converted to dual MOBI instead of plain old MOBI... whether sent by the extension/app, or by email.

for confirming.


You didn't mention anything, but... is it too much to hope for, that they fixed the AZW3 cover bug? i.e. a PDOC in AZW3 format doesn't seem to have one?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I didn't expect MOBI to be upconverted, but it is good to hear their other accepted formats get converted to dual MOBI instead of plain old MOBI... whether sent by the extension/app, or by email.

for confirming.


You didn't mention anything, but... is it too much to hope for, that they fixed the AZW3 cover bug? i.e. a PDOC in AZW3 format doesn't seem to have one?

Sorry...still no real cover for AZW3. Maybe there's hope, though?

Shari

[eschwartz]

Definitely hope on the horizon -- after all, this is already one long-awaited update, maybe they will outdo themselves and fix even more longstanding bugs.

[speedlever]

I see I missed a lot in my absence today! So are we back to output options: dual mobi now? That way it sounds like my Pw2014 will automatically get AZW3 and should I ever need to resurrect my old K3, it will get old mobi there.

[victorhooi]

Ok, so Calibre -> Dual-format MOBI -> Send-to-Kindle -> Kindle Voyage will result in the KEF8 file being shipped - is that correct?

Is this the original KEF8 file that was part of the dual-format MOBI, or is it the old-style MOBI component, that's been then converted by Amazon into KEF8?

Also, the cover images being gone - is that an Amazon bug that happens on newer devices that download the KEF8 version?

And is there any way to get Send-to-Kindle to send to Books, and not Docs? (I tried setting Personal Tags to [EBOK], but it still goes to Docs).

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by cybmole

strange: I tested with "buying" the free sample direct to K for PC, then drag drop from my kindle content into calibre ( with Alf's tools installed)
I Only get one format.
Authors: Paolo Bacigalupi
IDs: 9780748129393
Tags: Sample Book
Path: Click to open
format: AZW3

i delete & try a different route - this time I use the add books menu options- same result.

are you sure that all you did was import ?

what is your exact "import" workflow sequence ?

can you reproduce this with any other book ?

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this. I've been away all day today and when I got home, the internet was down for several hours. Sheesh.

Here's my Amazon ebook purchase routine, best I can describe:
1) buy book on Amazon and send to my PC (not to my PW2014). I do this because I like to keep my own library of ebooks and keep the ebooks in separate folders defined by the source.

2) I find the new d/l in my Amazon ebook folder (typically by the time of day since the titles do not yet exist in human readable form)

3) import into Calibre via the Add Books button.

4) email to my PW2014 from Calibre via rt click the book in Calibre and choose connect/share/email to [my kindle.com email address].

I checked another book I recently bought and it only shows MOBI format. As well as another.

And yet a book I bought in June 2014 shows both AZW3 and MOBI:


I have no idea why that book shows multiple formats.

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by victorhooi

And is there any way to get Send-to-Kindle to send to Books, and not Docs? (I tried setting Personal Tags to [EBOK], but it still goes to Docs).

What does this mean? Or is this a Voyager issue?

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by speedlever

I have no idea why that book shows multiple formats.

calibre has, I believe, an auto convert when importing option - could it be you have/had that turned on ?

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by victorhooi

Ok, so Calibre -> Dual-format MOBI -> Send-to-Kindle -> Kindle Voyage will result in the KEF8 file being shipped - is that correct?

Is this the original KEF8 file that was part of the dual-format MOBI, or is it the old-style MOBI component, that's been then converted by Amazon into KEF8?

logically, it's the latter, because if you send only the new format they reject it. To be sure would require making up a test book with features that we know render differently in the new & old formats, then sending that...
I think their pipeline accepts only certain formats( KF8 is NOT one of them) , then it goes into a device specific convertion & output stage.

but ask the resident Mr know-it-all who says there's nothing to debate here

[victorhooi]

I just tried an experiment, which may solve this mystery.

I converted several books in Calibre into MOBI (dual-format, or Hybrid). I also used KindleUnpack to unpack the hybrid MOBI generated by Calibre, so we could compare this to the file downloaded onto the Kindle later.

I then used OSX Send-to-Kindle to upload these to Amazon.

I then downloaded them via WiFi onto my Kindle Voyage.

I then plugged my Kindle Voyage in by USB, and looked at the books - it would appear that *some* books were downloaded as AZW and *some* books were loaded as AZW3

Book 1 is an example of a book that was sent as an AZW.

Book 2 is an example of a book that was sent as an AZW3.

I've attached examples of each book at each stage:

1. Original Source AZW3 Book
2. Hybrid MOBI Generated by Calibre
3. Split up by KindleUnpack - MOBI7 component
4. Split up by KindleUnpack - Mobi8 component
5. Copy of book downloaded onto Kindle voyage

It should be fairly easy to do a comparison here to prove what happened.

I am quite curious why some books got uploaded as AZW and some as AZW3 though.

And also not sure how the cover images (thumbnails) got broken in the download.

@speedlever - As in, books I upload via Sent-to-Kindle will appear under "Docs", as opposed to "Books". It's just a logical division used by Amazon - I believe it's there on any reasonably modern Kindle (PW, PW2, 7th Gen etc.). I'd like a way to get the books I upload to appear under "Books" - apparently I need to do some mucking around with some 501 CDE tag, I was hoping there was a reasonably easy way to do this from within Calibre.

[shalym]

I believe that the only way to get them to show as books is to side load them using USB -- any that are sent using Amazon's service will show up as personal documents.

From what I can see, if you send an azw (original mobi) you get the same thing back. If you send a dual mobi (or any other accepted format) you get an azw3 (KF8) for devices that can read that format, and azw for devices that can't read the newer format.

Shari

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by cybmole

calibre has, I believe, an auto convert when importing option - could it be you have/had that turned on ?

If it is an option, it is enabled by default. The only installed option that I can think of which affects the file being imported into Calibre is the de-drm plug in tool 6.2.1. Otherwise, my Calibre setup is pretty much default, other than the options in preferences we've discussed above.

I just scanned through the first 25 books in my Calibre library and 13 of them show AZW3 (one being AZW3 only) and MOBI. The others are MOBI only.

Under Calibre/Preferences/Import-Export/Adding books: my default conditions are:


Is this what you are referring to?

This thought just occurred to me: are we talking about what format(s) Calibre shows? Or what gets sent to the Kindle via [my email@ kindle.com]?

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by victorhooi

@speedlever - As in, books I upload via Sent-to-Kindle will appear under "Docs", as opposed to "Books". It's just a logical division used by Amazon - I believe it's there on any reasonably modern Kindle (PW, PW2, 7th Gen etc.). I'd like a way to get the books I upload to appear under "Books" - apparently I need to do some mucking around with some 501 CDE tag, I was hoping there was a reasonably easy way to do this from within Calibre.

Oh. I never bothered to look before. I've simply viewed under all items up 'til now.

If I look at either Books or Docs, I see that I have some (recent additions) in Books and some in Docs. I wonder how that determination occurs?