Any Gotchas for the EZReader?

[thadine]

Hi
Long long long time lurker here, but first time poster, I believe

I'm thinking of getting the Astak EZReader, but I'm wondering if there are any gotchas I should know about. I've had the Iliad, and been bitterly disappointed with it - it randomly skips batches of pages when you're trying to turn 1 page, it doesn't remember your place or font settings when reading html books, not to mention the horrible line out problems etc. All issues that many users have had, but were never mentioned in any reviews. If I had known of these bugs prior to purchasing, I would never have shelled out so much money for it.

Anyway, all you EZReader users out there, does it have any known problems like this that have just been accepted? Problems with reading specific formats and remembering your place? Battery problems? Anything to be aware of before purchasing?

[AnemicOak]

Not all formats display as well as others, LIT really looks bad IMO. ePub, Mobi and FB2 seem to display best from what little I used it. Text to Speech doesn't work on all formats (just so you're aware as they don't make that clear, or at least didn't).

Overall it's a nice little device.

[thadine]

What do you mean by "really looks bad" ? Is it still readable? Do you mean line breaks in wrong places, or incorrect handling of special characters, or something else? Any examples you could post?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by thadine

What do you mean by "really looks bad" ? Is it still readable? Do you mean line breaks in wrong places, or incorrect handling of special characters, or something else? Any examples you could post?

I mean breaks all over the place in the middle of words among other things. There are pics in another thread, I'll see it I can find it.


EDIT: Here you go, look at post #8 (although that looks better than the LITs I tried). Page turns are also really slow with LIT IIRC...
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57602

[thadine]

Thanks for the link - very helpful

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I mean breaks all over the place in the middle of words among other things. There are pics in another thread, I'll see it I can find it.


EDIT: Here you go, look at post #8 (although that looks better than the LITs I tried). Page turns are also really slow with LIT IIRC...
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57602

Apparently these are the .lit pages I did for Dr Drib. Just to lay everything out...

I don't use .lit's, I went and found a file to show Dr Dr. So I have no experience whether these are "good" or "bad".

I have put .prc (mobipocket) files from here at mobile read and one's I've purchased on the EZ Reader.
I have put a couple of epubs I have gotten from the same places.
Both of these formats are fine. They each of little idiosycracies, such as some epubs keep their wide margins when you zoom in so that the margin is wider than the text. However, a quick convert through Calibre seems to fix that. The .prc's sometimes lock up, but holding the exit button frees it up. The text itself appears just fine on all the zooms that I've seen.

What I routinely use is pdf's that I have made myself from my wordprocessing program. I put in a large font, headers for table of contents, and my own formating of paragraphs. Then I "publish" to pdf. I love having the large type that the zoom will then give me, my links to chapters any anything else I want work great. The only idiosycracy here is that because of the "page" of the pdf's, when the EZ Reader reflows the text, the end of the "page" then goes to a new EZ page, thus for every pdf page, I'll get maybe 3 or 4 EZ Reader pages, then a page with one or two lines. I can live with that. Someday I'll figure out the proper setting in my pdf publishing options to get rid of that. Also, in my pdf's, the 100% page has fomats like centering and indents, but any zoom loses that and puts all lines left justified. Again, I can live with that.

As far as splitting words, maybe one or two for the book, and I can trace those back to my wordprocessor with SoftHyphens.

All in all, I love my EZ Reader, but it's the only reader I've used.

AJ

[thadine]

My understanding is that the EZReader doesn't support mobipocket (with DRM). Are the .prc files you're using DRM-free mobipocket?

Also, how is it with handling html files? Can it deal with .doc and .rtf?

I know a lot of people are happy with converting their books with Calibre, but I actually hate that program (though I seem to be the only one, so I won't go into that!). Plus, I really dislike having to convert every book I want to read...

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by thadine

My understanding is that the EZReader doesn't support mobipocket (with DRM). Are the .prc files you're using DRM-free mobipocket?

Also, how is it with handling html files? Can it deal with .doc and .rtf?

I know a lot of people are happy with converting their books with Calibre, but I actually hate that program (though I seem to be the only one, so I won't go into that!). Plus, I really dislike having to convert every book I want to read...

All my files are DRM-free. That's why I used the term .prc versus Mobipocket. What DRM books I buy, and that is very few, I make them DRM-free immediately.

Though the EZ Reader does handle Html, it is not great. I tried a few when I first got mine.

Here are some notes I made on these format from my original evaluation of the EZ Reader:

.DOC

Menu:
1. Go to first page
2. Go to last page
3. Go to page
4. Go to Catalog
5. English speaking
6. About..

Keys:
Bottom bar with bookmarks, page no/total pages, battery icon remains on page
1-5 set/clear/go to bookmarks
6 sets bookmarks, HOLD for list
7 no function
8 three zooms, with last going landscape

　
　

TXT

Menu:
1. Go to first page
2. Go to last page
3. Go to page
4. English speaking
5. About..

Keys:
1-5 sets/resets/go to bookmark
6 sets next bookmark, Hold for list
7 no function
8. 3 zooms with 3rd one in landscape

　
　
Has bottom bar with "page no/total pages, battery icon

no indents, no para spacing

　
　
　

HTML

Menu:
1. Go to first page
2. Go to last page
3. Go to page
4. English speaking
5. About..
Keys:
Bottom bar remains on screen, bookmarks, page no/total pages, battery icon
1-5 set/clear/go to book marks
6 sets next bookmark, Hold give list
7 no function
8 zoom, three levels, last one is landscaped

　
RTF

Menu:
1. Go to first page
2. Go to last page
3. Go to page
4. Go to Catalog
5. English speaking
6. About..
Keys:
bottom bar remains on screen, bookmark, page no/total pages/ battery icon
1-5 set/clear/go to bookmark
6 sets next bookmark
7 no function
8 sometimes froze screen, but also rotates between portrait/landscape, no zoom
IN LANDSCAPE MODE THE FORWARD BACKWARD BUTTONS (9, 0) ARE REVERSED, TRIED THIS WITH LEFT SIDE BUTTONS AND SCREEN FROZE.

AJ

[thadine]

Wow, thanks a lot for the detailed list

[UchihaNaru]

I think that while it states that it supports a lot of formats.. some formats just don't work..

Luckily I only read .txt and it works perfectly =D

[kennyc]

For me there were/are a ton of little annoyances which led to my returning the first one but then purchasing a second one.

The menu font size is entirely too small.

The buttons don't always work (you have to press twice very often which leads to mistrust and to clicking when you don't want to -- a very uneasy feeling)

The light in the upper left is useless -- the colors and display do not match the descriptions in the very sketchy manual.

The software upgrade flash is unintuitive and does not follow the directions as stated.

The screen (which is the same on all the 5" eink readers) is dimmer (contrast-wise) than the 505 or the Kindle (both 6" screens) - but is exactly the same as the Sony 300.

The navigation and UI are non-intuitive (as compared to Sony and Kindle)

on the positive side, it does have folder support which Sony and Kindle do not have. It supports more formats.

[Jane A]

Originally Posted by kennyc

The buttons don't always work (you have to press twice very often which leads to mistrust and to clicking when you don't want to -- a very uneasy feeling)

Regarding the lack of responsiveness of the buttons, I have found on mine that if I very deliberately press the buttons then they will respond. It's if I'm in a hurry and don't take the time to make sure to depress and release that they don't work. A little thing, but I've gotten used to it and it's become second nature. It was a bit annoying until I figured it out, though.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by UchihaNaru

I think that while it states that it supports a lot of formats.. some formats just don't work..

Luckily I only read .txt and it works perfectly =D

I have tried all the formats and they all work. Some are more robust than others and the features are different but they all will work at some level. What format did you test that did not work? Did you test it with more than one eBook?

Dale

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Jane A

Regarding the lack of responsiveness of the buttons, I have found on mine that if I very deliberately press the buttons then they will respond. It's if I'm in a hurry and don't take the time to make sure to depress and release that they don't work. A little thing, but I've gotten used to it and it's become second nature. It was a bit annoying until I figured it out, though.

True and I have seen this happen on occasion on my Sony's and Kindle2 as well, but not nearly as often as on the Astak.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by kennyc

The buttons don't always work (you have to press twice very often which leads to mistrust and to clicking when you don't want to -- a very uneasy feeling)

I have seen this also.
I found if I powered the PEz "Off" and rebooted, it clears that issue up.

Originally Posted by kennyc

The light in the upper left is useless -- the colors and display do not match the descriptions in the very sketchy manual.

Agree, because changing your viewing angle, changes the color you see (when charging) Red, Orange or Green depending on angle.