Russian support on the 500? (fb2lrf?)

[DrMoze]

Can anyone help me out with figuring out support for Russian ebooks on the Sony Reader? (This will be for an *awesome* gift for the gf, who was born in Belarus and loves to read!) I saw a 505 for sale on eBay that has "support for Russian language" installed by the seller. The menus and a couple of displayed pages are shown in Cyrillic.

What is necessary to provide Russian fonts and support on the ereader? (not pdf files!) An older post here also mentions the fb2lrf converter. Some info for that is at http://www.msh-tools.com/ebook/fb2lrf.html. Is that all I need to dl fb2-format Russian ebooks and convert them to lrf? Is there some other update needed to get Cyrillic characters in the menu item lists as well?

While I'm on this topic, does anyone know a site or source for free Russian books in fb2 format? (The gf loves old, classic stories, etc., so I imagine there will be some available free of copyright.) BTW, *I* don't read Russian (I speak just a bit, barely), so looking through some of the fb2 web pages has not been fruitful.

Thx.

[JSWolf]

DrMoze can you email that seller and ask how he/she did the Russian language support? I would love that person to come here and tell us. Maybe that would help us get the hacks going on the 505.

[DrMoze]

Sure, I'll drop him a line and ask. I'll point him to the community over here too, as he might be interested in participating!

[JSWolf]

Thank you. I hope he/she comes over and helps us out.

[DrMoze]

I dropped him a friendly invitation to stop by here. Also, for those interested, here's the ebay listing so you can see what it looks like:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=140183936652

[tuktuk]

You should talk to porkupan (aka boroda) or igorsk on this forum. Or search for porkupan's posts here. Better yet, go to http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/ for complete instructions if you read Russian.


They are the ones who have created the method for putting Cyrillic support (and other languages) on Sony Readers.

I've done it myself following porkupan's instructions in Russian. However, I think he also translated them into English.

By the way, I need to point out that the method is complicated and can kill the reader for good because it modifies the firmware. So, if you are not comfortable with the risk, you should probably go ahead and buy that reader on ebay.

[DrMoze]

tuk^2, thanks for the info. I hadn't come across that. Can you use both English and Cyrillic after the update? I've installed hacks, and feel comfortable doing that.

I was leaning towards getting a second 500 (instead of the 505 on eBay). I'll check it out though. Thanks!

[Edit: the site you mentioned is in Russian. ALas, I don't read Russian! But I do want to mod a Reader and install a bunch of Russian books before I give it as a gift. hmmmm....]

[Edit 2: Looks like there are some messages and helpful info that's in English. I will continue to check it out!]

[tuktuk]

DrMoze, why are you posting several threads on the same issue? https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16701

As I've said, send a private message in English here in THIS forum to the two people I have identified above. They speak English. Search this forum. I think porkupan has provided an English explanation of the process also in this forum. The process is almost the same as applying the hacks (using igorsk program) but instead of new xml files you are putting new fonts. Unfortunately, I do not have time to translate the instructions from Russian.

Yes, after the update, you will be able to read English, and Russian books. For my own reader I have also added support for Ukrainian and even Japanese (kanji and kana). As igorsk explained a while back on this forum, Sony Reader is Unicode-based. The only problem is that the three internal fonts do not include many Unicode ranges. By replacing the stock fonts with those that include desired Unicode ranges you will be able to read whatever language you want. Of course, the metrics of the fonts has to be similar to those of the stock font.

[DrMoze]

I confess to starting 2 posts, one here and one in the general forum. I thought someone here would have specific knowledge wrt Russian content and using it, and that there would be more general interest for this in the main forum. (The content of the 2 threads don't overlap much btw.) I tried pm'ing and haven't received any response yet. However, I did get most of the info I need (basically, brief English instructions from the Russian site) in the other thread Also, I did not find Russification info on this site during my initial searches of the Sony forums. I really did look quite a bit. (I *could* have missed it if it's there, but I did look!)

[Hank Freid]

Hi,
Don't worry. Books loaded onto the Reader from the Sony Connect eBook Store looked almost as crisp as the real thing. You can view the display in either landscape or portrait mode, and we enjoyed the device’s excellent viewing angles. The E Ink technology means the Reader expends no power while keeping the image on its screen, and Sony boasts the PRS-500 should get you through about 7,500 page views on one charge. We were able toread The Devil Wears Prada without having to hunt for the charger.Unfortunately, the Reader suffers from some major flaws, starting with its preponderance of buttons. You’ll find 14 buttons on the face alone, not including a directional controller and two-in-one page-turning button. Many buttons duplicate others’ features (like page turning, for instance), and many seem unnecessary. After making sense of the layout, users will also notice that the Reader’s screen is not backlit, which means you can’t read in the dark. Still, we found we could read the device’s display in dimly lit rooms without tiring our eyes. So you can get more information to go

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/25/s...another-delay/

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Hank Freid

After making sense of the layout, users will also notice that the Reader’s screen is not backlit, which means you can’t read in the dark.

<sigh>

For the millionth time, an eInk screen is OPAQUE, and so CANNOT be backlit - the light wouldn't shine through it.

If you want to read in the dark, get a clip-on booklight of the sort sold for use with paper books. They are cheap, and work very well with eInk readers.

I really would have though that most people would do their research and find this out before buying their Reader, rather than "notice" it AFTER they've bought it .

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by Hank Freid

Unfortunately, the Reader suffers from some major flaws, starting with its preponderance of buttons. You’ll find 14 buttons on the face alone, not including a directional controller and two-in-one page-turning button. Many buttons duplicate others’ features (like page turning, for instance), and many seem unnecessary.

After using it for a while, however, you'll come to realise that there are advantages to things such as the row of 10 buttons on the side, allowing you quick access to choices in menus, and for the duplication in page turning buttons, providing a way of turning the page no matter which hand is holding the reader.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

After using it for a while, however, you'll come to realise that there are advantages to things such as the row of 10 buttons on the side, allowing you quick access to choices in menus, and for the duplication in page turning buttons, providing a way of turning the page no matter which hand is holding the reader.

I agree; the 10 number buttons of the Sony provide an extremely efficient method of navigation.

[vldkh]

I am looking for ebook reader with support the Russian language...

[EbokJunkie]

Originally Posted by vldkh

I am looking for ebook reader with support the Russian language...

http://www.pocketbookreader.com/