PRS-T2 Crashing the reader

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by vavoor

Thanks a lot for all comments and suggestions. They gave me lots of ideas of how to tackle similar issues in the future.

From a legal perspective, would it be okay to remove the DRM, which would be necessary when converting a DRM protected book from EPUB to MOBI and back? ;-)

Fundamentally, a product should do it's job. An e-book reader has to display books that comply with the format. If it doesn't, it has to be fixed in time or I won't buy it. I will not spend my time working around the problems that where cause by the party who got the money. The reason why I put so much effort into figuring out what causes the crash was that Sony support indicated that it's my fault because I want to display something that's not covered by the standard.

Now I've got a lovely Pocketbook 623 (which also has shortcomings, but it does it's primary job). Problem solved.

I used the EPUB validator on http://validator.idpf.org/ to check the format. I did not complain.

When describing the error case, I was not specific enough. The problem is a line consisting of a single space somewhere between the <pre> tags. Empty lines occur quite often in program code listings - guess what kinds of books I most frequently read.

You know, as a comparison, what you're suggesting is that you've bought a DVD player that should play all DVD's and when you encounter one that it doesn't you want and demand a refund from the seller of the player or the manufacturer to fix it. How's about you take a look at the issue with the disc ie: book that caused the perfectly functioning DVD player/reader to not play or read that particular item in the first place?

Sorry but what you're saying is rubbish in my opinion. How can you hold a manufacturer or seller accountable when there was something wrong with what you were trying to use on their product. That makes no sense to me. Go back to the person you bought the faulty book/disc from not the player/reader.

[rupor]

EPUB2 is really complex and it gets worse with EPUB3. So far I have not seen a single software which could flawlessly process all EPUB2 files. The fact that Pocketbook was able to show some particular EPUB file which Sony (which uses Adobe RM SDK) fails to process does not give you a guarantee that with some file it would not happen the other way around

By the way - in your sample there are several <pre> blocks, but none of them has a single space character...

[Rizla]

OP: Everyone removes DRM. They use a Calibre plugin called Apprentice Alf.

Also, lets hope that Pocketbook doesn't burp when you feed it an iffy epub, lol. Good luck with that.

Seriously though, do the T1 and T2 have less than robust software? I got rid of my T1 (unrooted) and invested in a Nook STR which despite my best efforts refuses to brick. I use it review excel spreadsheets!

[vavoor]

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Sorry but what you're saying is rubbish in my opinion. How can you hold a manufacturer or seller accountable when there was something wrong with what you were trying to use on their product. That makes no sense to me. Go back to the person you bought the faulty book/disc from not the player/reader.

The point is that there's nothing wrong with the book ...

[vavoor]

Originally Posted by rupor

EPUB2 is really complex and it gets worse with EPUB3. So far I have not seen a single software which could flawlessly process all EPUB2 files. The fact that Pocketbook was able to show some particular EPUB file which Sony (which uses Adobe RM SDK) fails to process does not give you a guarantee that with some file it would not happen the other way around

By the way - in your sample there are several <pre> blocks, but none of them has a single space character...

In the chapter on the X86 Calling conventions, there's an assembly code listing under the headline cdecl, which has an empty line somewhere in the middle (between "register int ret;" and "ret = callee(1,2,3);"). This line consists of a single space character. That's the culprit, I suppose. At least if I copy that part around, I can make it crash in any chapter.

Which font ... don't know, and cannot look it up either anymore.

[rupor]

I still cannot reproduce your problem on my T2: http://sonyfmngr.sourceforge.net/20130617/screen.jpg

[vavoor]

That's exactly the page that crashed my reader. Interesting, especially since ebook.de and Sony support in Germany (apparently) saw the crash.

Which firmware version/date? Maybe there was a European localization ...

[rupor]

I have (obviously ) latest AMR installed. Version corresponds to 1.0.04 (US/EU) combined in some places with latest RU firmware. I however do not think this is really relevant as changes are not that great. What probably plays the role is AMR's default CSS processing for all EPUB files and removal of small cap font styles (which should be abundant in WiKi material).

[vavoor]

AMR is what? Sorry for my ignorance.

[rupor]

http://sonyfmngr.sourceforge.net/prsT2.htm