PRS-T1 questions on collections and slow operations

[Jade Aislin]

I bought the PRS-T1, but I'm not sure how well it will work. I only put 6,500 stories (which is a small portion of the stories I want to carry), but it seems to take forever to do anything, from opening books to searching the collections (which is a little messy right now). I'm working on a way to sort collections to make it easier for me to search. However, it seems like the T1 does not allow for hierarchical collections.

Is there a way to get my T1 to allow me to create collections in a hierarchical sorting. I'd like to search for a story by sorting through large categories (Fandom, Genre) and then go through more specific categories (Adventure, Fantasy) until I find a story I want to read. I'm not always sure what I want to read and having a hierarchical collection can help me narrow it down. Also, how does the ereader handle large groups of stories? Does having a large amount of stories slow the ereader down?

[LuvReadin]

6,500 seems like an awful lot - based on the average book length, the T1's estimated to hold 2000-2500 books in its memory. When you say 'stories', do you mean they're all short stories, rather than full-length books, or do you have them on an SD card? If the latter, that is likely to slow it down.

I don't think it does do hierarchical collections - I tried it out when I first used Calibre, and found that using more than one tag just meant the book was listed in more than one collection. I don't bother with that now - I just have them listed with one tag.

[bla]

If it is 6500 books... that is a lot of books for any reader, I got about 2000 on mine with 90 + collections and havent noticed any substantive slow-down except when re-booting or powering up

[Jade Aislin]

It's all fanfiction. I think most of them would be classified as short stories. About 2/3 of the stories have less than 6000 words which is about 20 pages. I have them all on an SD card.

I had hoped that there was a way to get it to do hierarchical collections. I'll have to try something different. I'm thinking about using calibre to create a catalog of the books and then using search to find the story/book I want.

[booklover6]

I am not sure how an unrooted T1 does in that situation. I have my T1 rooted and use Coolreader on it, and yes I have folders and subfolders, which I can organize however I want while the device is hooked up to the PC, using the file manager on the PC. I had over 5000 books on the SD card and it was not slow at all, the search function would bring up a book in 1 or 2 seconds.

You can use Calibre to create collections using tags, there is a thread about it in this forum. Those are not hierarchical though.

[bla]

The SD card is slower than the internal memory for a start and it's the number of individual books rather than the length of each that would cause any perceived slowdown... I have owned a few devices and I don't know one that wouldn't evidence some slow down with 6500 titles loaded ,especially on an sd card you will likely just have to live with it...... I doubt that any messing around with collections would change that and as already mentioned the un-rooted reader does not do hierarchical storage... the software treats your books collection as one big folder......

[DuskyRose]

I have more than 1 T1, and use one I have just for one fandom. Over time I've found various problems with large collections of files. I only carry a few cover pictures for sleep mode, and don't carry music on it. I have one with some non-hack clock stuff on it, and the others aren't hacked. Combining all my books and fanfiction collected over 20 years I have about 25,000 files to test them out with. I've found out several things about mine...

The faster microsd cards seem to get 'lost' every once in a while, and the slower speed microsd cards seem to be more reliable (the 4-6 speed). The extra high-speed cards always gave me problems even with very little on them.

4,000 to 5,000 files seem to be it's happy limit, and 12,000 just locked them up and caused constant restarts.

I backed down to the slower, smaller card and it helps me self-limit the titles I load them with. They're slow to load, but the results are better. I've limited the machines to 2Gig cards, 4 speed right now and they seem happy. Plus, if you have to restart, it won't take forever to re-index.

I know that they're supposed to take up to 32gig, but seriously wonder if they ever really tested it out versus being theoretically possible. I think the machines try hard, but do bust a gut over too many files.

As to collections, I create them in Calibre and break them down into smaller collections within the larger one. For example, I have All Sherlock Holmes fanfic in one Calibre library, and my collection list for it looks like....

Holmes1984-Gen
Holmes1984-Slash
HolmesASIE-Gen
HolmesASIE-Slash
HolmesBBC-Collection
HolmesBBC-Gen
HolmesBBC-Gen - AU
HolmesBBC-Gen - AU Read
HolmesBBC-Gen Collection

ect. ect. Where they sort by Holmes, the next three letters are fandom, then gen or slash, then other info to divide them into other specific catagories. I do this all in Calibre and they sort correctly on the T1 as long as you put all of any one collection on either the main memory or the SD card. Otherwise you'll get two copies of the collection, one on the main memory and one on the SD card.

And I've used the "Count Pages" plug-in in Calibre and any fanfic under 10 pages I then merge into one file with the "Epub Merge" plug-in. (Which makes a TOC with a list of all the titles) I also merge series stories together. Merging a lot of the tiny bits into collections really helps to keep the number of files down.

[Jade Aislin]

Thanks for your detailed post. I recently consolidated all the fanfic I collected and put into calibre libraries and found that I was using 4 times the space needed because stories would be in more than one library. I'll have to try limiting the amount of stories and maybe use multiple microSD. You've given me ideas for what to do. Thanks.

[mieksje]

I have a 32 GB fast SD card and more than 9000 books on it. It works. The more collections, the more problems. So I keep my collections neat and tiny in Calibre.
Series are also collections, so watch out!
I also make subcollections like historical novel, historical detective, etc.
So sub-collections in the name.
Every now and then the contentmanager of the reader gives up and after a short black screen it starts in the home screen. But I do like to have all my books with me, so I can change what I want.
It is not ideal, had a pocketbook e-reader before and worked with directories, worked quite smooth. But the more books, he more problems.

I think the collection search is also nice: you can give a book different labels, which could be found with the collectionmanager, but the book only uses one space on the sd-card.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Jade Aislin

I'll have to try limiting the amount of stories and maybe use multiple microSD.

You're welcome.

I have a nice plastic, multi SD card holder (SDCardholder.com) that I got off of Amazon for about $7. Has a hole for key ring, a space for the larger card, five slots on a side for microSD cards. I got a blue and yellow one, and love it. Hubby stole the yellow one and won't give it back, so I now have a red and blue one. Red for back-up copies that go in the safe, and I plan to take the blue one on vacation, filled with 2gig microSD cardes, each with a different genre.

(although I've loaded them up while in my Sony, so I can just re-insert them at any time and they'll be ready to go, rather than sideload them. Takes a while to load, but should be easier later.)

You can get the 2gig cheap on Amazon, ($3.50 or ) in bulk since no one wants that size anymore. They're harder to find in stores.

About $40 investment and I should be able to carry my whole library with me on vacation and not worry about locking up the machine or my collections dissappearing. Works so far. We'll see in the fall after I travel with it all.