PRS-950 Book's there, where are the pages?

[Flygrl]

Wasn't sure what to post this under, but I did cross-post over at Sony RF so please forgive...

Okay, so I'm back again after enjoying my ebook for awhile ((-:
I purchased an epub version of a popular study Bible that has been (supposedly) optimized for use on digital devices. Well, it seem to download fine - I can see it on both ADE and Sony Library. I transferred it to my reader and it showed on my reader book list, but when I tried to open it, I got "page error". Tried reset, tried delete then reload, still no pages. I have full, viewable rights, the cover artwork is showing and under info everything seems to be there, so what gives?

[Asawi]

When I had that happen to me I read somewhere (here at MR) that it was probably because the file was too big. I think an ePub actually is like an archive of files, and there is a size limit to how big each file can be for Sony to read it.
I'm sure someone who actually knows what they are talking about will come along shortly and give a better answer, but I just wanted to come here and say that it's probably NOT you doing anything wrong.

[Flygrl]

Thanks Asawi, that sounds ominous - ugh. I hope if it is it can be easily remedied.

[delphin]

I have also had problems with several EPUB Bibles (including a few that I downloaded here on Mobileread) so I am not surprised that you ran into this.

The full Bible is one of the largest commonly read texts, and is already stressful for a portable ereader, and some study versions with annotations triple or even quadruple that amount of total text.

Hopefully, in your case, the folks who sold you that Bible can get you a fixed version, or at least refund your money.

The problems with the Bibles I downloaded were caused by how the EPUB file was formatted internally. The Bibles that were causing problems were formatted internally by splitting it on bible chapters, which was a nice simple way to do it, but which caused the EPUB reader to have to deal with an EPUB which was split internally into over 6000 separate parts!

I reformatted one of them (the KJV Bible) so that the EPUB was split internally a little more reasonably, and posted the fixed version over in the Mobile Read downloadable ebooks forum.

In case the folks you are dealing with can't fix this issue for you, here are some links for free EPUB Bibles that are known to work on the Sony Readers -


First here's the link to my fixed KJV Bible -> Fixed EPUB KJV Bible


This King James Version is pretty bulletproof as far as the Sony readers is concerned (TOC, Text Searches, etc all work fine)

For a modern text Bible, the one from www.bible.org is pretty usable on the Sony

EPUB version NET Bible with 4 level TOC

The above link is for the non-annotated version. There is also a nice annotated study version at the above link, but it doesn't have the 4 level Table of contents yet like their non-annotated version, so BenChen created one which you can download here ->

EPUB NET Bible with full annotations and 4 Level TOC

I have found that the above NET Bibles work fairly reliably, though I have had a few problems with the fully annotated version, which has almost 7000 pages, while doing searches. This can ALSO lead to the dreaded "Page ERROR" lockup, and when this happened, I had to use a paper-clip reset to fix things so I could continue reading (powering down without a reset would just return back to "Page ERROR" when power on again) but by avoiding most searches, and looking up sections using the TOC instead, they did work pretty reliably, so these bibles are probably your best bet for use on the Sony.

An epub file is actually a zipped folder of individual files that together form a book. (See below.) Some reader devices, Sony Readers included, have trouble displaying an epub if any of the individual HTML files contained in the epub are greater than 260 KB. Unfortunately study Bibles have some really large chapters an many of the publishers are not informed enough about making epubs to know that they need to split files that are larger than 260 KB into smaller files.

What to do? Return book to seller and complain loudly. Alternatively, if you know how to strip the DRM (digital rights management) do so, then use calibre to create a new epub from the original and set it to automatically split files that are larger than 260 KB.

To see how an epub is structured, rename your book from bookname.epub to bookname.zip, then extract the zipped file to a folder. Look in the folder bookname and you will see all the individual files that make up the epub book. Most likely there will be a subfolder named OEBPS in which you can find the HTML files.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by jswinden

. . . Alternatively, if you know how to strip the DRM (digital rights management) do so, then use calibre to create a new epub from the original and set it to automatically split files that are larger than 260 KB.

To see how an epub is structured, rename your book from bookname.epub to bookname.zip, then extract the zipped file to a folder. Look in the folder bookname and you will see all the individual files that make up the epub book. Most likely there will be a subfolder named OEBPS in which you can find the HTML files.

If the problem is a few chapters exceeding the 300k limit, then Calibre can indeed fix things by re-splitting the internal HTML files, but if the problem is too many segments then Calibre can't do anything for you.

But this will only work if the problem is too large of split size. Some of the Bibles I ran into problems with had the opposite problem, too SMALL a split, which caused a HUGE number of segments. Apparently this can ALSO cause problems for some EPUB readers, though this is less well documented than the 300k over-sized HTML segments issue.

[Flygrl]

Thanks Jack & Delphin. That sounds complicated (for me anyway). I was really surprised that the format is such that I can't view it - especially since it is supposed to be "optimized" for ereaders (The HCSB Study Bible Digital Edition: Optimized for Digital Readers) and there is no notation on Borders site saying it only works on certain devices. I hope they will at least take it back (out of my ebook library on their site) and swap it for one that is compatible since I don't need a study Bible that I have to read off my laptop *sigh*.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Flygrl

Thanks Jack & Delphin. That sounds complicated (for me anyway). I was really surprised that the format is such that I can't view it - especially since it is supposed to be "optimized" for ereaders (The HCSB Study Bible Digital Edition: Optimized for Digital Readers) and there is no notation on Borders site saying it only works on certain devices. I hope they will at least take it back (out of my ebook library on their site) and swap it for one that is compatible since I don't need a study Bible that I have to read off my laptop *sigh*.

Sorry for all the technical gobbledygook.

I agree agree 100% that this should not have happened.

When you buy a book you should be able to read it without these kinds of hassles.

If you have not already done so, I would suggest that you do grab the free Bible versions that I posted links for above.

You can just download them onto your desktop (or any folder), then import them from there into your reader library and onto your Sony just like your purchased books.

If you want a bible for bible study, that last link, the one for the NET annotated version, has fully modern text like the NIV and includes more than sixty thousand annotations and references.

It works fine on my Sony PRS-650, so hopefully it will work on your Sony as well.

On the PRS-650 touch screen, this version works particularly nicely. You can just touch one of the footnote numbers and it jumps right to the annotations sections, then after reading the notes, you can tap the same number again where it appears to the left of the notes in the annotations section and jump right back to the main text.

[Flygrl]

Thanks again Delphin - I will do that! I do like the HCSB translation for reading. On a better note, Borders kindly refunded me and I suggested that they put a note that all readers may not be compatible. I also emailed the publisher (B&H) and let them know of the problem.

[symondo]

I've managed to find a resolve in this area. HAve a look at the thread ive posted here

It worked for me. Hoping it will help some others trying to do the same.