Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Kobo Reader

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-18-2011, 02:27 AM   #1
Cyberman tM
Evangelist
Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Cyberman tM's Avatar
 
Posts: 439
Karma: 2248782
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Austria
Device: Inkbook Prime; Icarus Illumina;ImcoV6l;EB600;Kobo
"Problems" with ePub from O'Reilly on Kobo Wifi?

I'm not sure if the fault really lies with the books from O'Reilly, or if it's the Kobo, or just random coincidence.
I didn't yet use ePub much, because so far most of my eBooks were PDF.

The "problems" aren't with formatting, though - that works great.

But chapter turns take ages. As does a change of font size.
Individual pages turn OK.

Font size changes even cause the device to either restart or hang itself up in an endless loop - which is even more annoying because I sometimes hit "down" instead of "right" when I hold it with my left hand.
Last time this happened, I just thought I'll just wait until it's done - today I pick it up and see the battery is empty :-/

Even if frozen it's not completely unresponsive - I can turn it off and on again, then the book usually is reset.


Does anyone know, is it's the devices/firmwares fault or the books? Could I perhaps reformat the books to avoid these problems?
Since O'Reilly eBooks are free of DRM, this would be possible.

Is there anything I should check the ePub for?

--

Device: Kobo Wifi, Software version 1.9 (r25373, Mar 29 2011)
Cyberman tM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 03:13 AM   #2
Actionman
Member
Actionman has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.Actionman has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.Actionman has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Posts: 10
Karma: 250
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: New Zealand
Device: Kobo WiFi
When I first got my Kobo I had similar problems with some free public domain books. Being conversant with computers I did some research and found Calibre and various other tools. I discovered the best fix for wayward epubs is to delete the css file and convert epub to epub in Calibre with settings you nominate. It took awhile to get my settings how I like them.. (blank line between paras, .5 em indent, remove first image, nominate separate cover and Meta Info, etc.

Once thats done I NEVER use the "Send to device" function in Calibre rather the "Save to disk" function using the Kobo as the disk. Never have a problem anymore with slow response.... one other thing I always do is make sure it splits on page breaks.... untick "Do not split on page breaks" as that allows faster parsing of chapters in the Kobo.

A
Actionman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 04:07 AM   #3
kiwipippa
Fanatic
kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
kiwipippa's Avatar
 
Posts: 578
Karma: 613022
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: New Zealand
Device: kobo glo, kobo touch (dead), kindle touch, android phone
Quote:
Originally Posted by Actionman View Post
Once thats done I NEVER use the "Send to device" function in Calibre rather the "Save to disk" function using the Kobo as the disk. Never have a problem anymore with slow response.... one other thing I always do is make sure it splits on page breaks.... untick "Do not split on page breaks" as that allows faster parsing of chapters in the Kobo.

A
Actionman, I'm interested in why you use "Save to disk". What difference does it make? I've never tried it - and didn't even realise you could use it.
Thanks
kiwipippa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 06:28 AM   #4
Actionman
Member
Actionman has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.Actionman has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.Actionman has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Posts: 10
Karma: 250
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: New Zealand
Device: Kobo WiFi
Quote:
Originally Posted by kiwipippa View Post
Actionman, I'm interested in why you use "Save to disk". What difference does it make? I've never tried it - and didn't even realise you could use it.
Thanks
Mostly no difference at all...except if there is a glitch somewhere. If you think about it, firstly the computer has to recognize the device, then Calibre has to interact with the device as well. That's a couple of places where things can go wrong...EVERY bit of software has bugs, so by using save to disk I reduce the possibility of file corruption and other nasties....

... Also, recovering from a bad file copy (rare) is just a matter of delete and recopy. Recovering from a something where the software (Calibre/Plugin/Desktop App etc) has caused a system error on the Kobo is not a small matter.

A bad USB port, cable or connector can also promote errors in software function, whereas a simple copy (read/write) will gracefully fail.

I must add that this is not a recommendation for all...just the paranoid

Make sense?

A
Actionman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 07:51 AM   #5
3d0g
I make fjords.
3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.
 
Posts: 304
Karma: 11192
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Colorado
Device: kobo 1 (retired), kobo 2, iPad, G2, Galaxy Tab 7+
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberman tM View Post
I'm not sure if the fault really lies with the books from O'Reilly, or if it's the Kobo, or just random coincidence.

But chapter turns take ages. As does a change of font size.
Individual pages turn OK.
Many of the O'Reilly epubs have REALLY large chapters and complex formatting with tables, images, etc. It takes a while for the little kobo CPU to process.
3d0g is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 08:18 AM   #6
Cyberman tM
Evangelist
Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Cyberman tM's Avatar
 
Posts: 439
Karma: 2248782
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Austria
Device: Inkbook Prime; Icarus Illumina;ImcoV6l;EB600;Kobo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Actionman View Post
I discovered the best fix for wayward epubs is to delete the css file and convert epub to epub in Calibre with settings you nominate.
Hm. Good suggestion. I'll take a look at the CSS file, perhaps I can remove some stuff.
Worth a try at least :-D

Quote:
Originally Posted by 3d0g View Post
Many of the O'Reilly epubs have REALLY large chapters and complex formatting with tables, images, etc. It takes a while for the little kobo CPU to process.
Yes, I can imagine that. Tables are bad on PCs as well.
But still, I can't imagine it takes THAT long - unless the entire book is rendered every time. (Which I'm currently assuming is what happens when I change font size.)

Besides, I don't think the Kobo CPU is that little. It's an ARM11/ARMv6 AFAIK. Better than the CoolEr.
Cyberman tM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 08:54 AM   #7
dmacmart
Fanatic
dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.dmacmart ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
dmacmart's Avatar
 
Posts: 531
Karma: 696908
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Ottawa Canada
Device: Kobo Mini, Glo, Arc, H2O, iPhone, iPad 2, (husband)Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberman tM View Post
Font size changes even cause the device to either restart or hang itself up in an endless loop - which is even more annoying because I sometimes hit "down" instead of "right" when I hold it with my left hand.
Last time this happened, I just thought I'll just wait until it's done - today I pick it up and see the battery is empty :-/
If I accidentally hit the font size button instead of page turn, sometimes it freezes. But I've found that clicking one of the left buttons (Menu/Shop etc) then back, will force the new font to take effect. Of course I need to then undo the new font, but this seems to kick-start it.

It seems this only happens with ePubs (not Kobo-formatted books) but that might just be coincidence.
dmacmart is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-18-2011, 04:39 PM   #8
Cyberman tM
Evangelist
Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Cyberman tM's Avatar
 
Posts: 439
Karma: 2248782
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Austria
Device: Inkbook Prime; Icarus Illumina;ImcoV6l;EB600;Kobo
Quote:
Originally Posted by dmacmart View Post
If I accidentally hit the font size button instead of page turn, sometimes it freezes. But I've found that clicking one of the left buttons (Menu/Shop etc) then back, will force the new font to take effect. Of course I need to then undo the new font, but this seems to kick-start it.
Worth a try.

Quote:
It seems this only happens with ePubs (not Kobo-formatted books) but that might just be coincidence.
It might be coincidence, but I don't think so anymore.

Taking up Actionman's advice, I took a peak into one of the ePubs - the CSS file IS horribly large and contains lots of instructions.
Also some OTF fonts

And indeed, replacing it with standard Calibre CSS helps.

Hm. I guess I'll have to cross-post in my other thread to update it with this information. It does explain a lot.
Cyberman tM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2011, 12:51 AM   #9
kiwipippa
Fanatic
kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kiwipippa ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
kiwipippa's Avatar
 
Posts: 578
Karma: 613022
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: New Zealand
Device: kobo glo, kobo touch (dead), kindle touch, android phone
Quote:
Originally Posted by Actionman View Post
Mostly no difference at all...except if there is a glitch somewhere. If you think about it, firstly the computer has to recognize the device, then Calibre has to interact with the device as well. That's a couple of places where things can go wrong...EVERY bit of software has bugs, so by using save to disk I reduce the possibility of file corruption and other nasties....

... Also, recovering from a bad file copy (rare) is just a matter of delete and recopy. Recovering from a something where the software (Calibre/Plugin/Desktop App etc) has caused a system error on the Kobo is not a small matter.

A bad USB port, cable or connector can also promote errors in software function, whereas a simple copy (read/write) will gracefully fail.

I must add that this is not a recommendation for all...just the paranoid

Make sense?

A
Thanks ActionMan, a good explanation, I'll give it a try. I rely so much on calibre that if anything serious did go wrong I'd be up the creek. And I don't fancy mucking around with my kobo either - I'm not techy enough to be able to fix these things.

So this may be a good insurance policy. Thanks
kiwipippa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2011, 07:07 AM   #10
3d0g
I make fjords.
3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.
 
Posts: 304
Karma: 11192
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Colorado
Device: kobo 1 (retired), kobo 2, iPad, G2, Galaxy Tab 7+
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberman tM View Post
Besides, I don't think the Kobo CPU is that little. It's an ARM11/ARMv6 AFAIK. Better than the CoolEr.
Well, it takes a while for my 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo Mac to render a 50+ MB html doc (which is essentially what O'Reilly epubs are). Stands to reason the little ARM CPU is going to need some time.

Simply saying I've got a lot of O'Reilly books and I know to be patient with them - especially on chapter changes.
3d0g is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2011, 02:30 PM   #11
Cyberman tM
Evangelist
Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Cyberman tM ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Cyberman tM's Avatar
 
Posts: 439
Karma: 2248782
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Austria
Device: Inkbook Prime; Icarus Illumina;ImcoV6l;EB600;Kobo
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3d0g View Post
Well, it takes a while for my 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo Mac to render a 50+ MB html doc (which is essentially what O'Reilly epubs are). Stands to reason the little ARM CPU is going to need some time.

Simply saying I've got a lot of O'Reilly books and I know to be patient with them - especially on chapter changes.
Yah, I'll have to adjust my earlier statement.
The CPU surely isn't weak, but the CSS of the books are about 10K in size and have at least 300 lines of actual code (about 600 including empty lines and comments).

I see now why it would take so long. The next step then is to find out if there are a few statements that can be singled out and removed to improve performance.
Small hope, though. I guess it'll be best to ask that in the ePub subforum - fits better there than here, even if it's about the Kobo, I think.

Last edited by Cyberman tM; 05-19-2011 at 02:51 PM.
Cyberman tM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2011, 04:31 PM   #12
3d0g
I make fjords.
3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.
 
Posts: 304
Karma: 11192
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Colorado
Device: kobo 1 (retired), kobo 2, iPad, G2, Galaxy Tab 7+
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberman tM View Post
Yah, I'll have to adjust my earlier statement.
The CPU surely isn't weak, but the CSS of the books are about 10K in size and have at least 300 lines of actual code (about 600 including empty lines and comments).
I wonder if there's a way to cleanly split an epub into smaller chunks...
3d0g is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2011, 07:31 PM   #13
moffattm
Addict
moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.moffattm ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
moffattm's Avatar
 
Posts: 333
Karma: 1440670
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Device: Kobo Original, Kobo Glo
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3d0g View Post
I wonder if there's a way to cleanly split an epub into smaller chunks...
I thought epubs were split into smaller chunks. The epub file is really just a zip file that contains several other files. One file is the CSS and then there's one or more HTML files. Many of the epubs that I've seen have each chapter as a separate HTML file, which in theory should make it easier for the Kobo. Of course some publishers may just put everything into one giant HTML file, which would mean a lot more processing for the Kobo.

A tool such as Sigil can let you look at the individual files and edit them.

Last edited by moffattm; 05-19-2011 at 11:40 PM.
moffattm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2011, 08:33 PM   #14
DaleDe
Grand Sorcerer
DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
DaleDe's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,470
Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3d0g View Post
I wonder if there's a way to cleanly split an epub into smaller chunks...
Sigil can do this if you wish.

Dale
DaleDe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-20-2011, 07:34 AM   #15
3d0g
I make fjords.
3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.3d0g can tame squirrels without the assistance of a chair or a whip.
 
Posts: 304
Karma: 11192
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Colorado
Device: kobo 1 (retired), kobo 2, iPad, G2, Galaxy Tab 7+
Quote:
Originally Posted by moffattm View Post
I thought epubs were split into smaller chunks. The epub file is really just a zip file that contains several other files. One file is the CSS and then there's one or more HTML files. Many of the epubs that I've seen have each chapter as a separate HTML file, which in theory should make it easier for the Kobo. Of course some publishers may just put everything into one giant HTML file, which would mean a lot more processing for the Kobo.

A tool such as Sigil can let you look at the individual files and edit them.
Of course. My point was, perhaps the load time could be further reduced by splitting up complex / heavily imaged chapters. I did not know Sigil could split and update the TOC.
3d0g is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
My DIY cover for the Kobo - the "KoBook" (or "BooKobo") Beorn Kobo Reader 4 07-12-2010 07:06 PM
Kobo "Contest": Win a Kobo eReader Croptop Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) 6 07-09-2010 04:00 PM
SONY PRS-700 "Date and Time" problems dda Sony Reader 8 06-11-2009 01:13 PM
Netronix new 5", 8", 9,7", 6" touchscreen and WiFi E-Ink readers Charbax News 4 06-08-2009 11:08 AM
O'Reilly "Best of TOC" free e-book Alexander Turcic Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) 12 02-16-2009 01:16 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:08 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.