Software Stew

[Taylor514ce]

I'm preparing for an upcoming trip. Let's load some books on the Sony Reader, shall we?

First of all, let's move some books from the Sony eBook Library to the Reader. Whoops! For some reason, the Library shows titles but the books themselves have disappeared. Why? Who knows? It happens frequently, that's why I make backups. Where is that USB drive? Let's re-import again. Now we have duplicate titles. Click each one, delete the "empty" entries. Back everything up... again. Where was I? Right... move to Reader. Please recognize the Reader...

Next, the Adobe DE book. Fire that software up, register the Reader (again, it seems to forget about it every so often), send to Reader. Hey, that worked. Good.

Ok. Now, I also purchased some MobiPocket books. Open the Mobipocket Reader, get the PID. Mobitools... backup. Now, convert them to LRF. So, start up Calibre, import, convert, send to Reader.

This is normal? Count them. 1, 2, 3... 5 software programs to manage books. Plus the books are everywhere. I don't even know where some programs KEEP their books (neither does some of the software, Sony's in particular seems to "forget" where the books are).

I need the one ring to find them all, and in the darkness bind them.

[HarryT]

Not wishing to sound like a broken record, but things are a LOT simpler with MobiPocket.

[JSWolf]

I have never had problems like that with eBook Library.

[Slite]

Wishfull thinking my friend... whisfull thinking.

As long as there are different formats with no standard, thats how it's going to be. Not too mention the thrice-damned DRM! I bought the damn thing, right, I can do with it whatever I want apart from giving it away to someone else. So lay of that already will ya?

But It sure would be nice to have one MEGA-application that will support ALL formats, DRMed or not, could convert perfectly from any format to any other AND that could handle all present and future e-readers .... Oh, and while I am at it, I'd really like to win the lottery as well

[Taylor514ce]

Harry, keep preaching, brother. My habits are evolving toward buying only Mobi titles, and using mobitools and Calibre to get them onto my Reader. That is still technically 3 software programs from three different sources, however.

It's nice to buy directly from Sony, download the book and get it into the Reader with a single software program - but 1) the selection is still limited 2) the prices are significantly higher and 3) Sony DRM isn't yet "broken", so I can't format shift the books for true back-up (in case I ever get a non-Sony reader).

[Greg Anos]

Open Inkpot....Open Inkpot.....

More seriously, That why I still use my Cybook 1st gen, rather than my Cybook Gen 3. None of the firmware on either the Sony or the Gen 3 is solid enough for open format book types. HTML and .txt are the the most common open formats, but both Cybook and Sony are focused on propriatary formats. <shrug> I'd rather feed Microsoft money for WinCE and be able to get a good open format reader (such as mu-book - and folders too!) than work with all of this half-baked firmware....

[nekokami]

I keep all my books on my iLiad, but getting them there was an interesting adventure, and I still occasionally run across one that never got converted to a format supported by FBreader or iPDF. (Though sometimes they're just still zipped, and I know I could deal with that by enabling FBReader to read zip.)

[JSWolf]

MS Reader format has DRM that's very easily broken. Then converting to LRF is easy using Calibre.

[kovidgoyal]

The culprit here is DRM. Here's my typical workflow for a non DRM book.

1) Download book
2) Drag and drop into calibre
3) Press convert button
3) Connect reader and wait for conversion to finish (typically 1 minute)
4) Press send to device button
5) Read

Eventually, when I integrate various online books sources into calibre 1) and 2) will be combined into a single step.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The culprit here is DRM. Here's my typical workflow for a non DRM book.

1) Download book
2) Drag and drop into calibre
3) Press convert button
3) Connect reader and wait for conversion to finish (typically 1 minute)
4) Press send to device button
5) Read

Eventually, when I integrate various online books sources into calibre 1) and 2) will be combined into a single step.

Will someday Calibre export files in something different from LRF?

[kovidgoyal]

epub is just around the corner.

[dynabook]

epub has the advantage that you can touch it up by editing directly where lrf is a binary format.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Format C:

Will someday Calibre export files in something different from LRF?

When you say "export" do you mean "convert" or "save to disk"? Because the beta calibre does the latter with any format stored in the database. I use it to manage mobi and sony books since I have both devices. While I do have to drop to the command line and use mobiperl to convert a LIT to mobi I can still then index/manage the mobi file with calibre.

Although I think I will buy mobi rather than LIT now that I've got mobi de drm on my PC and working.

BOb

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by dynabook

epub has the advantage that you can touch it up by editing directly where lrf is a binary format.

Which is exactly the reason that some authors don't like ePUB without DRM. If you can touch it up you can also alter the text which makes many authors cringe at the thought. Even some of the folks who create the fine eBooks posted here don't like the idea that someone can take their eBooks in source form and modify them or convert them without giving the original person who did all the work any credit. It can be a sensitive subject.

Dale