New Kobos and Overdrive

[jcf]

Hi there,

I have a Kobo Aura H2O that I bought when it first came out. I am generally happy with it, but I'm getting increasingly annoyed and frustrated with the problems I am encountering when I borrow books from the library. I've seen several posts in this forum, describing the same issues I am seeing. I tried the suggested work-arounds (different versions of ADE, etc)... but it is just simply flaky and annoying.

I am considering getting one of the new Kobos, and my understanding is that all of them (Sage, Libra 2, Elipsa Pack, Forma, Libra H2O, Clara HD, & Nia) should have built-in Overdrive support, meaning no need for ADE.

My question is: How stable is Overdrive with these new Kobos? Can I expect a seamless integration that results in a pleasant experience?

Thanks in advance.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jcf

I am considering getting one of the new Kobos, and my understanding is that all of them (Sage, Libra 2, Elipsa Pack, Forma, Libra H2O, Clara HD, & Nia) should have built-in Overdrive support, meaning no need for ADE.

My question is: How stable is Overdrive with these new Kobos? Can I expect a seamless integration that results in a pleasant experience?

I've got a Clara HD (and, before that, a Kobo Aura Ed. 2). Both work fine with Overdrive. The only issue is that, if the library book's ASIN (?) number doesn't match up with with the version of the book in Kobo's bookstore, then you'll have to borrow it the old fashioned way. (I think I've run into this one time). An added benefit is that, once you borrow a book on your Overdrive enabled Kobo it will also show up on your Aura H2O (they show up on my Kobo Mini even). So, for example, you could buy a refurbished Kobo Clara HD for $90 (superior to the new Nia in my opinion) you could use it to borrow the book then read it on your Kobo H2O. (And also have the Clara for backup.) But if you just want to replace your reader, all the new ones you mentioned should work fine with Overdrive.

You can also consider the Calibre, DeASCM and DeDRM option, but that's probably for a different forum.

[jcf]

Thank you very much, rcentros; this is very useful information.

It actually got me thinking on whether or not what you suggest (with the refurb Clara HD) would work with just the Kobo app or desktop software. I did a quick search, but it looks like it does not work like that with the app. It would be really cool if they have done that. Even doing the sync between the Libby app and the older Kobos would be really helpful.

I'm still very happy with my Aura H2O; even the battery is still lasting me a week or so with an average 1-2 hrs/day reading. So I want to explore if the DeASCM and DeDRM options will work for me. I know I can search the forums, but if you have a link handy, it would probably save me time.

Again, thank you very much.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jcf

Thank you very much, rcentros; this is very useful information.

It actually got me thinking on whether or not what you suggest (with the refurb Clara HD) would work with just the Kobo app or desktop software. I did a quick search, but it looks like it does not work like that with the app. It would be really cool if they have done that. Even doing the sync between the Libby app and the older Kobos would be really helpful.

I'm still very happy with my Aura H2O; even the battery is still lasting me a week or so with an average 1-2 hrs/day reading. So I want to explore if the DeASCM and DeDRM options will work for me. I know I can search the forums, but if you have a link handy, it would probably save me time.

Again, thank you very much.

If you don't have Calibre, you start with that by downloading it from...

https://calibre-ebook.com/

...and installing it.

For DeDRM you to to this site (this is basically all I can say about using it here, just a link to where you can get it, but they have forums there for questions).

https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/

For DeASCM you go to the Calibre forums, plugins on this site, plugins sub-forum, ASCM sub-sub-forum...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=341975

You'll find a link to the author's GitHub site and a download link (also information about it in the messages).

Once you've set up these two plugins, you can drag an .ascm file into Calibre and it will automatically download the ePub book and clear the DRM. No ADE needed (though you're basically doing the same thing, except with Calibre). Once you use DeDRM you've gone a step further. You can disable DeDRM if you want and just use DeASCM.

[jcf]

Thank you, rcentros.

I do have Calibre and it's what I've been using on an iMac for years now. I will go through this cautiously/slowly as I seem to remember that a while back, I encountered some issues upgrading Calibre. I vaguely recall that it had something to do with my Mac OSX version... and this is because I can no longer upgrade OSX because my hardware has reached end of life.

I'll give this a shot sometime this week.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jcf

Thank you, rcentros.

I do have Calibre and it's what I've been using on an iMac for years now. I will go through this cautiously/slowly as I seem to remember that a while back, I encountered some issues upgrading Calibre. I vaguely recall that it had something to do with my Mac OSX version... and this is because I can no longer upgrade OSX because my hardware has reached end of life.

I'll give this a shot sometime this week.

I didn't think of that. I'm pretty sure DeASCM needs Calibre 5.x, so this may be a problem.