Epub problem using Google Play Books

[SteveAdams]

My Energy Sister Ereader Pro HD arrived 2 days ago and I'm very pleased with it but I'm having a problem trying to read my books on it I have purchased from Google, specifically the Game of Thrones series which is what I'm reading through now.

I can download the book and view it, and as I read further through the formatting I think it would be called starts getting very messed up to the point where text just isn't readable. The letters are clear but the words are all over the place. The line start on the left would begin midway through sentence and get cut short on the right edge and past that there is lines that partially visable from other pages. The top and bottom of the pages spacing is wrong, like for instance I can't see the name of a new chapter, the bottom of the page has loads of empty space. It's like my screen isn't looking at the right part of the file, for lack of better words it's quite hard to describe. The screen is looking too much to the 'left' and too 'high up' than it should be to display what the page should show, and it gets progressively worse the further in through the book you get. This only is happening using Google play books, the same books in epub format are displaying properly in the built in fbreader app and also moon+ reader. My files are ok, just Google play books isnt behaving as it should. I have tried using calibre to see if i can get the formatting right, running conversions and trying different options and then uploading my attempts to Google play the text still isnt being displayed properly. I am after some help in how to go about addressing this issue, its causing me a great deal of annoyance!

[Cinisajoy]

Can I recommend trying the Moon+ ereader app from the Google Play store?

[SteveAdams]

By all means you can recommend different applications but if i were to use a different 3rd party application to use to read i would probably use fbreader as on my ereader pro hd that application doesnt force a permanent bar at the bottom of the screen where the notification bar sits. I already rooted the the pro hd to use applications to remove it but i found rooting it using kingroot apk just made the thing lag so i have already flashed it back to stock firmware unrooted

And also if i were to use a 3rd party reading app i would need extra software like calibre companion to sync my library between devices and sync book marks etc

[SteveAdams]

It seems i might have to compramise,

google book app = messed up text but has all the syncing features that i need without additional software

3rd party reader = black bars on screen and aditional software to set up cross device syncing

Fbreader = need to find a way tk sync books ans nookmarks across multiple devices

What i really would rather do is get the formatting correct for google play books, using a tool like caliber. I have used google play books for a number of years and my energy ereader is the 1st device iv owned which it has not displayed stuff properly. Im talking accross a range of different smart phones, tablets, web browsers and pcs. The only difference is that the energy reader uses an eink and my other devices are all amloed / lcd of some form

[SteveAdams]

I have attached 2 photos, (note to moderator i have done my best to reduce the file size taking the picture at the lowest resoltion my camera can 0.9 mega pixels.)

One picture shows how google play books looks with bits of text all over this place, epub downloaded directly from google using their app, unaltered with completely, not touched other than getting to my place. And note its black bar the bottom which root is required to remove from any other reader than fbreader

The other photo shows fbreader looking clean and sharp using a drm free version of the same epub, just lacks the functionality of syncing that google play offers out of the box (that i can see). I added the pictures because its hard to describe how messed up google is making my book appear

[DiapDealer]

Do any untouched epubs display properly using Play Books? If not, my guess is that Play Books isn't compatible with your device, even though you're able to install it from Google Play. Incompatible vendor changes sometimes cause these sort of support gaps on non-mainstream devices. I've no idea if the Energy Sistem Pro HD's Android (Jellybean it appears) is completely stock or not.

[SteveAdams]

Out of all the digital books i own (currently only 7, game of thrones, the hobbit & lord of the rings) all of them suffer the same issue when downloaded directly from google play books and used in that application.

The ereaders android version is 4.2.2, and the firmware from energy sistem is v2, the latest one. To tell the truth i dont know just how pure android can be on these sorts of devices, its nothing like my google nexus phone but compared to other ereading devices with e-ink screens i wouldnt know how much they modify android overall.

Maybe an email to google might help, as its their application im having issues with and other 3rd party ones seem to be working fine

[DiapDealer]

I would definitely raise an issue with Google. Though if some books display properly, that would suggest an issue specific to certain books. Regardless ... if you download, and read a book using the Google apps designed to do just that, then it still seems it should be on them. Good luck.

[Purple Lady]

The problem is the dpi. I don't remember what dpi I used, but one of the standard ones should work. Only change the dpi using the App Settings module in xposed though - I first tried editing build.prop and it wouldn't boot until I restored it.

An older version of Play books will work too. I don't remember what version, but I responded to someone a while back which version I used.

[Tikker]

Aldiko used to be REALLY bad for exactly the same thing. the further you got into a book, the worse it got out of line.

Eventually the fix was to abandon aldiko, and just move to moon+

[SteveAdams]

Thank you for your replys!

Purple Lady - i have rooted this pro hd before using kingroot apk, but in doing so i found it made the device seem slower, it was getting through battery much faster. I think the apk had some sort of service constantly running. In the end i reverted back to 100% stock firmware. I certainly could try rooting again but i would want to use a different way, what would you suggest would be the best way? From there i could try out different dpi values. Before that i will look for some older versions of google play books.

Thats great i have got a couple of possible fixes, thanks very much!

[SteveAdams]

Just as an update iv downloaded and tried more than a few different versions of google play books. The best version i used is version 3.4.9. The dpi is correct, it has offline dictionary, syncing works, i can use the volume keys to change page and not have to use the 3d page turn effect which looks bad on e-ink screen. So im very happy with that, it all works as i want!

Im debating on whether or not to root, last time it didn't work out too well for me and if i do root it would be just to remove the black bar at the bottom of the screen. Maybe i can find a non root version of a similar application.

Massive thanks to purple lady for her help, i really appreciate it, seriously it makes me very happy to use my chosen book reading app on both my devices as i had intended! ��