Audiobooks

[jgray]

I have already searched the forums and elsewhere online about this.

It seems that one way to sideload audiobooks is to zip up some MP3 files, and rename the extension from ZIP to MP3Z. This works, but invokes a very basic audio player on my Clara 2E. Also, the listing does not show any metadata.

I understand that an official audiobook from Kobo invokes a fancier audio player, and shows metadata in the listing.

An old forum posting indicated that someone had success sideloading an audiobook by creating an MP4 file with an M4B extension.

I tried this with both an audiobook that I created from MP3 files, using this program: http://www.audiobookcreator.de/en/index.html, and one I downloaded from Internet Archive (already in M4B format). Neither of the M4B files get added to My Books on the Clara 2E.

I also tried adding the files in the root folder, and an Audiobook folder. That doesn't work, either. Even a power off/on doesn't force the adding of these files.

Does anyone know what the secret is to creating an audiobook like the ones that you buy from Kobo? Does anyone have a free PD Kobo audiobook that they can share, so I can try that one?

[jgray]

If anyone has a purchased Kobo audiobook, would you please tell me what the filename and extension is, and also what folder it is in. These details may help.

[Quoth]

I doubt any PD Kobo audiobook exists. The text being PD, or the price being zero, doesn't make an audiobook be Public Domain.
Phones make for better Audiobook players than any eink and battery life / charge isn't an issue as screen blanks. However audiobook or music seriously impacts an eink battery life (and charge duration) seriously as the eink ereader is mostly asleep while you are reading and only takes much power to turn a page. Audio playback uses power continuously.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by jgray

If anyone has a purchased Kobo audiobook, would you please tell me what the filename and extension is, and also what folder it is in. These details may help.

All of the following is based on a sample of one audiobook from the Kobo Store.

When I first got my Libra2 I "purchased" a free audiobook from Kobo to test. It was Charles Dickens - Bleak House, narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano. I'm in the UK so I don't know whether this link works in other countries.

I don't use wi-fi but the audiobook synced to my Libra2 when I connected it to Kobo Desktop. It does not download to the Kobo Desktop library on the PC.

It downloads as a subdirectory in .kobo/audiobook with a name like xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx where each x is a hex char [0-9a-f], i.e. just like a store-bought kepub's filename.

Inside the directory are many files named 0, 1, 2, ... etc., all with no file extension. The number of files seems to correspond to the number of chapters and, comparing filesizes to chapter length, suggests that the filename probably denotes the playing order.

I did a basic test of adding a file extension (.mp3, .mp4, .m4b) to one of the chapter files but wasn't able to open it in a PC media player. I don't have any reverse engineering skills.

Hopefully that gives you a bit more info. If you find out anything more useful I'll be very interested to hear it.

[Aleron Ives]

The audio files in the .kobo folder are surely encrypted, so you'd have to remove the DRM before you could try to play them on a PC. Most likely they're just individual MP3 or AAC files for each chapter.

[jgray]

Nothing I try works. Perhaps Kobo is adding the audiobook to the KoboReader.sqlite database at time of purchase. As we all know, you can simply sideload an ebook, and the device will import it, and add it to the database. This doesn't seem to be the case with audiobooks.

[chrisridd]

I'd quite like to know how to sideload audiobooks so that they are played by Kobo's audiobook player. I don't yet have a Kobo capable of playing audiobooks though, so this is just a theoretical interest for me right now.

Does running `file` on these files inside .kobo/audiobook show anything useful?

Aside: the Unix/Linux `file` command tries to figure out the format of the file just using the file contents.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by jgray

Nothing I try works. Perhaps Kobo is adding the audiobook to the KoboReader.sqlite database at time of purchase. As we all know, you can simply sideload an ebook, and the device will import it, and add it to the database. This doesn't seem to be the case with audiobooks.

There are certainly rows for a purchased audiobook in the table named content in the KoboReader.sqlite database.

There is a single row for the whole book:

ContentType: "6"
   MimeType: "application/octet-stream"
  BookTitle: null
      Title: "Bleak House"

plus lots more columns, including book metadata (author, description etc)
This row is present even if I haven't yet downloaded the book from the Kobo servers. I suppose it's the one used to populate the GUI booklists.

Once the book is downloaded there are extra rows added to the content table, 2 rows per chapter (i.e. per individual audio file). I'll use the one's for Chapter 1 as an example

ContentType: "899"
   MimeType: "application/octet-stream"
  BookTitle: "Bleak House"
      Title: "c01Bleak-House" (i.e. chapter title as it appears in this audiobook's TOC)

... plus lots more columns and

ContentType: "9"
   MimeType: "audio/mpeg"
  BookTitle: "Bleak House"
      Title: "1.mp3"

... plus lots more columns

BTW the column named IsEncrypted is set to false on every row for this free audiobook.

--------------------------

I suspect we need to wait for Kobo to decide that they no longer wish to "discriminate" between purchased audiobooks and sideloaded .MP3Z audiobooks. As we've seen, the latter aren't really useable ATM.

They seem to be concentrating on the note-taking features on Elipsa and Sage right now, but who knows what may happen in the future.

Anyone who is keen on owning an eink device (non-Android) today with very useable audio features (proper audiobooks and/or TTS) should probably consider one of the newer PocketBook models. In addition to Bluetooth and simple jack headphones, I believe the newest one also includes a proper speaker so you don't need to use headphones at all if you prefer not to.

[chrisridd]

The audiobook you purchased really has a chapter called "c01Bleak-House"? That's not very professional looking!

I wonder if they support MPEG-4 as well. Audible books are encrypted MPEG-4 files, so it would be nice to hear them on Kobos without having to transcode them.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

The audiobook you purchased really has a chapter called "c01Bleak-House"? That's not very professional looking!

No, it's not , but "you gets what you pays for". I don't suppose much TLC went into creating a free audiobook. I was pretty surprised such a thing even existed!

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I suspect we need to wait for Kobo to decide that they no longer wish to "discriminate" between purchased audiobooks and sideloaded .MP3Z audiobooks. As we've seen, the latter aren't really useable ATM.

I tend to agree. The fact that we can sideload KEPUB and use the better e-book renderer is because Kobo lets us do that. Kobo could easily choose to reject KEPUBs unless the database showed that you synced the book directly from your account, but fortunately this is not the case. Until Kobo decides to let you sideload audiobooks using the good player, you probably can't without a lot of reverse engineering work.

[MohaMadi]

Well, it can be frustrating when things don't work as expected, especially when you're trying different methods.
Creating audiobooks that work seamlessly with your device can be a bit tricky, but it's great that you're exploring different options. Have you considered converting your MP3 files to a different format, like M4B, using a different tool? Sometimes, different tools can produce different results.
I recently came across this guide that might have some helpful tips for you: https://seniorsbot.com/. It's always good to have a variety of resources to turn to when you're troubleshooting tech issues.