Sony Reader supports more e-book formats natively than we thought

[frostedflake]

Originally Posted by rmeister0

Sure they can.

Convert .LIT files? Outta luck.

Convert .PDB files? No can do.

Mobipocket files? Tough luck.

Okay, how about Microsoft Excel?

...and the list goes on. I suspect this was more a "low hanging fruit" things easy to implement rather than something the managers said "we gotta have this!".

Good points and proves the point of why a single multiformat converter is needed. Maybe LIT is necessary and should be included. However with respect to ebook formats, its more of a competitive thing, while formats like Word are not. I say yes to Excel too. Hopefully it is possible for plug-in converters.

[ultim8fury]

To my mind there needs to bee a single accepted primary distribution format. The MP3 player market became successful because there was a single format to get behind. Sure there are better formats out there but 1 format needs to stand up and be supported on all these devices.

I don't want to get books in 10 different formats and then convert them for my device. I want to know that I can buy and ebook online and assuming there is no DRM or that the DRM allows, read the book on pretty much any device. MP3 was that format for music. Where is it for books ?

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

For books it is unlikely that there will be one format for intrinsic reasons. For music pre mp3 you had cd's and that was that since they crowded out tapes/records, and music is "bloated", even a mp3 song takes MB's of space, so you can use a binary formats easily, the method of compression is the issue.
For books, you have essentially text based books (pretty much any fiction book say), and those fit well in a relatively small text based format like txt, html, rtf, no need for pdf bloat, and books that have formulas, symbols, diagrams (non ascii/unicode stuff) that need a mix of text and pictures, so you use pdf, latex, djvu...
So what you need is ebook reader software that handles text based files and does all the nice things like fonts, colors, double page, navigation, that you want, and also handles some mixed format like pdf/djvu. We have to see how the Eink readers do this though without a color screen or higher resolution I am very skeptical of antyhing that is image based like pdf's and the like.

Liviu

Originally Posted by ultim8fury

To my mind there needs to bee a single accepted primary distribution format.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

So what you need is ebook reader software that handles text based files and does all the nice things like fonts, colors, double page, navigation, that you want, and also handles some mixed format like pdf/djvu.

So, something like the OpenReader model, then?


As for how e-ink might handle various content, since it's functionally just another display tech, it'll handle it just fine. Yes, it's greyscale at the moment, but e-ink has developed an early color version already. It's really slow, and the color level is pretty low at the moment, but they'll get there, I'm confident, just a matter of time. And with folks starting to actually use the B&W version, they'll have more capital to work with, and a growing market for the color version when it's ready.

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

We have to see about OpenReader. The idea is great, but the implementation and the market will decide.
For myself, I see nothing wrong with plain text or at most html/rtf for most fiction books and uBook on pc/laptop/tablet, Fbreader on my Nokia 770 and whatever they use on Ebookwise 1150. Just offer me the text file at a decent price (4-6$ for anything older than 1 year, up to 10$ for new hc, up to 15$ for earcs 4-5 months or more prepublication like Baen does it) and I do not need a new format. The crucial thing is the ability to read the book on whatever device/platform I want, whether current or to come, and for this text/html files with possibly minimal conversion are ideal.
About the Eink readers, more than 400$ is just too much for me, so Iliad goes out. For Sony/Jinke, I will see, lack of backlight is a big minus since I do most of my reading at night, but if the display vows me I will buy one.

Liviu

Originally Posted by NatCh

So, something like the OpenReader model, then?


As for how e-ink might handle various content, since it's functionally just another display tech, it'll handle it just fine. Yes, it's greyscale at the moment, but e-ink has developed an early color version already. It's really slow, and the color level is pretty low at the moment, but they'll get there, I'm confident, just a matter of time. And with folks starting to actually use the B&W version, they'll have more capital to work with, and a growing market for the color version when it's ready.