PRS-650 Does the PSR-650 read chinese characters?

[feifei]

Hello everybody.
I am total novice with ebooks. Never had one.
After researching for hours I am almost decided to buy a sony PSR 650 for my chinese wife.
My questions are?
1.- does it read chinese characters? In which format should be the file? How problematic is this issue?
2.- does it read pdfs with chinese characters? most of the books that she reads are downloaded in pdf format. It would be great if instead of printing paper, she could read them in the sony.
I would like to know, how good is the experience of reading almost exclusively chinese texts on the 650.
Many thanks for your kind help.

[Polyglot27]

Hi Feifei, your question was interesting since I also read Chinese on my ebook reader, the Cybook Gen 3. However, since I also read in several European languages too, I found the dictionaries included on the Sony PRS-650 a big plus and bought one.
After reading your question, I went to the Shucang site and downloaded several Chinese ebooks in ePub format. I loaded them on the Sony reader and I am sorry to say that though they appear in the library page, they do not display the text at all except as little squares.
I am very satisfied with the way my Cybook displays Chinese texts in the MobiPocket format but it is getting a bit old now. I am looking to getting a BeBook Neo since it will also reads MobiPocket files and seems to handle pdf files better than other readers.
Maybe if you bought a Sony PRS-650 in China or Hong Kong, it might display Chinese. By the way, does you wife read Chinese in the simplified script or the classical script?

[induna]

I have no direct experience with reading Chinese on a Sony reader, but I know that it has been done. Search Mobileread. I believe it is really only a matter of installing a proper font. The Russian firmware will allow you to use any font you wish. Do some digging and you should be able to get it work.

[feifei]

Hi again,

Apparently it is possible to display chinese characters on the sony psr-650.

This forum thread links to a russian forum with a hack, and to a chinese forum with some shots of the reader displaying chinese characters.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=102173

Can someone clarify whether the method ruins the sony guarantee or is potentially harmful?

Any chinese owners of this reader to share their experience?

Many thanks.

[induna]

Originally Posted by feifei

Hi again,

Apparently it is possible to display chinese characters on the sony psr-650.

This forum thread links to a russian forum with a hack, and to a chinese forum with some shots of the reader displaying chinese characters.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=102173

Can someone clarify whether the method ruins the sony guarantee or is potentially harmful?

Any chinese owners of this reader to share their experience?

Many thanks.

Any modifications made to the reader by flashing the Russian firmware and adding fonts can be completely undone by re-flashing the original Sony firmware.

[gregcd]

Easiest way is to use pdf files for chinese documents, the sony can read those fine with no modification.

[austie333]

Yep, the best way to read Chinese fonts is by using PDF files, but not all PDF files work, so you need to be using something relatively current. I find the easiest solution is to dump text into word - i use word 2010, and then save it as a PDF.

[linnygal]

Hi, can i check if we'd be able to enlarge the font/character size if the file is converted to pdf?
I vaguely recall reading somewhere that with pdf, it is more of a "zoom in" format?

disclaimer: newbie to the ereaders here, so sorry if my qns is quite silly

[lack]

@linnygal: it depends on how the "conversion" is made. Basically if the texts are scanned as images you will need to "zoom in", as the reader can't understand there is text there. as austie333 pointed out, a pdf made by word or other pdf authoring software should have text saved as is, so the font/character can be enlarged natively just like any other ebook format.

I just received mine and I can confirm the latter, as Sony user guide comes in pdf. I'll see if I can find some scanned pdf and view that on my 650. I'll get back here to post my results.

[feifei]

Hi there,

it would be great if you could test on your psr-650 these two pdfs with chinese characters. One is scripted, the other one is scanned. For the second one I would like to know if it is comfortable to read or usless on a reader.

Any person out there who uses this devide mainly for chinese?

Thanks for your help.

ff

test chinese script.pdf

test chinese scan.pdf

[Joker.Wang]

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Hi Feifei, your question was interesting since I also read Chinese on my ebook reader, the Cybook Gen 3. However, since I also read in several European languages too, I found the dictionaries included on the Sony PRS-650 a big plus and bought one.
After reading your question, I went to the Shucang site and downloaded several Chinese ebooks in ePub format. I loaded them on the Sony reader and I am sorry to say that though they appear in the library page, they do not display the text at all except as little squares.
I am very satisfied with the way my Cybook displays Chinese texts in the MobiPocket format but it is getting a bit old now. I am looking to getting a BeBook Neo since it will also reads MobiPocket files and seems to handle pdf files better than other readers.
Maybe if you bought a Sony PRS-650 in China or Hong Kong, it might display Chinese. By the way, does you wife read Chinese in the simplified script or the classical script?

hi,I'm also interested in these products(prs650 prs950),I come from Shanghai,China.I ofen read in simplified Chinese.I want to know if they support simplified Chinese originally？？？