PRS-350: Add Cyrillic fonts, lose warranty?

[Prosto_IA]

Hi all

I'm pretty much sold on a PRS-350, given its size and ability to annotate (although I have yet to actually hold one - there don't seem to be many in Krasnodar...). The ability to read Russian text is a must for me; I understand from various threads here that it is possible to hack the firmware to add Cyrillic capability. I don't mind doing so (I run Cyanogenmod on my phone, Rockbox on my mp3 player) but I haven't been able to find out if doing so would invalidate any warranty. If so, then I'll look to buy second-hand rather than new. Could anyone confirm either way?

[elcreative]

Technically yes, in practice you can always reflash to original software and if that's not possible then it's not going to be working anyway. You'd be very unlucky for anyone to actually check in detail before you got a replacement...

[kartu]

PDF/EPUB/LRF (BBeB) with embedded fonts works for any alphabet without reflashing anyway.

[Prosto_IA]

Originally Posted by elcreative

in practice you can always reflash to original software.

Yes, of course, obviously (at least, now you come to mention it ), thanks.

[Prosto_IA]

Originally Posted by kartu

PDF/EPUB/LRF (BBeB) with embedded fonts works for any alphabet without reflashing anyway.

Now that's promising, as most of my ebooks are epub, with a smattering of pdf. Cue newbie question: do all ebooks in those formats have embedded fonts by default, or is it only some ebooks in those formats? If the latter, how would I tell (other than by suck-it-and-see)?

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by Prosto_IA

Now that's promising, as most of my ebooks are epub, with a smattering of pdf. Cue newbie question: do all ebooks in those formats have embedded fonts by default, or is it only some ebooks in those formats? If the latter, how would I tell (other than by suck-it-and-see)?

Most books I've seen do not embed fonts. For epub you can check easily as it's a ZIP file format — just look inside to see if there are any font files included.

[SmartyPants]

i'd recommed flashing as even with embedded fonts the book titles and authors will display as squares otherwise...

Head over to the-ebook.org forum and check out how easy the russification is.
By the way, if you intend to use Calibre, there is nothing else you need to do, but Sony software apparently needs to be russified as well to display Cyrillic fonts.

[Prosto_IA]

Originally Posted by dmapr

Most books I've seen do not embed fonts. For epub you can check easily as it's a ZIP file format — just look inside to see if there are any font files included.

I see, thanks.

[Prosto_IA]

Originally Posted by SmartyPants

i'd recommed flashing as even with embedded fonts the book titles and authors will display as squares otherwise...

That's good to know, thank you.

Originally Posted by SmartyPants

Head over to the-ebook.org forum and check out how easy the russification is.
By the way, if you intend to use Calibre, there is nothing else you need to do, but Sony software apparently needs to be russified as well to display Cyrillic fonts.

Ooh, the-ebook.org looks interesting *bookmarks*. Russification certainly looks like a straightforward process - I'll keep going through that thread to see if it can be done direct from a Linux environment. Why do I get the feeling the Sony software won't work on my OS? Mind you, even if it did, I find it hard to believe it would outperform Calibre.

[yegorich]

Has some already asked Sony's support to include the proper font into the next firmware update? Just to let Sony know, there are some customers willing this.

I also found some projects extending reader capabilities especially concerning language support. These projects were listed by Wikipedia:

http://code.google.com/p/prs-plus/
http://ebookapplications.com/about/

[kartu]

Originally Posted by yegorich

Has some already asked Sony's support to include the proper font into the next firmware update?

By the way, which missing letters do you need?

[yegorich]

Originally Posted by kartu

By the way, which missing letters do you need?

Pretty much the whole alphabet. а, б, в, г, д и т.д. :-)

And even if you would embed the needed fonts into the book, you still can't see it's file name if written in Cyrillic. Only squares are to see.

[kartu]

Originally Posted by yegorich

Pretty much the whole alphabet. а, б, в, г, д и т.д. :-)

So Cyrillic, I see, but there already is a solution for that (even two, one by boroda, other by amutin, expect one by "kartu" to come in a month or so ).

If you use English locale they look pretty much the same as the default UI, so I wouldn't be bothered much about "lost warranty".

[yegorich]

I see your point, but I have nothing against including these and other fonts into the usual firmware. Do you?

I don't need russian menus or help. Only fonts to display text correctly. Other vendors make it without explicitly selling their devices to Russia. Like Cybook http://www.the-ebook.org/?p=1926

[kartu]

Originally Posted by yegorich

I see your point, but I have nothing against including these and other fonts into the usual firmware. Do you?

For me personally it doesn't matter that much, as I still need other stuff, like folders (which kindles don't have) or Georgian alphabet (which kindles surprisingly do have), so I still need to customize.

Yes, it would certainly be nice to have and I think most alphabets in the world, except hieroglyphic, would perfectly fit inside firmware even in the older models.

But Sony is a huge company, it has its established processes and rules, which they are highly unlikely to change, as anyone who tries to question existing process risks too much. Besides, it costs them money to make even the slightest change. And with amazon dumping, I don't think they have that big of a budget to spend...