New Reader Owner -- Format Question

[induna]

I just bought my Sony Reader today. First I went to the local Borders, which, I discovered, has no return policy on the reader. If I didn't like it, I was stuck with it. This turned out to be a good thing, since it sent me off to Fry's Electronics, which has a 15 day return policy and had the reader for $50 less than at Borders. So far I like it a lot, but I will have to use it over the next several days to make sure it works for me.

I have been reading these forums for the last couple of days, which is one of the reasons I decided to buy the Reader. If I have understood correctly, I can convert any un-DRM'd PDF, RTF, LIT (MS Reader format) or TXT file into LBF format and load it on the reader. I can also buy DRM'd LIT (MS Reader) books from Ebooks.com, remove the copy protection and convert them to LBF format using readily obtainable tools. Is this correct?

Thank you and I look forward to trying many of the hacks I've discovered here once I decide the keep the Reader.

[RWood]

Welcome to MobileRead induna.

As youy can reference on the MobileRead Wiki Format page, the Reader will directly support RTF and TXT in addition to LRF (non DRMed BBeB) and specialized format PDF files.

There are a number of conversion tools available on the MobileRead Wiki Conversion page that will assist you in converting other formats to the Reader. Two of the most popular tools for creating LRF files are BookDesigner and html2lrf. PDF is a unique case as many of the PDF files are not text based but rather graphics inside a PDF shell. These are very hard to convert and must be either OCRed or split and enhanced through such products as PDFrasterFarian. Since the Reader has a 6" screen and most PDF files are designed for either an A4 or letter size output they are too small on the Sony to be read and the zoom feature does not work with PDF.

Many people have reported good results using clit to free LIT files and then to convert them to LRF for the Reader.

I hope this helps.

[induna]

Yes, that does help.

Thank you.

[nerys]

Also keep in mind almost all of those formats you listed (PDF RTF TXT) are NATIVELY supported by the reader !! you do not even need the sony connect software (which I only installed to get the freebie books then uninstalled) I pop my SD or MS stick into a card reader put what I want on there pop it back into the reader. the NATIVE no proprietary interface required feature of this reader is the PRIMARY reason I purchased it. I would "not" have bought it if I was forced to both use there software and there "format" one of the few times a congratulations sony is warranted :-)

So far I absolutely love the unit. I have read close to 200 books on it so far since I got in for christmas (yeah I read that much about 30 "long" novels and a ton of shorter (under 200 pages) novels.

I love that I can use a tiny font to get lots of text on each page to minimize page changes and its still crisp and clear.

The only way to make this better is to make it slightly larger and slightly higher res (1024x768 and 25% more screen space) would be perfect. there are some full page PDF's that are OH SO CLOSE to being readable but are "just" outside of legibility :-( Soo close :-)

also double the shades. its just short enough on shades that some PDF's that are large enough are still tough because of the dithering to the 4 shades it supports. There is software to intelligently dither these ahead of time that helps.

if they could do 16 shades of grey (maybe even 8 would be enough) an 8" screen and 1024x768 (or 9-10" at 800x600) this think would be unstoppable. I would even gladly buy 2 units. the smaller e reader for my text based reading and the larger unit for my image based (PDF etc..) reading.

Color E Ink would be a dream :-) Either way I am very very pleased with my ereader. my only real complaint is no cover in orange :-) hehe and it dies on its own without use so if you let it sit for a month you will need to recharge it and it can NOT charge off USB if the battery is too far depleted you must use the normal power port at this point. I am getting one of those 9800mah PSP power packs (it uses the same plug as the PSP) which will eliminate any possible problems with traveling at all :-)

[JSWolf]

But by using ONLY a memory card to transfer books, you do LOSE the COLLECTIONS feature. It doesn't work with books stored on a memory card.

[nerys]

Collections is too much a pain in the butt and requires that I install and USE the sony connect software. I just use multiple memory cards. Much easier a lot more control and no stupid software to mess with. What they SHOULD have done was permit FOLDER structure access and control on the device itself. then it would be EVEN EASIER I could literally drag my entire book collection onto a 4gig card and be done with it.

[dhbailey]

But if you don't use memory cards, the battery charge will last longer. Even just having the memory card in the slot with MP3 files you're not currently listening too, while reading books loaded into the main memory of the reader seems to drain the battery.

4GB cards don't hold data past the 2Gb limit so don't get your hopes up, even with a folder structure which might be added in a future firmware upgrade. Not until the firmware upgrade includes the ability to read data on memory cards past the 2GB limit will the 4GB cards be worthwhile.

collections I can take or leave, but having the books loaded into the main memory makes the battery charge last longer, which is far more important to me.

[nerys]

Ehh power is not an issue for me. I mean I read a LOT and I mean LOT and I have never had the battery let out on me though I think the MS stick drains the battery faster than an SD card ??? odd ehh. Plus I do not like internal memory on any device. If the device fails it takes its contents with it. With a memory card I can extract the memory card and be on my way.

I am just really picky about end user control over my hardware. I have a real problem with my property dictates terms to me the owner of said property. It really bugs me :-) its WHY I bought the Sony Reader for its native file support with NO need for any software at all except my computer and the software it already has. It was a make or break buying point to me.

No native file support no sale. And so what I just use 2 2gb cards. I would never try to carry that many books on me anyway but it would be nice to have say 100-200 books on me even if just for reference or for the sake of having. a general selection so if someone else wants to read something there is a chance I will have something they want. with the current make up this is impossible the screens would be too cumbersome to navigate. So hopefully they will fix it and enable folder access.

Its surprisingly useful for MAPS too !! I capture google maps format to the screen convert to greyscale and jack up the contrast to make it work better on the 4 shades and its VERY nice :-)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

But if you don't use memory cards, the battery charge will last longer. Even just having the memory card in the slot with MP3 files you're not currently listening too, while reading books loaded into the main memory of the reader seems to drain the battery.

4GB cards don't hold data past the 2Gb limit so don't get your hopes up, even with a folder structure which might be added in a future firmware upgrade. Not until the firmware upgrade includes the ability to read data on memory cards past the 2GB limit will the 4GB cards be worthwhile.

collections I can take or leave, but having the books loaded into the main memory makes the battery charge last longer, which is far more important to me.

Actually, you can get 4GB on a memory card if you use one of the compatible Sony Memory Sticks. SD cards are only supported up to 2GB.

[dhbailey]

Have you actually done that?

On another thread people were complaining that they couldn't get the reader to read all the content. I've got a SanDisk MemoryStickPro 4GB, which should work but the Reader won't read anything over 2GB.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by nerys

... Plus I do not like internal memory on any device. If the device fails it takes its contents with it. With a memory card I can extract the memory card and be on my way....

The Sony Reader is a derivative device in that it has no original content and everything on it is resident somewhere else and was downloaded to it. Thus if it fails completely I still have a copy of the material someplace else (and most likely also in a generic form that is not restricted to the Sony Reader alone.)

I am also one of those that does not use the collections feature on the Reader. I generally keep about 30 to 40 books in the internal memory. I had a card in it for a while but keeping a lot of books on the Reader just did not work for me. Maybe when I finish the Harvard Classics series I will put that on a card to pop into the Reader for when I need it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

collections I can take or leave, but having the books loaded into the main memory makes the battery charge last longer, which is far more important to me.

You find the battery life of the Reader to be a problem???

I have a 2GB SD card in my Reader (although there isn't a lot on it) and charge perhaps once every 3 weeks, at which point the meter is generally at 2 bars. Personally I consider that to be a perfect acceptable time between charges .

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nerys

If the device fails it takes its contents with it. With a memory card I can extract the memory card and be on my way.

So what? You just re-load them from your hard disk, or wherever you loaded them from in the first place!

it would be nice to have say 100-200 books on me even if just for reference or for the sake of having. a general selection so if someone else wants to read something there is a chance I will have something they want. with the current make up this is impossible the screens would be too cumbersome to navigate. So hopefully they will fix it and enable folder access.

I disagree. The current file system works fine for a couple of hundred books (I have about 160 at the moment on my Reader). It would be unworkable for a couple of thousand, but for a couple of hundred it works OK. If you have, say, 200 books, you'll have to go through, on average, 10 index pages to get to where you want to be. That only takes a few seconds. I can live with that .

[kacir]

You can create simple rtf file for reading. You do not need any conversion software and weird lrf files. You wil need conversion SW to get text from lit files, however.

Just paste the text into MSWord, MSWrite, OpenOffice.org, Kwrite, abiword, WordPerfect or any other decent word processor, set page margins to some small number (like 0.05mm), change font to Arial (Helvetica on some systems) or Times New Roman and save the file as rtf file.
You might also want to set the "author" and "Title" fields somewhere in the document properties. The Reader will use those data to display info. Otherwise it will use file name.

Experiment with different formating of paragraphs, fonts, font sizes, margins and other things until you find combination that is the most pleasing to you.
It is really worth your time and effort. You will look at this page layout for hundreds of hours in the future ;-)

I personally prefer page margins 0.1mm, font Arial or Helvetica (the reader will use its "sans serif" (or "serif" if you use times new roman or suchlike) built-in font anyway), font size 16 points, space after patahraph 0.2mm First line Indent 0.4mm. That is it. *TO ME* this looks much better than books from the Sonny Connect store. I get also much more text on one screen this way, so I do not have to turn pages that often.

Please do not take the memory card out while you have book displayed. Even if you switch off the reader. Always go the to menu, switch off the Reader, take out the card, load some rtf, pdf, txt, mp3, or jpg files on it using card reader (available for less than 10 bucks), pop the card back in, switch on the reader and wait until it looks at the card and indexes it.
If you have a book open while you take out the card, you might be unable to start the reader - that is a VERY scary feeling, believe me ;-) . Do not despair. Just take a bent paperclip and reset the Reader by pressing the reset switch located in a tiny hole at the back of the reader.

When you open a newly loaded book (if you use card to load books and not the CONNECT software) you might need to wait while reader processes the rtf file. It does not take that long.

Please remember you do not *have* to buy books from the connect store. There are quite a lot of books for download on this forum, there is "project guttenberg", Baen Free library (and Baen shop for drm-free SciFi books), and countless other book sources on the net.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kacir

Please do not take the memory card out while you have book displayed. Even if you switch off the reader. Always go the to menu, switch off the Reader, take out the card, load some rtf, pdf, txt, mp3, or jpg files on it using card reader (available for less than 10 bucks), pop the card back in, switch on the reader and wait until it looks at the card and indexes it.

I should point out that this is not in accordance with Sony's recommendations. The "approved" method is to only take a memory card out or in with the Reader turned on. If you take the card out and put it back in with the Reader off, it will often "hang" when you next turn the Reader back on.