PRS-650 Sony Reader Software Conundrum

[ArmadilloPilot]

I'm still struggling a bit to figure out the best way to manage my reader. Originally, last year, I installed Sony Reader Library. Shortly after I jumped into Calibre. Calibre was very nice, although I still work to make everything more efficient. Yesterday, having some holiday time, I checked my firmware for any updates and ended up downloading "Reader for PC" from Sony. Can anyone honestly say what that piece of work was really supposed to do? It messed me up. Here's what happened to me:

I needed to delete a book. I could not delete the file from the device using Calibre. Reader Library would not let me delete from the device because the file was synced. Since I had never had this issue before I suspected that Reader for PC was at issue. However, when trying to delete using that software, I found no way delete a file.

Finally, I deleted "Reader for PC" from my system. I kept Sony Reader Library because I need it for Library borrowing. Apparently, Calibre has no way to link to Adobe Digital applications to get a borrowed DRM file. I guess you also need Sony Reader Library in order to buy from the Sony store.

Now Calibre let me delete the book from my device.

[vxf]

Originally Posted by ArmadilloPilot

I'm still struggling a bit to figure out the best way to manage my reader. Originally, last year, I installed Sony Reader Library. Shortly after I jumped into Calibre. Calibre was very nice, although I still work to make everything more efficient. Yesterday, having some holiday time, I checked my firmware for any updates and ended up downloading "Reader for PC" from Sony. Can anyone honestly say what that piece of work was really supposed to do? It messed me up. Here's what happened to me:

I needed to delete a book. I could not delete the file from the device using Calibre. Reader Library would not let me delete from the device because the file was synced. Since I had never had this issue before I suspected that Reader for PC was at issue. However, when trying to delete using that software, I found no way delete a file.

Finally, I deleted "Reader for PC" from my system. I kept Sony Reader Library because I need it for Library borrowing. Apparently, Calibre has no way to link to Adobe Digital applications to get a borrowed DRM file. I guess you also need Sony Reader Library in order to buy from the Sony store.

Now Calibre let me delete the book from my device.

I use Reader Library.

Reader for PC is buggy as all hell. Stay away, if you can.

Calibre works, but does have problems with DRM and does not support importing/exporting of annotations. If you use the last two, my advice would be to stick with Reader Library. It's a bit clunky, but it works.

The other option is to use both Calibre and Reader Library. They work well together - but not at the same time. Don't have them running simultaneously and everything should be fine. But I found I did not have the patience to deal with two sets of software.

[Ashjuk]

Personally I would just stick with Reader Library.

I have never been able to get my head round Calibre. I know it's a great program but I just can't tolerate the way it works not allowing me to organise my books the way I want to and not the way Calibre thinks it should be.

I like to have my books sorted by genre - biographies, travel, humour, history etc., but Calibre just seems to want to put everything in separate folders based on the author's name.

And another thing why does it need to store the cover and metadata as a separate files? All that information is in the epub file itself. To me that is just wasting space and making things complicated for no reason.

So just stick to Reader Library. Use Calibre for 'editing' if necessary and then remove the book from Calibre's library.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Ashjuk

And another thing why does it need to store the cover and metadata as a separate files? All that information is in the epub file itself. To me that is just wasting space and making things complicated for no reason.

As a big Calibre fan I can't ignore this statement (much against my better judgement ).

The reason the cover/metadata is stored separately is that Calibre supports many book formats, not just epub. Some formats can't store images/metadata internally e.g. TXT. Other formats can store some metadata items but not others. The 2 external files just standardise everything.

Additionally, DRM epubs and PDFs may contain a cover you don't like and can't edit. The external cover image allows Calibre to automatically send the cover of your choice to be the thumbnail on your Sony.

Additionally the separate metadata file is is stored for your own protection. If your Calibre database (metadata.db) gets corrupted Calibre has a feature to be able to recreate it from your book files, and separate cover and metadata files.

Sorry to digress

[raac]

Ashjuk, yes it's true that Calibre organises the files and folders in its own way. However, the idea behind this is that Calibre builds a database and you interact solely with that and completely ignore the files on the disk. You can assign genres to books within Calibre. The advantage of doing things this way is that one book can come under multiple genres, and you can perform searches and batch operations, etc. These things aren't so easy (and in some cases not possible) with organised directory trees. Calibre isn't seeking to impose its file structure upon you, the structure is just a consequence of it being a database. Of course, if you prefer not to use such software and want to roll your own directory trees then this is fine also.

[Ashjuk]

Sorry if I've upset you Calibre users, that was never my intention.

I suppose I am a little bit of a control freak and as such I like to have complete control of how data is stored on my computer. I just don't like the way Calibre forces you to adopt its way of working, just about every other piece of software I use allows me to define the location for files produced or edited. I don't want a library that is full of folders with perhaps just one book in them.

By using Reader Library I can just import the books, from the location I specify, and load them to my 650 without it having duplicate the file and create a new folder. Once I've read them I can delete them from the reader and Reader Library and everything just as it was with the original file untouched.

Why does Calibre need to create a copy of a file that exists in the location I imported it from?
Say I import Ranulph Fiennes autobigraphy - Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know - (which I have filed in my biographies folder) into Calibre the first thing it will do is create a Ranulph Fiennes folder with a sub-folder Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know with the epub, cover iimage and metadata files in it.

WHY???

The book already exists in the Biographies folder - and is still there!

You may be happy with that but I am not. The only thing I use Calibre for is to strip the DRM from epubs. If I buy a real book it's mine to do with as I wish and the same should apply to ebooks I buy.

Anyway each to their own, the world would be a boring place if we were all the same.

[Analogus]

Ashjuk:
Cause of the behaviour you mention I personally use Calibre only to manage the content on my reader, prepare books for future reading and store allready finished books (to know that they have been finished).

The vast majority of e-papers and books are stored on annother place on the harddisk with my own folder structure.

For my purpose a clean database management system (with just linking to the content) and metadatas on a different place would suit much better.

A

[carpetmojo]

[QUOTE=Ashjuk;1902528]Sorry if I've upset you Calibre users, that was never my intention.......

Just to say, there is, allegedly, some information that does not make DRM a problem, and I believe that visiting Apprentice Alf might help.

So I've been told.

[Ashjuk]

[QUOTE=carpetmojo;1903532]

Originally Posted by Ashjuk

Sorry if I've upset you Calibre users, that was never my intention.......

Just to say, there is, allegedly, some information that does not make DRM a problem, and I believe that visiting Apprentice Alf might help.

So I've been told.

And you've been told right.

As I said the only use I put Calibre to is managing DRM, but as that it strictly illegal we won't discuss it here.

[elcreative]

Of course it's way too difficult to set calibre to embed covers and metadata in the book file as it goes... and the version it saves means I don't have to bother with keeping backups - calibre does it and I still keep the file/folder structure with a simple save to command from a drop down menu... each to his/her own choice...

[Solitaire1]

I haven't had a problem with either the Reader For PC (RFP) software or Calibre with my ereader. As said by others, I just make sure that I use one, eject my ereader, and then close it before using the other software. For simplicity, I allow the RFP software to manage the ebooks in my ereader's internal memory, while Calibre handles those on my memory card.

I haven't worried about how either program stores the ebooks on my ereader since I never work directly with the file structure of my ereader. A combination of the ereader's internal software and arranging my ebooks into collections works very well for me and allows me to easily access any ebook on my ereader.

That said, I've found Calibre's use of tags to create collections much easier to work with than RFP's method of creating collections and then dragging and dropping ebooks into them. Syncing with the RFP software tends to work very well, although the inability to directly delete synced ebooks is a slight irritant.

[ArmadilloPilot]

Is it only Reader for PC that implements the Syncing process? I did not notice any problems until my recent delving into the software issues. It seems that for the many months that I had only Reader Library and Calibre; I experienced no problems.

Only after I installed Reader for PC, hoping for some kind of miraculous improvement, did I experience the problem. I honestly never saw any evidence of syncing until this installation.

[VicLavigne]

Originally Posted by Ashjuk

Sorry if I've upset you Calibre users, that was never my intention.

I suppose I am a little bit of a control freak and as such I like to have complete control of how data is stored on my computer. I just don't like the way Calibre forces you to adopt its way of working, just about every other piece of software I use allows me to define the location for files produced or edited. I don't want a library that is full of folders with perhaps just one book in them.

I also have to put up a response - not to argue any points but just to let people look at this in a different way.

Calibre truly creates its own database, and this database happens to contain the actual ebooks themselves. So it organizes this database the way it was designed to do, not the way the owner wants.

For any of you who are in the business of accessing databases, you must realize that the big point of the database is you can access it and retrieve data. The point is not that it is organized the way you want, but you have a variety of ways to pull information and can add/edit/delete the data as needed. Calibre lets users do that.

I've heard some users complain that it duplicates the ebooks. Yes it does, and if you like you can delete the ebook from the location that you downloaded it to, since once you add it to Calibre it will keep its own copy. This was a problem for me until I understood that Calibre was better at organizing my ebooks than I was. Now that I've gotten past that point, I can let it do its work the way it needs, and I can focus on the results that I want from it.

Response finished.

Vic

[Ashjuk]

Originally Posted by VicLavigne

I also have to put up a response - not to argue any points but just to let people look at this in a different way.

Calibre truly creates its own database, and this database happens to contain the actual ebooks themselves. So it organizes this database the way it was designed to do, not the way the owner wants.

For any of you who are in the business of accessing databases, you must realize that the big point of the database is you can access it and retrieve data. The point is not that it is organized the way you want, but you have a variety of ways to pull information and can add/edit/delete the data as needed. Calibre lets users do that.

I've heard some users complain that it duplicates the ebooks. Yes it does, and if you like you can delete the ebook from the location that you downloaded it to, since once you add it to Calibre it will keep its own copy. This was a problem for me until I understood that Calibre was better at organizing my ebooks than I was. Now that I've gotten past that point, I can let it do its work the way it needs, and I can focus on the results that I want from it.

Response finished.

Vic

As I said - each to their own.

Personally I don't want a database of my eBooks - I get books to read not manipulate information. And IMO I think I can organise my eBook collection far better than Calibre ever could.

So for me Reader Library is the best option. If I could find something else to manage the DRM issue I don't think I would bother with Calibre.

Anyway I can see that I'm the odd one out here so I think it's time to end this discussion.

[Pinecone]

Do you use Access databases? Do you go into the file and edit the filed locations and how Access stores data?

If not, then let Calbre do its thing and ignore the man behind the curtain. If Calibre had been written to put everythinginto one big file that you could not open, you would not care how it organized things inside the file. So think of the Calibre Library folder as a file you don't open.