[bc-rfbd-beta] Re: New Update
- From: "Jackie M." <xercon@xxxxxxx>
- To: <bc-rfbd-beta@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:10:59 -0800
Katie,
Thanks for your responses. I don't know how to use fast forward and
reverse, so I will look them up. I do remember reading about it in the Book
Courier guide, I think.
I am under the impression that BookPort speeds up RFBD books. Are you sure
there's no way for Book Courier to do it? Use speech compression or
something?
I do not have computer software for reading RFBD books. I bought a CD
player, the Telix Scholar, through RFBD; very klunky. It doesn't allow
speedup either. If I were in school, I would choose tapes because I could
speed them up. I sincerely hope you can figure out a way to speed up the
reading, because otherwise, we're going backwards, as far as making it
through high school and college are concerned. I am not sure how learning
disabled folks do it, because in general, it is my understanding that they
do not speed up the texts. But most blind people who have gone through
college have become accustomed to speeding up the textbook; otherwise, we
could not have completed our work within the quarter or semester. I was an
English major and had to read more than a novel per week in my lit courses.
I had the novels on 16-2/3 rpm. talking book records. I taped them at 45
rpm and a tape speed of 3-3/4 ips (reel to reel tapes). Then I turned the
tape speed down to 1-7/8 ips. This produced a speed of about 22.5 rpm,
which saved me about a third of the time reading the novel. It took a while
to get used to the faster speed, but once I did, it was excruciating to read
at normal speed. I still read cassette books at faster than normal speeds.
Some people I know have their computer set even faster than I do. So speed
is a real need for some of us blind folks, and I do wish you would try to
address it.
- Jackie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Katie Walker" <katie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bc-rfbd-beta@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 11:56 AM
Subject: [bc-rfbd-beta] Re: New Update
Jackie,
I've added my comments below:
At 11:25 PM 1/14/2006, you wrote:
>Katie,
>
>As a beta tester, should I download the newest Book Courier update? Or is
>the update we downloaded last week the same as the newest update?
No, do not download the new release. I'm sorry I neglected to mention
that to you guys. The release you have already contains the features
in the latest release.
>A couple responses regarding my testing so far:
>
>1. In the two-disk history book that I transferred part of, I notice that
>in
>several places, the words are clipped; some are missing a syllable or two.
>When it is a number, that syllable can be crucial. I also think that the
>more I am jumping around in the file, using the various navigation levels,
>the more the word clips appear. Is that my imagination? I don't know
>whether the word clips are in the original disks or not.
I'll pass this on to Steve, see if he has any comments, and get back to you.
>2. The only navigation level that is working as advertised is page
>navigation. Phrase navigation is working the same as page navigation - in
>other words, in phrase navigation it goes from page 20 to page 21. The
>level 2 and level 3 navigation are not working in this history book. I am
>about to switch to the test book, Harry Potter. (As you may recall, I
>cannot use the test history book because there was a filter error when I
>put
>the second disk in.)
Since I don't have the book you are reading, I can't check the file
to find out exactly what navigation marks it has. However, you can
probably do a little sleuthing yourself. Try loading the book onto
your PC and then read it in the application you use for your other
AudioPlus books. In that application check to see what navigation
levels are available to you and compare them to the ones that
BookCourier has. Remember that a book's navigation markers are
defined before BookCourier gets it. It's very possible that the
history book only has pages defined. In that case, the phrase
navigation will default to pages. For more details about this, read
through the Listening to RFB&D Files section of the web page
(http://bookcourier.com/RFBDCode/).
>3. Two things are driving me nuts. As a student, I like to take notes. To
>do that, I need to go back a few words or a sentence or two. I could not
>do
>that with the navigation methods available in Book Courier. Since only the
>page navigation was working, I had to go back to the beginning of the page
>I
>was on and listen to the whole thing till it reached the necessary point,
>and hope I heard it right the second or third time. Very slow and
>inefficient.
Since this book doesn't have many navigation markers, you'll need to
use Fast Forward and Reverse to get through the book in smaller
chunks. The default increment for FF and FR is 5 seconds. You can
change that to 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes in the Settings
List using the Fast Forward and Reverse Increment. You might also
want to play around with Power Search. Use this link to access the
documentation for this new feature:
http://bookcourier.com/RFBDCode/BookCourierUserGuide.htm#2-5 .
>4. Finally, not being able to speed up the book drives me crazy. The
>reading is way too slow to be of practical use in school or college. One
>has to cover too much material to listen to it this slowly. Can't you
>offer
>speedup possibilities? Even if it causes words to be clipped?
Unfortunately, BookCourier cannot speed up MP3 files and I can't
offer you a workaround. The speed controls work only for text files.
I'll let you know when I hear back from Steve on the clipped words.
Katie
>- Jackie McCraw
Katie Walker
Springer Design, Inc.
katie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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