Some of the cuts from the original Talking Book are very strange. I downloaded Claire Tomalin's biography of Dickens and found that the book blurb was cut along with the identity of the reader. The idea of DAISY was that library members should have as much of the information contained in a book which would be available to sighted readers and would have the same navigation possibilities. This is obviously not the case with Overdrive. In this respect, Overdrive is a retrograde step. The Book Stream service should have been developed to allow for download in a secure environment as Steve says.
Iain-----Original Message----- From: Steve Nutt
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 8:57 AM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxSubject: [access-uk] Re: RNIB Overdrive - Still titles with conversion problems
Hi Paul, It sounds to me like RNIB have actually caused themselves more work by converting from Daisy, which already existed and in a reasonable quality of file, to low bit-rate, frankly crappy, versions of MP3 files and stripping out Daisy navigation files, which are tiny, the XML and SMIL files for example. I still say they should have left well alone, copied zipped images of the CDs and let us download them in a secure environment, instead of causing us to use Overdrive, which in my view, is quite frankly, equally crap. Daisy books play equally well on non-Daisy media players. I can't accept the excuse about the security of borrowing books, since all you need to do is copy the books to a media device and you have the book for ever. So my Christmas wish would be to have all the books available in Daisy format, as they were written to the CDs and memory sticks. All the best Steve -- Computer Room Services 77 Exeter Close Stevenage Hertfordshire SG1 4PW Tel: +44(0)1438-742286 Mob: +44(0)7956-334938 Fax: +44(0)1438-759589 Email: steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Web: http://www.comproom.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Warner Sent: 17 December 2014 06:00 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] RNIB Overdrive - Still titles with conversion problems A week ago, I notified this list that I had received an email from the RNIB Overdrive team advising that they had completed a careful analysis of their converted titles and that they had removed those which were found to be faulty. The email contained the assurance, "Firstly, we have hidden away the faulty titles so don't worry about choosing the books you love." Unfortunately, this is not the case. I have just downloaded to my PC Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens and proofed the title in the Overdrive Media Console software. The title is split into 48 files named Part 1 to Part 48. In this title, a Part file usually contains a complete chapter but there are quite a few which contain two chapters. If you start playback in the Overdrive Media Console, you can quickly skip to the next Part by pressing control shift right arrow. You then hear 'Chapter x' and the relevant text. Skipping through the Parts is about the easiest way you will have to ensure that the chapters are in the right order although you won't be sure if a chapter has been completely missed since one Part file can contain more than one chapter. The first problem with Our Mutual Friend is that Parts 13 and 14 are duplicates - they contain exactly the same chapter and their file sizes are identical when viewed in Windows Explorer. The same is almost true of Parts 26 and 27 but, in this case, Part 27 includes all of Part 26 plus the subsequent chapter. Windows Explorer shows that Part 27 is 50% bigger than Part 26. What this means is that unlike with the repetition in Part 14, you can't easily skip to the next Part (Part 28) in order to skip the repeated chapter since doing so will miss the additional chapter contained in Part 27. This is very confusing and I am glad that I identified these issues before reading the book for real. If users are continuing to download titles from Overdrive to play back on any platform, I would advise them to do the following: 1. Before reading the book, make sure that chapters are not out of order. Do this by jumping to the next Part and noting the chapter number which begins that Part. All you can hope for here is that the chapter number of the next Part is higher than the one in the previous Part but beware that more than one chapter can be contained in a Part. 2. If you find any issues at all, you can either fix them yourself or abandon the book and let the RNIB know. Of course, even if you do try to fix the problems yourself, you should still tell the RNIB. 3. If you do decide to fix the problems yourself, do not play the book using the Overdrive software or apps as the amendments you make will cause the navigation information in the software to become even more unreliable. Instead, play the files on your media player or use different apps on your smartphone. 4. Where you spot a duplicated file, delete one of the files in Windows Explorer. Before doing so, check the respective file sizes of the duplicate Parts. You might find that one of them includes more chapters so you should always delete the smaller file. 5. If you find that a Part file contains chapter(s) which are out of order, you can always rename the file(s) to correct the Part numbers. 6. If you find that all this is too much bother, which frankly it is, do nothing and just advise the RNIB. The key point is that it is quite disheartening to find that, despite RNIB assurances, their quality inspection has not identified and removed all corrupted titles. I will certainly not begin reading any title until I have proofed it in the way described above. Paul ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
