[access-uk] Re: RNIB Overdrive - Still titles with conversion problems

  • From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 10:03:08 -0000

Hi  Steve
What you  say  below,  is just as true about Talking news papers.
 
There was no need to  make changes, as we had a good system
before  RNIB took over.

Regards,  Derek 
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Steve Nutt
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 8:58 AM
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [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

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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


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