[Dtb-talk] new to the list and DTB's

[David Andrews]

Flint, a technical point -- the encryption and copyright protection 
that NLS used is a part of the DAISY standard, nothing 
proprietary.  It is optional but it is a part of the standard.

Dave

At 08:11 PM 3/4/2010, you wrote:
>It's probably been discussed a lot, but I'm happy to give a nice overview.
>
>The DTB system by the NLS is based on Daisy, but there are proprietary
>extensions and encryption used to protect the rights of the copyright
>holders. This is why only certain players will play NLS content. The
>Victor Reader Stream, BookSense and I believe the PlexTalk and
>something from APH can play the NLS content, as well as, obviously,
>NLS's own player.
>
>If you want the NLS player, it is free to US citizens, so it's
>obviously the cheapest route. The NLS provided player is available in
>two versions: standard or advanced. The standard player is loosely
>analogous to the old EZ Cassette player - you simply insert a book and
>it plays it, and there's minimal control over navigation aside from a
>simple rewind and fast forward key. The advanced player on the other
>hand features extra navigation and information keys to allow you to
>navigate the book's DAISY structure, and also can set bookmarks in the
>book for easy return to important passages.
>
>Once you have a capable NLS player, you can either receive your books
>from the NLS on their new digital cartridges (which are simply
>read-only USB flash drives in a modified casing) or you can download
>books anytime you like from the NLS's "BARD" website. You can then
>load your downloaded books on to either a standard USB flash drive
>(the kind available at any electronics store or department store), or
>you can purchase a cartridge that is identical to the NLS shipping
>cartridges except it is read-write and blank, so you can put the books
>you desire on the cartridge.  The player has a USB flash drive port on
>the side, so if the idea of a flash drive sticking out the side of the
>player bothers you at all, you'll want to go for the cartridge.  I
>ordered my cartridge from APH, and it was $12 for a 2GB cartridge. You
>also need a USB cable; these are sold by ILA, but if you already have
>a USB extension cable it *may* work, depending on the style of the
>connector on it.
>
>Downloading books will require high speed internet, as books run about
>10MB per hour of audio, so a 6 hour book will be about 60MB, which
>even on a 56K connection would take all night long, and downloading
>the larger 200MB+ books would become infeasible.
>
>(A bit of trivia: So far, the largest and longest book on the NLS site
>is Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. It's 90 hours 14
>minutes long, and the download is 942MB in size!)
>
>In either case, downloading from BARD is free and it's available 24/7.
>So far, nobody has reported any sort of limits of any kind on the
>number of books you can download. (Friends of mine have downloaded
>over 100 books in a few days without any problems.) You can also get
>all of the NLS produced audio magazines on BARD, usually even sooner
>than the cassette versions ship.
>
>As for RFB&D, as I understand it, it is possible to authorize an NLS
>player to play RFB&D titles. The authorization key (which usually
>comes in a special file called a KXO file) can be obtained from RFB&D
>and allows their AudioPlus DAISY content to be played on the NLS
>player. The popular portable players (Victor Reader Stream and
>BookSense) can also play RFB&D content. AFAIK, there's a yearly limit
>on AudioPlus DAISY downloads of something like 50 titles a year. You
>can download unlimited WMA encrypted content, but this can't (legally)
>be converted for playback on anything but a computer with Windows
>Media Player.
>
>The NLS player can also play MP3 files stored on flash drives or the
>cartridges. This lets you play back any CD book copied to MP3 files,
>or even play music if desired.
>
>Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions you may have.
>
>FM
>
>On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Mike Gilmore <m_b_gilmore at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Good morning everybody.
> >
> > I just found this listserv on NFB's web site yesterday and became 
> excited about it. When it comes to digital talking books, I know as 
> much about them as I do about who'll be in the 2010 World Series 
> and win it (which is to say nothing.)
> >
> > I currently receive my books from NLS in either cassette or 
> braille; however, I noticed as I search NLS's web site for authors 
> or books that a lot of them are digital downloads or web braille. I 
> know that this is a DTB listerserv; however, does anyone know what 
> web braille books from NLS is and how to access them?
> >
> > As far as DTB's, my question is the same thing. I tried to 
> investigate how to receive them from NLS; but, one needs a player 
> and there's seven listed. I also noticed that RFB&D switched all of 
> their stuff to digital stuff. So, what's the best DTB player (the 
> NLS one, etc.?) How does one get digital books from NLS? Downloading? Ordering?
> >
> > I hope to make the switch in the near future because I'm afraid 
> that NLS will start to offer more DTB's and junk the cassettes very 
> soon. I'm especially worried about the older books only on cassette 
> that aren't on DTB and if they'll conver them or what.
> >
> > Sorry for all this rambling! Thanks for all your help and for reading this!
> >
> > Mike