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

Sun Mar 7 18:06:39 UTC 2010

You can buy a USB cable (it's part of an adaptor kit to interface with 
various digital cameras) that works with NLS or the blank cartridges 
mentioned below from Radio Shack. tIt isn't cheap but works like a champ.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Flint Million" <fmillion at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] new to the list and DTB's

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
>
>
>
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