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

Sun Mar 7 19:46:59 UTC 2010

The cable needs to be a male connector at one end and a female connector at 
the other.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 1:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] new to the list and DTB's

> 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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>
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