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

Sun Mar 7 22:56:35 UTC 2010

The female connector needs to have its "shield" removed.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lynn Evans" <evans-lynn at comcast.net>
To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] new to the list and DTB's

> 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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