[Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?

[James McCarthy]

I believe that the cartridges are simply a USB drive encased in a plastic
case. I imagine they are custom made by someone who contracts with NLS to do
so. NLS states that few single books are larger than 1 gb so they have no
need to use larger USB devices in their cartridges. Conversely, those of us
who use BARD or find other ways to download books on cartridges we purchase
want more storage space. I think that the biggest driver is cost and I know
that NLS expects 1 and 2 gb USB devices to become hard to find in the
future. This would mean that if the price for larger USB drives goes down
and it is practical to include larger ones in the cartridges, that is
probably what we will be offered in the future. As for SD cards, they will
not fit in the cartridges or connect in any way to the player, though there
are SD to USB adapters that will plug in the USB connection on the side of
the DTB player and they work for playing NLS materials on an SD card. There
is some increased risk that these devices could be broken though if hit when
carrying the player with one connected.
Jim McCarthy
-----Original Message-----
From: dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Eric SS
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 1:31 PM
To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] The Physical Cartridges themselves?

Paul, good question. It would be interesting.

I was just wondering why the blank cartridges we can buy are limited to 1 or
2GB. Also, why couldn't there be an empty cartridge so that we could insert
an SD card of whatever capacity.

Curious minds keep us from getting work done...

Eric SS


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