v3 vs. v3+ as a pdf/DjVu reader

[hedonism_bot]

Hi,
after reading threads in here for quite a while, a few things still aren't clear to me, so I hope one of you can help with my decision of which version to buy. I mainly want to read scientific papers on it, most of which come in two-column pdfs. From what I've read so far, I believe that, depending on the type of pdf file, either a conversion to djvu and using tigran's viewer or the reflow option of the built-in pdf viewer would be perfect for this job.

Therefore I'd like to know if it is possible to use tigran's djvu viewer on the v3+. The thread on the jotas+ firmware mod in here made me think so, but in the spanish thread linked in there, it seems like this is only true for the v5.

My first answer to that would have been no, since there is no SDK yet available for the v3+, but then again, neither is one for the v5 as far as i know. Can someone please explain this situation?

My main problem is that I like the idea of having a big choice of open source software available for a device, but choosing th v3, I would be paying more for a device with slower CPU, less memory and less grayscales.
So my main question is: Is there any hope of seeing an SDK and user generated alternate viewers for the v3+ in the near future? And if so, can I use the programs included at the moment as a temporary solution until something better is available or are they as bad when it comes to zooming pdfs as the old reviews of the v3 suggest?
And, on the other hand: how big a difference do the faster CPU and the different display controller really make?

I hope you can clear things up for me.
-hedonism_bot

[teemac]

I can comment on the last part of your post about the newer v3+.

I purchased a v3 early last year (2009 - ECOReader) and it was OK - a bit slow on page turns and limited somewhat to 4gb and some 8gb SDHC cards. Several other peculiarities, probably caused by the slow cpu and low ram, made it a bother to use sometimes but still usable once you worked out what to do and the special sequences needed to operate properly.

About a month ago I bought the new v3+ (again an ECOReader) and the difference was pretty dramatic.

The new reader has taken any 16GB SDHC card I have stuck in it with no problems. Page turns used to be wait until you were starting to read the last line on screen and then press forward. By the time you got to the end of the line the page would turn. With the new one (v3+) I have to wait until the last word before hitting forward or else I miss part of the line and have to go back.

Battery life seems to be a lot better with the latest firmware (v3asetup.2.02AU.100722.TTS.zip - July 2010 version) which has not had any freezes at all. The old ECOReader v3 firmware seemed to be always locking etc, so I changed to Tirwals Firmware which solved most problems - you still had to be careful not to turn pages too quickly or it would lockup.

The new v3+ was only A$199.00 against the older v3 last year A$450.00 - also a whole range of non-DRM formats available as standard - as well as DRM if you really want to go that way.

A really big price drop and better performance is great on the v3+. I only want a reader to read eBooks - not interested in wifi, games etc.

As an eBook reader, the newer ECOReader v3+ does the job magnificently.

[hedonism_bot]

Thanks for your answer, teemac - although it just makes the decision more difficult (I was on the brink of just getting the v3 and stop caring about CPU speed).
I read contradicting statements about the zoom function in the available firmware of the v3+, so could you please tell me if there is a zoom & pan function for pdf or djvu at all or if it's still just three zoom levels with fixed positions of the viewed area?

To be more specific: Would it be possible to read a file like, eg this one (with or without conversion to djvu) comfortably using the current firmware?

[teemac]

I downloaded your file and changed the extension to .pdf for the ECOReader (v3+) to read it. Not sure what extension it should be for dejavu as I never use it. The ECOReader does have dejavu listed as one of the formats it will read however.

Using standard ECOReader v3+ firmware as noted above, the file then read ok - eg: all text including formulae on page 2 showed OK as well as the graphic in grey shades (if using graphics a lot the grey shade count can be set in main menu to auto - 4 - 16 shades). The graphic will only zoom out to fill the width of the screen after it passes it's optimum width no matter what zoom level you use. eg: the graphic looks the same in zoom levels 3 to 8, but is proportionately smaller on 1 & 2. This is where pan would be useful, as I said I can't find info for pan on the ECOReader but that doesn't mean it doesn't have it. Most of my technical docs etc don't have a lot of large GFX.

The zoom on the v3+ is 8 levels from very small (full a4 shown) to ridiculously large (4 or 5 letters to the screen page) so plenty of options. I don't know if 'pan' is available as I don't use it - the zoom function is 'word wrap' style - font made larger and words flowed onto next line. Zoom size on screen also depends on how large the font on the original document and what size the page was originally - a3, a4 etc

Zoom is accessed by repeated presses on the number 8 key to increase level by single steps which eventually cycles back to ultralow or you can go direct to a zoom level menu by pressing 'OK' then select 'zoom' from the menu that appears, then select level of zoom from one of eight items on the next menu that appears.

Hope the above helps, I'm usually online every couple of days for any further help I can possibly give.

EDIT - On the v3+ you can rotate the page to landscape mode and this will then allow the graphic to zoom out to the new maximum width making it easier to view.

[hedonism_bot]

Thanks once again - so pdfs containing regular text should be ok. What I'm still afraid of is pdfs of scanned files that contain the text as images - this is what I would use djvu for. It would be great if you could test the following two files (just two random djvu's I found on the web having similar layouts to the files I'd like to read):
http://www.vincent-net.com/luc/paper...ewPrivacy.djvu
http://www.celartem.com/en/djvu_file.../djvuspec.djvu

[teemac]

I tried both using the ECOReader native dejavu viewer.

As these are scanned images (basically a picture) they will only zoom out to the max width in landscape - text only just readable if you have VERY good eyes - I could just read it with my glasses on. On the 3rd press of the number 8 button (zoom) it auto rotated to landscape by itself and would not zoom any further. As I said before any GFX in a document will only zoom to maximum width in landscape and the document will refuse to go to a higher zoom mode.

This is what 'pan' would fix, but I haven't been able to find any reference to pan yet - will post back if I do.

EDIT: there is a plugin at Sourceforge for the v3 which has full 'pan & scan'. It sounds exactly what is needed, but I don't know if it works on the v3+ and it also needs to be compiled and only has 32bit linux info (I use 64bit LinuxMint) and haven't a clue how to compile - again, never needed to do it. Link follows:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdjvu/files/

EDIT2: found an old post (last item on page link below) from one of the members saying he had precompiled firmware for v3 with pan & scan - but download link is dead - maybe you could PM him. Link follows:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41791

[hedonism_bot]

Thanks - this is what I feared. The djvu reader you linked is the one I talked about in the original post - it seems it has been installed on the v5 but I can't find any information about the v3+. This is what confused me, because I thought writing customized software for both devices was a problem because of the proprietary drivers for the display controller - but maybe I got that wrong.

[teemac]

Sorry I can't help any more than that. The V3, V3ext & V3+ have dropped out of most peoples options because they only read ebooks.

The newer style of ereaders (kindle, ipad etc) have all the new fancy gadgets such as wifi, 10 inch screens etc and have captured most of the market. Therefore few people write code for the v3's anymore.

The 6inch v3's suit me exactly for just ereading. I have numerous computers that do all the other stuff.

Hope you find what you are looking for.