4 ms·

I love it in principle but, considering how small most books are relatively to storage space offered by modern devices, even mobile ones, what is the upside of

by blfr 9y ago

I love it in principle but, considering how small most books are relatively to storage space offered by modern devices, even mobile ones, what is the upside of storing content centrally instead of just carrying a copy with you?

criddell 9y ago
You know how everybody shares their tv and movie collections with Plex? I suspect this is a way of doing the same thing with books.
- blfr 9y ago
  Yeah, I get that this is what they're aiming for but home server with Plex is justified by the massive size a video and even music collections can reach.
  - criddell 9y ago
    I think a lot more people share their music and video collections than their book collections despite the file size differences. Maybe it's because there isn't a book-Plex?
    - pigeons 9y ago
      I've never heard of plex except in eve online context, but people have been sharing calibre content server links for many years
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      Maybe it's because music and video can be easily consumed during the duration of a visit, whereas books take much longer? "Check out what I have on the server" makes sense for music and much less sense for books.
  - roywiggins 9y ago
    Plex can also transcode, which is more important if your video is on a bunch of different formats that might not have hardware support on all your devices.
jarman 9y ago
>As a result, you do not need to install any dedicated book reading/management apps on your phone
adwf 9y ago
You still need to remember to sync your new books to your local device at some point. This lets you do it anywhere/anytime, thus avoiding the scenario of leaving for holiday and forgetting entirely.
Santosh83 9y ago
Many of my ebooks are anywhere from 50 to 350 Mb. That adds up when you want to load many of them. The downside of course is that you need a good Net connection, unless the Calibre Content Server can be configured to do some kind of 'trimming', while serving the ebooks over the wire. Also a content server mitigates you having to manage and synchronise your ebooks in multiple places. You only need to manage one library. Although I guess any sync application can work just as well for this.
- walterbell 9y ago
  Why are your ebooks so large?
  - Santosh83 9y ago
    They contain a lot of colour images and diagrams. Books on biology and art. Granted other topics including fiction are usually in the ballpark of a few megabytes.
    - breakingcups 9y ago
      Kilobytes even
- roryisok 9y ago
  Since it's browser based you won't be loading 350mb, you'll be loading one page at a time.
nirav72 9y ago
Not all ebooks are small. Especially when they're in PDF. I have some that are upwards of 20-30 mb.
ytjohn 9y ago
I used to COPS on my nas. I would add books using calibre, stored on the nas, and served up via COPS. Many apps (I used FBReader) have OPDS capabilities. This is a sort of online catalog which your reader can browse, search, and download books from. I almost never used the online reading feature, but did utilize the catalog concept quite a bit, especially when switching devices. I had a rooted Nook that had both FBReader and Kindle reader installed, giving me a sort of "best of three worlds" reader. I did have to "page sync" manually. I would do this by memorizing a sentence or phrase on one device and then search for it on the other device. https://github.com/seblucas/cops https://github.com/seblucas/cops https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/OPDS https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/OPDS
washadjeffmad 9y ago
I use raspis to host a local calibre service to share collaborative materials and resources in office, at home to share media with guests ("hey, take a look at this magazine article/graphic novel/campaign"), and for when I want to make available format shifted content and documents through libreoffice headless (not everyone wants pdf/mobi/docx/etc). I can also throw up another instance to serve to specific groups, like relatives or kids, so they can download and network print deemed safe content like crosswords or recipes. You can probably see why I wouldn't want that on my phone all at once.
michaelmrose 9y ago
I have 11gb of books and less than 11gb free on my device. Although I don't use the content server I do use calibre companion to wirelessly connect and sync select books based on author or tag. Even if I were syncing the entire library calibre is a nice way to manage metadata and sync and calibre companion is a nice search interface. Also a single central location + backup ensures that your books are unlikely to be lost.

by blfr 9y ago

criddell 9y ago

You know how everybody shares their tv and movie collections with Plex? I suspect this is a way of doing the same thing with books.

blfr 9y ago
Yeah, I get that this is what they're aiming for but home server with Plex is justified by the massive size a video and even music collections can reach.
- criddell 9y ago
  I think a lot more people share their music and video collections than their book collections despite the file size differences. Maybe it's because there isn't a book-Plex?
  - pigeons 9y ago
    I've never heard of plex except in eve online context, but people have been sharing calibre content server links for many years
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    Maybe it's because music and video can be easily consumed during the duration of a visit, whereas books take much longer? "Check out what I have on the server" makes sense for music and much less sense for books.
- roywiggins 9y ago
  Plex can also transcode, which is more important if your video is on a bunch of different formats that might not have hardware support on all your devices.

jarman 9y ago

>As a result, you do not need to install any dedicated book reading/management apps on your phone

adwf 9y ago

You still need to remember to sync your new books to your local device at some point. This lets you do it anywhere/anytime, thus avoiding the scenario of leaving for holiday and forgetting entirely.

Santosh83 9y ago

Many of my ebooks are anywhere from 50 to 350 Mb. That adds up when you want to load many of them. The downside of course is that you need a good Net connection, unless the Calibre Content Server can be configured to do some kind of 'trimming', while serving the ebooks over the wire. Also a content server mitigates you having to manage and synchronise your ebooks in multiple places. You only need to manage one library. Although I guess any sync application can work just as well for this.

walterbell 9y ago
Why are your ebooks so large?
- Santosh83 9y ago
  They contain a lot of colour images and diagrams. Books on biology and art. Granted other topics including fiction are usually in the ballpark of a few megabytes.
  - breakingcups 9y ago
    Kilobytes even
roryisok 9y ago
Since it's browser based you won't be loading 350mb, you'll be loading one page at a time.

nirav72 9y ago

Not all ebooks are small. Especially when they're in PDF. I have some that are upwards of 20-30 mb.

ytjohn 9y ago

I used to COPS on my nas. I would add books using calibre, stored on the nas, and served up via COPS. Many apps (I used FBReader) have OPDS capabilities. This is a sort of online catalog which your reader can browse, search, and download books from. I almost never used the online reading feature, but did utilize the catalog concept quite a bit, especially when switching devices. I had a rooted Nook that had both FBReader and Kindle reader installed, giving me a sort of "best of three worlds" reader. I did have to "page sync" manually. I would do this by memorizing a sentence or phrase on one device and then search for it on the other device. https://github.com/seblucas/cops https://github.com/seblucas/cops https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/OPDS https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/OPDS

washadjeffmad 9y ago

I use raspis to host a local calibre service to share collaborative materials and resources in office, at home to share media with guests ("hey, take a look at this magazine article/graphic novel/campaign"), and for when I want to make available format shifted content and documents through libreoffice headless (not everyone wants pdf/mobi/docx/etc). I can also throw up another instance to serve to specific groups, like relatives or kids, so they can download and network print deemed safe content like crosswords or recipes. You can probably see why I wouldn't want that on my phone all at once.

michaelmrose 9y ago

I have 11gb of books and less than 11gb free on my device. Although I don't use the content server I do use calibre companion to wirelessly connect and sync select books based on author or tag. Even if I were syncing the entire library calibre is a nice way to manage metadata and sync and calibre companion is a nice search interface. Also a single central location + backup ensures that your books are unlikely to be lost.