Hi,
does this player also allow listening to streaming of radio on the net?
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Chaltain
To: 'PC Audio Discussion List'
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 12:25 PM
Subject: RE: Audiobooks, where to get them for free?
Thanks for the information Steve. I did think it was funny that after the
author said they wouldn't clutter up the list with a discussion on why
Audible uses DRM they then went into some pretty silly analogies involving
chairs, burgers, tables and so on.
--
Christopher
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Steve Pattison
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2010 6:50 PM
To: Access L; CUG Members; VIP-L
Cc: PC Audio
Subject: Fwd: Audiobooks, where to get them for free?
From: David [email protected]
To: WE English mailing list [email protected]
The below mesage was found on the mailing list, of the all accessible media
player MaPlEr. Although it refers to certain features of MaPlEr, I guess
most of the info might be of interest to the users on this list as well, no
matter what player you are currently using.
In case, you have not yet checked it out, give the newest version (v1.15) of
MaPlEr a try. It has features, that you won't find in any other software,
and best of all, it is build by and for blind users, so you will never have
to worry accessibility conflicts. You will find it at:
http://mar-dy.com/MaPlEr/MaPlEr.php
Enjoy!
----- Original Message -----
As you all might have noticed, MaPlEr is equipped with a number of
features, specially taylored for reading audiobooks. The 'bookmarking'
capability, just to mention one. Then we have stuff like the speed and
pitch adjustment. And, you might also have noticed a couple of choices
under the Special menu, and wondered, what they are for. I here have in
mind, the 'skip at beginning', and 'skip at the end' features. They were
specially designed, due to user request, and with reading audiobooks in
mind. Yet, Personally, I have found them particularly useful, when trying
to edit certain parts of music, of which, I'd rather be back with more
info, in a later email.
Getting audiobooks in an electronic format, might not always be too easily
achieved. The only place on the net, that I know of, which offers a bigger
selection for sale, would be Audible. You might right away be familiar
with that site, and in such a case, you know that it is delivering its
contents in a specially COPYRIGHTED format - the Audible format (having
the .A extension to its files). Audible has quite strict copyright rules,
and even when comes to hardware players, only a VERY FEW players on the
market, do have the capablility to play Audible books. So, asking the
Mar-Dy team, to ever implement Audible playback in their software, would
be something close to 'in vain'. Although I don't want to clutter this
list with a long discussion on why, and why not, Audible does it this way,
I still want to point it out, so that users will know, why this will not
come true, until the day, Audible would change their scheme. And, after
all, how many people would ever buy any books, if they were only allowed
to read them in a particular branded chair. Or, how often would you be
eating burgers, if you only were allowed doing so, if you sit at a given
table, listening to one particular song, and eating within a predefined
time frame. Well, you see, there is not too much reasons for offering
Audible any more space, as an alternative in this mail.
My heading, though, did state, where to get audiobooks. And, even for
FREE. I will point you to a few places, that offers such material, fully
legal. The selection on all of these sites are ever growing. Due to the
copyright rules, and the fact they are offering the material for free, it
tends to be older books. But, it is a nice way, of getting your hands on
the good old classics, and keep them all legally in yor library. And, with
MaPlEr, you can even build one playlist for each book, which in practical
life means, you can read as many books you want in parallel, and simply
always refind your last read spot, in each and everyone of them. Yet
another of those useful features, that the Mar-Dy team has been kind
enough to implement, and which is quite beneficial.
The biggest - and fastest growing - place to find the free audiobooks,
would be at Librivox.org.
Librivox, is getting their material from volunteers, all over the globe.
In other words, you will listen to a book, all read by a real human. Yet,
you will encounter all kinds of Flavored English. One small drawback,
would be that one and same book, might have its different parts - or
chapters - read by different persons. Well enough, you won't get tired, by
listening to the same voice for hours. Yet, just when you have got used to
the way of reading of one narrator, here the next chapter comes, and that
with another voice, and somehow different style. On the other hand, you
get your ears on material, that you might not have heard before - or at
least, not for many years - and all of that in a modern-day version and
recording. Be aware, that the different chapters might have been recorded
at different levels, which means you will have to adjust the volume
slightly from one section to the other. Note: the new MEI (Mardy Extended
Information) feature, found under the File menu in V1.15, is specially
handy here. IF you have trouble in figuring how to use it, let us know,
and we will be glad to edducate you on that one.
One big benefit of Librivox, is their offering the books in two ways.
Either you can browse their library, and download the books you want. They
all come as zip files, and usually ain't too big. With a good highspeed
connection, you will be able to download several books in a short time.
Yet, even with a dial-up connection, you won't be spending too much time,
in getting your hands on the goodies. The other alternative, is to
subscribe to their Podcast. All you then need to do, is to keep an eye on
your podcast folder, and enjoy the new stuff. Yet, this alternative, gives
you little control on what you will get, since you will get, what they
decide to publish through the podcast. Try, and find which alternative you
will like the best.
The other place to go, for getting your hands on free audiobooks, would be
at
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Audio_Books_Project
This is a sub-department of the EBook website of Gutenberg.org, a nice
place, if you want to download the book in plain text. The audiobooks
found here, comes in two flavors:
1. HUMAN READINGS. The books in this section, are - as the term says -
read by volunteer humans. Some of the same applies here, as with the
Librivox books. In fact, some of the books found here, are actual links
from the Librivox site.
2. COMPUTER GENERATED AUDIOBOOKS. Again, the term might say it all. These
books have been run through a Text-To-Speech softwre (so-called TTS), and
recorded. For all screen reader users, you will have your feelings, when
finding that same Eloquence voice, that you know all too well from your
computer, sitting and reading good old books aloud for you. Yet, it is an
alternative, and might just be the right thing, in given cases. I have
tried it, and it is fully workable, to read a book by use of electronic
voice. Besides, some libraries for the blind, around the globe, do offer
certain material in electronic voiced versions; so you might already be
familiar with this flavor of narrator.
All-in-all, this is one place to check for your favorites.
The third alternative, that I want to point you to, would be the
AudiobooksForFree.com website. The biggest benefits of this site, is
actually numbering into no less than three:
1. They offer you a FREE version of their books.
2. You can decide to buy the book, and get it in a better sound quality.
3. The whole book would be read by ONE, real person; all through.
The free version of the book, is recorded at 8khz. For the ones of you,
who do not know what this means, it simply means a rather bad recording
quality. Hardly the way you want to read a thousand pages. Yet, if you
only want to read a short story, or if you want to know a bit more of the
story before buying the book, you might find this alternative simply
perfect. With the right adjustment on the new equalizer of MaPlEr, you
might even find it bearable for quite a while, to read these books; in the
free version.
The moement you find, that this is a book you REALLY want, you can decide
to buy it. It will come as a downloadable, and you have the chance of
choosing which quality you want. The higher sound quality, the higher the
price. Yet, the most expensive one, which is CD quality, would only cost
you a few dollars for each book; no matter the length of the book. The
prices range from 5 to 8 dollars, for the whole book, depending on the
actual sound quality. But even if you decide to go for the most expensive
one; where else would you get a CD quality book, read in a professional
manner, by a real human, for as little as 8 US dollars? And, if you want
it pre-burned on a CD, and mailed to you, you get the choice to do so, for
only USD $15; still a fair enough price.
One further feature of the AudiobooksForFree company, is that they offer
for you, to buy the complete selection, right away. For only USD $100, you
get ten DVD disks, shipped right in your mailbox, holding the whole
selection, all sorted.You will have something like 30GB or more, of
audiobooks; litterally holding a library of hundreds of books.
The readers of AudiobooksForFree, are GOOD readers. You will find the same
quality in reading, as you are familiar with, from your Library for the
blind, locally. In given cases, I would say, the reader is even doing a
WONDERFUL job, giving the text its full attributes. Although you might end
up spending a few dollars on the project, I do claim this alternative the
very best, if you are really looking for building your audiobook
collection.
Of course, you would have other choices, to get your hands on good
audiobooks. Itunes, do offer a sellection, and it still is fair enough
pricing; although you would have to look a bit deeper into your wallet,
than what is the case with the books from the sites mentioned above. And,
you could always browse EBay, find books on CDs, and rip them into a set
of MP3 files, that you can play with MaPlEr.
Lastly, I want to point you to the nextup.com website. Although NextUp
does not provide audiobooks, they provide the software TextAloud. This is
a TTS (Text-To-Speech). This means, you can load a textfile - or a set of
textfiles, into the editor of the software. You then choose the voice from
the selection installed on your computer, and can have the whole text
recordeed with that voice, in one big, or several smaller MP3 files; all
saved onto your hard disk, or hardware mp3 player. And, WOOPSY! you have
your own produced audiobook. NextUp, is well aware of screen reader users,
and their software is all accessible. It is shareware, giving you the
chance of testing it for free for 15 days, fully functional. If you decide
you like it, it is less than USD $30, to buy.
CONCLUSION:
On both Librivox, and AudiobooksForFree, you are welcomed to send requests
for books, that you would like to find in the collection, but which are
not yet available. These requests will be put on the wishlist, and
somewhere down the stream, you might realize they have been recorded, and
made available.
From both these sites, you will find the books having one anoying
drawback. Each file - meaning every chapter usually - starts with an
introductory phrase. On AudiobooksForFree, this phrase is usually just
about 7 seconds in duration. From the Librivox site, you will find the
files having a phrase of approximately 18 seconds. Reading a book like
Robinson Crusoe, with no less than 58 files, from AudiobooksForFree, will
at least ensure one thing: You know that introductory phrase by heart.
This was the very outspring, for the 'skip at beginning' feature, found
under the Special menu in MaPlEr. Simply choose this feature, set it to
7seconds, and your AudobooksForFree book, will read all through, omitting
all these bothersome introductories. And, since the Mar-Dy team developed
this feature, they included the 'skip at the end' feature, in same token.
Useful, if your audiobooks come with the phrase at the end of each file -
which would be more rare.
Although the selection on the above mentioned websites is usually of an
older date, you will surely find stuff that might interest you.
Personally, I found it specially helpful, in increasing my English skills,
since I could get my hands on good narrated English literature, and could
hear the pronunciation; a benefit that people who buy the paper version of
the book do not have. It was fun, to read some of the books from my
childhood over again, this time in English. At least at the Librivox page,
you will also find given material in other languages; and I do hold, this
is the case on Gutenberg's site as well (although that is taken from my
slippery memory). I do encourage each audiobook lover out there, to browse
the above mentioned websites, and see for themselves. Most truely, you
will find, that neither of them fully meet your expectations, but taken
all into consideration, they will fill-in each other, leaving you with a
rather good library.
Finally, if you want a hard copy of an audiobook - new release, or older
stuff - on tape, CD or MP3 CD, the website at:
http://www.audiobookbargains.co.uk/index.asp
will be a good place to search. They are fairly priced, and although not
complete, will give you a good selection of more modern-day literature.
I hope this mail - although being rather long - has proven beneficial and
helpful for some of you, who love to listen to audiobooks. And, if you
are a lover of good radio series, and wonder where to find them for a fair
price, I could encourage you to have a look at EBay. Or, write me off
list, and I might be able to point you to given websites. True, for all
this material, you can do a Yahoo! or Google search, entering phrases like
Audiobook free download
Be aware though, that there is sites out there, offering illegal copies of
such material, as well as with music files. Always read carefully the site
terms, and make an informed decision, before downloading any material,
whatso ever. Some sites might also be offering you material for free, then
bombarding your computer with all kinds of spyware and other malicious
software. The sites I have mentioned, should be safe, and that will leave
you with the most pleasant experience. They ar legal, and unless your
local authorities would happen to have special laws, should be safe in
that manner as well. Hope for you to enjoy the books found there, and that
this mail will have helped you to enjoy the features of MaPlEr even the
more. You might start to realize, what a powerful tool, MaPlEr has grown
into, through the years.
Regards Steve
Email: [email protected]
MSN Messenger: [email protected]
Skype: steve1963
Twitter: steve9782
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