Help my blind teen. I'm "mp3 illiterate",audio books,Rockbox, etc.

[sslawlor]

First I would like to say "thank you" to the creators of what appears to be a wonderful web site.
I  have a daughter who is blind, and from the treatments she recieved to her brain to fight eye cancer she is also now developmentally disabled.
She LOVES books! She gets the tapes from the Library of Congress through the Talking Books program. They are now going digital, and have made new players with easy to use "plug in like cassettes" that hold the data.. BUT she is now riding a bus for the disabled 3 hours a day to get to her programs..It was suggested I get her an MP3.
What I need to know is: Should I buy the Sandisk Fuse 4G- (its cheaper than the 8G, and since it says it takes SD cards..), and put RockBx on it. OR buy the set up from Accessible Electronics? www.talkingmp3players.com ?
I am NOT teck savy and money is a real issue for us. I need to do this as inexpensively as I can. I DONT UNDERSTAND what I am buying so any help would be appreciated. Id like to set this up for her for X-mas. Oh.How would I download Dbooks from the library onto this?
Thank you very much for your help.
Susan


_{SOAP EDIT:  Fixed broken link.}

[Chronon]

The cheapest would be to purchase a supported player and install Rockbox yourself.  I picked up a used Sansa C250 for my daughter on eBay for about $12.  The main page http://www.rockbox.org has a complete list of supported players.

The manual, which you can find by clicking the link at the left side of the screen, has instructions on how to install Rockbox. 

Players running Rockbox should just appear as an external storage device so you can simply "drag and drop" to get files onto them.

[HankB]

I've been using Rockbox on Sandisk MP3 players including the e280, Fuze, Clip and most recently Clip+. One of the things I like about Rockbox is that It will go through a directory and then jump to the next directory. You can set it up with a sequence of directories that it will play in sequence for as long as the battery holds up. You can do things like naming directories 00-dir, 01-dir, ... 99-dir to manage the sequence. (With this numbering, the <dir> part of the name doesn't even matter.) Further, if you add or remove files, Rockbox will continue with the sequence if possible. My recollection for the Sansa firmware was that it would loose it's place any time you added or removed a file and it would only play through a single directory and then go silent.

One wrinkle with Rockbox is that it does not play files that include DRM to the best of my knowledge. If you get files that include DRM, you will need some way to convert them to a non-DRM format before Rockbox can play them. My listening is all podcasts or MP3/OGG rips from CDs that I own so DRM is not an issue.

There is also a setting that will cause the player to resume playing when it is powered on. If your daughter fiddles with it and manages to stop playing, she can get it going again by turning the player off and on again.

HTH,
hank

[sslawlor]

Thank you both for your help. So I buy the Sansa, then come to this site and get rock box. Will someone help  me through how to connect  it and set it up for her, then help me learn how to get the books onto it too???

I feel so at a loss with this technology. Felt that way the first time I went on the web too...but caught on OK. New stuff ( to me)like this just  rattles me. I know its silly, but it does.
The more of this site I read, the more nervous I get. I flunked French twice in high school, so new languages are not my forte'! This IS SURELY a different language. .
Thanks, Susan 
PS. What is a DRM file? Do audio books use that? Feel like a pre schooler here.

[Chronon]

Susan,

We will do our best to answer any questions that you have.  However, if you really feel put-off by the prospect of installing Rockbox for yourself then perhaps the players offered by the website that you linked are worth it to you.  Money is not the only consideration when making a purchase.  Time (and effort) may also factor into the decision.  It may be that it is worth it for you to pay more for a player with Rockbox pre-installed, but only you can decide that.

You can read the installation chapter of the manual, which should give you a good idea of what is required for installation. 
http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansafuze/rockbox-buildch2.html#x4-60002

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management.  Commonly this takes the form of encryption applied to files to require playback only by approved methods.  Certain audiobooks seem to use some form of this, so be aware that these won't work in Rockbox.

[soap]

I'm trying to do my best to research the LoC's new digital Talking Books in order to properly determine if Rockbox will work for you, but I'm not finding many specifics on the program.  Do you have a link to some specific details?

EDIT:
Looking at this image I found: 
http://www.loc.gov/nls/businessplan/images/machine.jpg
the books are not on standard SD cards, which makes sense because they are not just for the blind, but also the physically handicapped and thus are ergonomically designed for people with limited dexterity.  I do not believe many would consider the microSD cards used by the Sandisk brand players to be ergonomically suited for these qualifications.

While Rockbox does run on players which support SD cards (IF that is what the LoC is distributing on) I don't believe any of them would be appropriate for your intended use.

So, in summary I feel based on what limited information I found that Rockbox is likely an inappropriate choice for your specific needs. I am willing to work with you to find out otherwise, I just need more info.

EDIT 2:
The more I read the more I think we likely have two needs here.

1 - I don't know who recommended a mp3 player for your daughter, but I'm now 99% sure that no mp3 player will ever be able to play the Library of Congresses digital Talking Books.  Perhaps it was recommended for some different material?  If so getting Rockbox straight from the source, us, is clearly going to be less expensive than getting it from talkingmp3players.com.  (We're free, if a bit cranky at times.) It will just take some dedication (time) on your part to familiarize yourself with the wide number of options. 

2 - It appears that the Library of Congress Digital Talking Books program is designed around dedicated players, and may still only be in the prototype stage.  So IF you decide that the mp3 player recommendation is one you'd like to follow I think you're talking about two devices to buy, not one.

[sslawlor]

Dear Soap,
I just sent a e-mail to the LoC's web site. Lets see what they answer.
I will keep in touch and let you know. Who would have thought that this would be so hard to do. Then again it may not BE hard...Just my ignorance.
The Lib.Of Congress claims to have something like a 1/4 million books available for the blind and handicapped that can be downloaded FREE. That is my ultimate goal. To use these free books on  the MP3.
This page is the closest I found with details about their USB cassettes.

http://www.loc.gov/nls/technical/flashdistribution.html

Thank you for your time and answer,

Susan

EDIT : Yes there are two issues here. We already have the new digital machine that is sent by the LoC. It is sent at no charge.
A friend of ours has an I-Pod, and using I tunes downloaded a CD version of a book to her computer and then to the I-Pod. It worked, so since I can not afford a expensive I-Pod, I went looking for another  brand. I JUST found out that an I-Pod IS an MP3. Thus the Sansa and the Rockbox...for the speach....which was reccommended by a web site that deals with the blind and accessibility to technology. Thanks, Susan

[saratoga]

Google says LOC DTBs are encrypted and can only be decoded by the hardware distributed by the LOC.  I don't think you need to buy anything.  They should give you the player with the data.  You won't be able to decode it any other way. 

Edit:  Ok then so long as you're aware that LOC DTBs can never be played on an mp3 player. 

[soap]

A quick reply, as hopefully you'll see it before logging out:

Ask the LoC directly if there is any DRM (Digital Rights Management) on the 1/4 million books they have available for download.

Also ask them what format the files are in.

Rockbox can not support DRM'd files.  
If we support whatever format they offer, we're likely one of the best solutions to that need.

[TexasRockbox]

Hello,

My wife uses the Library Of Congress Digital Talking Book.  The "cartridge" is a USB flash drive formatted FAT32, with an enhanced housing to assist the blind.

Books are downloadable by authorized users.  The book is a standard zip file.

When unzipped, the extracted audio files are of the .3gp extension and other files to help with indexing.

I believe the files use DRM developed by DAISY: http://www.daisy.org/about_us

In any event, the files are not playable on my computer except for an .mp3 and a .3gp file labeled "protected".  I think the LOC player can play standard, non-protected .mp3.  The player is bulky with large buttons and very rugged construction.  While inconvenient, the player is portable and can be recharged.  The built in battery seems to last a *very* long time.

I think the files are playable on computer by a downloaded program from the Library Of Congress and, of course, the LOC player, itself.

The reason why these books are encrypted are because of copyright concerns.  The library is able to provide these books for free because copyright owners have been assured these books (many are recent publications) will not be generally distributed.  The older tape system used a half-speed recorded cassette with a nonstandard head arrangement.

I wish I had better news.

Best regards,

TexasRockbox