Native CBR/CBZ reading?

[joehempel]

Can Nook HD or HD+ read CBR or CBZ files natively?

The only app I want outside of stock is Comic Rack to read those. But if these can read those files OOB, then I don't even need it.


Thanks!!

 

[someone0]

I very don't think it will natively. And BTW, I very like to use Perfect Viewer better than Comic Rack. And I think it support CBR also. Although I never tried it. I perfer the customization UI and the way it works.

 

[joehempel]

Thanks a lot I didn't think that it would. Unless perfect viewer has made some drastic changes I'm going to stick with ComicRack I enjoy using that much more over the perfect viewer.

 

[Taosaur]

The stock reader handles CBZ just fine but not CBR (.rar requires licensing), and there are also piles of comics available via the B&N store and/or stock apps. I was pretty impressed with the OOBE on the HD+. I never would have bought it if I didn't know I could get Google Play on there, but once I had it I realized I could have gotten along pretty well unrooted.

Do you have any input on why you prefer ComicRack to Perfect Viewer, btw? My experience w/ CR on the PC is pretty similar to Calibre; it feels like using a front-end loader to plant a flower, or often enough like piloting "the entity" from South Park. All of the 'features' get in the way of actually using the thing, and CR more than Calibre is prone to hanging and just takes ages to do anything with my big collection. Pretty much its only advantage over CDisplay + folders is the web comics templates.

Nevertheless, I'm contemplating giving the Android app another go just for the syncing and library management aspect, because there's no way I can keep even a significant fraction of my collection on the device.

 

[joehempel]

The stock reader handles CBZ just fine but not CBR (.rar requires licensing), and there are also piles of comics available via the B&N store and/or stock apps. I was pretty impressed with the OOBE on the HD+. I never would have bought it if I didn't know I could get Google Play on there, but once I had it I realized I could have gotten along pretty well unrooted.

Do you have any input on why you prefer ComicRack to Perfect Viewer, btw? My experience w/ CR on the PC is pretty similar to Calibre; it feels like using a front-end loader to plant a flower, or often enough like piloting "the entity" from South Park. All of the 'features' get in the way of actually using the thing, and CR more than Calibre is prone to hanging and just takes ages to do anything with my big collection. Pretty much its only advantage over CDisplay + folders is the web comics templates.

Nevertheless, I'm contemplating giving the Android app another go just for the syncing and library management aspect, because there's no way I can keep even a significant fraction of my collection on the device.

Well that's awesome then, because I can just rename the cbr to cbz and be just fine!

I like Comic Rack because of the front end interface and how it handles the individual comics, it also seems faster than PV alot of the time for me.

I use Comic Rack on my PC as well, but I tend to read them on my Nook Color more than my PC.

 

[someone0]

Nevertheless, I'm contemplating giving the Android app another go just for the syncing and library management aspect, because there's no way I can keep even a significant fraction of my collection on the device.

Sound like you need help putting your collection to other ppl HDD.
You can get multiple 64GB microSD card and just keep swaping them?

 

[Taosaur]

Sound like you need help putting your collection to other ppl HDD.
You can get multiple 64GB microSD card and just keep swaping them?

Nah, it's more a matter of not having to plug in and move folders around all the time or, alternately, taking up a big chunk of my SD w/ comics. But again, I'm still conflicted on whether CR on the PC is 'smart' enough and performs well enough to be a better solution than just keeping stuff organized in folders. One argument in CR's favor is that MTP is godawful slow on my machine--in fact, I'd probably be better off moving files over WiFi.

All this is fresh in my mind because I'm simultaneously reinstalling everything in Windows on a new SSD and loading up a new 64GB microSD for the HD+ (which is also still being set up to some extent) AND trying to figure out how I'll set up the old NC for my sister and with what card and data. Oh yeah, and I'm setting up a new PC I just built for my mom

It's awesome--I do like all these tech projects, but it has me re-evaluating a lot of my apps and methods, trying to make everything play nice together.

 

[someone0]

How about something like Seagate Satellite external HDD? You could have like a mobile wifi HDD sharing. I think it come w/500GB HDD but I think there is a hack to put bigger HDD in there.

 

[Taosaur]

More likely I'll return to the status quo of keeping around 8GB of comics on a card and adding new stuff manually, though I do want to give CR a try. Calibre seemed like more trouble than it was worth for a long time, too, but now that I've got the hang of it and have done most of the grunt work to get my collection organized, it's a powerful tool. Enough people are crazy about ComicRack that it must be good for something.

ETA: Calibre can also handle CBR/Z files, so that's also a possibility if I want to get some chocolate in my peanut butter, but I think I'm better off keeping ebooks and ecomics separate.

 

[pcg73]

Perfect viewer works awesome for me, but I'll have to give comic rack a try. I was only keeping maybe half a gig of comics on my 8gb card in the nook color. This bigger screen and higher res is much nicer so far for some of the small text. Heck its most of the reason I upgraded. Man CM10 is nice on the nook color. LOL I threadjacked myself.

 

[Taosaur]

I like Comic Rack because of the front end interface and how it handles the individual comics, it also seems faster than PV alot of the time for me.

Do you mean page turns are faster? I'm testing them side by side on both the Nook Color and the Nook HD+, and there is a noticeable pause between touch and pageturn in Comic Rack, whereas in Perfect Viewer it's basically instantaneous. From fresh installs on a (currently) CM7 Nook Color, Comic Rack did have my library loaded pretty much instantly and automatically whereas PV had to be pointed to the folder and then did a lengthy scan. From then on, though, PV just beats the pants off CR for loading times and page turns.

It's all moot if you're planning to use the stock reader, but I figured I'd do the side-by-side since both devices were handy.

I just played around with the HD+ stock reader some more, and it's a little weird; the first CBZ I tried last week originally appeared under My Files in the Library app, but ended up shelved under Magazines after I'd opened it. I just tried loading several issues from a series to see if they'd be listed as a series under Magazines, but they didn't get added to the Magazine shelf. They show up in the Recent carousel, but to get at them via the Library I'd still have to go through My Files. The only change I've made was to change the folder name from /ext_sdcard/Books to /ext_sdcard/Comics. I'll mess around some more and report back.

ETA: Somehow the comic I opened last week ended up in /sdcard/My Files/Magazines, and as such shows up under Magazines in the Library. Some CBZs do have some odd artifacting at the bottom of the page, like the bottom few pixels were smeared down the page.

 

[joehempel]

excellent!

Thank you for testing this all out!

I like the fact that it puts in under magazines and separates them from books, so that's good.

I think maybe I'm going to sideload Comic Rack though if possible to use it.

I'll look at PV again, but I kind of like the animations between the pages lol. I dunno, I like the fine coat of polish and extras away from reading I guess.

 

[someone0]

Is the Comic Rack support SMB? Because Perfect Viewer does, I like to have all my media app support networking.
I also like how I could either use PV looking at stuff on the Nook as Bookshelf, or just browse the file like an image viewer off anywhere.

 

[tomemyboard]

CBZ Double spread problem on nook hd+

Have you encountered compressed cbz page (when using nook hd+'s native reader)? Most common on my comics where a splash action scene occupies 2 pages. Once I convert it to cbz, nook hd+ shows the combined page into one screen. Twisting the nook to landscape does not fix the compressed image.

Any (verified) solutions out there besides physically splitting the splash scene (via photo editor) into two images (two pages)?