• maxprime@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    What is the difference between an audiobook and an audio epub? Does the latter contain both text and audio? Are they synced somehow?

    • LaggyKar@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      ePub is basically just a limited HTML page in a zip file (plus a bunch of metadata and CSS styles), and ePub 3 can contain audio and video elements embedded in the text, just like a webpage. With the most basic usage, it would just show up as an audio player in the middle of the text, no sync. But there is also a media overlay thing I haven’t looked much into that looks like it provides sync.

    • netwren@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Can you give a specific reason?

      I feel that I’m usually more upset that apps choose electron and I have performance issue because they didn’t spend time writing a proper lightweight desktop application. I feel like Calibre is actually one of those apps.

      I could see portability across devices being useful but is the Calibre interface really going to be conducive for that?

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        All the other services I have running are on a server in my closet, which I access with a web browser from other devices. Calibre needing to run on my workstation is a big shift in that workflow. Especially because all the rest of my media is sitting on that server.

        Also, UX of open source desktop apps is… lacking. They don’t look good, and they don’t feel good to use. But that might be because I’m picky and spoiled by decades of using a Mac.

        I definitely don’t want more Electron apps. About the only things I want to run locally is a browser, a text editor, and a terminal.

        • netwren@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          That’s fair but I think one of the most critical features of Calibre for me is interfacing with my e-reader over USB to download/upload my epubs. I don’t know how that would work from a Browser app.

    • aperson@beehaw.org
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      7 months ago

      So you want an entirely different app then. The desktop app would have to be completely rewritten.

    • donio@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I would like the ability to do a CLI-only build since I only really use the ebook-convert command. Never felt the need to “manage” my ebooks.

      • KickMeElmo@sopuli.xyz
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        7 months ago

        While it isn’t a perfect solution, you can run calibre-server and only close it to open the GUI when you need to convert.

        • donio@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Yeah, I ended up doing something similar but using my own Dockerfile where I specified ebook-convert as the entry point.

      • Pantherina@feddit.de
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        7 months ago

        Solved?

        You can use Podman too, if that would be a problem.

        Look at StirlingPDF if you want an example how to run OR are interested in a great web-UI PDF editor based off various open sourc tools, in a single interface

        • jodanlime@midwest.social
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          7 months ago

          There was somebody on the Linux reddit with a self hostable ebook app just a week or so. It looked slick but wasn’t really that useful for me. Might be worth a look.