Audiobooks

 

Has anyone experimented with creating an Audiobook with M4B extension and trying in on the 760? If you put the file on the SD card, do you need to create a directory for Audiobooks?

Great subject..

coflyertx wrote:

Has anyone experimented with creating an Audiobook with M4B extension and trying in on the 760? If you put the file on the SD card, do you need to create a directory for Audiobooks?

I love to listen to books. I download them from the public library and then convert them to mp3 files. It works. but with a book you should be able to apply bookmarks. If I listen to them on my computer I can use book marks, I miss that feature on my 760.

The way I load them thay appear as music files...

I have switch ( arrow http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index_b.html ) so I may try a little experimenting... shock

--
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

But what about DRM

All the books I have downloaded have DRM and cannot be converted to MP3's. Since my StreetPilot only plays MP3 files, I am out of luck unless somebody knows something I don't.

My stand-alone MP3 player handles non-mp3 files fine and I can record the books on them -- but I would like the convenience of playing through the Garmin. Any suggestions?

MP3 books...

I'd be interested in some more discussion about this....I'd love to have more books to listen to!

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Nuvi 660

Check Out

davidkknox wrote:

All the books I have downloaded have DRM and cannot be converted to MP3's. Since my StreetPilot only plays MP3 files, I am out of luck unless somebody knows something I don't.

My stand-alone MP3 player handles non-mp3 files fine and I can record the books on them -- but I would like the convenience of playing through the Garmin. Any suggestions?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15509

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Nuvi 660 -- and not upgrading it or maps until Garmin fixes long-standing bugs/problems, and get maps to where they are much more current, AND corrected on a more timely basis when advised of mistakes.

How I TRIED to made an audio book mp3 file play on a nuvi 760

I wondered how audible.com imported their books to the nuvi. I went to garmin.audible.com and found they have a 30 day trial period and you can down load three books of your choosing and then discontinue the service if you desire. Well what the heck I can find three books in their list. So I joined. I downloaded three books and after down loading them a few times I finally found that I, being a windows media player user had to specify that I wanted to download them to windows media player, otherwise it was down loading them to iTunes and I couldn’t figure out how to make iTunes recognize my nuvi…. (Windows media player did)

Well to make a long story shorter, I after loading a book into my nuvi, I discovered it had made a folder called “music” and installed the book in a folder with the authors name, and in that was a folder(s) with the books name (part 1 & 2 each had there own folder) in that folder was the actual books file “booksname.aa”

In my research I found that I could convert mp3 files to aac files with iTunes.

Using the following procedure with iTunes 7.7.0.43, I opened iTunes and clicked on: Edit>Preferences>Advanced>importing, Import Using: AAC Encoder , Setting :Spoken Podcast. After doing that I imported the mp3 book file into iTunes. I then right clicked on the file and selected “convert selected file to aac”. .. I changed the file type from .mp4a to .aa. I then copied the folder into the “music” folder on my nuvi 760….

It walks, it talks it, it wriggles on it’s belly like a reptile, but it doesn’t show up with the other books…. Not even close, no cigar... sad

But I did get 3 free books... mrgreen

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It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

?

Am I understanding correctly that your objective was to have the book show up as a book instead of a song? If you treat the mp3 book as a song and just drag it to the Nuvi, it works great, just look under music folders. But, I'm guessing you know that.

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Nuvi 660 -- and not upgrading it or maps until Garmin fixes long-standing bugs/problems, and get maps to where they are much more current, AND corrected on a more timely basis when advised of mistakes.

Yes that was my objective...

bentbiker wrote:

Am I understanding correctly that your objective was to have the book show up as a book instead of a song? If you treat the mp3 book as a song and just drag it to the Nuvi, it works great, just look under music folders. But, I'm guessing you know that.

I want to use the bookmark feature...

--
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

.

The .AA format is proprietary. The only way to get it is to purchase audio books from Audible. Otherwise you just need to create your own bookmarks by breaking the book up into segments.

I have just begun to think that..

and now you have confirmed it... confused

Thanks...

BTW I wouldn't have been satisfied without trying...

--
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

conversion

I did some of the same process between converting MP3 to (M4A and ACC and M4B) and then copying each to 760 and trying it. All to no avail. I think I am resigned to the library loan program.

Free Books!

Cool. Glad to hear I can get 3 free downloads via the Garmin link. I'll do that. When moving my daughter from Montana to California last week (groan......) I found a card for 3 free downloads from Audible as well. I don't want to push my luck so I'll use that one under my wife's name. wink

I listen to books on the way to and from work all the time. I've been getting free books from places like librivox.org but they are in mp3 format and sometimes have multiple readers - some of which aren't very good. At least they are broken up into many files so I can pause at the end of one and it works "sort of" like a bookmark.

Listening to books while commuting has been one of the really great features of the 760 for me.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

I've been an Audible member

I've been an Audible member for years. For the Nuvi, you need to install AudibleManager (explained somewhere on their devices page) on your PC and let it load the books onto the Nuvi. Format 3 seems to work best. No tedious conversions necessary. Bookmarks work fine. When a navigation prompt interrupts the book, it backs up a few seconds when it restarts.

The downloaded books also install in iTunes, so they can also get loaded onto an iPod for when you are away from the gps.

It is actually quite easy once you get everything set up correctly.

Mike

Problems with Audible and Bookmarks

I downloaded the audible manager and installed it. I got 3 free books. The first one worked great. The second one is giving me fits. I'm now getting file errors when I load the book and it says "no book selected" it plays fine but I can't make bookmarks. This is an 11 hour long book! I can't re-start the dang thing every time. This is making me crazy.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

Problems with Audible and Bookmarks

I would delete it and load it again using audible manager. It is probably a bad file. I have used audible with 2 different nuvis with no problems.

For other formats, i have used mps files and they play ok, just don't have the bookmark feature. If you just hit pause it will keep your place but you can't go back to it if you load another mp3 file.

Been there, done that...

mgreen2 wrote:

I would delete it and load it again using audible manager. It is probably a bad file. I have used audible with 2 different nuvis with no problems.

For other formats, i have used mps files and they play ok, just don't have the bookmark feature. If you just hit pause it will keep your place but you can't go back to it if you load another mp3 file.

I've deleted it twice and reloaded it using audible manager twice. Same thing. Tonight when I get home I'm going to re-format the freaking SD card and see if that helps. I'm pretty frustrated at the moment.

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

reformatting an sd card won't help..

thrak wrote:
mgreen2 wrote:

I would delete it and load it again using audible manager. It is probably a bad file. I have used audible with 2 different nuvis with no problems.

For other formats, i have used mps files and they play ok, just don't have the bookmark feature. If you just hit pause it will keep your place but you can't go back to it if you load another mp3 file.

I've deleted it twice and reloaded it using audible manager twice. Same thing. Tonight when I get home I'm going to re-format the freaking SD card and see if that helps. I'm pretty frustrated at the moment.

You may have a bad download from audible, try downloading it again...

--
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

How did you determine the format to use?

mhsmith wrote:

I've been an Audible member for years. For the Nuvi, you need to install AudibleManager (explained somewhere on their devices page) on your PC and let it load the books onto the Nuvi. Format 3 seems to work best. No tedious conversions necessary. Bookmarks work fine. When a navigation prompt interrupts the book, it backs up a few seconds when it restarts.

The downloaded books also install in iTunes, so they can also get loaded onto an iPod for when you are away from the gps.

It is actually quite easy once you get everything set up correctly.

Mike

I found no FAQ on Audible.com explaining the differences in the format, so when the choice came up and Format 4 was already in the spot, I left it.
It recognized putting the downloads into Windows Media Player and not iTunes-whatever, but then when it sent it to my Nuvi 880, they failed to show up with the trial book chapters already there.Those were in the unit's memory, in Media/Audible folder. I found an EMPTY folder named "audible" on the microSDHC card, and then one named "Music" which had the MP3 songs I'd copied there last night. It did not have a Media folder.

I figured (probably wrongly) that I should keep the memory files and the microSDHC files parallel or structured exactly alike. But when Audible.com sent the books to my unit, they did not appear. I copied/pasted the files from my computer to that folder on the microSDHC card, and the information about the files shows up when I browse for books. However, they will not load the information or play the books.

Should I download the books again and get Format 3 this time?

And how do you get THREE FREE BOOKS? It did not mention anything about that on Audible.com.

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"Making tracks..." {:)-<=| Nuvi 880

Thrak says....

"I've deleted it twice and reloaded it using audible manager twice. Same thing. Tonight when I get home I'm going to re-format the freaking SD card and see if that helps. I'm pretty frustrated at the moment."

Thrak...
Please let us know if the reformat does the trick.
I did not reformat my new 8g microSDHC card, just put some MP3s on it last night and now 3 Audible.com books.

If it is a problem that I need to do something about, sooner is better than later.

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"Making tracks..." {:)-<=| Nuvi 880

Audible Books

used it regularly for the past 2 years without problem......

Interestingly I was just on teh Garmin site and doing my regular update maintenance and noticed that one of the download patches mentions resolving a conflict/error with audible books locking up. I know it is not your exact problem but it could be a solution.....just a thought.

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Tom

Their customer service could help you...

thrak wrote:

I downloaded the audible manager and installed it. I got 3 free books. The first one worked great. The second one is giving me fits. I'm now getting file errors when I load the book and it says "no book selected" it plays fine but I can't make bookmarks. This is an 11 hour long book! I can't re-start the dang thing every time. This is making me crazy.

I had a problem that they were quite helpful in helping me with...

--
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

Fixed it

I reformatted the card (FAT 32) and then replaced the books using Audible Manager. It worked. I had to re-do my mp3 files, poi files etc. but it was well worth it to have things work properly.

If you have an issue like this do NOT just copy the stuff off of the card and reformat it and then copy the stuff back. I tried that and it didn't work. Something was corrupted in the original files on the card. By re-formatting and putting FRESH copies of the music, books, poi files, etc. I got everything working like it did before.

I was quite happy listening to my book on the way to work this morning and being able to bookmark it when I got to the office. smile

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GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S

My Audible Books now found by the 880

thrak wrote:

I reformatted the card (FAT 32) and then replaced the books using Audible Manager. It worked. I had to re-do my mp3 files, poi files etc. but it was well worth it to have things work properly.

If you have an issue like this do NOT just copy the stuff off of the card and reformat it and then copy the stuff back. I tried that and it didn't work. Something was corrupted in the original files on the card. By re-formatting and putting FRESH copies of the music, books, poi files, etc. I got everything working like it did before.

I was quite happy listening to my book on the way to work this morning and being able to bookmark it when I got to the office. smile

I think I better do a reformat right now, before I have too much on the card to lose and reload. I did get the books I thought I'd put on the microSDHC card re-downloaded. This time they went into the proper "Audible" file folder. The samples on the original memory location, showed up too. I deleted the copies of the books which wound up in the Media/Audible folder location. My 880 wants to find the books in a first level spot, same level as the Garmin folder and Media folder where the music resides.

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"Making tracks..." {:)-<=| Nuvi 880

converting to mp3

I had the same problem and after some searching and tweaking, I found that Notecable is a program that converts the formats to mp3
Hope that this helps...it worked for me

Call Audible's customer service

thrak wrote:

I downloaded the audible manager and installed it. I got 3 free books. The first one worked great. The second one is giving me fits. I'm now getting file errors when I load the book and it says "no book selected" it plays fine but I can't make bookmarks. This is an 11 hour long book! I can't re-start the dang thing every time. This is making me crazy.

I just ran across this post, and it is months later. But for folks having issues with an Audible download or getting it to work, I highly recommend calling their customer service. They fixed an issue for me which was fairly simple if I'd known what I was doing, but I didn't want to mess up anything after having my previous Nuvi 880 replaced. With the refurbished unit Garmin sent me, that particular unit had to be "activated" to make it work, even though they do not record serial numbers in your customer file at Audible. I write this in case someone else faces this situation.

I too love to listen to audio books. My favorite happens to be Frank McCourt's reading of his book ANGELA'S ASHES.

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"Making tracks..." {:)-<=| Nuvi 880

proprietary audible.com book files

Someone has got to find a way around the whole "getting audio books exclusively from audible.com" thing. Any takers? I know we can get mp.3 files, but they show up as music files, so, no bookmarks.

.

It's a a proprietary format. There's no "getting around it".

another source...

This site has thousands of audio books for free in mp3 format. They are all read by volunteers and are public domain. You can find almost any great classic and much more...

http://librivox.org/

* Librivox is a non-commercial, non-profit and ad-free project
* Librivox donates its recordings to the public domain
* Librivox is powered by volunteers
* Librivox maintains a loose and open structure
* Librivox welcomes all volunteers from across the globe, in all languages