Support eBooks and Other File Formats

[ceinj]

For sync purposes only it would be great to copy certain file formats from the PC to a device like iPhone, etc.

[MtWoll]

I think the MediaMonkey-Team would miss great market-chance, if they would not start to support eBooks asap. At viewtopic.php?f=11&t=43436&p=267355#p267355 there is already a small discussion about that. I would like to see as many eBook-Features that are offered by http://calibre-ebook.com inside MediaMonkey. If Calibre would start to integrate music-handling, and would manage it to get near to the state of MediaMonkey in doing this, I would completely switch to them. But because the name is not "MusicMonkey" I hope, something will happen soon in the development of my still favorite tool...

[SimonG]

I started a topic like this trying to get an add on going a year or two ago, and got no response. I love Media Monkey, and I would pay to see it handle e-books in the same manner that it handles music. Even if you create "Book Monkey" or some other program, it's worth the cost to me. Like MtWoll, I've been watching Calibre. The two biggest features that I like in Calibre are it's ability to convert between ebook formats using plug-ins, and the way that it treats the concept of a "book", even though that book may exist in multiple formats and multiple files. I can't and won't use Calibre until it respects my directory structure though. This would be the thing that a "Book Monkey" app could bring to the table, including the ability to auto-organize the structure, and the great interface.

Thanks,
Simon

[Peke]

Simon,
Regarding e-Books and more general file formats (except audio and video as of MM 4.0) I would suggest you "Whereisit" as must have app.

[mtwoll]

I also made a "Feature request" at Calibre ( http://bugs.calibre-ebook.com/ticket/2206#comment:6 ) but they don't want to change their main disadvantage against MediaMonkey (beside that one is for books the other for music): Calibre has a really inflexible file-management: You are forced to let it transfer all your eBook-Files in a given structure: So Calibre says nothing else than they will let MediaMonkey much room for a competitive product. They also give us the advice to go for "eBookMonkey".

Looking at the feature-poll that trends to go to 50:50: : Don't only ask your existing users about a new feature: Most of them are fans of MediaMonkey because of their music-collection. Only a few of them have also an eBook-collection to organize. But if you look at the success of Calibre, you see that there a millions of non-users that would need a product, that connects the advantages of MediaMonkey and Calibre: I would pay the same price as for MediaMonkey for such a product ( "eBookMonkey" ) and an additional fee to have both products ( "eBookMonkey" and "MusicMonkey" ) in one.

[mtwoll]

Simon,
Regarding e-Books and more general file formats (except audio and video as of MM 4.0) I would suggest you "Whereisit" as must have app.

Thank you for the advice! I tested "WhereIsIt" and there are some nice features MediaMonkey and Calibre don't have, specially the very useful handling of "offline files" (Files on servers, CDs, DVDs, HDs you are actually not connected with). But "WhereIsIt" is far away from being a replacement for both. Some reasons:
1. "WhereIsIt" doesn't handle the Media-Information in Field-Structures (or I did not find out how to do it: It handles lot's of different Media with flexible PlugIns, but most the extracted Information is stored together in a single text-field as I understood it, whereas MediaMonkey has lot's of music-related fields and Calibre allows the user to create as many user-defined fields as he wants),
2. "WhereIsIt" has nor reordering-file-management like MediaMonkey
3. and worst: "WhereIsIt" is not helpful to consume, transfer and convert media: I understood that it is meant to be only a "dead achieve" not a media-handling software like the other.

You need all three (Calibre, MediaMonkey an WereIsIt) to have all advantages and in my opinion "WhereIsIt" is the one that I could do without most easy. Perhaps I didn't invest enough time to find out all advantages of "WhereIsIt", but I think I found out enough to see that there are elemental gaps against Calibre an MediaMonkey: So two tools for media are more than enough, but three are not acceptable for me.

[Lowlander]

I have a large eBook collection, but wouldn't want to have any development resources wasted on a solution from MediaMonkey to manage them. There is still so much that can be done on just the audio front of things, and now with video coming so much more on that front to, that I prefer energy is diverted to that instead of adding eBook support. Asking current customers is perfectly fine as they have a vested interest in the program (be it paid or free) and thus should be listened to when it comes to any future developments. You don't want to have the core product neglected while engaging in other ventures and with the competition still being so much larger there is much to be done in the core product to gain a better competitive advantage.

PS. Offline files are handled in MediaMonkey, the VirtualCD can be used for CD/DVD's and network shares/portable drives would only need to be connected for scanning to get them in the library (and playback although the VirtualCD can also solve this).

[Peke]

mtwoll,
100% right, that was the reasons I started to use MM back in 2003. But in the end all three apps are specialized in its own ways.

[BlindBob]

Looking at the rapid ( exponential... ) growth of the ebook market, the mediamonkey interface would be the ideal solution, and surely a significant marketing opportunity, whether as a separate application or within the existing mediamonkey application. Seems to me to be a unique moment to increase MM market share several fold as the ebook market burgeons, and leveraging existing architeture a time-to-market would stifle any competition. (e)BookMonkey would also get my vote as a stand alone separatlely priced product.

[dr_snuggles]

would be a nice addition organizing other filetypes.
its nicer having a stable and quick audio/videoapp than all in one ressource-waste-suite though.
so imo definately no native support.

[ripndip]

Looking at the rapid ( exponential... ) growth of the ebook market, the mediamonkey interface would be the ideal solution, and surely a significant marketing opportunity, whether as a separate application or within the existing mediamonkey application. Seems to me to be a unique moment to increase MM market share several fold as the ebook market burgeons, and leveraging existing architeture a time-to-market would stifle any competition. (e)BookMonkey would also get my vote as a stand alone separatlely priced product.

I agree the market is growing faster than mp3s and rightfully so. Kindle and Calibre arent cutting it. Before finding this thread I started and found these.

As I stated,

I notice options>general>os integration does not allow options for document types. However, has anyone written a script or would there be an easy way to recognize these files? I love how I can organize with MM but I have not found an ebook manager that allows "autotag from filename: web etc", which is one of the best features.

I think this would be easier than the video feature you incorporated. We don't need to see the open documents/photos in MM, just be able to see the file & tag info so we can organize how we see fit. Especially use the autotag from filename feature.

Great INFO guys keep wishing for this feature keep this thread ALIVE!!!

[nonob]

Hi,

(Here is my similar post: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=65765 )

I don't use ebooks but i have several others files i would like to sync to my sansa clip+(.talk .jpg .nfo)

My music files are well structured on my pc so i use this sync setting: \<folder:-3>\<file name>

It seems to be not hard to add support to just copy others files (not use metadata in a first time) that are in the same directory that mp3 files synchronizing..

Today i use MM to sync my mp3 to my potable device sansa clip+, then i use another software (explorer..) to copy others files..

How others users do ? Do they use another software too ? in addition to MM or in replacement for sync ?

Thanks

[RandomOracle]

I'd really like this as well, although I've tried Calibre and have grown to enjoy it quite a bit.