No official support for audio books

[poxtomod]

I think one of the Zunes shortcomings is lack of support for Audible.com's audiobook format and audiobooks in general. I would agree many people out there probably would scoff at the idea of listening to a book over reading it, but if you have a long commute or have to travel long distances you would probably find these to be acceptable, if not enjoyable. Microsoft more than likely avaoided support for these formats, and others over this supposed lack of consumer interest.

Yet all is not lost. If one has the desire they will find what they are looking for. Bittorrent sites and other file sharing sites can usually be found with MP3 Audiobooks. While I am not endorsing "stealing" artists work, many sites offer classic works that regular ".COM" sites offer for free. If these are offered for free at one place, they should be free everywhere right? Yes.

[reddeth]

So what are you asking? The moral question of taking a audiobook off a bittorent site just because its free there? Or if MS will eventually support the format?

I doubt it.

Granted, the Zune to start off with has fairly limited format support to start of with. But if the format is one only used by Audible.com or a few other sites, shame on them for making an offbeat format when MP3 or MP4 works fine.

[poxtomod]

Unfortunately the reason that the "Audible.com" has a proprietry format is to secure their rights to their poroduct. They are a business and all businesses must protect the service and product which they sell. It is actually much simpler for Microsoft to adopt their codec, over offering plain Mp3 files to customers, which could then be uploaded onto the internet for no purchase by others.

I guess I didnt cleary state what I meant by "other .com" sites, Freeclassicbooks.com, is what I meant and others like it. You can freely download these books because they have given up their intellectual property rights, or more to the point there is no true owner. This site offers mp3 files as well.
ex. Lewis Carroll, H.G. Wells , Jack London, W. Irving, Mark Twain

I also have to add that I wasn't legitimizizing stealing audiobooks, but for sure many people do this already, but utilizing "bittorrent" because of its speed ability as a download system. And I will state again if "Freeclasicbooks.com" can give away Mark twain then wouldn't it be right to assume that the i.p. rights have been relinquised. If you can go to a bookstore and find that many publishing house are issueing the same book titles this sometimes verifies that assumption.

[reddeth]

Unfortunately the reason that the "Audible.com" has a proprietry format is to secure their rights to their poroduct. They are a business and all businesses must protect the service and product which they sell. It is actually much simpler for Microsoft to adopt their codec, over offering plain Mp3 files to customers, which could then be uploaded onto the internet for no purchase by others.

Yeah, but its not that simple. Microsoft would have to pay royalties to Audible to use their proprietary format. Considering that the format seems to be used for a single purpose and its customer base while large on an individual scale would probably be rather small in the grand scheme of things. It would cost more for MS to license the format than its worth, I would bet.

[poxtomod]

Actually it would be in Audible.coms interest to allow Zune to utilize its codecs for free. Microsoft probably wanted it in the beginning but refused to pay these royalties in the hope that Audible would recognize that growing market share for the Zune was good business for Audible.com. Audible.com is a service after all which would stand to gain more in the end than Microsoft would. More devices that can utilize Audible.com codecs mean more revenue in their pockets.

I believe that Audible.com offers a newspaper subscription as well to clientele for free, don't remember which, but I would love that. Audiobook prices seem to be similar to paperback prices, which seems a little high.

[dhaynie]

this Freeclassicbooks.com does not exist, or at least is not active at the moment...

[ptath2]

Originally Posted by reddeth

Yeah, but its not that simple. Microsoft would have to pay royalties to Audible to use their proprietary format. Considering that the format seems to be used for a single purpose and its customer base while large on an individual scale would probably be rather small in the grand scheme of things. It would cost more for MS to license the format than its worth, I would bet.

Microsoft already deals with Audible in other areas, I believe it is one of the Stores with in WMP, and they added support to play the files in WMP, I can't believe it would be difficult to extend that to Zune. Then if they did that then MS would have to add bookmark capabilities, so far the zune is the only player that doesn't offer bookmarks and most are on board with audible.

[poxtomod]

the Zune bookmarks video.

When I wrote the post initially I gave Freeclassicbooks.com as an example, it worked then but now? try searching google or other search providers. Or bittorrent like I do.

[ptath2]

True it does bookmark video, and I have heard of a work around where someone took their audiobook and converted it to a video file, but that is just not worth it as almost every player out there has audio bookmarking and support for Audible.com files.

[PGP_Protector]

I've got about 10G in Audible books and would love it if My zune would use them.