Just bought a new e270 for my wife to listen to audio books. Unfortunately I didn’t get the v2 model so I have spent a lot of time trying to get a book from audible.com onto the device. Now it tells me the book is on the device but I can’t find it anywhere. I have looked in every menu and submenu but I can’t find it. Please help. Thanks in advance.
The v1 e270 unfortunately is not very Audible-friendly. But look first in the Audiobooks list and if it’s not there, check and see if there’s an ‘Unknown’ listing anywhere. The player will list it as unknown if it cannot read the ID3 tags of the file(s).
If your wife wants a serious audio book player, there are better choices out there. Even the newer Sansa models have upgraded firmware to handles audiobooks much easier. Your e270 is 2-3 year-old technology, and while it plays music very well, it’s weak on audio books.
Sadly, the e270 cannot play Audible .aa format files. I was fortunate to find an e280 version-2 through the Sansa Store, as compatibility with the format was a must.
There are two simple ways to play your Audible books (I have gone both routes, since I’m into tinkering). The simplest is to use a Clip or Clip+ for your audiobooks, since they’re inexpensive and very portable. The e270 can be used solely for music, saving your space. But, if you’re like I am, the e200 is better to carry about- and you can expand with 2GB microSD cards
Using the Audible Manager, you can save your purchased audiobooks in archive form by burning them to CD. The Roxio software I have (from an ancient but reliable TEAC CD writer) allows archiving to the hard drive as an image file in .cda (CD audio) format, avoiding the “hard copy” on CD. This CD can then be “ripped”’ to wma or mp3 format for transfer to the e270.
I like using low bit rates like 64kbps, or even 32, for voice recordings- these are smaller, and you can store plenty of books on your Sansa. At the lower bit rates, I wholeheartedly recommend using windows media audio , since at low bit rates, it’s notably superior in audio clarity. Yes, I know some will disagree, but wma is great for audio books, and Windows Media Player works fine for that.
Audible used to bundle (there was a trial version) Nero with the Audible Manager, making “burn to CD” a simple one click operation. It is a really good idea to archive your Audible books on CD for reference anyway.
When transcribing your books using WiMP, there’s one little problem involving the CD track data: the database used for ripping is well populated with popular music CD releases, but not audiobooks, I have discovered.
If the track numbers and descriprions are not entered properly, enjoying a book is about as fun as browsing the Yellow Pages. A handy utility to edit and correct the ID3 tags (that the sansa uses to catalog your books and music) is MP3Tag , available free via download.
The version-1 e200 lacks the proper audio codec to decode Audible format; the proprietary format can be decoded by the v2 players, as well as all of the newer generation Sansas. I like the e200, as it speaks Audible Format 3, much more compact than the Formats 4 and Enhanced that the new players require.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
