Wyoming Medical Center

DTB2iPod

DTB2iPod

The dtb2iPod script is used to combine all of the audio files into a single mp3 file and upload it to your iPod or other MP3 player. It is assumed that the Daisy DTB mp3 files are named in such a way that they will come together in order. Daisy DTB produced by DaisyMaker2 and Bookshare2Audio software from text files will be named in this way. Other Daisy DTB may be this way as well. Daisy DTB mp3 files produced by Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic are not in page order and this script will not work for them.

Requirements

DTB2iPod requires that you have the perl language (Windows users see ActiveState Perl) installed on your computer. Most version of Linux and MacOSX have perl installed by default. You will also need to install the MP3::Info perl module as well. The lame audio encoder is required.

If you would like to use this program to poduce files in iPod audiobooks format (.m4b) you will also need to have ffmpeg for MacOS see ffmpegX or download it here. This option can be disabled by editing the script.

  1. Copy all the files of your book to a directroy on your hard disk drive.
  2. Run the dtb2iPod script with a command line of your audio book's ncc.html or .ncx file. This script will take a very long time to run even on a fast computer. When it is finished you will have a single mp3 file named with the first 30 letters of your book's title.
  3. Import this file to iTunes. Remeber to mark it bookmarkable so you can return to your place in the file as you read it.
  4. Import this file to your iPod.

The book will appear under its name in the Songs menu of your iPod. You can now use your iPod to hear the book being read to you. All of your iPod's controls will work with your book.

One problem that I have encountered is being able to bookmark where you are in a particular book and then return to that location. A partial solution to this problem can be obtained by using Selected Tracks Bookmarkable script. In the long run however the addition of Daisy navigation into the iPod would be a far better solution. Also as it stands now the iPod is not navigable by the blind as it is unable to announce its menus.

If you would like to contact the author please email Gregory Kearney

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