Category: Geeks r Us
Hi all,
I have a victor stream that up until yesterday had not given me any trouble whatsoever. It started when I went to read a book and when I turned it on it gave me a media error 3. Usually it starts working again after a few minutes, but it never did. Then this morning when I turned it on, the title of the book that I was reading was announced, but when I pressed play, it made that beeping sound that indicates that it's playing, and then it made the sound again. I went to browse through my books, but when I went to do that, it read the number of the book, but it didn't announce the title. When I pressed the play button, it kept saying book error repeatedly until I shut it off. A few minutes ago I turned it on. It said welcome to victor reader, made the sound that indicated that the Sd card was in and said please wait. This normally isn't a problem because the book title is announced a second later, but in this instance it kept saying please wait repeatedly and didn't announce any book title at all. The stream I have is an older model. it's one of the 303 models that came out before the new one. I've had my stream for four years and as I said, it had never failed me up until yesterday. what I'm wondering is was there something I've done wrong, or is it just on its last legs? Also, how can I make it work again. thanks,
Leslie
Try deleting the book and coppying it back on to the card or maybe format the card and start over.
It's not saying any of my book titles. I just turned it on a minute ago and it did a media error 3 again, then it said please wait repeatedly
This is an interesting turn of events
I went to format the Sd card with the victor reader. Everything went well up until it said press star to confirm or pound to cancel. It didn't do anything. it just said confirm. I went to do it in humanware companion and things went well until I put the card into the victor again. It started to throe media error 3's at me again and I couldn't do anything. I'm not sure what to do next. I know I could always call humanware to get this straightened out, but I figured I'd ask other people before I go directly to them. thanks,
Leslie
I hate to say this, but it may be time for a new one. You can always call Humanware, and they may suggest some things you haven't tried yet, but I'm guessing you may as well start saving your money now for a new one.
try to hold down the number 1 and the play button. Hold it and count to 15. then wait for it to restart. This is how you reboot it.
Have you tried a different card, just for kicks? It does sound like it's on its way out though, I'm really sorry to say. I just bought myself a brand new version of the old models because I played with a second-generation stream and didn't like it very much. I do hope you sort this out.
The other thing you could try is updating the stream (assuming it's not already up-to-date) just to replace the firmware if there are any bugs.
Hi all,
First of all, thanks for your help. It was very much appreciated. I tried everything you've suggested. Sadly, nothing has worked. I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it's on its way out. Now with that being said, I am going to try and save up my money for a new reader. I've seen the bookSense, and I thought it was cool. I also saw the new victor stream, but I kind of want to learn a new book reader. I've heard that the bookSense is hard to use, but I catch on to things quickly. What book reader should I go with? a bookSense or a different player, or should I just get the new victor? I'm interested to hear your suggestions. thanks again,
Leslie
In addition to the free player from NLS, and free is always preferable in my opinion, I have a Victor Stratus. It's bigger than the Stream so won't fit in a pocket or purse, but it has some features the Stream does not have including a CD player. Also, it has a button you can press to get the time. I personally really like that feature because I don't wear my watch around the house. It has a slot for a thumb drive as well as one for an SD card. I'm not sure if the Stream has both of those.
I would go for the Kindle app on the Iphone. It does so many things that allmost makes the Victor Reader unnecessary!
Just for the point, I have a new Victor Reader and really love it!
But I think for the money you spend, you allmost can do the same with an IOS Device. Specially if you think that an Ipad Minny is cheapper than a Victor Reader. At least here in my country!
Cheers
Honestly, I've just finished writing a quick user guide for the new stream for my CNIB office, and I didn't find that it had much the old streams couldn't offer. If you're an NLS user then it allows you to go online (assuming you can configure the admittedly fussy wireless settings) and download books, but otherwise, it's basically the same as the old models with a few differences. The sleep key can now announce the date and time, for example; the battery can now be charged via USB when hooked up to your computer (though I should also mention that the stream no longer has a power outlet at all, just a USB port, so while you can still charge it via a wall charger hooked up to USB, you won't be able to charge the stream and listen to books on a flash drive simultaneously). Other than that, nothing is really coming to mind in terms of vast differences. So if you want something new, I say go for it; the new streams aren't really new. They're just laid out a bit differently and have a few extra perks.
Actually that point about the new one having to be hooked up to your computer to charge makes it sound more inconvenient than the old one instead of better.
It doesn't -have to be, you can hook the usb cable to a wall charger. Sorry I wasn't clear.
a lot of main streem devices' charchers are a USB cable and a power block for charging the device. Apple does this with the Iphone5's cable.
Yes, it's quite standard now. I only mentioned it because, if you tend to read a lot of books via flash drive, you'll need to ensure that your battery is charged as there is no dedicated jack for a straight wall charger as there used to be.
when i read books i read them from thumb drives only.
A couple things though I am not a owner of either Stream:
First, if they have a thing for you to tell the time, this means they have a RTC (real time clock) onboard. I read that the old ones did not have this. So, you might ask, who cares? Well, if you want to play any kind of protected content that you buy from stores, it requires a RTC for date and time.
I don't mean NLS I have no idea how they encrypt though I can roughly imagine imagine several different non-time-specific schemes that could work, none of which I'll guess because that is all that would be.
So the clock is to your advantage in more ways than one. Remember every, and I do mean every, consumer device on the standard market has one of those. In fact, I really don't know why a motherboard would not contain it. Sounds like trouble but I obviously know too little to say on some of these specialized blind devices.
Ok as to the USB issue, some of you bring up, or rather hint at, a very valid point: wall warts. Yes, you can plug your USB into any wall outlet with the right wall wart.
So, get you one of those 4-port wall chargers off Amazon. Do your reading, I believe the one I bought was a Kenzington, but some of them only charge one device at a time, or cyclically charge, meaning while one device is getting full charge, others get trickle charge preventing battery drain (for some consumer electronics) while the device is plugged in with no power.
Still, there are others with the circuitry onboard to independently manage each port. Remember we're only talking 12 volts and 1.5 - 2 amps of power for these things.
I love the single wall wart because you can attach any number of cables to it with their respective heads and be fine.
Now one final thing with these wall warts: You can buy charging cables from Amazon for fairly cheap. The reason these do better is throughput: the pins used to transmit to and from the PC are grounded out so they can't interrupt the flow: remember even data going to and from your computer is voltage, so you want as much of that as can be sent to your device's battery as possible. Think of the difference between your standard water hose and your soaker irrigation hose with the holes along the sides. Yes, computer science / electrical engineering students, I am aware this analogy breaks down in some fundamental ways but for the average person it works.
I really like the way people are using USB for this and those of you traveling to and from college, or people traveling on business, you'll be dealing with fewer wall warts.
First, it sounds like the trouble here is with the card, not the player. Anyway, this is what I would do as a last-ditch effort. First, I would remove the battery and disconnect the charger and leave it like that for about thirty minutes. While it sits there, you should download the latest firmware on to a new SD card if possible, otherwise you can still try the old one. Plug it back in and let the stream upgrade (you can do this even if you're already at the latest version).
Second, the NLS books use a type of 32-bit public-key encryption. They do not need a clock as they never expire. This is why they can be played on the old stream. Frankly, the lack of a clock is one of the things that made me not want a stream; I'm a time fanatic, and I want clocks on everything. In light of this, I would reccomend either the booksense or book port plus. If you like web radio or downloading podcasts, the book port plus is best for you because of its WiFi chip. If you don't need these, the booksense is also good. I'm not sure on cost, but I think the book port plus
here
costs less than the booksense
here.