WHICH DAISY DIGITAL TALKING BOOK PLAYER IS RIGHT FOR
YOU?
Presenter(s)
David Andrews
Minnesota State Services for the Blind
Address:
Day Phone: 651-642-0513
Fax: 651-649-5927
Email: dandrews@ssb.state.mn.us
We will provide you with a set of
questions and considerations, plus information on what is available, which will
help you decide which DAISY DTB player is best for you.
With the increased availability of DAISY Digital Talking Books, here in the
United States and around the world, I have found that more and more people are
asking me: What player/software package should I use? With at least seven
hardware and eight software players on the market and more likely to come, this
is a question that deserves some consideration.
I will list the information that will be provided in the CSUN presentation
or define the question to be asked when making a decision, because of the space
limitations of this paper. The presentation will provide the opportunity
to elaborate on definitions and questions.
First, it is necessary to define “Digital Talking Books and DAISY.”
Next, major sources of DTB’s in the
When deciding what to buy, the most important question is whether to go
with a dedicated stand-alone hardware player such as the Victor Vibe or PlexTalk PTR-1, or to choose a PC-based software player
such as GH Player or Victor Reader Soft. Once this decision has been
made, there is a whole series of questions and factors which should be
considered. These questions and considerations will be listed
below:
* What is the source of DTB material:
RFB&D, Bookshare.org, download from
* What format will your DTB material be coming in:
CD-ROM, download, etc.?
* Are you playing audio-only books, text-only books, or books that contain
both audio and text?
* Will you want to play other kinds of files on your system?
* If so, what kinds, MP3, WAV, etc.?
* Are you a blind or visually impaired person or a learning disabled
person? Are there requirements or limitations that your disability brings
to the table when making this decision?
* How much money do you have to spend?
* What are your friends using? Will they be able to help you figure
the thing out if you have problems?
* Does your system need to play back protected books from RFB&D, books
from audible.com, or materials from some other unusual source?
* Do you like or need to speed up or slow down your material as you read
it?
* What other features do you need or like—sleep timer, word search, book
marks, display and synchronization of text, enlarging of text, etc.?
* If you choose a hardware player, how small or large does it need to be?
* Do you need to make recordings or record your own materials in DAISY
format?
* Do you need to take notes (either text or audio) as you read?
* Do you need to add other kinds of annotations to the material—bookmarks
you voice, annotations you record, etc.?
* What version of DAISY DTB’s do you need to play
back—2.02 or 3.0?
* If you choose a software player, does it need to be self-voicing?
(What is self-voicing?)
* If you choose a software player, will your current computer handle it?
If not, what is needed?
* What are the minimum requirements for your desired software player,
processor speed, operating system, memory needed,
video requirements, etc.?
While all of the available systems have a lot of similarities, many of them
also have some unique features. If one or more of these unique features
are important or necessary to you, this may dictate or limit your ultimate
universe of choices.
If you are able to answer most, if not all of the above questions, you will
be well on the road to making the best decision of a DAISY DTB playback system
for yourself.
Two years ago, I made a presentation titled * at the 2003 CSUN Technology
for Persons with Disabilities Conference. In this paper, I described and
reviewed all the DAISY hardware and software players available at the time.
I have continued to update this paper and maintain it on the Web. I
will use this knowledge and experience, during and at the conclusion of the
current presentation, to answer questions for the audience about specific
products and to show them how the set of questions and considerations can be
used to make a decision.
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