Digital talking book players: listen where you want (Windows only)

PC users, have you ever wanted to listen to content from Sero while you're away from your computer? We've already covered how to do this by running Sero on a mobile device, such as an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android device, or Amazon Fire tablet. But if you have a Windows PC and a supported digital talking book player, you can also take Sero content with you on that player.

Just connect your supported digital talking book player to your PC while Sero is running. Within minutes, you can transfer almost anything to your player, including audio from described movies and TV shows, news feeds, podcasts, and email messages.

Supported digital talking book players

Quick start

  1. Make sure you have an SD card in your player with enough room for all the content you wish to transfer.

  2. If your player is on, turn it off.

  3. Connect the player to your Windows PC using the provided USB cable and turn it on. You will be notified by your system, and Sero if it is currently running, that your player has connected. Note that content may not be transferred directly to an SD card using a card reader on your system.

  4. From within Sero, find the content you want to transfer in exactly the same way you would if you were going to listen to it on your PC. This could be a movie, the link to your new email messages, a news feed, a link to a particular podcast, and so on.

  5. Do not press Enter as you normally would to open the content. Instead, press the Application key (immediately to the left of the right Control key) or Shift+F10 to bring up a context menu.

  6. Press the Down Arrow key until you encounter the menu item: Send to Digital Talking Book Player, where “Digital Talking Book Player” is the name of the device you've connected. For example, if you're using a Book Port Plus, the menu item would be called Send to Book Port Plus.

  7. Press Enter, and the content will be transferred. You will be notified when the transfer is complete.

  8. To close the “Transfer Complete" window, press Enter on the Close button.

  9. Turn your player off, and disconnect it from your PC.

  10. Turn your player on, and enjoy your content.

Described movies (audio only)

When you transfer a movie to your player, you will find it in the same place you would typically find other talking books. For example, on the Victor Reader Stream, this would be your Talking Books bookshelf. A synopsis and cast list are included, read in your preferred Sero voice and at the speed you've set in Sero Preferences.

You can skip through this information quickly, if you like, by setting your player to move by level 1 headings and pressing the appropriate navigation key to move forward through headings.

For your convenience, there is also a level 1 heading every 30 minutes within each movie.

A note about protected content

You should always use the same SD card when transferring content to your digital talking book player. If you switch cards, you will no longer be able to play protected content on the previous card.

Also, you do not need to do anything special to authorize your device to play this content. The Sero software takes care of that automatically. This is why we require you to connect the player itself to your PC, rather than transferring directly to the SD card with a card reader.

News feeds, podcasts, and email messages

If you want to transfer all articles in a news feed or section in your newspaper to your player:

  1. Find that feed within Sero.

  2. Press the Application key or Shift+F10.

  3. Choose Send to Digital Talking Book Player, where the term “Digital Talking Book Player” is replaced by the name of the device you've connected. For example, if you're using a BookSense, the menu item would be called Send to BookSense.

To transfer a podcast episode or an individual article, do the same thing when focused on the link to the specific episode or article you want to transfer.

On your player, you will find podcasts in the same place that you would typically find audio books or other materials that are not in DAISY format. For example, on the Victor Reader Stream, this is the Other Books bookshelf.

Articles you send to your player will appear in the place where you would typically find text DAISY content. For example, on the Victor Reader Stream, this is the Text bookshelf. Each article is saved as a separate HTML file.

Note that some players, such as the BookSense from HIMS, have a "Serotek" folder specifically for content transferred from Sero.

You can transfer a single email message or all messages from a particular folder to your player, depending on the link which has focus when you choose to do the transfer.

Messages are stored as HTML files and are located in the place where text DAISY content is usually stored.

Music

You can send content from your Media Library to your digital talking book player.

  1. Open the media library from the Sero home screen.

  2. Choose the option to browse the library.

  3. Find the playlist, folder or file you want to transfer.

  4. Press the Application key or Shift+F10, and choose Send to Digital Talking Book Player.

You will find the content you've transferred in the same place that music is typically stored on your unit.

Note that you can use your home server to transfer music from your Media Library to your player, even if you're on a PC away from home.

Saving material to transfer later: the Sync List

If your player is not connected to your PC, you can queue up material to send to it later. You do this by using the Sync List.

When you press the Application key or Shift+F10 while focused on a movie, podcast, etc., one of the choices on the menu is Add to Sync List. Anything you can transfer to your digital talking book player when it is connected can be added to the Sync List.

Transferring content from your Sync List to your player

Here's how to transfer the content from the Sync List to your digital talking book player.

  1. Power off your player if it is on.

  2. Connect it to your PC, and turn the player on again.

  3. Connect to Sero, if you haven't already.

  4. Go to the Media Library from the Sero home screen.

  5. Choose the Sync List option from the Media Library.

  6. The first option you should see upon opening your sync list is: “Sync With Digital Talking Book Player", where “Digital Talking Book Player” is the name of your connected device. For example, if you're using a Victor Reader Stream, this option will be called "Sync with Victor Reader Stream".

  7. Below this option is a list of content you have added to your Sync List, with checkboxes beside each item. These checkboxes can be used to delete an item from your list.

  8. To delete an item from the list. Simply press the Space bar to check the box, then tab to the "Delete” button in the sync list and press the Space bar again.

  9. In addition, you can choose the Delete Protected Content option to remove all protected content you have transferred to your player.

  10. When you've removed any items from your Sync List that you don't wish to transfer, press Enter on the Sync With Digital Talking Book Player link. If you are transferring content from forums or news feeds, you may need to wait a while for the next page to load.

  11. The next page that loads contains three buttons: Edit Selections, Sync, and Back. You are also told how much data you are about to send and how much free space is available.

  12. When you're ready to begin the transfer, tab to the Sync button and press the Space bar. The content will be transferred to your player.

  13. Once the transfer is complete, press Enter on the Return to Sync List link, turn off your player, and disconnect it.

You can now play the content you have transferred.

Once the transfer is complete, most items are deleted from your Sync List automatically. News feeds and email folders are not, however, in case you want to transfer them again later. If you do, they are refreshed so that you get the latest email messages and articles from your feeds. Old articles are deleted during the sync.


Last modified September 09, 2016

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