submitted 3 months ago by Blxter@lemmy.zip to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hey all,

Not exactly directly piracy but since I pirated the material I'm talking about thought it would fit. When I download books I often get both the audiobook and the epub of the same book but most of the audio books are in the format of the whole book in one file. Is there a website or someway to see timestamps on the audio book to relate with chapters in the book. I often listen to the book while cleaning or doing random things but want to read the same book later and having to find the right spot is hard and takes a long time.

Thanks

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[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

Those big files like .m4b (b stands for book) should have chapters within it, if you open them with mpv on your pc you should be able to see them on the time bar. On Android I've been using Voice, it's really well polished and shows a big chapter name so I usually remember where I was if I switch devices, even if not to the exact minute.

I figured out how to encode to a single m4b in fre:ac so I only use Voice now (or my ipod, which was the reason why I learned how to use fre:ac).

I know you asked for syncing (one day I'll try adding the audiobook plugin to my jellyfin), but this works for me.

If you prefer a folder of files, you can use fre:ac or many other encoders/tools to split them up.

[-] Blxter@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago

For my current book there is about no metadata in the files that was first thing I checked.

[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

Oh sorry, can't think of an easy solution then. I've seen that audiobookshelf can find metadata for you, that could be doable. They also support ebooks but if I understood correctly from their docs they don't get synced to the audio position, just to themselves.

A promising but still in beta software is Storyteller, under very active development here. It works by creating a 'rich' epub that contains the audio synced line by line, which you can then read/listen to with just one app.

There's also older software with a similar approach like syncabook but at a glance it seems less usable than Storyteller.