AV Science Presents The Home Theater Book - Page 2

It is a PDF "soft book". At least mine is.

Plasmatics, I understand your point of view when the first version came out it took a bit to realize it was an Ebook. I do understand that with all the color photos the price to print the book in hard copy form is prohibitive and would put it out of the range of most buyers.

I do know that in the second sentence of the offering it clearly stated that this in not a hard copy rather an Ebook.


Disclaimer, Just so you know I contributed heavily to the book as one of my projects and pictures is featured in many sections. I receive no compensation for my contribution.
Edited by BIGmouthinDC - 7/12/12 at 5:14am

Big thanks for that. Not trying to diminish anyone's contributions or the value of the ebook but for someone who is just looking at this I find the presentation misleading.

I will say - my expectation - after reading the thread title with the word "Book" and then fairly quickly reading the description it referred to things like "inside the book you will find 500 pages" and "it's a big book" I was thinking it was an actual book. You are right it does clearly say its an ebook. However it says this once buried in the middle of a paragraph of what is a pretty long description and many more times says "book".

I looked at this again after my post and I still find the overall presentation to be misleading.

So my suggestion would be to retitle the thread and any other listings to clearly say "ebook".

I don't know what the folks behind the ebook looked into but there are cheap overseas publishers and some folks (like me) would pay for a hard copy book. Of course we'd need to see the price but if I'm thinking about spending many thousands on a theater the book wouldn't phase me.

Nonetheless I have the material now on my iPad and I'm sure will get something out of it.

FWIW, the book is 522 pages in colour. Given the size, the low volume print run required, and the amount of colour, having this as a physical book would cost well over $100 of dollars just to print.

EDIT: Off topic, but what sort of offshore printing services do you know about that would work well for something this large and in colour? You mentioned knowing of cheap places to print large books... PM ok if you feel it's off topic/don't want to derail (but Warren may be interested too). Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: One of the bonus interviews is with me on calibration so I am also associated with this book.

Kal
Edited by kal - 7/12/12 at 5:43am

Hope I haven't set off a sh1tstorm here. I'm sure the ebook content is quite valuable and thanks to those who helped build what it is. I have yet to digest it.

I've said my piece above about the advertising of the ebook.

If the pdf is selling for $50 I would have paid $100 for a hard copy book maybe a bit more. I've got no idea what it would cost.

I am not a publisher or in that business nor do I have any specific knowledge of publishers. We do some printing at work and I do recall some times when we have used offshore printing. Who they use I don't know. I've also heard elsewhere that books are cheaper to print off shore. While I like to keep work in the US as much as the next person a good deal is always worth looking at. I just did a google search on "cheap offshore book printing" and there are places that say 30-50% less then onshore. I don't have any experience with these operations and I'm sure some would say you get what you pay for. However it may be an option.

Most "books" these days are ebooks. Though I agree that if it said the home theater eBook it would be a much more accurate description. At the same time, the description does state that everything is a "download", but you are correct that it doesn't state that until you get a bit down the page.

At the top of this thread it states, "this is not a hard copy coffee table book" it's an E-Book to download what you want to reference.

This comes up every now and then, and my apologies if it isn't clearer that it is an Ebook; I have tried to list that all over the site. It states that it is an ebook download on the first line of About This Book, first line of the Table of Contents, downloads are mentioned twice on the FAQ page including a question about why it is an ebook instead of a print book, mention the book is downloaded on the bonuses page, the Members page states it is a download, the checkout page states it is a download as well. The only other pages I can add that to are the pages that are about the individual sections, and I can easily add a line to those if you all think it would help.

I will ask that the text of the first post here be edited to make it more clear there as well.

Downloaded books are soon, if they have not already, overtaking print books (outside of educational - which will change as well sooner or later). All the books we download to our iPad and Kindle, or the Nook, are all eBooks, and pretty soon that will be the default format. Getting a print book version will be the 'other' kind of book. This book project was, and always will, remain a downloaded book.

I am talking to both Amazon and Apple about creating formats that will work for them, but that is a long way off because right now the size of the book exceeds every parameter they have. They do not sell even one downloadable book that has the quantity of color images and page count as mine. For now, they are suggesting I break it down into four of five individual books and sell each one of them individually. That may be an option, but also is a hassle for everyone, not to mention will ultimately end up making it more expensive. The other option we're talking about is making it into a 'magazine' format, and then having it as a series of individual 'issues' that would be downloaded. Again a hassle for everyone and will increase the price. It is a double-edged sword for sure. On the one had I would love to have the book in the Amazon and Apple stores, but at this point the size is a serious limitation.

I do appreciate the feedback; I certainly don't want to be misleading anyone and will get the text adjusted here. Thanks!

Thanks for replying. As I've said I think it could be more clearly stated. I realize its in there now but apparently I wasn't paying enough attention and hadn't noticed the langauge. For the record I've got both a Kindle and iPad and use both extensively. I do like to have my more important books in hard copy however and was thinking that was the case here. Anyways I've just started to digest the ebook and its got a lot to offer for folks getting into this hobby so thanks to all who helped make this happen.

You're welcome, I want the feedback, so I can change things up for folks. I did have the text in the initial post changed, hopefully it is more clear that it is a downloaded book. Thanks again for the feedback, it is appreciated.

I'm an architect and long-time AVS'er who is now realizing every architect's dream: building his own house. In this house will be something else I've been dreaming of for a long time: a dedicated home theater. The room will be 16'-4" deep by 14'-4" wide with a 9' high ceiling and a three foot deep, 10' long cabinet behind for gear & theater storage. I've got to accomplish a quick learning curve for this project and this e-book seems like the perfect way to do it. To be honest, I've always been afraid to come to these build-forums because if you're a newbie, you always feel like the annoying little brother trying to break in on his older siblings' conversations, and most of it is over your head anyways.

So big props to all ya'll who contributed to this book! I'd like to download it to my PC, but then also have it available for my iPad 3. How do I do that? I've downloaded a couple of ebooks from iTunes directly to my iPad iBooks library and they just "magically" appear there. I'd like that to happen with this book as well, but I also need it on my desktop PC.

Sorry if this is too much of an "elementary" question, but as other members have already mentioned in this thread, downloading stuff can sometimes be confusing. I can't tell you how many times I've thought I downloaded something only to have it disappear into some obscure folder deep inside the bowels of my PC where it can never, ever be found. By me, anyway. Or, maybe it just didn't download to begin with - who knows? So any "How To Download To Various Devices" information would probably be appreciated by a lot of us coming here to buy this book.

Depending on the actual "ebook" format that you download this in, you can either drag and drop it into iTunes and the next time you sync your iPad it will be there, or you may need to download an ebook app (not iBooks) to read this particular format. Depending on which app you get, there are also ways to use iTunes to sync the content.

Yeah, those are the kind of questions I've got. Hopefully the guys who did the book and set up the download page have the answers. I need to download it to a PC and move to the iPad, or vice-versa. Or, can & should I download it separately to each one? Is there a password or something you get when you buy it that would allow you to download it to multiple machines? Do you need to be signed into AVS when you do it or does that not matter?

*sigh* Life was never this complicated with good ol' paper books.

My copy is a PDF file (33.3 MB).

It is a straight PDF download; I went for the standard format. It is not a device specific file of any sort; it is not part of the iTunes, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble stores. As it is not part of those marketplaces, there is no set of how to download for those devices. The PDF is the most widely used, and universal, format I could go with.

As far as the file getting lost, you will always have access to the site. So if your computer gets destroyed by your subwoofers, or the file gets lost, you can always return to the site and get it again. It is not a one and done kind of download.

You can download to all your devices as you wish, and yes you will have your own unique login to the site for download. There is no connection to AVS or to AVSForum, so being logged in here will not have any impact.

Thank you Warren. I'll give it a try tomorrow, then post back here to let you know how it works. Looking forward to gettin' me some HT education!

Out of curiosity, does anyone have an idea what it would cost to have this printed out fairly nicely at a place like Kinko's?

Thanks.
Kevin

One other way to get the PDF to your iPad directly is as below.

1. Make sure your iPad is connected to a wireless network (i.e not on a 3G connection)
2. Launch Safari app, browse to the members section of thehometheaterbook.com. Log in.
3. Click on the "Download" link of the Main Download - The Home Theater Book. Wait for the book to open. It could take a few minutes.
4. Single tap on any page of the book. A title bar should appear with two buttons saying Open in iBooks and Open in ...
5. Select Open in iBooks button. A copy of the book will now be saved in your iBooks library. Again, this could take 20-30 secs
6. You will now have access to the book even when the iPad is off-line.

Hope this helps.

To download to my iPad I just downloaded the pdf's to my PC, and then dragged the pdf's to the iPad in itunes. I opened iBooks, did a search for "theater" and the pdf's popped up in my iBooks library.

Okay, more problems. *sigh* (Does it have to be this difficult?)

I want to pay by credit card, but the site seems determined to make me pay by PayPal. Even after filling in my credit card number and personal information, it stills wants me to log onto PayPal. Why? Is there a way to skip over the PayPal stuff and move on with credit card checkout? (For one thing, the e-mail address associated with my PayPal account is not the e-mail address I need the e-book pdf file sent to [if that indeed is how it works] and I want to avoid that potential confusion or conflict.)

I went with PayPal as (outside of Amazon and Apple) it is the most widely used ecommerce checkout system. PayPal is the credit card checkout system itself, there is nothing to skip over or move on to... The book is not sent anywhere via email, you login to the site and download the files to whatever system you wish to download it on. If you ever lose the file or need to re-download, you simply log back in and download whichever file you want. Nothing is sent via email.

Please note that it mentions on the checkout page you need to click the link thtb@thehometheaterbook.com and return to the site after purchase to make your username and password. It is listed on the top of the page and in the description, but still gets missed from time to time.

There are only three steps:
1) fill out the order form and checkout at PayPal
2) click the link to go to thehometheaterbook.com and create your username and password
3) login and download everything you wish

I've tried to utilize the most standard and widely used systems and formats for this project. The documents are all standard PDFs, the audio files are all standard MP3s, and the checkout system is the standard PayPal checkout.

Folks have told me that they get quotes around 150 depending on the location/options. Most people now just print out sections on their own that they want to mark/highlight. If you get a quote, I'm sure others here would be interested to hear how much they quoted you...

What I don't get is if you're going to pay by PayPal - which, in my experience, is a direct deduction from your checking account like a debit card purchase - what point is there to entering your credit card information?

I apologize if these seem like stupid questions and I don't want to waste anyone's time, but I've bought many things online using both PayPal and credit cards and I've never seen them "co-mingled" like this. It's odd, and I just want to understand why it's set up that way. I will buy the book (I really need it); but I don't want to end up accidentally paying for it twice.

PayPal also processes credit card transactions for payment. It is not just a debit card purchase system.

Correct. PayPal is the payment processor. You have 3 choices:

- Pay using a credit card (PayPal account *NOT* required)
- Pay using a PayPal balance (PayPal account required)
- Pay using bank transfer (PayPal account required)

It's extremely flexible. You choose how you want to pay.

Kal

The point I was trying to make was that option 1 as kal describes it doesn't work that way. There are two options when you go to buy the book: Log into PayPal with an existing account or create a new PayPal account. Choosing the credit card option and filling in all the information leads to another page with a PayPal login screen. There's no button to push that bypasses PayPal completely (that I could find). And I looked pretty hard.

Anyways, no matter. I surrendered to PayPal and did the bank-draft thing. Couldn't figure out another way. But I have the book now, so it's all good. Thanks!

I tried it by doing in anonymously and you are correct. I believe merchants may be able to disable anonymous checkout. When I set up payments for merchants customers see this (see screenshot below). It allows them to check out "anonymously" without having to create a PayPal account first.



Kal

Hey all... without getting too 'inside baseball' there are very specific reasons for each component chosen, which together 'run' the automated systems. Here is some of the technical back-end...

PayPal is the payment/checkout system itself, so there is no way to bypass it. The reason for the account requirement is that the software which connects PayPal back to TheHomeTheaterBook.com is utilizing the auto-return function in PayPal to start the usernamne/password setup for each unique account. There are actually quite a few pieces moving in the background. The shopping cart software is 1shoppingcart, with PayPal being used as the payment processor. After the PayPal payment, the account info is used as the user 'bounces' to the shopping cart software, which tracks and records the sale, details, etc... and then moves the customer back to TheHomeTheaterBook.com where the unique user account and password are created. There are other pieces, like the membership software running on the website, and Aweber running as well, so overall I have tons of integrated pieces of software all talking to one another. Too many pieces really, but as a solo operation I'm not in a position to use the big guns software that performs all the functions in one suite.

For the end user, the process is as simple as I can make it. Click the 'Buy Now' button, checkout at PayPal, click the link to come back and make your username and password, download all the files.

The back-end however, has Wordpress, 1Shoppingcart, PayPal, Wishlist Member, and Aweber all bouncing information back and forth between each other. It was quite a major amount of work to get them all working together, especially as I am not a web designer or ecommerce guy. However I do business coaching and lots of my clients are internet marketing folks so I wanted to have some personal experience with these systems. Overall, I think the system works well. The only hiccup comes when folks miss that they need to come back to the site and make their username/password combo.

Hope this helps to answer some of the tech back-end type questions.

Yes merchants have the option to have Account Required turned on or off. For me, I can't enable the anonymous checkout because the account info is used to trigger the next step in the membership software process. If anonymous was allowed, the membership software wouldn't know how to manage the unique account for each person.

Makes sense Warren! Thanks for the explanation.

Kal