The Great Nook Color Firesale 2011

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Team Obi Juan

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So who picked one up for $200 shipped + tax in the ebay sale?

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1589358

10,229 sold as of right now. Too bad I can't tell exactly when the coupon code started, as I'd like to know how many are being sold a minute, hour, etc.

Anyway... assuming it arrives Friday like it should, I am going to use it as it was intended for this weekend (web browsing and ereading), and wait for my SD card to come in so I can root it. I have a 256MB card laying around I could use if I want to. I do want to see how it is stock first though.


Who has one? How do you like it? I'm stoked about getting it!
 
I want one, I really do, have wanted one since they were first announced and well into the actual shipping and then into the retail phase. But I just can't afford one, dammit. Got the rent money sitting here and I could so easily walk the 2 blocks to my bank, deposit the cash right now (Bank of America has cash accepting ATMs that deposit instantly, w00t!) and then come back home and order one before the 8AM Pacific time cutoff in the morning.

But, alas, I live in Las Vegas, NV and unfortunately renters have effectively zero rights in this state so, I ain't taking a chance with my (and my Wife's) residence. :D

I'll get one at some point, that's for damned sure. I just hope it's before the next one comes out... hehe
 
I got one as well, it is coming tomorrow.

Whats the best site to find out about rooting? I bought an SD card but I did not really research how to root it yet.
 
Was looking into the Nook and Honeycomb tonight and came across that eBay deal. I decided to order and test it out myself. :D
 
I am stuck on step 17 of that guide, I cant reset my nook without the SD card still in right? How do I get that youtube file on there?
 
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darkhunter139 said:
I am stuck on step 17 of that guide, I cant reset my nook without the SD card still in right? How do I get that youtube file on there?
Click to expand...

No idea... haven't got my nook yet. You should register and post in that forum.






I'm really thinking B&N knew the iPad 1 would have a price drop after the iPad 2 announcement so they preempted it with this ebay coupon. The timing of the sale certainly is peculiar. Now only $150 separates it from the cheapest iPad which requires no hacking to get to apps that are actually designed for it. Oh well, still can't wait to get my nook tomorrow!
 
I'd still rather have the NOOKColor, even if someone handed me an iPad for free I'd just sell it and use the proceeds to get 2 NOOKColors. I just don't like the size of the iPad, it's too large in my opinion. I said a long time ago my "perfect tablet" is or should be something about the size of a DVD case - a standard regular old DVD case but about half as thick, so maybe 3/8" thick.

The NOOKColor is still to this day the only device that I've held in my hand and thought "Ok, this is how it should be done..." in almost every single respect. It's slightly heavier than I would prefer, so if B&N is working on a second gen model perhaps they'll address that, but in terms of being my "perfect" form factor, it's almost exactly the right size.

I still wish someone could (or would) make a device similar to the NOOKColor but make it to those exact dimensions: a standard DVD case (the regular plastic kind) but half as thick. If that appears, I'm sold... big time sold.

Barnes & Noble, are you reading this now? :D Half as thick, folks... and cut off some of the bezel, maybe 1/4" all the way around, and you've got the ultimate 7" tablet form factor... at least for one customer. :p
 
Got everything running good! Cant seem to get live wallpapers to work though (they wont load up)

Everything is pretty sweet though! I love this thing. Joe average do you use setCpu to over clock? Wondering if I should do that or not. I am assuming it would hurt my battery life.

And some must have programs if you are getting a nook for the first time.

Calibre - Convert to nook compatible files and manage ebooks
handBrake - video converter recommended by Joe Average
Also found a video converter called dvd catalyst 4 which will rip files off DVDs and convert them. It is pretty cool because when ripping a TV show it actually knows where to split the episodes up.
 
DVD Catalyst ain't bad if you just want something to watch; it just can't match the quality of HandBrake's encodes in the long run, however. It's a quick down and dirty solution, I suppose, but I'll always recommend HandBrake above pretty much anything else.

SetCPU has other purposes, not just overclocking - it can actually help extend battery life by working better than the default power management at adjusting the CPU speeds and allowing you to set profiles which adjust based on what you're doing, even on a per-app basis (more CPU time for a certain app when it's running, that sort of thing). It's definitely worth using but it can be a bit daunting for someone that's never used it before.

Just as an example, check this directory:

http://www.tools4movies.com/nook/

It's a bunch of movie trailers the guy that codes DVD Catalyst put up, with encodes done using his software. The trailer I posted in that other NOOKColor thread, the one for the movie Limitless, can be compared to the one he's got posted in that directory. His version is 27MB or so, average bitrate of 1500 Kbps; the first one I posted using 1000 Kbps is 19.5MB.

The difference in quality is pretty apparent - in his version you can spot massive pixelation in scenes in the clip where motion is happening, scene changes, pretty much any movement. Then compare that with the version I made with HandBrake which doesn't suffer from such blocky artifacting even in spite of being at a bitrate that's lower. The one created with HandBrake just looks better, at least to me, and it's smaller meaning you can fit more of 'em on the storage cards or internal memory of the NOOKColor.

It all adds up... ;)
 
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Do you have any recommended settings for it? And yeah HandBrake's quality is much better but I got catalyst just so I could rip tv shows off dvd's easily. For anything that is not a TV show i'd use handbrake.

Thanks for the help btw!
 
Settings for what, HandBrake or DVD Catalyst? I don't use DVD Catalyst so... ;)

I made a post in the eBay thread about the HandBrake settings I recommend, but you can tweak the hell out of them in so many ways it's not even funny. If you have a Linux box or you can run a Linux VM, you can use HandBrake in the VM and get it to rip direct from DVD using libcssdvd actually; can't do that under Windows which requires you to rip the DVD to the hard drive first with something like DVDDecrypter, etc.

Also, check this XDA-Developer's thread for specific info and even a decent preset someone created for HandBrake and the NOOKColor:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=894165

EDIT:
Well, I just played with that preset and it's fairly complicated (in terms of the advanced options it has on the command line, not stuff you'd want to mess with unless you have an in-depth knowledge of x264 encoder options). It's way too much to be honest - ever since the NOOKColor first appeared I've been using HandBrake and it's simple to get great looking and great sounding videos onto the device easily with a few steps:

1) Select the source material.
2) Choose the iPhone/iPod touch preset
3) Change the resolution up (since it defaults to the 480 pixel wide native resolution of those devices); DVDs will encode to 720 wide max, and HD content over that resolution can be set for 848 pixels wide (since the device has a limit of 854 wide, this was explained in that other post).
4) Set the bitrate to 1000 Kbps Average Bitrate (for a smaller file with great quality) or leave it at the default of Constant Quality RF 20 (can try 22 as well, save some space if you want)
5) Set the audio bitrate - 128 Kbps is fine for most purposes, it's AAC so it sounds great but I prefer a bit more quality so I use 160 or 192 depending on the material
6) Click the Start button and wait till it's done.

That's about it.

EDIT 2:
Ugh, don't bother with that preset from XDA, it's just not worth it. Damned thing was encoding at 9 frames per second whereas using the method I just explained gives me close to 40, and in the long run the XDA preset created a file that was 15% larger and looks pretty much exactly the same as the one I created earlier (the Limitless.mp4 one using 1000 Kbps average bitrate).

This stuff is a science in some respects... tweak here, tweak there... :D
 
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Supposedly February was supposed to be the month that B&N updated the Nook Color to Android 2.2. Does anyone know if this is the case?
 
I think they just said the early 2011 so that could really mean anything.

Does anyone know you to either make the icons bigger on the adw launcher or make it so you can move them in closer together?
 
darkhunter139 said:
I think they just said the early 2011 so that could really mean anything.

Does anyone know you to either make the icons bigger on the adw launcher or make it so you can move them in closer together?
Click to expand...

You can change the number of rows/columns to fit far more icons per screen. There is also a setting to stretch the icons to fit the grid size.
 
Joe Average said:
The NOOKColor is still to this day the only device that I've held in my hand and thought "Ok, this is how it should be done..." in almost every single respect. It's slightly heavier than I would prefer, so if B&N is working on a second gen model perhaps they'll address that, but in terms of being my "perfect" form factor, it's almost exactly the right size.

...

Barnes & Noble, are you reading this now? :D Half as thick, folks... and cut off some of the bezel, maybe 1/4" all the way around, and you've got the ultimate 7" tablet form factor... at least for one customer. :p
Click to expand...

Ditto. The NC is exactly the right size IMO. I don't think I would want bigger than 8" or so, tops. The wife now has a refurb ipad1 and it's too big for me (plus, it's an ipad, with no SD slot or anything else).

It's a little heavy for me. I don't mind the thickness (I have mine in a Javoedge Editor Flip case anyway) but I could use a few ounces trimmed off the weight. I like reading on my e-ink Nook a lot better - lighter, no touch screen, hard pageturn buttons - the NC is just a bit heavier than I would like for reading / browsing / etc.
 
Being a larger person (tall that is ;)) I dont actually mind its weight. It gives me a nice feel in my hand, like I'm not going to send it flying at the flick of a wrist (or tripping over my own feet while reading and walking - yes I do that all too often :rolleyes:) without being heavy enough to tire my wrist either.

GreenMonkey said:
Ditto. The NC is exactly the right size IMO. I don't think I would want bigger than 8" or so, tops. The wife now has a refurb ipad1 and it's too big for me (plus, it's an ipad, with no SD slot or anything else).

It's a little heavy for me. I don't mind the thickness (I have mine in a Javoedge Editor Flip case anyway) but I could use a few ounces trimmed off the weight. I like reading on my e-ink Nook a lot better - lighter, no touch screen, hard pageturn buttons - the NC is just a bit heavier than I would like for reading / browsing / etc.
Click to expand...
 
Bought one, then sold it on craigslist for the price I bought it at. There were a couple things I really liked about it, like the design, form factor, and the screen (I could stare at my homescreen all day)
 
I bought one and then just installed a different ROM on it. I'm running at 1.1Ghz, so it's a nice speedy little device now :).

I'd think about the stock nook ROM if it had 2.2 for flash, but since it's only on 2.1, I wasn't too keen on it. I downloaded the Nook app and the only thing it doesn't do is magazines. For the most part it looked pretty similar.
 
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