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The 2022 Humble Bundle - same problem again

Started by user2000, 17 February, 2022, 09:52:56 PM

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user2000

Not sure if this is the right place (again) for this but anyway..

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/rebellions-masters-british-comics-featuring-judge-dredd-2000-ad-treasury-british-comics-books

First of all, what an AWESOME bundle for a mind blowing price.  My kids like to read all their stuff on the tablet so even though I have the vast majority of this stuff in print I am sure I can coax them into reading more great stuff this way.

But unfortunately a problem that I highlighted on last years bundle has reared its head here again.

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=46829.0

The CBZ files are just too compressed and makes reading them quite unpleasant with jagged edges galore, especially on the speech balloons.  A couple of PDF's seem fine although I did only check a couple.

Hopefully this can be rectified as easily as it was last time.

Cheers all, lurk mode back on.

user2000

(I say last years bundle, but of course it was in 2020, how time flies etc.)

JudgeCrumble

I raised a support ticket and they are "looking into it"

I've noticed some, but not all, cbz file sizes have increased since I downloaded.

user2000

Quote from: JudgeCrumble on 20 February, 2022, 08:38:51 PM
I raised a support ticket and they are "looking into it"

I've noticed some, but not all, cbz file sizes have increased since I downloaded.

I just noticed the file size increase too.

But, alas, clicking on the file just downloads the old, smaller size, fuzzy file.

The only only I can see any difference on is "Hondo  City Law" which says it should be 90.8 MB but still downloads as 55.6 MB.  Maybe there's more but the first half dozen or so are exactly the same as before.

WhizzBang

This is a great bundle - especially for the Charley's War and Lawless volumes. I only found out about this deal because of this thread so thanks for the notice. I have downloaded them all as pdf and the ones I have looked at (the smaller ones mainly) look okay to me.

WhizzBang

I spoke to soon. The Mestizo pdf is 12MB and the first 10 pages or so are fine but later pages have white lines through them and the text could be more readable. I will try the cbr version for any pdfs that look bad.

JudgeCrumble

No idea if this is related or not, but if you open the tammyandjinty_remixed.cbz in tool like 7zip you can see the pages are all over the place.

I think most cbz readers sort by filename before display, but that still feels wrong....

JudgeCrumble

@Molch-R do you know anything about this? I see you commented last time.

user2000

Hmm, might have to put in for a refund if this isn't going to be fixed - the CBR files are mostly unreadable.

I did notice that Devlin Waugh Red Tide went from 50 MB or so to 239 MB - making it exactly like I was expecting it - nice and crisp on all our tablets from iPad 12.9 to Samsung Tab 7 FE.

Goosegash

Lets not mince words, the quality control on these versions is dreadful. For instance why are double-page spreads on separate pages when they should obviously be joined? That seems so basic I can't understand how they could get it so wrong.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Goosegash on 26 February, 2022, 10:45:02 AMwhy are double-page spreads on separate pages when they should obviously be joined? That seems so basic I can't understand how they could get it so wrong.
That's nothing to do with Rebellion and everything to do with how these files are constructed, to allow people to read them as they wish. Most CBR and PDF readers will enable you to shift to a spreads view if you want that. If the spreads were effectively single double-wide pages, that would eradicate the option to view how you want to in portrait.

Molch-R

Hey everyone, it would help an awful lot if you could let us know *which* titles are having this problem. Is it all the CBZs or just some? That way we can try and pinpoint what is happening here.

Cheers!

user2000

Sorry to say, it's pretty much ALL of the CBR files, just as happened with the last bundle (which were then replaced and they are fine now).

If I get the time later I'll open every one up, but on a cursory look at a dozen or so, I found only one that was properly readable and that was THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR vol 3.  It's obvious looking at vol 1 and vol 2 that there is something wrong, even though the actual file size of vol 1 and vol 2 are twice the size of vol 3.  Even then the vol 3 is not quite crisp looking, but certainly better than the other two (I have the original TPB's of these and the reproduction is excellent on the printed page).

The problem is in the legibility of the speech balloons.  Even looking at something new like Roy of the Rovers and it is "unreadable".

Seems that the images that make up the individual pages are far far too compressed, even the artwork suffers.

It reminds me of watching something on Freeview in standard definition.

JudgeCrumble

Quote from: Molch-R on 28 February, 2022, 03:31:54 PM
Hey everyone, it would help an awful lot if you could let us know *which* titles are having this problem. Is it all the CBZs or just some? That way we can try and pinpoint what is happening here.

Cheers!

With all respect can you and HB not work this out between you?

Presumably you sent them some files which were the standard downloads of reasonable quality.  Either they've done something which should be an easy check (generate a list of file sizes and James and compare) or there were issues with what you originally sent

I only looked at the Devlin Waugh which were a fraction of the size of the ones I downloaded last time.

But I only know that because I already have them, I have nothing to compare against with other files, they could easily be be "good enough" but not actually of the full quality and I'd never know.

JudgeCrumble

Quote from: JudgeCrumble on 01 March, 2022, 08:46:21 PM

With all respect can you and HB not work this out between you?

Presumably you sent them some files which were the standard downloads of reasonable quality.  Either they've done something which should be an easy check (generate a list of file sizes and James and compare) or there were issues with what you originally sent

I only looked at the Devlin Waugh which were a fraction of the size of the ones I downloaded last time.

But I only know that because I already have them, I have nothing to compare against with other files, they could easily be be "good enough" but not actually of the full quality and I'd never know.

Hashes not James  :-[ stupid small phone screen and autocorrect.