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Digital Players
NLS/BPH Digital Talking Book Cartridge and Player
Click on the photos on the right for a close-up.
The player pictured is the standard digital model. Also pictured is a digital cartridge book inside of a blue digital cartridge mailer.
The advanced digital model is exactly the same size but has a second row of five additional buttons. The advanced buttons include a diamond shaped button that contains the complete User Guide, three navigation buttons to navigate through sections, chapters and bookmarks in a book and one button to place bookmarks on a digital book being listened to.
Dimensions- Measurements: The player is about 6 by 9 by 2 inches, in comparison with the cassette player, which is 9 by 11 by 3 inches, or 108 cu. in. compared to 300 cu. in. Weight: The DTB (Digital Talking Book) player is slightly over two pounds. Color: The body of the player will be a dark charcoal grey, to create maximum visual contrast between the background of the case and the colors of the buttons.
Buttons: The Rewind, Play and Fast Forward controls are centered and are close to the front edge of the player. The square green Play button controls stopping and starting playback of the book. The white triangular Rewind and Fast Forward buttons to the left and right of the Play button move through the book more quickly the more times they are pressed, or held down. Each key press gives audible feedback about how far ahead or back the user is moving. Just above the navigation buttons are the Power, Sleep and Volume buttons: The round red Power button turns the player on and off. It is close to the left edge of the player. The white Sleep button, shaped like a crescent moon, will automatically turn the player off in fifteen minutes if pressed once while playing a book. It can be pressed up to four times (15 minute increments) up to an hour. It is centered, just above the Play button. The yellow Volume controls are shaped like the halves of a narrow pointed oval pulled apart along its narrow axis, or, less pretentiously, like halves of a football. They are close to the right edge of the player. Just above these controls is a tactile raised line running from one side of the player to the other, demarcating the six most frequently used controls from Tone and Speed (and, in the advanced model, from the Navigation and Bookmark buttons).
The Tone and Speed buttons are located above the tactile raised line and on either side of the speaker. Both Tone and Speed are shaped like the Volume buttons, a narrow pointed oval pulled apart along its narrow axis. The Tone buttons are close to the left edge of the player; the Volume buttons are close to the right edge. The Volume, Tone and Speed controls all announce each press of the button, e.g. "tone lower," "tone higher," "tone middle," with similar announcements for the other buttons. Speed will change the speech from 50% to 300% of normal, with no change in pitch.
Other Features: The white band along the front edge of the player is a pull-out handle, similar to the one on the cassette player. Above the handle is the opening for the Digital Talking Book cartridge. There is no door to close, unlike the cassette player. On the right side of the player are the headphone jack, with a brightly-colored surround for easy location. Next to the jack is a USB port for upgrading the player as well as playing a thumb drive holding NLS downloaded books from BARD.
On the back of the machine, as on the back of the cassette player, is a compartment for storing the power cord. On the bottom of the player are four rubber feet, the door to the battery compartment, and two recessed bars for attachment of a carrying strap. There is also plenty of room for identification labels.
Digital Cartridge Book: The digital cartridge mailing container is identical to the green cassette mailing container except it is royal blue in color and only half the thickness.
The cartridge itself is smaller than the size of one cassette. One end of the cartridge has a round large finger hole for gripping while inserting into the opening in the player. The sides of the cartridge are square and beveled so it will only fit one way into the player. The other end of the cartridge has a USB connector which can slide smoothly into the player’s opening.