- Download comic book archives from your Dropbox repository.
- Supports .cbr, .cbz and .cb7 archive files.
- Simple and clean user interface.
- Navigate comics using touch or physical controls.
Troubleshooting
Here are some of the issues you may encounter when using ComicStation, along with explanations and (where possible) ways to work around them.
Downloading from Dropbox is slow. Slow networking speeds seem to be a general issue with PlayStation Mobile on the Vita. I don't know why this is and, unfortunately, I haven't yet found any way around it.
~10 second delay when first accessing Dropbox. It takes networking a bit of time to warm up initially. I'm guessing that it is turned off when not in use to save battery.
The Dropbox website refreshes when trying to log in. The Vita web browser can sometimes act strangely on the Dropbox website. If you are having trouble logging in, try going to the Dropbox homepage and logging in from there. Once you are logged in, try authenticating again from the ComicStation application.
Turning comic pages is slow on first viewing. The first time you view a comic, the application extracts, re-sizes and caches the images for faster viewing. Because of slow CPU performance on PlayStation Mobile and the expensive nature of archive and image decompression, this can be a slow process - particularly with large images. In most cases, it should be quick enough for normal reading speed, but you won't be able to quickly flip around the comic until caching is finished. Once the pages are cached, page turning is very fast.
ComicStation is using a lot of storage space. Comic images are resized and cached in an uncompressed format for faster viewing. This uses a fair bit of storage space. There is an option to delete this image cache in the menu that pops up when you hold your finger on a comic in the comic list. Deleting the image cache will free up all storage except for that taken by the original comic archive.
The application hangs when viewing some comics. This is a result of the application running out of memory. PlayStation Mobile apps are given a very small amount (96MB) of memory to use. This makes dealing with large images difficult, and sometimes impossible. Jpeg images that have been saved in progressive format are particularly problematic, as they require almost an order of magnitude more memory to process than regular Jpeg images. Version 1.1 of ComicStation adds a "Safe Mode" that can help with comics that hang during the normal viewing process. It uses a different Jpeg extraction technique that is more memory efficient and can work with larger images or those saved in progressive format. It is quite a bit slower than the normal viewing mode, though, so it should only be used if necessary. Even in Safe Mode, very large images may just be too large to be processed in the memory available. Safe Mode can be accessed from the menu that pops up when you hold your finger on a comic in the comic list.
Here are some of the issues you may encounter when using ComicStation, along with explanations and (where possible) ways to work around them.
Downloading from Dropbox is slow. Slow networking speeds seem to be a general issue with PlayStation Mobile on the Vita. I don't know why this is and, unfortunately, I haven't yet found any way around it.
~10 second delay when first accessing Dropbox. It takes networking a bit of time to warm up initially. I'm guessing that it is turned off when not in use to save battery.
The Dropbox website refreshes when trying to log in. The Vita web browser can sometimes act strangely on the Dropbox website. If you are having trouble logging in, try going to the Dropbox homepage and logging in from there. Once you are logged in, try authenticating again from the ComicStation application.
Turning comic pages is slow on first viewing. The first time you view a comic, the application extracts, re-sizes and caches the images for faster viewing. Because of slow CPU performance on PlayStation Mobile and the expensive nature of archive and image decompression, this can be a slow process - particularly with large images. In most cases, it should be quick enough for normal reading speed, but you won't be able to quickly flip around the comic until caching is finished. Once the pages are cached, page turning is very fast.
ComicStation is using a lot of storage space. Comic images are resized and cached in an uncompressed format for faster viewing. This uses a fair bit of storage space. There is an option to delete this image cache in the menu that pops up when you hold your finger on a comic in the comic list. Deleting the image cache will free up all storage except for that taken by the original comic archive.
The application hangs when viewing some comics. This is a result of the application running out of memory. PlayStation Mobile apps are given a very small amount (96MB) of memory to use. This makes dealing with large images difficult, and sometimes impossible. Jpeg images that have been saved in progressive format are particularly problematic, as they require almost an order of magnitude more memory to process than regular Jpeg images. Version 1.1 of ComicStation adds a "Safe Mode" that can help with comics that hang during the normal viewing process. It uses a different Jpeg extraction technique that is more memory efficient and can work with larger images or those saved in progressive format. It is quite a bit slower than the normal viewing mode, though, so it should only be used if necessary. Even in Safe Mode, very large images may just be too large to be processed in the memory available. Safe Mode can be accessed from the menu that pops up when you hold your finger on a comic in the comic list.
