I am far from being an expert on technological matters, nevertheless I second the sentiment about Double Talk with regard to reading text. I hope APH listens to us, their customers.
Alpidio----- Original Message ----- From: "Rik James" <rixmix2009@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 2:50 PM Subject: [bookport] Re: new book port
Hello, fellow Book Port teleporters. I have to chime in briefly.Just to say I also was disappointed to learn of the new Book Port's voices.It is not just that I do not like the sound of Sam and Tom.It is litterally that I cannot understand them. Several of the characters and words spoken are just not intelligible to my old ears.I have stated on this list before my Book Port has changed my life and been one of the finest devices among so very many that I have purchased over the years.I did purchase and like my Victor Stream, but I use it for much of the mp3 audio and Daisy formatted mp3 audio stuff I read. And while I can and do use it a little using the voices, I just do not enjoy the reading using of the text to speech voices, for reasons I cited earlier.I don't yet know if I will purchase the new Book Port.But it is not in its favor to learn that the device will have those mealy mouth type of voices. I am not trying to be insulting or critical. But it is just true, I just plain can't understand them enough to suit my own needs.Meanwhile I am using My Book Port, and trying to treat it with kid gloves, so very fearful for when I again wear out the buttons and it is rendered no longer so useful, knowing that I cannot be any longer repaired by APH.I hope to hear in the future the option to have the Double Talk voice in the new Book Port. I know you developers have many things to consider about it. I just am chiming in as one of the consumers who wants the good stuff. I will purchase a new Book Port, if I feel I can get my value from it as I have from my original unit.Thanks. Rik James -------------------------------------------------- From: "Curtis Delzer" <curtis@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 11:34 AM To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [bookport] Re: new book portWell, I am not truly convinced that DoubleTalk chip would double the price. "human" like, as you say, depends on the OS in the machine, and if it were a DoubleTalk chip, it could be used for all text and the interface too it wouldn't be memory specific. With the particular OS, as I think it is in the particular BP plus, the there is limited speech facilities available for it, and this one is the Samantha and Tom voices, and probably the UK Daniel as well. As I say, why oh why not spend the extra fifty bux and use a double talk chip for text reading and file name reading, etc. Double Talk speech is a hall mark of Book Port so it should be incorporated into the plus unit, because it truly is less memory intensive than any "human" speech, and is just better than those smoky voices, both will get cancer in a few months, the way they sound. :) <grin>Curtis Delzer. HS. on Tuesday 2/9/2010 12:06 PM, Martin Courcelles said:Because they sound human?Don't get me wrong, I like the old DoubleTalk, but why not use financially viable text-to-speech, instead of using the DoubleTalk hardware speech which would double the price. I do wish that they could crank up the audio bitrate however. It would make them sound a bit clearer. I have the same pet peeve with the other players on the market. Right now, the voices sound like they have a smoke in their mouth.On 2/9/2010 12:11 PM, Curtis Delzer wrote:Oh please, why the Samantha, Tom, etc. voices? PLEASE! Why not just remain with DoubleTalk voice instead, it's better than that! DoubleTalk is designed with Text in mind, has been for many years and you could then also make the device an external USB supported synthesizer with just some additional configuration. Even then a dictionary for words could be added with double-tap keystrokes for changing pronunciation of mispronounced words, etc. Is memory considerations why those voices were chosen? There are just so many better choices than these voices!Curtis Delzer. HS.
