[icon-discuss] Re: Improving NLS on Icon and Braille Plus
- From: tim cumings <thcumings@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: s.dresser@xxxxxxxxxxx, < >, <marc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <ljgehres@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "'Icon and Braille Plus Discussion List'" <icon-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
- Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:20:51 -0400
Steve, if the nls license costs $20000, and a thousand icon users pay $20
apiece, that would pay
for the license. , On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:47:36 -0400, Steve Dresser wrote:
>Tim,
>
>I have a feeling that it would have cost a lot more than $20 to get the kind
>of quality improvement we want. Would you have been willing to pay an extra
>$200, or maybe even $500?
>
>Steve
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "tim cumings" <thcumings@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <marc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <ljgehres@xxxxxxxxxxx>; "'Icon and Braille Plus
>Discussion List'" <icon-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 15:17
>Subject: [icon-discuss] Re: Improving NLS on Icon and Braille Plus
>
>
>Mark, although I appreciate your honesty regarding the nls implementation, I
>feel this was shortsighted
>on Levelstar's and Aph's part. I would have been willing to pay an extra $20
>up
>front if I had known that this
>would allow the full and best implementation of the nls system, and I'm sure
>other bp and icon owners would
>have paid that cost as well. The icon and bp are still the only notetakers
>at
>this point that play the nls
>digital talking books, and so at least for now, there are only three devices
>that play these books:
>
>On a related issue, once nls goes public with its updated web site and ends
>the
>pilot
>program, are their plans to improve the icon interface with the nls web
>site,
>similar to the icon's
>interface with bookshare? The icon and bp are the only two devices at this
>point that can directly
>download nls books, both brf and audio. I'd think this would be a very good
>marketing point for
>levelstar and aph.On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:11:59 -0600, Marc Mulcahy wrote:
>
>
>>OK, here's the scoop. There are two issues here. First is that NLS chose
>>an audio codec for which there are not many inexpensive and/or efficient
>>implementations. The least expensive implementation we've found costs over
>>$20,000, and that's lots of Icon and Braille+ sales. As a result, we use a
>>freely available, and not extremely efficient, reference implementation.
>>
>>In our latest private betas, we've improved the efficiency of the decoder
>>such that it seems you can speed NLS playback up to 220% without any
>>break-up, so you should see this improvement in a release soon.
>>
>>The second issue is that some don't like the sound of the timescale
>>modification which we use to speed up the audio. We have no plans to
>>change
>>TSM at the moment.
>>
>>Marc
>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: icon-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>[mailto:icon-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Linda Gehres
>>>Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 5:15 PM
>>>To: Icon and Braille Plus Discussion List
>>>Subject: [icon-discuss] Improving NLS on Icon and Braille Plus
>>>
>>>Irwin, I totally agree with you, and that's why I haven't
>>>taken the plunge yet into getting with the NLS pilot program
>>>till this issue is resolved. Yes, I've seen the new and
>>>improved Victor Streams, but I think it's absolutely
>>>ridiculous to purchase a second machine in order to hear
>>>computerized NLS books. I know there's been a lot of comment
>>>on the discussion list about this issue, and I, too, hope it
>>>can be resolved. I do, however, wonder if part of the
>>>problem is with the NLS formatting. Is that formatting just
>>>in the development stage, and is NLS assuming that everyone
>>>interested in reading digital books is going with the
>>>Humanware product? That doesn't sound fair to me either, and
>>>I gather one cannot just download digital NLS books on
>>>computer. Hopefully it's a situation where I'm just confused
>>>and don't have all of the information. But, please, a
>>>comment from someone in the know at Levelstar and or APH
>>>would be greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>>Linda Gehres
>>>
>>
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>>For answers to the most frequently asked questions about Icon and Braille
>>+,
>>Visit
>>the LevelStar and APH FAQ pages:
>>Visit the LevelStar FAQ page at
>>http://www.levelstar.com/support-faqs.php
>>Visit the APH FAQ page at
>>http://sun1.aph.org/webcast/brailleplus2/faq.html
>
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