Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.

Also, I often prefer hearing an efficient synthesizer such as Eloquence or Via Voice or Dectalk when listening to a book.  When I'm using a computer or a device like a note taker or tablet, I can check how anything is spelled, I can very easily copy and paste if I want or need to take notes, andI can listen more quickly.

 

It allows you to be closer to the actual text.

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: Rob Hudson

Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 1:11 PM

To: nvda@nvda.groups.io

Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.

Apparently, this is not limited to the browsers I mentioned in first message. The same issue exists in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Hello folks. Here is the issue, as best I can explain it.


When I open any video in YouTube, be it Firefox or Waterfox, it does not update the elapsed time of the video until I pause the video. Also, if I tab or control+tab away, it might update. Any reason why this is happening? It isn't a show stopper, but, it is annoying. I cannot say for sure if this happens in chrome or Edge, or Internet Explorer. This seems to be an issue that spans different versions of the browsers mentioned and the version of NVDA as well.

A Focus 40 Blue. I don't know how to get Bluetooth working for it, though. It came with two cables, a short one and a long one. I used the long one so I could sit back with it on my lap, but then it started dropping out if I didn't use one hand to hold the plugin place, and by then I'd mislaid the shorter cable. My sister found something else with plugs that fit at both ends, but the cord was too thin to handle the information and would only work for about two seconds before dropping out again. I don't know where to buy a sufficiently durable cable for this display, and thought I'd have to go through the company directly, as the manual said.

So, what kind of Braille display do you have?  And what kind of cord are you having a problem with?

 

Just perhaps a replacement cord isn’t nearly as expensive as you believe it will be at all.  Most of the cords on mose Braille displays these days are one or another kind of a USB cable and can be gotten rather cheaply from any number of sources including Best Buy.

 

 

 

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Sharni-Lee Ward
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:43 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

My name is Sharni, S-h-a-r-n-i. And I bought a Braille Display a couple years back. Waste of money. The cable started acting up when I'd barely used it and I don't know where to buy a new one, and it probably costs another couple hundred dollars because that's how blind tech companies work when they want to make a profit. Besides, my arms would get tired after reading like that for a while, and having to scroll manually takes all the joy out of reading. Get over your narrow-minded self.

 

On 26/03/2018 5:14 AM, Lino Morales wrote:

Well not into that crap anyway. To each his own. Buy a BRL display Charneey.

 

Lino Morales

 

From: Rob Hudson
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:12 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.

 

 

So, what kind of Braille display do you have?  And what kind of cord are you having a problem with?

 

Just perhaps a replacement cord isn’t nearly as expensive as you believe it will be at all.  Most of the cords on mose Braille displays these days are one or another kind of a USB cable and can be gotten rather cheaply from any number of sources including Best Buy.

 

 

 

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Sharni-Lee Ward
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:43 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

My name is Sharni, S-h-a-r-n-i. And I bought a Braille Display a couple years back. Waste of money. The cable started acting up when I'd barely used it and I don't know where to buy a new one, and it probably costs another couple hundred dollars because that's how blind tech companies work when they want to make a profit. Besides, my arms would get tired after reading like that for a while, and having to scroll manually takes all the joy out of reading. Get over your narrow-minded self.

 

On 26/03/2018 5:14 AM, Lino Morales wrote:

Well not into that crap anyway. To each his own. Buy a BRL display Charneey.

 

Lino Morales

 

From: Rob Hudson
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:12 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.

 

 

     Hello. I am glad I do have windows 10 and have the Microsoft Store installed was wondering what are some apps that will work with NVDA? I could only find two the MSN news and the MSN weather app so far. So if anyone knows of other ones maybe put them up on the list. Have heard that Skype is not that great that is okay have never used it.
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Hi Sharni,
I have been meticulously perusing and consuming large portions of text
these last couple months for my examinations, which, fortunately and
finally, end on Wednesday. In this process, I must confess that I too
have noticed some fairly simple and uncomplicated and commonplace
words being mispronounced. As my objective was to prepare for my
examinations, I ignored and overlooked the mispronunciations, but did
feel surprised every now and then at the things I observed newly
broken. While I canot claim to be frustrated beyond further endurance,
far from that stage at the moment, I certainly get where you are
coming from. I suppose the best thing for us to do is to post all
these concerns of ours to the ESpeak-NG mailing list itself, so that
Reece and others are made cognizant of user feedback. This will
undoubtedly require patience and persistence, but seems to me the most
proper and promising course of action. I shall join anyone who choose
to pursue this endeavour post-March 28...
Thanks.

On 3/25/18, Lino Morales <linomorales001@gmail.com> wrote:

Well not into that crap anyway. To each his own. Buy a BRL display
Charneey.

Lino Morales

From: Rob Hudson<mailto:rob_hudson_3182@gmx.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:12 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io<mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io>
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed
espeak ng in 2017.4?

Lino Morales <linomorales001@gmail.com> wrote:

This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You
realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It
would put me to sleep.

But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are
not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in
town.

My name is Sharni, S-h-a-r-n-i. And I bought a Braille Display a couple years back. Waste of money. The cable started acting up when I'd barely used it and I don't know where to buy a new one, and it probably costs another couple hundred dollars because that's how blind tech companies work when they want to make a profit. Besides, my arms would get tired after reading like that for a while, and having to scroll manually takes all the joy out of reading. Get over your narrow-minded self.

Well not into that crap anyway. To each his own. Buy a BRL display Charneey.

 

Lino Morales

 

From: Rob Hudson
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:12 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.

 

Well not into that crap anyway. To each his own. Buy a BRL display Charneey.

 

Lino Morales

 

From: Rob Hudson
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:12 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.

 

Hi,

If you have any comments, please send your comments to the nvda-spl list (NOT HERE).

Cheers,

Joseph

 

From: nvda-spl@nvda-spl.groups.io <nvda-spl@nvda-spl.groups.io> On Behalf Of Joseph Lee
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 8:57 PM
To: nvda-spl@nvda-spl.groups.io
Subject: [nvda-spl] Request for comments: introducing Playlist Transcripts and Playlist Analyzer

 

Hi everyone,

 

As part of the SPL add-on development process, I would like to receive comments on the following proposals:

 

Few days ago, a broadcaster sent a message to NVDA users list suggesting a feature for SPL add-on where various info about a playlist can be copied to the clipboard or to a text file. This is in part inspired by a feature in JAWS scripts for SPL Studio where playlist info can be copied to the clipboard or stored in a file. After thinking about this for a while and looking at usage scenarios, I felt it would be best to implement this in the add-on. Possible usage scenarios include sharing a list of tracks for a show to listeners for future reference, keeping a record of tracks for royalty reasons and what not.

 

When it comes to actually implementing it, I found that it is an easy task: have a list of tracks somewhere, which will then be stored in a text file. But if I did just that, it would amount to “stealing”. Thus I decided to add a little twist to this feature that will surprise current and potential users.

 

The result: Playlist Transcripts. For those who may have forgotten what a “transcript” is, a transcript is a textual record of spoken word, or for some people, a comprehensive academic record. I’m calling it “playlist transcripts” because not only this feature will “transcribe” playlist information, but it’ll also store the transcript into a file or prepare it for copying and pasting somewhere.

 

But that’s not all: you’ll be able to tell NVDA to “transform” playlist data into numerous formats: text to be copied and pasted to and from clipboard, text file with numerous track info formats, an HTML table, a nested HTML list, CSV (comma-separated values), a Markdown table, an m3u playlist, you name it. Plus, you’ll be able to not only capture the entire playlist, but also a part of it, and perhaps in the future, limit transcripts based on information entered into columns such as looking at tracks from a specific genre. And the cool thing is that NVDA has all the necessary building blocks to make this (surprise) into a real thing.

 

Also, given that playlist analysis features are expanding, I’m thinking about grouping various features under one brand, tentatively known as “Playlist Analyzer”. This feature will group track time analysis, playlist snapshots, and the new playlist transcripts under a common theme. All three have (or will have) something in common: playlist analysis range, defined by a playlist analysis marker (SPL Assistant, F9). For example, if you wish to analyze an hour’s worth of tracks, you can mark the hour marker for that hour, move to the last track of the hour and either take a snapshot (showing statistics on tracks for the hour such as average duration and top artist), get total duration (track time analysis), or view a CSV representation of that hour’s playlist (playlist transcripts).

 

As for when these will appear: playlist transcripts will be done over several months, and Playlist Analyzer theme will be ready as early as version 18.06 (around NVDACon 2018). To give you a taste of what playlist transcripts will look like, I’ll release a fast ring snapshot around March 23^rd that’ll let you see the playlist data as an HTML table (on a separate window), invoked via SPL Assistant, X (eXperimental).

 

If you have any comments, additional suggestions, questions, concerns and what not, please let us (this list) know.

Cheers,

Joseph

This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.

 

Lino Morales

 

From: Sharni-Lee Ward
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:15 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

Okay, I installed NVDA 2018.1, after creating a portable copy in case it became too much to bear.

 

I don't like Eloquence because it isn't as crisp as Espeak. I have compared it to A.M radio in the past, and Espeak to FM/CD Quality sound. Also, it has only eight variants as opposed to Espeak's forty-something (I just realised my lovingly customised alternate female variants have somehow been broken by more recent changes which makes me sad, but I usually stick with Linda anyway).

 

It's still doing the things that annoyed me in December, but I'm willing to try and see if I get used to them.

 

I don't expect a program to be perfect. I don't expect a synth to be perfect. I would like to hope that people don't break something that was perfectly all right in a previous version, however.

 

And as for inflection, I have it set to 100% (GAH, it does the thing with percent....), which makes Eloquence sound overly chipper, another reason I don't enjoy that synth as much. By flat, I mean the voice does not use perceptible inflection in the cases of question marks, commas and exclamation points. This should not be something a blind user has to put up with when it comes to synthesised voice. How is one supposed to know if the statement is yelled or spoken calmly if the voice doesn't give it away? How emotionally invested can they be in a story if there is no noticeable inflection for something as basic as exclamations and question marks?

 

 

On 25/03/2018 4:54 PM, Gene wrote:

I need to correct one statement.  You can't, as it appears, change inflection in Eloquence with NVDA.  I don't know what you consider flat.  But if you give Eloquence a chance, you may find that the amount of inflection it uses is not bothersome to you.  You may want an exaggerated amount of inflection.  I don't know how you have E-Speak set.  But you may find that, if you give Eloquence a chance and get used to it, you may find it generally superior over time. 

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: Gene

Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 12:50 AM

To: nvda@nvda.groups.io

Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

 

Also, what's wrong with Eloquence?  Have you tried it  And as I recall, you can adjust inflection with it.  Don't use the Brittish English voice.  It's obviously programmed by Americans amateurishly trying to imitate a Brittish accent.  Use the default American English.  It pronounces a great many more words correctly compared with e-speak.  And I use it very well with the NVDA speech dictionary.  Are you familiar with the SAPI 5 demo you can try of Eloquence?  Eloquence and Via Voice, the same synthesizer from a sound and performance standpoint, are the most accurate in terms of proper pronounciation of words in my experience. 

 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Sharni-Lee Ward
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2018 10:27 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed espeak ng in 2017.4?

I've just caught up on all my emails. If I understood an earlier thread correctly, despite our complaints when 2017.4 came out, the devs did not roll back the version of espeak packaged with NVDA to the version in 2017.3, which means that I will not be updating NVDA, despite the wonderful-sounding new features.


Espeak, and subsequently Espeak NG, has been my default synth since I started using NVDA. There was an issue in 2014 but I was able to get used to that, and then it got fixed, so I was contented. The problems I found in the espeak packaged with 2017.4 were more than I could stand, as someone who primarily uses NVDA to read fanfiction and my own stories. However, Espeak is among the only synths compatible with NVDA's inflection slider, which I have maxed out for optimal performance. I'm not about to sacrifice broad inflection for the drones of MS voices, and I'm currently using a Win 7 computer, but even if I was on a Win 10 one, the 1Core voices don't do it for me either. They're pleasant, but also flat. No inflection. No way to change the inflection. I can't stand human-sounding voices because they're less flexible than synthetic ones in this regard. Also, nearly all non Espeak voices are slow as well as flat, partially due to the length of pauses between clauses of a sentence, and this is about as unbearable as the flatness. And there is one more thing that really clinches my unwillingness to change synths. I cannot get anything else to cooperate with my speech dictionary. As I said, I read a lot of fanfiction, and I have put lots of characters'
names and the names of Pokémon into my dictionary so that they are pronounced properly. The other synths simply do not like these names, no matter what I try to do with them, and some of them even pronounced my name wrong, so I gave up on them.


This is why I want whoever's developing Espeak to roll back their changes to a previous version (surely they have older versions backed up somewhere. I would if I was developing something like this), and for NVDA to likewise roll back the version packaged with it until the devs of the synth work out how to alter one language without screwing up twenty others in the process. I know I can only go so far before I am forced to update to the latest version of NVDA or be left to languish as more and more things become incompatible with the last tolerable version I have.


Please, I am begging you, do something about this.

 

 

I really wish there was a way to make Webvisum work with the new FireFox 59 browser, but I fear this project is dead!

Is there any other free captcha solving add-on I can use that works with FireFox 59 and NVDA 2018.1?

Don't think it is fair we have to use an older, outdated FireFox browser to gain access to Webvisum, and I refuse to do so.

Has anyone found a work-around to this on-going nusome for users of screenreaders browsing the web?

Hi, everyone,

 

Is there an email list for open office users? I'd especially like to learn kelp and writer.

 

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

Rosemarie

 

 

Well not into that crap anyway. To each his own. Buy a BRL display
Charneey.

Lino Morales

From: Rob Hudson<mailto:rob_hudson_3182@gmx.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:12 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io<mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io>
Subject: Re: [nvda] I take it there have been no improvements to the flawed
espeak ng in 2017.4?

Lino Morales <linomorales001@gmail.com> wrote:

This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You
realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It
would put me to sleep.

But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are
not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in
town.

Hello folks. Here is the issue, as best I can explain it.


When I open any video in YouTube, be it Firefox or Waterfox, it does not update the elapsed time of the video until I pause the video. Also, if I tab or control+tab away, it might update. Any reason why this is happening? It isn't a show stopper, but, it is annoying. I cannot say for sure if this happens in chrome or Edge, or Internet Explorer. This seems to be an issue that spans different versions of the browsers mentioned and the version of NVDA as well.

Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> wrote:
> This is what talking books are for. Regardless of what synth I use. You realize bla hearing a book ready by a speech synth would be? Boring. It would put me to sleep.


But not all books are made into audio books. In fact, the vast majority are not. And if you're into online fiction, synth reading is the only game in town.