Whats going on ?

[needafix]

I am using your free text to speech software with w98se.  It reads a 30p text fine about 12mbs. Then i try to save it as wave file, windows saves it as a PCM file(?), i get the save as box, then i chose the voice and then the status bar / countdown clock pop on it then states it will be finished in just over an hour, so far so good.  It finishs and then gets saved in my documents.   I then use my Nero Software version 5.5 to burn it on to a cd and 3/4 min later its done so far so good, but i was shocked to play it on my cd player when i only heard 12 pages read back when i or i assumed i converted 30 pages to the wave format ! ?  Whats that all about and more important how to i get all 30 pages to play on my cd player; what have i missed ? ?

    Thanks

[needafix]

Oops i am never sure of the math, the exact file size is before wave conversion is 108173 bytes, i wonder is converting it to wave pushes the file size over the cd limit and then the software makes its best guess ?  Would using half the file on 2cds fix it ?  thanks - i just checked the wave propertises and it claims the size is now 1.3 gb ?  Whats with that ?  H E L P

[freddy888]

Yes it might be the size of the file...I suggest doing it in smaller parts.  I have not used this feature but it sounds likely as that is a very large file.  The other thing you could try is converting it to a different sound format that may reduce the overall size.

Also take note of how much your discs will hold...

The Haptek player can play 'ogg' files which is another sound format like 'mp3' for example.  You may find converting it from a wav file into an ogg file will take up less room.

For a handy converter (free and open source) that will convert from wav to ogg, try this one, I've used it a lot for conversions and found it to be very good:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Also as one half of the file seems to be missing, you could try opening your wav file in this editor and examine the ending.  Assuming it will load that kind of size, you should be able to skip to the end of it and play some of itto see if it has produced the whole work or stopped short.  At least if it has stopped short you will have a better idea of what size of files/text you can effectively work with.

[nolitanger]

Hi, Needafix.

I'd recommend that you buy an MP3 player if you're going to create and play such huge wav files. Converting a PCM wav file to MP3 will compress the file considerably (maybe 10x as much) and allow you to put it all on one CD. (You can't play an MP3 file on a regular CD player; you need an MP3 player.)

[needafix]

ok maybe i didn t think they were huge files.  how do i convert the wave to an mp3 file i don t see that command in any of the menus and what is the top limit of a wav file, i didn t know it had one? !
 
I came across something strange and i wonder what this is about, when i use the hal wave software, it comes out to 78mbs - and it takes just over 1 hour - v slow going .

But if i use another text to voice wave software that same text comes out to 1.3 gb in less that 10 minutes ! !   So whats that all about , is hal missing a lot of text?  If so how do i fix that problem ? ?  thanks - P.S. what about using other wav software that has a bigger limit ?  Any free ones ??

[freddy888]

Ok, read the posts again, you'll see we suggested using OTHER software to do the conversion to mp3 or whatever..

As to size restrictions on files, then my rule of thumb is that if you want to do serious (large) files with compression options and anything else, then go for a dedicated piece of software.  Only Zabaware can comment on what size files and how effectively it's software can handle those and any restrictions on sizes...I hazard a guess though that as it isn't a dedicated appliciation then some compromises may have been made.

If the other software is working better then use that. (I'm not support or anything btw, just another user and these are just my comments - so feel free to ignore me [] ) I hope you find a solution.

[needafix]

Yes i see the one link that got posted, but that converts text to Mp3 , i need something that converts text to wave thats thats playable on a normal cd player and won t skip text like the hal software seems to do but have yet to find one, i am searching freeware sites, oh well bye for now will keep hunting . . .

[freddy888]

Sorry had been a long day...

The only one I can think of at the moment thats free and does the text to wav is this one :

http://www.cfs-technologies.com/home/?id=1.4

I've not used the feature though so I dont know if it's a more efficient convertor or not..

[nolitanger]

Hi, Needafix,

It's me again. I don't know if the free Text-to-Speech-to-Wav software Freddy888 pointed you to is any good; I haven't used it. But if you want a thoroughly reliable for-pay Text-to-Speech-to-Wav/MP3/WMA software, I'd recommend TextAloud. TextAloud lets you choose the speed at which you want to save something (up to 150x faster, I think, than real time--5/10x is usually good enough) and the file format (Wav, MP3 or WMA). The company also sells a range of high-quality voices and is very customer-oriented.

You could download a trial version and try out the different options. I've used this product for years, and have never been disappointed. I've also tried ReadPlease, which has some of the features you want. It's fine, too, but not quite as robust as TextAloud. I haven't tried the UltraHal Text-to-Speech reader, so I can't vouch for it, but I see from various comments posted on the forum that it has its limitations.

[freddy888]

I'd go with that too I just got it and it seems nice [] and a good price too.