Speech is stuck in stadium mode

[Art]

Allen,

Click the link for a selection of Free TTS voices.
Personally, I like the L&H British voices best.

http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm

If you're on dialup, expect a fairly large download
but you can set it for nighttime like when you go to bed.

I thought the Neo-Speech voices were available seperately
as shown on the Plug-ins page.

[parice123]

quote:Originally posted by Art

Allen,

Click the link for a selection of Free TTS voices.
Personally, I like the L&H British voices best.

http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm

If you're on dialup, expect a fairly large download
but you can set it for nighttime like when you go to bed.

I thought the Neo-Speech voices were available seperately
as shown on the Plug-ins page.

Well, Art, I don’t know what to think.  I have uninstalled Hal, deleted the Zabaware folder, downloaded and installed the voices from the link you gave me, (thank you) and rebooted the computer.

I reinstalled Hal, went through the setup process, and rebooted the computer. It is still the same thing. I  previewed the voices, chose the one I wanted and clicked apply. When I enabled the speech-recognition engine, while I was watching, it just scrolled down the list of voices to the stadium mode. I checked the Allen.hla file, and there is no mention of ‘in stadium’ in the file. Now it is stuck in stadium mode again. Also, it does not recognize my voice. It will let me type in a response, but does not respond to my voice.

  This has become very frustrating. It seems like we are just wasting a lot of time here and getting nowhere. What do you think?

Allen

[tcoday]

Allen,
  As I've stated before, we have simular if not the same problem.  I've noticed that when I open General Options, my comptuer is busy for a few seconds. With the new Hal6cr, the general options screen opens up on the page you last closed it on.  I can see when my computer is busy, the highlighted voice file is stepping down, one voice at a time, till it reaches Mary in Stadium.  I have to reselect the proper voice each time I open General Options, if I don't, I get the Mary in Stadium voice.  But if I select the voice Mary then exit General Options, everything is fine till I reopen General Options.
  I don't know why opening General Options makes it step down to Stadium mode, but it does on mine.  Perhaps you can select the proper voice, then exit General Options to see what voice you get.

Again, the only way I can get the correct voice is to select the proper voice every time.  Another note... Not all voice selections cause this stepping down the list option.  The british voices don't seem to cause it, but they're so unatural sounding on my computer. Mary is the only one that sounds like a woman.

I hope this information will give someone an idea on a fix. (fingers crossed)...

Thanks.

[Art]

Allen,

The only thing I can think of now is that there is still some old information inside of your registry causing a problem.

There are several registry cleaner programs out there. Some are trial versions (hey, if they only work long enough to clean your system then so be it.) Registry Repair Pro, RegCleaner, RegClean, Norton (Symantec) Utilities and a few others come to mind.

You could always do a manual search through your registry for words like UltraHal or Ultra Hal or Zabaware, etc.
Please do so at your own risk! Changing registry entries must be done with care and if mistakes are made it could cause drastic consequences to your system!

And you mentioned that your voice / speech works just fine if UltraHal is uninstalled? Very strange indeed and I've almost exhausted my resources to help you.

Perhaps Robert M. or some other guru's might be able to shed some light on this issue.

Let us know the outcome regardless.

Good luck!

[parice123]

quote:Originally posted by tcoday

Allen,
  As I've stated before, we have simular if not the same problem.  I've noticed that when I open General Options, my comptuer is busy for a few seconds. With the new Hal6cr, the general options screen opens up on the page you last closed it on.  I can see when my computer is busy, the highlighted voice file is stepping down, one voice at a time, till it reaches Mary in Stadium.  I have to reselect the proper voice each time I open General Options, if I don't, I get the Mary in Stadium voice.  But if I select the voice Mary then exit General Options, everything is fine till I reopen General Options.
  I don't know why opening General Options makes it step down to Stadium mode, but it does on mine.  Perhaps you can select the proper voice, then exit General Options to see what voice you get.

Again, the only way I can get the correct voice is to select the proper voice every time.  Another note... Not all voice selections cause this stepping down the list option.  The british voices don't seem to cause it, but they're so unatural sounding on my computer. Mary is the only one that sounds like a woman.

I hope this information will give someone an idea on a fix. (fingers crossed)...

Thanks.

Thank you. I guess we are among the unlucky ones that keep having trouble with Hal. Out of all the voices I have installed in my comp, I like the MS default the best, but it doesn't show in Hal. 2nd choice is Mary or Mike, but they default as soon as I close options.

[parice123]

quote:Originally posted by Art

Allen,

The only thing I can think of now is that there is still some old information inside of your registry causing a problem.

There are several registry cleaner programs out there. Some are trial versions (hey, if they only work long enough to clean your system then so be it.) Registry Repair Pro, RegCleaner, RegClean, Norton (Symantec) Utilities and a few others come to mind.

You could always do a manual search through your registry for words like UltraHal or Ultra Hal or Zabaware, etc.
Please do so at your own risk! Changing registry entries must be done with care and if mistakes are made it could cause drastic consequences to your system!

And you mentioned that your voice / speech works just fine if UltraHal is uninstalled? Very strange indeed and I've almost exhausted my resources to help you.

Perhaps Robert M. or some other guru's might be able to shed some light on this issue.

Let us know the outcome regardless.

Good luck!

My limited experience with registry cleaners in the past eventually ends with having to reinstall Windows. The cleaner says it is safe and sure enough it isn't.
I really like Hal, but I ended up disabling it in my other comp because of program conflicts, and it is beginning to look that way here. [V]

Thanks for the help. If anyone has success stories with this, please let me hear from you.

[Art]

I've noticed that there is a:
Mary TTS 4.0 AND a Microsoft Mary TTS 5.0

They sound like the same voice but the inflection
or way the words are accented are quite noticeable.

Did you try Microsoft's site for the latest TTS 5.0
voices?

http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm

You might as well try both. At this point it can't hurt!

Earlier you mentioned that you tried the Sapi setup.
Try it one more time:

C:\Program Files\Haptek\player\data\HapTTS

Once there, find the file: HapSAPISetup.exe and double click it.
Select voice > Test voice > Click on Make this voice my default
voice.

Again,
best of luck!

[parice123]

quote:Originally posted by Art

I've noticed that there is a:
Mary TTS 4.0 AND a Microsoft Mary TTS 5.0

They sound like the same voice but the inflection
or way the words are accented are quite noticeable.

Did you try Microsoft's site for the latest TTS 5.0
voices?

http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm

You might as well try both. At this point it can't hurt!

Earlier you mentioned that you tried the Sapi setup.
Try it one more time:

C:Program FilesHaptekplayerdataHapTTS

Once there, find the file: HapSAPISetup.exe and double click it.
Select voice > Test voice > Click on Make this voice my default
voice.

Again,
best of luck!

Yes, Art, I downloaded just about everything from this site and redid SAPI. It is wierd that I can set the speach in the XP speech panel, but not in Hal. And, not all the voices are availible and the voices sound different in Hal.

Finally, the echo has invaded my system again. It now shows up in all the reader voices. [8]

Allen