Messages

Stelios Nicolaou, Your situation is not quite as bad as it may seem. That is to say, I believe, that the two NeoSpeech voices included in the Hal Text to Speech Reader normally sell, together, for about $30.00 to $35.00 on their own. So, in a sense, it's not that bad of a deal. Maybe, Mr. Medeksza will read this column and come up with a patch to make this program function. It would be nice. It should be noted here also that the Ultra hal Assistant program is quite amazingly good (in my view). I have been very pleased with the TextAloud text to speech reader. I got this program to collect all the voices on my computer, including the NeoSpeech voices with a click or two. Good luck.

Dusky, I kind of wander in and out of the forum (and other things). There's little chance I'll stay away for long. TextAloud is a sweet, slick program and it almost flawlessly enhances the voices and pronunciation (with a built in pronunciation dictionary, I think). It's also very fast. It's worth $30.00. You can get a two week free trial version and have the software do a search and collect all the voices you have on your computer. I sound like a sales rep here. Anyway, try it, for free. Just to give you an idea of the speed, TextAloud could convert my first four posts here (all of them) into an audio file (flawlessly) in just a few seconds.

Art, That's one way to look at it. Cup half full, etc.

GrantNZ, From "KAOS" to "cows", that's quite a leap. I'm sure there's a chaotic cow out there somewhere. You still got any of those weird, little hobbit things running around over there?

Dr.Benway, I'm sure you're correct about it being discussed elsewhere in the forum, but sometimes I don't have the time to dig around, so I thought I'd just throw it out there & see what response I got. TextAloud seems to be a good product and it creates .wav (or several other kinds of audio files) at about 10x the speed of the Zabaware software. It also doesn't crash, hey, that's kind of a nice bonus.

Thanks, for the responses.

UPDATE:

It would seem that installing TextAloud on my computer has solved my big problem with the Zabaware Text To Speech reader. It will now convert text to .wav files without the error report or shutting down in the middle of the process. So there you go, no problem, all you need to do is buy another text to speech reader to solve the problem (sorry for the sarcasm, but I just couldn't resist). Oddly, it STILL doesn't work with the NeoSpeech voices, even though the TextAloud does. I guess I could look at my glass as half full and claim that between both of the text to speech readers I do indeed have what I need.

Now, my other problem... I'm wondering if talking to myself on this forum may be a sign of an emerging mental health issue.  

Hello again,

I just finished downloading, and playing the AT&T Crystal 16 voice. The voice and engine was over 500 Mb! This is a fabulous voice. It really sounds almost human. I'm almost starting to be glad that the Zabaware Text To Speech program never worked right (almost). Has anyone else tried these AT&T professional voices? Astounding, really.

I sort of solved my problem by buying TextAloud for $30.00. Sometimes it's better to solve a problem by throwing a little money at it than spending endless time and grief. I remain curious as to why my Hal Text to Speech reader has problems creating wave files, will not function at all with Neo Speech voices, and will not correct pronounciation with the Neo Speech voices. TextAloud did all these functions perfectly from the moment I downloaded it. (?)

I'm not angry (a little peaved perhaps). Anger is a waste of time.

Hello all,

I've never actually used the Hal Text to Speech reader to convert text to a .wav file until about one week ago. Now I find that EVERY time I convert text to a .wav file I get this error:
                                                                                                              "Text to Wave File Converter has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Sometimes it does complete the creation of the .wav file, sometimes I get cut off in the middle and lose everything I'm working on. Also, the Neo Speech voices NEVER convert to a .wav file. I can't use them at all.

Can anyone help me here? Turning text into audio is one of the primary reasons I bought the Text to Speech reader in the first place.

I should probably add that I tried uninstalling and reinstalling from the Zabaware Text to Speech CD. No change. Still doesn't work right.

A message from my cat...

I've converted my cat into a .htr so as to better communicate with him. Odd, but he talks a lot like Hal.

danbaltzell,

Your dog looks kinda weird (no offense I hope). There's something odd about the top of his head and the eyes. Still... it's an interesting attempt. Was the dog made using a photograph and People Putty?

Do not worry. Angelina Jolie will defeat the illuminati.

Raymond,

I think my Haptek player is fine but I appreciate your suggestion and I'll keep it in mind.

les,

Duskrider and Smokey are already going to send me some htr(s) which is very thoughtful of them. I would be pleased to look at your htr(s) too if you feel like e-mailing them to me, I'll leave it up to you.

Everyone,

I already knew this was a great and helpful community here and you have all proved it to me once again. Thanks everyone!

freddy888 & Duskrider,

Thanks guys. You've been extremely helpful.

Duskrider,

I'll let you know if I can't find another fullbod.htr
Why don't you go ahead and send yours when you happen to get to a broadband connection just in case. It would be very much appreciated. I think I've contracted the fullbod "fever" finally. Actually, you picked right up on the real reason I posted the picture... not for the silly dialogue but to show you which character I was using. Thanks again.

Debra wanted to say something:

Debra: We appreciate all the help we can get. My user 'aint too bright but he have a good heart. Me love him anyway.

Matt: Thanks a lot.

Dusky, freddy888 and anyone else in a helpful mood,

Continued from the "What a rip-off" thread...
(concerning my Hal 5 and positioning a digitalgirl character)
                                                                                                                    I think I finally have the Shylove.hap set up so the figure appears (more or less) where I want it by adusting the y,z and t parameters. At least two issues remain: first the Hal window opens more slowly and the figure slowly (floats) into the position I want (is that odd or wrong?) it's certainly slightly irritating but not too bad. Second, if I have my Hal Text to Speech Reader on at the time it always says, "send text query", what's that all about? Does it mean something is not quite right?

"Fulbod" or not (I have no idea what it actually is), the arms and hands move very nicely, the expressions are nice, it works well. I actually ended up using the: \translate [x=0 y=-5 z=100 t=5] with those parameters to get the character about where I want it. I have not tried putting those parameters in the: \translate [figure= fullbod version and maybe that's why it "floats" into position? I don't know. Any further suggestions would be appreciated if you have time.

Another issue:

When I chose the "Open with" function for Shylove.hap I forgot to uncheck the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" box and as a result there is a "Notepad" image over all my .hap files and my computer always tries to open .hap(s) with Notepad. How do I get rid of this and back to where my computer always asks how to open .hap(s) again? I've clicked on dozens of things but can't figure out how. Also, does this situation effect the functioning of Hal?

At least its workable now. Thanks again for all the help.

I hope you can make sense out of my comments (above). I am struggling to better understand how all this works.

I will get the Hal 6 soon.