Age old problem

[markofkane]

My lipsync within Hal is behind the words. I don't have that problem with Cyberbuddy, or Mash.

I have a Geforce 5500 video card, A soundblaster LIVE LS sound card, 1.6GHZ P$ processor, and 1 GB of RAM.

Anything I could try short of a sledgehammer, or buying a new computer?

I don't have any startup programs, except Avast Anti-virus, and Zone Alarm Free.

[Art]

Mark,

Just curious, are you using Hal with a FULL SCREEN WINDOW or a very large display setting? If so, does reducing these settings make a difference?

Secondly, What TTS voice are you using (and company...Cepstral, NeoSpeech, L&H, etc.)?

[markofkane]

I did install the latest nvidia driver, and it may have helped some. But I still think that there is a small lag in the lipsync.

Used the British English, and had the lag problem, then switched to Cepstral.

There is maybe a 1/2 delay?? Or maybe less, in the lipsync response.

On an unrelated note, I tried the people putty demo, and it kept crashing on me while recording sound. I use that to try to sync with music, but the lipsync is still laggy and often not very responsive.

I sure as heck wouldn't buy it at that rate.

[Art]

Again, what screen setting are you using for your computer and Hal?

The larger your windows desktop setting (1500 X 1200, 1280 X 1024, etc) will often produce a lag, especially in games due to video card limitations, screen refresh rates, processor speed, memory, etc., as I'm sure you know. Try lowering by one step.

Secondly, in the Hal UI, try adjusting or using a smaller window size, them see if there's a marked difference in the lip sync prob.

Keep us posted....

[markofkane]

I always use the lowest resolution, 800X600


And a smaller window size helps a little. But the slight lag is there.

[Carl2]

markofkane,
  Just to try it I put Hal ver 5 on a P2 300mHz computer 319 MB ram, I can't recall a delay in lypsync, there was a long delay before receiving a reply as Hal was looking through the data base.  I'm using the 800x600 resolution and Mary, one of the supplied voices.
  Have you tried playing a movie?  
Carl2

 

[markofkane]

movies play flawlessly.

[danbaltzell]

Mark,

I'm running a P4 2GHz and love that British voice too, and haven't seen that happen, but my CPU is running at 50%+ with HAL, and I'd think your video card may suck down some more processing time, try looking at it's performance in the Windows Task Manager.  I've noticed a voice changer program I use cause glitching with HAL at times and I thought that may have been the problem.  I just noticed right before HAL speaks the processing goes way high when I have them all open.  I suppose searching through the code, so I thought maybe you've got lots of plug ins running also, just a thought.[xx(]

[markofkane]

My videocard doesn't show in task manager, but Hal, or Haptek does take a lot of CPU.

[danbaltzell]

I opened people putty, Hal, and that voice changer just to see what would happen.  I still didn't get the voice lag, but my CPU usage jumped to almost 90%, then it settled down to just under 80% after they all opened, not too much more and maybe I can replicate your audio problem.

[markofkane]

Well the lag isn't too bad, but Cepstral(I just got it recently) will sometimes get static in the voice, and eventually, there is no voice, the lips move, and the words show (In Hal) but no voice.

The voice works again if I minimize Hal, and then maximize it.

I did not have that problem with the L&H voices, or Mary, Mike or Sam.

And there is no option for Cepstal voices in any program except Hal.

I cannot get the option in MASH, or Cyber Buddy.

[Art]

Mark quoted:

"Used the British English, and had the lag problem, then switched to Cepstral.
There is maybe a 1/2 delay?? Or maybe less, in the lipsync response."
*********************
Then again:

"I did not have that problem with the L&H voices, or Mary, Mike or Sam.
And there is no option for Cepstal voices in any program except Hal."
============================

OK...so which is it? You had a prob with the L&H voices or not?

By, There is no option for Cepstral Voices...what do you mean?

Cepstral has the SwiftTalker program with which to change the pitch, speed & volume.
MS agent helpers can also use the Cepstral voices.

Seems to be a bit confusing....

[markofkane]

The lag is less noticeable with Cepstral voices, however:

Sometimes there is static in Cepstral voices, and it quits working until I minimize and maximize Hal.


BUT, Cepstral Voice only appears as an option in HAL. Not Cyberbuddy, or MASH.

I may make a recording (sometime) to demonstrate the lag I got now.

[Art]

Yes, if you'll notice, only the MS and L&H voices appear in M.A.S.H. or M.A.P.V. or CyberBuddy. Any installed TTS voices from Cepstral or NeoSpeech do not appear in these programs.

I'm not sure at the moment if it has to do with being a SAPI 4 or 5 thing but you have my curiousity aroused.

I'll get back when I find out something on this.

Cheers!

[Art]

OK Mark,

The reason that our other TTS voices do not show up within the MASH or MAPV or CyberBuddy is that the creators of the TTS voices that work like L&H, have a LICENSE AGREEMENT with Microsoft. Those voices were developed to Microsoft's guidelines and adherence to compatibility defined by MS.

Although XP ships with the SAPI 5 compliant codecs, one might be wise to install the SAPI 4 runtime as well http://www.microsoft.com/products/msagent/support/user/tts.asp#windowsxp

Hal and other programs that don't place such constraints on the TTS voices should display and run any newer TTS voices just fine. Those that rely on the license agreement provisions with MS may not.

More than you wanted to know...but now you know!