ViaVoice - working great

[Tim Cross <tcross@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

With the recent posts regarding ViaVoice and because of a couple of
questions lately regarding the version etc, I thought I'd just report
some great results I've been getting from using it lately. 

I tried out ViaVoice Outloud when Raman released the server for the
system. At the time, I was very impressed with the quality of the
speech, but was frustrated by the server continually dying. Last week
I checked the IBM homepage for ViaVoice and found there was a new
version. The url has changed from that listed in the NOTES file in the
linux_outloud subdirectory of the servers directory to
http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/dev/index.html. There has also
been a change in package names. You now need to download the
viavoice_tts_rtk_5.tar file (doesn't seem to be any reference to
"outloud" anymore, instead referring to the package as viavoice
tts. If you have already installed the old viavoice_outloud rpm, its
probably a good idea to uninstall it with rpm -e before installing the
new rpm. 

Anyway, I've found the new version runs really well. In the last week
of use, I have only had to re-start the server once. In fact, its been
working so well, I've unplugged my DecTalk Express. However, one thing
I'm not 100% certain about is if the improved performace is soley a
result of the new version or if its due to my improved system. I
recently upgraded my memory from 128Mb to 256Mb and this might have
something to do with the better performance/reliability. I can't wait
to find the time to see if I can get it working on my Dell laptop. If
I'm successful, it will make life a lot easier as there will be one
less piece of hardware I have to carry around! All in all, the
combination of emacspeak and ViaVoice provides a very workable
system. Thanks Raman. 

Tim
-- 
Tim Cross
NorthNet Internet Services
mailto: tcross@xxxxxxxxxxx
phone: +61 2 6772 5973
mobile: 0412 969193
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