Resolved by CochranRobotics!
Hey guys.
I have asked this question in another thread, but I decided to create a new "assistance required" thread as my issue relates to Windows 8, where as the other thread was really related to Windows 7, plus I'm still having problems. I really hope someone can help with this.
The issue
I'm in the middle of a transition from moving from a Win 7 to Win 8 laptop, and I'm having a real pain in the butt issue using speech synthesis voices with the new Windows 8 machine and new ARC install.
As Richard may remember, I mentioned in the other thread that I copied the .exe file for a Cepstral voice from my Win 7 machine, reinstalled it on to the Win 8 laptop, and added the activation key. The voice worked on Narrator and other 3rd party apps such as screen readers, but it never worked on ARC so I thought that was the problem. I have since reset the laptop back to the "Out of the box" state, and started again.
My new Windows 8 Toshiba Satellite laptop comes with three pre-installed voices, but only one of them works with ARC. I have installed a fresh version of a trial Cepstral voice and a 30 day trial of an Ivona voice, and neither one works with ARC either.
I have tried each and every variation of the "Speech synthesis" settings for each voice and they have made no difference whatsoever, and keeps using the one Windows voice. The only thing that does change is the "Rate".
Have any of you guy's faced this issue with Windows 8, and/or does anyone know what can be done so I can use the voices I want to use? I really want to get this working and I don't see why I'm having these problems, as using Cepstral with ARC on Windows 7 was no problem at all. Please help. confused
Many thanks.
Steve.
@Richard.
I know all machines are different and this probably won't make any difference as I've tried all the settings, but just out of curiosity what are the ARC settings you have on you Acer that uses the Cereproc voice?
@DJ and Jeremie.
Hey guys. I know that you've been busy, but I'm just wondering if you have had a chance to look in to this ARC speech synthesis issue yet? I am even more curious now to why I am having these problems, along with Alan and Tony1952 as well.
So what I know is, Rich uses Cereproc but I don't know what OS he's using, DJ has successfully used voices with Win 8, and Richard is using Cereproc with Win 8 on three machines, one of them an Acer, and I'm sure there's other members successfully using 3rd party voices too. Alan tried Cepstral on Win 8.1 with no luck and cannot change MS voices, and Tony can't change MS voices on two Win 8 systems. And of course I've tried two Win 8.1 laptops with no joy with MS or 3rd party voices. There's just too much conflicting information here to work anything out, works for some, not for others using same OS, same voices, and make of machine.
I really hope your on your way to finding out what the problem could be as using these voices are important to my projects, and at the moment I can't really use large parts of my projects such the chatbot and reading RSS feeds ect, and especially when I get round to trying out Dave Cochran's EZ-AI with the voices I want and have purchased.
Thanks guys and I really appreciate your help with this.
Steve.
@Steve sorry for the late reply... didn't notice your post until now...
No worries Richard. Thanks for the picture. Yep, I did them settings.
I still think this may have something to do with regional settings or regional versions of Windows. The only people having success are in Canada. Your symptoms and mine are identical except that you can't change from the default UK voice and I can't change from the default US voice.
I tried setting my region to Canada, but was not successful, but I may have missed something, or there may actually be a difference in the install when you first select your region.
Alan
I run windows 8.1 and can change voices. I am in the US. I will buy a Cepstral voice tomorrow and give it a try.
I'm running Windows 7 but I'm wondering if you go into speech recognition under Advanced speech options text to speech and change that to your program and see if that works. this is what I had to do to get mine working (cepstral duncan)
with my windows 7 this is what I had to do to make it work in ezb
@merne
Windows 7 works fine. It is only Windows 8.1 we are having an issue with.
@d.cochran, I can change the gender of the one voice that works. Steve can't because the voice that works for him only comes with one gender.
Will be very interested if Cepestral works for you. They do have a free trial if you want to try that before buying.
Alan