Captivate 5 text to speech better?

[Guest]

Hi

I need to know if the voice supplied with Captivate 5 has been improved. Those in Captivate 4 has quite a few issues with some words not pronounced clearly or intonation. Improved voices will make my day!! Thanks,

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

The Text To Speech functionality is provided by a third party (NeoSpeech) so unless NeoSpeech made some changes on their end, I'm doubtful anything has changed.

http://www.neospeech.com/

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[Guest]

Neospeech has a new voice (Julie) that sounds better. Does anyone know if that voice is available with Captivate 5?

[masterctrl01]

Note all the voice options shown here.http://www.naturalreaders.com/

Is Neospeech the licensing engine for Natural Readers or vice versa?

What really needs to happen for Captiviate 5 is:
1) Integration with Dragon Naturally speaking to convert voiceover narrations to text (Nuance offers an API to do this); I would gladly pay extra for this function.
2) Expand text to speech functions to include more voices, easier to use, plus updated speech engine (which get better and better each year)

As it is, they don't even mention this feature on the Captivate 5 site. Does that mean it's on the way out?

[Guest]

Hi there,

With Adobe Captivate there are some significant changes to the TTS feature in this new version. You can learn more about this by taking a look at the tutorial Allen Partridge post at this web address.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwaU1pUcfSo

In addition CP5 will offer multi-lingual support in the form of  3 new voices from Loquendo:  Stefan (German), Juliette (French), and Simon  (British English).

HTH

Best regards,

Mark

[masterctrl01]

Wow. Why didn't they mention this in the promo materials regarding the upgrade?

SOLD!

[masterctrl01]

The YouTube video indictates whatever speech engines are installed are available for the TTS function in Captivate.
However, neither Neospeech or Loquendo sells their TTS engine direct as a standalone app. That means Captivate is using some type of imbedded code for this function to work. If so, how would one go about adding more voices or using extended TTS features?
For example, Loquendo offers numerous voice options in multiple languages, plus their TTS engine supports "expressive cues". I don't see how you could add this to Captivate if the TTS engines are written for use by developers, not end-users.

[masterctrl01]

Should TTS work in the trial?
All I see is Microsoft Sam regardless of whether I download and install NeoSpeech and Loquendo add-ins from the trial download page.

[Guest]

Hi,

First of all, trial version of Adobe Captivate 5 comes with full-feature enabled. So TTS should work even in trial mode ...

Now for NeoSpeech and Loquendo voices to appear in Adobe Captivate 5, one needs to separately install these voices. If you need voices apart from those that come by default with Adobe Captivate 5, you would need to purchase them and install it separately.

Hope this helps....

-Manish

blogs.adobe.com/captivate

[masterctrl01]

Yes, I have run all 3 installers from the trial download page (C5, Neospeech, Loquendo).

I ran the TTS installers multiple times without error, but I have no idea where they are supposed to show up.

If you look at C4 program folder, there is a VT folder with TTS entries for Kate and Paul and TTS continues to work for C4.

But C5 only lists Microsoft Sam and I see nothing like a VT folder for C5.

Where should Neospeech and Loequendo folders appear to verify installation?

Thanks.

[Guest]

Hello -

Once installed, for me the executables to install the voices were located in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Desktop\Adobe Captivate 5 Content\Add-ons. There was a folder for Neospeech and one for Loquendo. I ran the executables in those folders and then all the voices display in Cap 5.

[masterctrl01]

Thanks! I ran the installers again and this time got a confirmation message for each one and VT is now a C5 sub-folder.

One curious thing though -- C5 startup sure is slow and when splash screen first appears I get a white box in the middle with "lotte?" displayed before it loads normally.

[R_Stuart]

I must be in Dense mode tonight: After installing Cap 5 (PC, Win 7) I can't find the Add-ons folder or the folder for Neospeech and Loquendo anywhere so I can run the executables as mentioned earlier in this thread. Are those folders donwloadable through Adobe or am I just not looking in the right place? (Checked the desktop and Program Files (x86)>Adobe>Adobe Captivate 5.)

TIA for your help!

[masterctrl01]

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=captivate

There are three downloads. After you download the two TTS installers there should be an Adobe 5 Content folder somewhere (normally the desktop) inside of which are two folders each with an EXE file to run.

[rileyh1278]

I've run the installer more times than I can count now to install the TTS voices and they won't show up in the Speech Management panel.  I get the success pop up every time, so it's something to do with Captivate's ability to detect/use new voices.  I get the VT folder with all the files (I guess), but no error messages or any indication that there's a problem.  They just don't show up.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what I could try next?

Fresh install of Cap5, Windows XP system.... let me know if you need any more specs.

Thanks!

[masterctrl01]

So you downloaded 3 installers and then ran 3 different installers including CpExtrasCLI.exe twice from the Neospeech and Loquendo Add-ons folder in Adobe C5 Content folder?

[rileyh1278]

I downloaded the Captivate installer, and the Neospeech installer. I didn't download the Loquendo installer, because I don't want those voices. I then installed Cap5 and then the Neospeech voices. I get the successful install dialogue boxes, but no go on the voices showing up inside Captivate.

Do I need to install the Loquendo voices for it to work?

I'm in the process of doing a complete uninstall and reinstall, even with the Loquendo voices, to see if it'll work.

[Guest]

Hi there,

Just to Clarify, have you restarted Captivate after you installed the voices ?

Its not mandatory for you to install Loquendo for the neo speech voices to work.

If you have restarted captivate  and still you dont find the Voices in the drop down then Delete the VT folder present in the Captivate's installed folder and try the installation of Neo Speech again.

-Ashwin Bharghav B

[rileyh1278]

Hello,

I've restarted the program and the computer numerous times after finishing the Neospeech installation. Still no voices. I've deleted the VT folder, reinstalled, restarted, and still no voices.

I'm under a deadline, so I had to switch back to Captivate 4 to finish. I will continue troubleshooting the Captivate 5 voices problem after I finish. Meanwhile, any thoughts on what else to try would be greatly appreciated. Maybe I'll start my own thread in case others are having the issue. It isn't exactly what the OP had posted about.

Thanks!

[Guest]

Hi rileyh1278,

I advise you better download the Neospeech/Loquendo voices installers once again.

Most of our customers are able to see the voices. So that brings your voices installers under suspicion. Try re-downloading the voices installers from here

- Delete VT/Loquendo folder from your Adobe Captivate installation folder.

- Make sure Adobe Captivate is closed.

- Run the installers ( run them in administrator mode if you are on Vista/Win 7).

- You should be seeing VT/Loquendo(depending on what installer you chose) folder in Adobe Captivate installation folder.

-Manish

blogs.adobe.com/captivate

[R_Stuart]

Thanks, peeps--I found the files. (Pilot error. *blush*)

[Guest]

Julie is not one of the options on Captivate 5, from I can see!

[Guest]

Hi there,

Have a look at the blog post to get more info on Text to speech in Cp5

http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2010/07/text_to_speech_in_adobe_captiv.html

-Ashwin Bharghav B

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info! I have downloaded Captivate 5 and it made my day. Especially the choice of 3 English voices (English and American). The leeway to add third party voices also makes a difference.

Thumbs up for a job well done Adobe!

[masterctrl01]

> The leeway to add third party voices also makes a difference.

This sounds great in theory, but for all practical purposes is a dead-end unless you are a developer.

All the worthwhile, natural sounding TTS engines are sold as SDKs plus licensing, not standalone add-ins for Windows.
Example: http://wizzardsoftware.com/att_nv_landing.php

I guess I'll stick with Neospeech Kate and Paul as they sound the best to me.
Microsoft Sam and cheap TTS engines written years ago is useless for presentations.