Text to Speech software

[Andrew]

Sometimes I am too spaced out to read. Or maybe it's only some kind off visual problem and weird feeling in head problem, because during those times I find I can still articulate and listen.

I want to be able to read more often, so I downloaded a trial version of IVONO text to speech software. Obviously, this only works with electronic reading, not real books.

Anyway, so far it seems to help. It works better if I can look at the text while I'm listening to the software read, even if I'm having trouble focusing. It seems that two senses work better than one. But it's more exhausting. So I try to trade off. And I don't do it for long periods.

I would love to hear from anyone else who is using text to speech software.

 

[jeffrez]

I don't really use it on mine, but Kindle has text 2 speech capability for a lot of books.

Linux has had text 2 speech conversion and output for years through "festival." I remember trying it a few years ago and it still needed a little work, but things are moving fast in the linux world now so I wouldn't be surprised if it were a nice app by now.

 

[wdb]

s it not built into windows ? http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsvista/tts.aspx

 

[Sasha]

Hi Andrew - a friend of mine visited me last month and showed me her new Kindle. Amazingly, it reads books aloud! It's a new, experimental feature so they don't seem to be advertising it as widely as you would expect. Here's the blurb from Amazon:

Experimental Features

The experimental category represents features we are still working on to enhance the Kindle experience even further. Try them out and let us know what you think.

Read-to-Me
With the Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read English newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable. You can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and your spot is automatically saved. Pages automatically turn while the content is being read, so you can listen hands-free. You can choose from both male and female voices which can be sped up or slowed down to suit your preference. In the middle of a great story or article but have to jump in the car? Simply turn on Text-to-Speech and listen on the go.

Here's a guy on YouTube doing a demo.

There's controversy over it with some publishers not wanting competition with their audiobooks so not all content is available, but still! I think it's good. Audiobooks tend to be availble only in quite a limited range, particularly not enough nonfiction.

 

[Carrigon]

I actually tried a voice command thing for my pc because I thought if I was too sick to type it would help. But then I found it was just as exhausting to have to keep telling it to do stuff

 

[Emootje]

I'am using TextAloud with NeoSpeech Paul

 

[Andrew]

s it not built into windows ? http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsvista/tts.aspx

Windows' built-in reader cannot be controlled. It just starts reading from the upper left of the active window. IOW, it reads your menu first and everything else it sees.

I'am using TextAloud with NeoSpeech Paul

How's that working out for you?

 

[Emootje]

How's that working out for you?

It works great for me. In TextAloud you can look at the text while the software is reading. I have never tried books but it works great for medical articles and other cut and paste-able stuff.
Emootje

 

[Andrew]

I downloaded TextAloud. It works well. Between TextAloud and IVONA, each one has a small difference the other does not. I can't decide between the two of them.

And now off topic. For anyone who is interested you can read free audiobooks off the web. Of course, they are all older books that can be legally distributed this way. But there are a lot of good ones.

 

[Andrew]

It works great for me. In TextAloud you can look at the text while the software is reading. I have never tried books but it works great for medical articles and other cut and paste-able stuff.
Emootje

I came back here to thank you for mentioning TextAloud. After more testing, I found it to be better than the rest. It has helped me tremendously. I can now listen to articles that were too hard to read before.

BTW, where did you buy NeoSpeech Paul for use in TextAloud?