Windows 8 voices

jaystarter
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Windows 8 voices

Post by jaystarter »

Windows 8 comes with some new voices which are less robotic sounding and more natural. I especially like Hazel (British). Is it possible to download these from somewhere and install them on earlier Operating Systems i.e. XP? Googling has left me confused :scratch:
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Jeff

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HansV
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by HansV »

I don't think so - these voices require Microsoft Speech Platform, which is only supported on Windows Vista and later... :sad:
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BobH
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by BobH »

Does Win 7 have Voices? If so, I have not encountered them nor found settings for them. Apparently it doesn't ship with Win 7.

Searching turned up a download for Microsoft Speech SDK 11 but none of the sites I tried would actually download it. I started with the MS site and it just hung after activating the download. It never splash the download screen nor did it appear as a task in Task Manager.

I tried to download from site called windows7download.com and got the splash and a running task but it, too, appears to hang with no end of the download process.

What's up with this?
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jaystarter
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by jaystarter »

Windows 7 only comes with 1 voice - Microsoft Anna - awful!
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BobH
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by BobH »

Howdy, Jeff!

I finally got Microsoft Speech SDK 11 to download. I ran the install and discovered that only Anna is included. Can the other voices for Win 8 be obtained and installed? Anyone?

:thankyou: in advance
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viking33
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by viking33 »

Apparently only MS Anna is available for Win7 64bit OS, ( from MS )
BUT I stumbled across this site that has lots of voices for other systems.
I haven't tried any of them but check it out at:
http://www.zero2000.com/free-text-to-sp ... oices.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just make sure you select the proper one for your OS.
BOB
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jaystarter
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by jaystarter »

Nice find, but they still have that robotic sound to them but better than many "espeak" free voices.

I do volunteer work with RNIB here and have yet to find better voices than IVONA you can listen HERE but as a commercial product they come at a cost :sad:
Jeff

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Leif
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by Leif »

jaystarter wrote:I do volunteer work with RNIB here and have yet to find better voices than IVONA ....
According to the Ivona website, they are Partners with the RNIB. It may be worth contacting them to see if they could offer support.

(You could also mention that the Poles are very nice people and that you always buy everything from Amazon :laugh: )
Leif

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Cah
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by Cah »

Why is text to speech so expensive?

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HansV
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Re: Windows 8 voices

Post by HansV »

Why? Probably because there's a market for it... :shrug:
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Hans