New Fire HD 6/7: TTS better than on KK?

xendula · 10-09-2014, 12:45 AM

Hi,
For those of you who bought the new 6 or 7 inch Fire HD: How do you like it, and how does Text to Speech compare to the old kindle keyboard, for instance? Is the voice equally un-animated, or does the speech resemble more Siri/OK Google (not sure if OK Google has an actual name)?

I am thinking about picking up a 6incher so I can switch to TTS when driving, but I do have a KK that I bought precisely for this purpose, and which I never use, because the voice is just too computerized-monotonous.

Xanthe · 10-09-2014, 02:33 AM

Don't know if this will help you or not, but I just got an HDX 7 and it uses the Ivona Salli voice. You can hear an example of it here:

http://www.ivona.com/us/for-individu...s-for-windows/

HarryT · 10-09-2014, 04:29 AM

Ivona TTS is very good. It's what the Onyx T68 uses, too.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it pauses whenever it reaches a full stop, and it's too dumb to tell the difference between a full stop used in an abbreviation, and one used at the end of a sentence, so if you have something like "Mr. Smith walked down the street", the result is "Mister <long pause> Smith walked down the street". That may be the fault of the reading app, rather than Ivona, though.

eumie · 10-09-2014, 09:22 AM

I had the Kindle Keyboard & still have my KT, which has the same robotic TTS (which I can't stand). Even though it's not perfect, the Ivona TTS in the Fires is a huge improvement over this. Much more natural sounding. I prefer it to the Google Now voice, but I can't speak for Siri since all I've heard of that is from commercials. There are more choices of voices on the new Fires as well. One of the reasons I bought the HD 6 to replace my aging KT was because of the improved TTS among other features in a similar form factor.

xendula · 10-09-2014, 10:58 AM

Awesome, thank you all for your replies!! I have Ivona on my phone and it's quite a difference to the old KK TTS. I think I just found an excuse to get myself one of these babies, especially if Bestbuy will accept my ancient Nokia N800 as a tablet trade-in.

Barbara1955 · 10-09-2014, 01:15 PM

I have the org HD & KK You have but 2 choices M or F But the computer voice sound way better on the fire than the KK But when I listen to an Audible on either they sound the same.

xendula · 10-09-2014, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katie1

I have the org HD & KK You have but 2 choices M or F But the computer voice sound way better on the fire than the KK But when I listen to an Audible on either they sound the same.

For audible, I already have phones and iPods, but for TTS, this would be interesting.

Xanthe · 10-09-2014, 09:12 PM

The Fire HDX allows you to download other Ivona voices, too. In addition to "Salli", I have "Nicole" and "Russell" (Australian English), Amy and Brian (UK English), and "Joey" (American English).

You can also download French voices (Canada and France dialects) and German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish (Spain) voices.

xendula · 10-09-2014, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanthe

The Fire HDX allows you to download other Ivona voices, too. In addition to "Salli", I have "Nicole" and "Russell" (Australian English), Amy and Brian (UK English), and "Joey" (American English).

You can also download French voices (Canada and France dialects) and German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish (Spain) voices.

Can't wait!!!!!

tubemonkey · 10-09-2014, 09:46 PM

Question - does the Android Kindle app have TTS?

tubemonkey · 10-09-2014, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanthe

The Fire HDX allows you to download other Ivona voices, too. In addition to "Salli", I have "Nicole" and "Russell" (Australian English), Amy and Brian (UK English), and "Joey" (American English).

You can also download French voices (Canada and France dialects) and German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish (Spain) voices.

How do you do it?

Never mind, I found it

tomsem · 10-10-2014, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Question - does the Android Kindle app have TTS?

Not as such. But you can have it read out 'continuous text' by turning on TalkBack (in Accessibility settings) and learning a few of the gestures needed to pause and resume & navigate when it is on. You can even install Ivona as a TTS engine and use that. One disadvantage is that you cannot lock the screen and have it keep reading as you can with TTS on the Fire, and you have to adjust reading speed in Android Settings rather than directly in the app.

It is very similar on iOS using VoiceOver, and a bit more streamlined, but you're limited to the default voices (unless iOS has opened that up in iOS8).

xendula · 10-17-2014, 02:18 PM

One more question about fire tablets: does TTS work with USB calibre sideloaded books?
And with "docs", a.k.a. Books sent wirelessly?

copyrite · 10-17-2014, 05:52 PM

Docs (AKA non Amazon books

) work just fine with TTS on the Fire 6". Funny bit, I was listening to something on the KK where one of the characters is named Presley. A sentence that ended

... "coming from a half-pint like Pres."

was read aloud

a half-pint like President (the KK seeing 'Pres.' as an abbreviation).

The Fire read the sentence out loud correctly with the nickname.

(Most annoying book I listened to on my KK had a main character named Max... every sentence that ended with the dude's name, it was read Maximum!)

HarryT · 10-17-2014, 06:25 PM

Yes, abbreviations can be a problem. All TTS systems I've used, for example, will read "St." as "Street", even when it should be "Saint".

10-09-2014, 12:45 AM	#1
xendula eBookworm Posts: 2,300 Karma: 4525746 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: East Coast brrrrr Device: Kindle 4B/K ~ Nexus 7 ~ Kindle Paperwhite 1&2 ~ iPad Air	New Fire HD 6/7: TTS better than on KK? Hi, For those of you who bought the new 6 or 7 inch Fire HD: How do you like it, and how does Text to Speech compare to the old kindle keyboard, for instance? Is the voice equally un-animated, or does the speech resemble more Siri/OK Google (not sure if OK Google has an actual name)? I am thinking about picking up a 6incher so I can switch to TTS when driving, but I do have a KK that I bought precisely for this purpose, and which I never use, because the voice is just too computerized-monotonous.

10-09-2014, 04:29 AM	#3
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Ivona TTS is very good. It's what the Onyx T68 uses, too. The only thing I don't like about it is that it pauses whenever it reaches a full stop, and it's too dumb to tell the difference between a full stop used in an abbreviation, and one used at the end of a sentence, so if you have something like "Mr. Smith walked down the street", the result is "Mister <long pause> Smith walked down the street". That may be the fault of the reading app, rather than Ivona, though. Last edited by HarryT; 10-09-2014 at 04:46 AM.

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10-09-2014, 02:33 AM	#2
Xanthe Plan B Is Now In Force Posts: 1,894 Karma: 8086979 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Surebleak Device: Aluratek,Sony 350/T1,Pandigital,eBM 911,Nook HD/HD+,Fire HDX 7/8.9,PW2	Don't know if this will help you or not, but I just got an HDX 7 and it uses the Ivona Salli voice. You can hear an example of it here: http://www.ivona.com/us/for-individu...s-for-windows/

10-09-2014, 09:22 AM	#4
eumie Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 681984 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: iPad Air 4, Onyx Boox Nova 2, Kindle Oasis 2	I had the Kindle Keyboard & still have my KT, which has the same robotic TTS (which I can't stand). Even though it's not perfect, the Ivona TTS in the Fires is a huge improvement over this. Much more natural sounding. I prefer it to the Google Now voice, but I can't speak for Siri since all I've heard of that is from commercials. There are more choices of voices on the new Fires as well. One of the reasons I bought the HD 6 to replace my aging KT was because of the improved TTS among other features in a similar form factor.

10-09-2014, 10:58 AM	#5
xendula eBookworm Posts: 2,300 Karma: 4525746 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: East Coast brrrrr Device: Kindle 4B/K ~ Nexus 7 ~ Kindle Paperwhite 1&2 ~ iPad Air	Awesome, thank you all for your replies!! I have Ivona on my phone and it's quite a difference to the old KK TTS. I think I just found an excuse to get myself one of these babies, especially if Bestbuy will accept my ancient Nokia N800 as a tablet trade-in.

10-09-2014, 01:15 PM	#6
Barbara1955 Non-Techy Posts: 4,454 Karma: 15499273 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: WV---USA Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders	I have the org HD & KK You have but 2 choices M or F But the computer voice sound way better on the fire than the KK But when I listen to an Audible on either they sound the same.

10-09-2014, 09:12 PM	#8
Xanthe Plan B Is Now In Force Posts: 1,894 Karma: 8086979 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Surebleak Device: Aluratek,Sony 350/T1,Pandigital,eBM 911,Nook HD/HD+,Fire HDX 7/8.9,PW2	The Fire HDX allows you to download other Ivona voices, too. In addition to "Salli", I have "Nicole" and "Russell" (Australian English), Amy and Brian (UK English), and "Joey" (American English). You can also download French voices (Canada and France dialects) and German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish (Spain) voices.

10-09-2014, 09:46 PM	#10
tubemonkey monkey on the fringe Posts: 45,477 Karma: 158151390 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Seattle Metro Device: Moto E6, Echo Show	Question - does the Android Kindle app have TTS?

10-17-2014, 02:18 PM	#13
xendula eBookworm Posts: 2,300 Karma: 4525746 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: East Coast brrrrr Device: Kindle 4B/K ~ Nexus 7 ~ Kindle Paperwhite 1&2 ~ iPad Air	One more question about fire tablets: does TTS work with USB calibre sideloaded books? And with "docs", a.k.a. Books sent wirelessly?

10-17-2014, 05:52 PM	#14
copyrite Wizard Posts: 1,814 Karma: 4985051 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Maryland Device: ...lots! ;) mostly reading on a Kindle Voyage	Docs (AKA non Amazon books ) work just fine with TTS on the Fire 6". Funny bit, I was listening to something on the KK where one of the characters is named Presley. A sentence that ended ... "coming from a half-pint like Pres." was read aloud a half-pint like President (the KK seeing 'Pres.' as an abbreviation). The Fire read the sentence out loud correctly with the nickname. (Most annoying book I listened to on my KK had a main character named Max... every sentence that ended with the dude's name, it was read Maximum!)

10-17-2014, 06:25 PM	#15
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Yes, abbreviations can be a problem. All TTS systems I've used, for example, will read "St." as "Street", even when it should be "Saint".

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