@KindleAZWorKFX,
I'm not sure what else I can say that I haven't already said. I don't have the technical skill-set to write a plugin which will interface with Chrome or any other web-based app.
@BetterRed,
As for Balabolka, I looked at the main website yesterday. I didn't see any teasers about plans to work with cloud-based voices - but that doesn't prove anything, of course. Let's wait and see.
Perhaps a relevant point is that I do have this app loaded on my PC (as a portable app rather than fully installed), but the only voices available by default were the ones in the
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0
section of the Windows registry, which are pretty old, and pre-date the Win10 voices. By doing a bit of (
non-user-friendly) registry hacking (similar to those referenced in post #2) I was able to access my purchased Ivona voices (the 32-bit versions of them) but I didn't find any Balabolka option to make scanning for these extra voices easy. Did I miss something? On my 64-bit PC, using 64-bit calibre, this plugin as-is locates the Ivona voices (the 64-bit versions of them) without having to do anything at all.
On a more general point the handling of voices in Windows looks like a bit of a dark art. There is endless repetition of voice code throughout the registry. Even in the MS Edge section the same voices are listed in two different places. This is the key for one of them on my PC
Code:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppContainer\Storage\microsoft.microsoftedge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Children\001\Software\Microsoft\Speech_OneCore\Isolated\k6BwW5fty3XWMlmQDjzUq77TXIsLVjJGt268p8btklc\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech_OneCore\Voices\Tokens\MSTTS_V110_enGB_SusanM]
Delightful! If, when they arrive, the new cloud-based voices turn up in the same place then I'll see them and do some tests but the "cloud-based" description makes me wonder whether there will be any local files installed at all.