Kindle Paperwhite TTS

[Barbara1955]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sorry but I don't see an image in your first post.

How about in Post #10?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Devot3d

You can see here that it is literally a bog standard 10th gen Kindle.

The first 6 characters of the S/N are needed to remove all model ambiguity,
5 are not enough.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

How about in Post #10?

To my eyes, the image in post #10 does not show whether Voice View is turned on or off which was supposedly shown in the image in @Devot3d's first post (#1 in this thread).

Can you see anything in that image about Voice View in the image in post#10?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Devot3d

No, you are mistaken. If you look at my first post you will see the picture showing that voice view is turned off. I tried voice view once and it was an awful experience.

It is terrible compared to KK3 TTS, unless maybe you can't read.
I've used Voice View on PW3 and TTS on KK3, DXG, Linux and Windows XP.

Originally Posted by Devot3d

This is standalone TTS on a kindle pw4 and it only works on books in the KFX format and with ASINs of books I have purchased. It’s not some other thing that works on any old book you download from the internet, if it was I would have never bothered asking the question.

It's either not a regular PW4 or else you've bought some (Whitelisted) ebooks that turn on normally blocked features of a PW4.

If it's a stock PW4 (=10th gen PW) then likely only the specific ASINs will enable TTS, so you've already discovered the only solution.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Devot3d

[IMG]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=195705&stc=1&d=1660044 833[/IMG]

Anyhow, you can see on compatible books there's a headphone icon

[IMG]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=195706&stc=1&d=1660044 833[/IMG]

When you hit the icon and press play it will try to connect to your bluetooth device.

[IMG]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=195707&stc=1&d=1660044 833[/IMG]

While reading it will underline the current sentence.
The TTS actually sounds really good.


[IMG]https://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=195708&stc=1&d=1660044 833[/IMG]

As you can see the voiceview screen reader is not turned on.

Your images did not post properly so we cannot see what the user interface looks like to you.

Could you please post them as attachments instead of inline images?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by tomsem

This is pretty fascinating. IIRC @jhowell found some references to Text to Speech in one of the updates awhile back. Why they would choose to enable it in China, of all places?

Yes, it first appeared in firmware version 5.13.1. This is the first report of the feature being active that I know of.

Originally Posted by jhowell

I took a look at the new firmware to see if I could find any undocumented features. Here are some possibilities. No guarantees!

• Continuing work on the Kindle Curator, including the book cover as screensaver feature.
• Text-to-Speech reading separate from the VoiceView screen reader.
• Japanese Hiragana keyboard.

Originally Posted by jhowell

I don't know about voices, but the languages appear to be de, en_GB, en_US, es, fr, it, ja, nl, pt, ru, sq, and zh.

Added: I don't know if these are actual reading languages or related to device customization.

It is probably controlled from Amazon's servers. It may be possible to enable it on a jailbroken device.

[tomsem]

Also, @Devot3d, perhaps you could share one of the ASINs so others can try stuff?

[Devot3d]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sorry but I don't see an image in your first post.

That would explain all the confusion in this thread 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I see them but opening the thread in a private browser window I no longer see the images 😅

[Devot3d]

Originally Posted by Devot3d

That would explain all the confusion in this thread ��������

I see them but opening the thread in a private browser window I no longer see the images ��

Here are those images, I think it was my "new user" status causing trouble

1 is the headphonee icon
2 is the play controls
3 is during reading
4 is voiceview not being active.

[Devot3d]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes, it first appeared in firmware version 5.13.1. This is the first report of the feature being active that I know of.

I can't recall exactly when I found it was working, but I've been using it for at least a year, probably at least two.

This is pretty fascinating. IIRC @jhowell found some references to Text to Speech in one of the updates awhile back. Why they would choose to enable it in China, of all places?

My guess is that if they're pulling Kindle out of the Chinese market that they've been struggling and Chinese executives might have been given the leeway to turn on features that aren't available elsewhere, and they assumed no one would notice.

Originally Posted by tomsem

Also, @Devot3d, perhaps you could share one of the ASINs so others can try stuff?

I don't mind, This is the one I've been using: B078N42JWX but I suspect it is only whitelisted on my device.

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The first 6 characters of the S/N are needed to remove all model ambiguity,
5 are not enough.

I had no idea, they are "G001 6T"

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's either not a regular PW4 or else you've bought some (Whitelisted) ebooks that turn on normally blocked features of a PW4.

If it's a stock PW4 (=10th gen PW) then likely only the specific ASINs will enable TTS, so you've already discovered the only solution.

I subscribed to the Chinese Kindle Unlimited and in the time I was using it the only book lacking the TTS feature was Harry Potter, so it behaves as though it is normally unblocked.

Originally Posted by tomsem

Which Kindle model do you actually have? It really does not sound like it is any Kindle that has ever existed. Only generation 2/3/4 Kindles had TTS feature, and this is going back 11 years now.
...
Amazon recently stopped selling Kindles in China, and will stop selling e-books there next year.

I'm amazed, first I'd heard this was your post, and I go look at the website and yup, shutting it down. Guess I've gotta make sure I've got everything downloaded before June 2024 because they're shutting the servers down then.
My chinese is not really great, but from a quick search of Chinese websites I'm not finding any mention of newer models of kindles having TTS...

So if I'm the only one to have figured this out and posted about it online I can see why they're shutting down, they're just not selling enough devices and books.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Devot3d

I had no idea, they are "G001 6T"

Thanks, from the wiki
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Serial_Numbers

That is
Prefix: G0016T
Model: Twilight Blue Kindle PaperWhite 4 (2018) WiFi, 8GB
Nicks: PW4, PW4TB
Notes: [Support added in KindleTool 1.7.0]

So as you wrote, a standard model.

[tekkasit]

Wow! That is true TTS that many people looking for.

I wondering why Amazon doesn't implement the Immersion Reading feature on Kindle devices.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Devot3d

That would explain all the confusion in this thread 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for re-posting the images. It does make the discussion much easier to follow.

[tekkasit]

Hi, Devot3d

Is it possible to dump out your /var/local/KWISClient.db data?

I would like to see what are the key records that enables this feature.

[AlaVander]

I did some tests. First, I added the ASIN of a book sold in the Chinese kindle store to a self-made book, generated a KFX format file with jhowell's plug-in, and imported it into kindle. No matter whether it is connected to the Internet or not, the book does not display the TTS icon. . Then, I purchased the book corresponding to the ASIN on the Amazon website (I chose to let Amazon send the book to the app to avoid destroying the files in the kindle), then I just need to connect to the Internet and reopen the book, then the TTS icon will be displayed, close it Internet connection, functions are still available. Finally, I deleted the purchase record of the book from the web page, and sure enough, the TTS icon was also deleted shortly after connecting to the Internet.

Apparently kindle determines whether to enable this feature for books by downloading and storing some data from the server.

If anyone is interested, they can do the same test. They just need to register an account on z.cn, and search “知乎周刊” to find books with zero price. To buy these books, you don’t need to add a bank card or payment account.