Kindle voice packs & usertts hack

[jaxsnop]

Originally Posted by dsmid

Now there's a possibility to switch multiple voice packs:

Should you need to switch more than two voices, install launchpad and copy provided usertts.ini file to *launchpad* directory.
Then copy the second voice pack to *usertts/data2*, the third one to *usertts/data3* etc. You can have up to five voice packs.
Reload launchpad (SHIFT SHIFT SPACE) and then you can switch the voice packs with these shortcuts:

1. SHIFT T Q - *usertts/data*
2. SHIFT T W - *usertts/data2*
3. SHIFT T E - *usertts/data3*
4. SHIFT T R - *usertts/data4*
5. SHIFT T T - *usertts/data5*

When I try to activate the others ussertts, launchpad shows the success message but into the text I use shift + sym to initialize the TTS but never begin. It's always "thinking-circle".

[DonalDuck]

can you get the old tts voices?

Thanks,
DD

[dsmid]

Originally Posted by jaxsnop

When I try to activate the others ussertts, launchpad shows the success message but into the text I use shift + sym to initialize the TTS but never begin. It's always "thinking-circle".

The TTS subsystem needs some time to reinitialize after switching, if it doesn't start reading give it few more seconds and then try to press shift+sym again.

[dsmid]

Originally Posted by DonalDuck

can you get the old tts voices?

You can rename the usertts folder and reboot your Kindle.
If you need to switch to the original voices frequently, use the attached usertts.ini file in Launchpad. In addition to the original five shortcuts I've added a new one for switching to the original voices (Tom & Samantha).

• SHIFT T O - Use original built-in voice data

[gabao]

not working here, i downloaded the mod and copy the folder usertts to my kindle root

after i also copy the update_usertts_3r3_k3w_install.bin (B008 here) to root, eject and update, until here is all fine but how i install the portuguese pack?

i downloaded the kindle-voice-pt_BR-raquel.src.zip and extract to the folder root/usertts/data it's correct to do this or i need to extract these files to other place?

when i restart my kindle and try to run speech-to-text (shift+sym) the kindle frezze and just works again whit hard reset

anyone can help me?

thanks in advance and sorry for the bad english

[dsmid]

Hi gabao,

The voice files (kindle-voice-*locale*-*name*.src.zip) are not intended to be copied into usertts/data/ folder .
There you should put a voice pack - preprepared combination of two voices ("male" and "female").
As there's no voice pack containing Raquel available for download yet, you'll have to make your own:
create two subfolders in usertts/ - usertts/male/ and usertts/female/.
Unpack a voice file of your choice into usertts/male/ and another voice file (probably Raquel) into usertts/female/. Then reboot your Kindle and usertts will create a voice pack for you in usertts/data/ folder (I recommend deleting its contents before rebooting).

If it's too complicated, just tell me which two voices do you want to use and I'll make a voice pack for you.

[gabao]

Thanks so much for your help dsmid, now works fine

[gabao]

I made a little Tutorial for portuguese speakers:

http://nodevac.com/?p=735

thanks again dsmid

ps* how i can switch into male/female voices?

[PoP]

First, press the Aa key and turn "Text to speech" ON Then, press Aa to select "male" or " female" voice.

[gabao]

Originally Posted by PoP

First, press the Aa key and turn "Text to speech" ON Then, press Aa to select "male" or " female" voice.

, lame question that I did
I did not check the menu before only keyboard shortcuts

[MFC]

Hi dismid,

I have a Kindle 2 (software version 2.5.6).

But the following tutorial only mentioned kindle 3 files. Is there kindle 2 files to custom voices on Kindle?

Thanks.

MFD

Originally Posted by dsmid

This is an attempt to both standardize and simplify the installation of custom TTS voices on Kindle.

As of now, the installation of custom TTS voices is tricky and requires launchpad or usbnetwork.
It would be nice to install the voices as easily as any other hack.
However, it cannot be achieved by putting them into a single .bin update file, that would make the installation process very long, error prone and potentially dangerous.

I've made a simple hack that makes the voice pack installation easy - it's called usertts.

The voicepack should be installed by simple copying to the Kindle root directory (speaking about user store here). The usertts hack then takes care of the rest.

To make the installation even more simple, I propose the following voice pack structure:

usertts/
                  install/
                                update_usertts_*_(un)install.bin
                  data/
                                depes_enu_cfg1.dat
                                depes_enu_cfg3.dat
                                ...

                  install-voicepack.txt
                  install-voicepack.*.txt  (translation to other languages)

You can get the idea by downloading an empty sample voice pack - kindle-voicepack-sample.zip

You can also download few voice packs (Czech Zuzana + British Daniel, Slovak Laura + British Daniel, ...) and voices (can be used by usertts to create custom voicepacks) here: http://ge.tt/8HHrZe8
On the same page you can download the usertts hack source and installation packages (normally part of the voice pack).


************** install-voicepack.txt contents ****************

Make sure you have already jailbroken your Kindle.
In case you've installed jailbreak version <= 0.9N from NiLuJe to achieve that, add update_usertts to the whitelist at *linkjail/etc/whitelist*.
First, unpack the downloaded voice pack contents. The voice pack contains a usertts directory.
Copy the usertts directory to the root directory of your Kindle. The usertts directory should contain an *install* subdirectory with a bunch of .bin files.
Copy the correct *update_usertts_3r3_*_install.bin* file for your Kindle to the root directory of your Kindle.
(As always, k3g means K3 3G (US [serial number starts with B006]), k3w means K3 WiFi [B008] and k3gb means K3 3G (UK [B00A]).
For a Kindle 3 WiFi, that would be *update_usertts_3r3_k3w_install.bin* for example.
Now, eject your Kindle, and go to *[HOME] -> [MENU] > Settings -> [MENU] > Update Your Kindle*. It should be quick.

The usertts hack forces your Kindle to use *[user store]/usertts/data* directory instead of the built-in voice pack
if, and only if, the directory is present when the Kindle is starting up.
Once installed, it is easy to change the voice pack - just copy its contents to your Kindle and reboot it.
No need to reinstall the usertts hack.

The usertts hack uses "mount --bind" on Kindle OS boot to mount *[user store]/usertts/data* directory to */usr/share/nuance/data* directory in order to effectively replace the target directory contents with the source while not touching anything on the flash storage.
Thus the mount effects are not permanent and this method isn't supposed to break your Kindle firmware.

MAKING YOUR OWN VOICE PACK

From version 3r2, usertts has a feature that lets you mix your own voice pack.
First, select and download two voice sources of your choice, e.g. kindle-voice-en_GB-daniel.src.zip and kindle-voice-cs-zuzana.src.zip .
Create subdirectories *usertts/male/* and *usertts/female/* in your Kindle.
Then extract the first voice zip contents to *usertts/male/* and the second voice zip contents to *usertts/female/* - or vice versa
(the voice copied to the male subdir will be refered to as "Male" in Kindle GUI while the voice copied to the female subdir will be refered to as "Female" in Kindle GUI)
Then just eject and restart your Kindle, after reboot both *male* and *female* subdirs will disappear and you'll get a new *data* subdir instead containing your voice pack data.
Kindle will be using this new voice pack for TTS immediately.

Should you need to switch more than two voices, install launchpad and copy provided usertts.ini file to *launchpad* directory.
Then copy the second voice pack to *usertts/data2*, the third one to *usertts/data3* etc. You can have up to five voice packs.
Reload launchpad (SHIFT SHIFT SPACE) and then you can switch the voice packs with these shortcuts:

SHIFT T Q - *usertts/data*
SHIFT T W - *usertts/data2*
SHIFT T E - *usertts/data3*
SHIFT T R - *usertts/data4*
SHIFT T T - *usertts/data5*

************************************************** *******

[dsmid]

Originally Posted by MFC

But the following tutorial only mentioned kindle 3 files. Is there kindle 2 files to custom voices on Kindle?

No idea. I don't have any experience with Kindle 2.

[vvooffkk]

Thank you Dsmid!!!
Everything works fine!!!

[seaniko7]

I have been digging in my iPhone 4 and what I found is this :


These files are located in : /private/var/mobile/Library/VoiceServices/Assets/*language-code*/

Yup, the FULL versions are used in iPhones and iPads.

Obviously you can't really obtain them from decrypted ipsw image. This one contains only support files, which can improve TTS experience. ATM I found new version of Agata voice better than GPS-based one. I haven't used support files like dictionary and new config files yet.

Cheers

[yifanlu]

So I just got my kindle touch and to my surprise, amazon has placed the tts files on the USB partition. Anyone want to check if this works on the touch? I'm a bit lazy.