Looking for EReader with TTS

[NeilF]

How is the TTS on Boox Page vs Pocketbook? Is Pocketbook still the better way to go?

[Desertway]

Originally Posted by NeilF

How is the TTS on Boox Page vs Pocketbook? Is Pocketbook still the better way to go?

You might have to clarify what you mean by “better”. All android devices use Google’s speech synthesis (there are other apps which use other voice engines, but that’s going into a whole different area). If you have an Android phone or tablet you can download the pocketbook app and try out the tts. That will give you a fair idea of how it will work on the Boox. It will be using Google’s tts.

As for the dedicated Pocketbook eReader, there are some YouTube videos demonstrating the tts function. The dedicated device uses ReadSpeaker voices. Personally, I prefer google’s voices, but that’s a matter of taste.

https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/news/text-to-speech-ch

[Quoth]

Pocketbook app will use what ever TTS is installed on android and most of the Playstare-ITS use the Google engine, or whatever engine is installed.

[Desertway]

Yes, but the Pocketbook eInk devices (Era, InkPad, etc) use the ReadSpeaker voice engine.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I found that the Kindle App on Android stops at the end of last paragraph on a page and needs restarted (which might be top of next page). The PocketBook and Google Playbooks Apps work fine.
The Fire is really an Android Tablet with Amazon store replacing Playstore, which is why it's possible to get Playstore Apps or apks running on it. The Kindle App on the Fire is obviously preinstalled and slightly different (buying ebooks was disabled on the Playstore version, but might come back after 1st March in EU).

To clarify, Kindle app for Android does not have TTS, only TalkBack (Android screen reader) support. FWIW, continuous reading with TalkBack does work with the Kindle app on my Galaxy Tab A, running Android 11. Maybe there is some TalkBack mode where it only reads the current screen, but if so, I could not get Kindle app to do this.

While Amazon support for screen readers is better than nearly all other reading apps (except Apple Books and maybe Google Play Books) it is sort of half baked, and hasn't improved in years. For example, it doesn't highlight text as it is reading it, even with Amazon's VoiceView on Amazon devices.

For actual Android devices, PocketBook is a much better choice than Kindle app using TalkBack. It even highlights text as it reads.

For Fire tablets, the Kindle app has TTS support for non-fixed layout content (subject to DRM restrictions), and it's relatively easy to install the required 4 APK files, including Google Play store to get PocketBook or other apps. For one-off downloads, I've used APKMirror without any issues.

[Quoth]

yes, of course the Kindle app behavior is Accessibity, not TTS. TTS while usable for blind and partially sighted is general purpose. Kindle K3 and DXG have TTS but the PW3 and later have voice view aka talkback.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

yes, of course the Kindle app behavior is Accessibity, not TTS. TTS while usable for blind and partially sighted is general purpose. Kindle K3 and DXG have TTS but the PW3 and later have voice view aka talkback.

I simply must nit pick: the K2 and Kindle Touch have TTS as well.

K3 has a rudimentary screen reader called VoiceGuide, toggled with Shift+Spacebar.

https://ilmk.wordpress.com/2011/10/1...-aka-kindle-3/

[Quoth]

I have the DXG, K3, and PW3, but not the others. I did have an Oasis Gen2 but didn't investigate speech.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by NeilF

I have been using Kindles since Kindle 2. However I am looking a an ereader with a good TTS.

I am aware of the newer Inkpad4 but wanted to know if there is anything out there better?

I'm at the age now where my eyes get a little tired reading and wouldn't find occasionally switching to TTS.

TTS works well on my PocketBook HD 3 when I (rarely) use it. You have the choice of several different voices.

[Michal Jancik]

Originally Posted by Desertway

All android devices use Google’s speech synthesis (there are other apps which use other voice engines, but that’s going into a whole different area).

https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/news/text-to-speech-ch

It's same area own outside of AI Voice generator.
Most Android devices use Google TTS as it is already part of the system.
TTS applications are divided into TTS engine (Google TTS, Samsung TTS, Ai, MS etc) and content (machine speech, Ivona, Acapela etc)


There are many good TTS engines and applications that support them, and they are completely free (it also depends on the brand of device, as in the case of Samsung and the Samsung TTS engine, which has its own engine and its own TTS voice / Language pack https://galaxystore.samsung.com/deta...lang_fr_fr_g01).


For example, you can try it for free T2S or Acapela

In the application for reading TTS, all you have to do is change the voice source in the settings.

So, for example, I can use the application for reading TTS EVIE books, and choose Acapela or T2S as the TTS source in the application. (of course you can also use Google TTS)