voxwav pro and android kit kat

[Graves]

Hi guys.  Im stumped, everything was working fine on jellybean, but when I updated to kit Kat, my tts seems to no longer work on voxwav pro.   The weird thing is everything else works fine. Even if I enable its  on the phone still get no voice.  For my tts engine I'm running ivona voice. So I guess I'm asking is if anyone else is having this problem.

[jitterjames]

Sorry, I don't have access to that version of android. To be honest, I did not even know there was a new one.  I do know that no one at Google has ever even heard the term "backwards compatibility".

Can you try switching back to regular TTS voices and let us know if they work?  Hopefully, if there are any other users who have KitKat they can chime in on this.

[Graves]

OK I changed back to Google tts but still the same results.

[jitterjames]

Does VoxWav generate any kind of error or message?

Did you fully close VoxWav, or reboot your phone after changing your tts engine?

[Graves]

Voxwav does not generate any errors.  After changing tts i closed and rebooted the phone and still no voice.  Like i said it works fine, just no tts...so wierd. 

[jitterjames]

Hmmm.  I can't think of anything else right now.

If you toggle the TTS button on the main VoxWav screen off and on, does it make any difference, or are there any messages?  Until I can find a way to test on KitKat, or someone else can share their experience, I'm not sure what else I can do.  

The TTS code I am using is pretty straightforward and taken from some simple examples of coding TTS on android.  I can't think why it would break on VoxWav and not on other apps.

Are you getting other forms of feedback such as OSD messages, confidence, and alternates?  If not, then the problem is not with TTS but with the info failing to get from VoxCommando to your Android via UDP.  If all the other stuff is working then it is definitely a problem with the TTS.

[painy]

I'm having the same problem with android 4.3.1
Toggling makes no difference. And I'm getting other messages: OSD messages, confidence, and alternates. It also shows the TTS tekst. Only thing I'm not getting is the voice itself.

[jitterjames]

I have no problems with TTS running VoxWav Pro on my 4.1.2

I can't find any information about what changes google might have made to break the TTS code, but I'm basically using a few simple lines of code that I got from the google documentation (tutorial) for TTS on Android so it is pretty darn annoying that it doesn't work on newer versions of Android.  Until I can get my hands on a newer device and try it myself, I'm not sure what I can do. 

[jitterjames]

Are either of you using the VoxWav Pro beta?  If so I can try a few things and see if it helps...

To use the beta you need to join the VoxCommando Google+ community.

https://plus.google.com/communities/114617052029490561887

[Kalle]

VoxWav Pro running on my Smartwatch with android 4.2.2 without any problems  

[jitterjames]

Kalle, are you using the beta?

Is it possible that it fails if no English voice is installed?

[Kalle]

 

I installed it from the google playstore.

- The Version is VoxWavPro 2.4.3
- Smartwatch Android OS "Jelly Bean" 4.2.2
- Ivona text to speech (german and english voices)
- SVOX Classic TTS (german and english voices)
- VoxCommando 1.1.8.4
- TcpMic 0.1.6.0

Is it possible that it fails if no English voice is installed?

I'm not sure - I have installed both german and english. I use the german TTS as standard and if VC send english text to VoxWav, VW speak the english words with german TTS (it sounds funny but it works).

@painy

I'm having the same problem with android 4.3.1
Toggling makes no difference. And I'm getting other messages: OSD messages, confidence, and alternates. It also shows the TTS tekst. Only thing I'm not getting is the voice itself.

Can you test this command group with VC and VoxWavPro?

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<commandGroup open="True" name="VoxWav set TTS language test" enabled="True" prefix="" priority="0" requiredProcess="" description="">
  <command id="261" name="hello world" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
    <action>
      <cmdType>TTS.SetLang</cmdType>
      <cmdString>en</cmdString>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>VC.Pause</cmdType>
      <cmdString>1000</cmdString>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <action>
      <cmdType>TTS.SpeakSync</cmdType>
      <cmdString>I hope you can hear me on your android device</cmdString>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <phrase>hello world</phrase>
  </command>
</commandGroup>

This command set first the TTS language in your android device to english and then speak aloud "I hope you can hear me on your android device"

please let us know how it works - thanks

[jitterjames]

I have updated the official VoxWav Pro to version 2.5 on the google play store.

Let me know if the TTS works properly with newer versions of the Android OS such as KitKat.

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1333

[painy]

The problem remains.
I tried Kalle's code, but only my pc play the sound and i get an 'TTS set to english' OSD on my android phone
Is there a setting in VC itself somewhere that turns off the TTS?

[jitterjames]

Not that I know of.

[Kalle]

The problem remains.
I tried Kalle's code, but only my pc play the sound and i get an 'TTS set to english' OSD on my android phone
Is there a setting in VC itself somewhere that turns off the TTS?

One question: Is it possible that any other app on your android phone is active and use TTS - like a siri clone or similar? Only an idea  

[jitterjames]

In any case, the latest version of VoxWav should speak when you turn the TTS button on, saying "TTS on".  It also speaks when VoxWav starts up, if TTS is on, saying the name of the speech language, while displaying it in a popup.

[nime5ter]

The problem remains.

James is still trying to isolate variables. He's not at a proper keyboard right now, so asked me to post:

1. Can you tell us the make and model of your device?
2. Is your Android TTS working properly with other non-Google apps?
3. Do you have any other TTS engines apart from Google's voices installed, such as svox or Ivona?
4. What languages of Google TTS do you have installed, and which one is set as the default?
5. What are your other language settings in terms of locale and display language?

Thanks!

P.S. It would be helpful to have reports from any users whose TTS does not seem to be working in VoxWav Pro 2.5, as well as any KitKat users who are not experiencing this problem. So please chime in if you see this.

[jitterjames]

After posting the new version to the Google Play Store last week as a non-beta release I now have the following statistics:

51 users of VoxWav Pro have Android version 4.3 or later and no other users have reported any problems with the TTS.  (So, 2 users have reported issues so far)

66% of all users have upgraded to the latest version (2.5) of VoxWav. (Not that this really matters since both versions use TTS but I did change the TTS code from one version to the next)

From this I estimate that at least 33 people are using this new version of VoxWav on Android 4.3 or later.  No one has reported any problems with this version either.

So without any more information I will have to consider this case closed.  Of course some users may not use TTS, or may not be communicating their difficulties to me.  If anyone has any information to add I'm all ears!

If someone wants to ship me a KitKat device for debugging that will be fine too