Language Support

[MikeMelga]

Hi.

I've been reading and searching this forum for some days. I am thinking of buying VC.
However, there is one thing I'm still confused: the supported languages. I need Portuguese language (PT-PT) and it is not a supported language.
VC uses the windows speech API, right? Windows 7 only comes with a handfull of supported languages but... don't you just need to download your own language set?

Aren't these the files I am talking about?:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224

http://www.microsoft.com/pt-pt/mldc/downloads.aspx

Will these be enough to use VC in those languages? Or am I missing something?

Thanks.

Regards,
Mike

[Kalle]

Hi.

I've been reading and searching this forum for some days. I am thinking of buying VC.
However, there is one thing I'm still confused: the supported languages. I need Portuguese language (PT-PT) and it is not a supported language.
VC uses the windows speech API, right? Windows 7 only comes with a handfull of supported languages but... don't you just need to download your own language set?

Aren't these the files I am talking about?:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224

http://www.microsoft.com/pt-pt/mldc/downloads.aspx

Will these be enough to use VC in those languages? Or am I missing something?

Thanks.

Regards,
Mike

Hi Mike and welcome in VC-Forum.
Yes VoxCommando works with brazil portuguese language and have also "ready to use" commands in pt-br language (include the display language).

[attachment=1]

If you have Windows 7 or Vista Ultimate so you can download with Windows update in system control center the portuguese language-pack. You can use with this language-pack your native language with windows speechrecognition.
If you are do not have Win7-Ultimate you find a solution here: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=785.msg6731#msg6731  (thanks to Wanilton)
Voxcommando have some brazilian members which use protugues language in windows 7.

If you have any question, let us know  

I hope it was helpful
Kalle

[jitterjames]

Wanilton is using PT-BR commands, but he is still using the English speech recognition engine, and with training getting it to work.  There is no recognition engine for Portuguese.

[jitterjames]

Hi.

I've been reading and searching this forum for some days. I am thinking of buying VC.
However, there is one thing I'm still confused: the supported languages. I need Portuguese language (PT-PT) and it is not a supported language.
VC uses the windows speech API, right? Windows 7 only comes with a handfull of supported languages but... don't you just need to download your own language set?

Aren't these the files I am talking about?:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224

http://www.microsoft.com/pt-pt/mldc/downloads.aspx

Will these be enough to use VC in those languages? Or am I missing something?

Thanks.

Regards,
Mike

Hi Mike, I understand your confusion but those links are for the microsoft speech platform, not for SAPI which is what VC uses.  Here is a page that describes some of the key differences between the two.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj127858.aspx

If we were to switch to the speech platform we would gain the additional languages but would have to give up a lot of other things such as:

- ability to train
- use of 8 bit audio instead of 16bit
- no more ability to use dictation.

the first two points may or may not be important issues, but the third one is a pretty big deal.  And of course there would be the matter of all the work involved in recoding to the other platform.

We are hoping that Windows 8 will support more languages using Sapi.  Currently Vista and Windows 7 support only English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Japanese.

You can of course do what Wanilton does and use the English engine but still create commands in Portuguese.  The advantage of this is that if you speak a bit of English, you will get much better results when requesting media with all those English titles and Artist names.

I hope this clarifies some issues for you, and does not add to the confusion.  You can test everything using the free demo mode, there are no limitations, so try it out and only buy the license once you've decided if it is going to work for you.

Good luck, and feel free to come back with more questions.

[MikeMelga]

Kalle, thanks for your answer.

jitterjames,

Thanks. I now understand the differences. Since I guess that the ability to choose the engine would be something impossible for VC to support, I'll have to go with the english commands scenario and see how it goes.
Thanks for your help!

Really nice program, btw!

[jitterjames]

you can choose the engine, but only from the 8 supported by SAPI on Windows.  We will see with windows 8 whether any new languages are added.  I doubt it though.