[mh] Those interested in AT&T Natural Voices for Linux, please read

[Richard K. <n1...@ho...>]

Recently I've moved MH from Windows to Linux. I had been running AT&T NV
for quite some time and have been very happy with the quality. Since at the
time (3 months ago) I couldn't find a Linux version I bought Cepstral Dave. 
He's
pretty good, but I still think NV Mike16 annunciates better and has a voice 
that
is understandble from greater distances around the house. In fact I'm using
Mike16 now using Wine. There is a 2-3 second delay before speaking which I'm
sure is due to having to go through Wine. I would like to run it natively 
and avoid
the delay.

Yesterday I set out to look once again for someone selling a Linux version 
of
AT&T NV. I came across http://www.wizzardsoftware.com. They only sell the
SDK ($295). I inquired with http://www.nextup.com as well since they are
selling a Windows version for under $50, but they dont (currently) sell a
Linux version.

I've copied the emails below, but the summary is, I think if we can get 
enough
interest stirred up with http://www.nextup.com they may be willing to start
selling the AT&T NV for Linux at a reduced cost. I dont think they realize 
the
market potential with Asterisk users foremost, and then Home Automation.

Heck maybe we could manage a deal similar to what nextup has with 
wizzardsoftware,
license an SDK and sell it as a bundle with MH (MH being free of course). Oh 
ya,
and tee shirts too.

-Rick

============


From: "Ken White - NextUp.com" <kd...@ne...> [Add to Address Book] 
[View Source]
To: <n1...@ho...>
Subject: Re: AT&T Labs Natural Voices
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 21:07:31 +0000

You might check with them to see if they have any linux resellers.  It all
gets a little complicated legally.   Their deal with AT&T allows them to
sell the SDK at the SDK price.  Then, they can also do deals with companies
that want to include Natural Voices with their own products.  That is the
deal we have, so we bought the SDK from them, then licensed the right to
sell the runtimes with our products.

The problem is likely no one has come along that wants to sell the voices
with their own products on linux, thus no "consumer" outlet for the voices
at an affordable price.

We've thought about doing something on linux, but honestly we get about 1
request a month so I"m not sure if we'd really make back the investment.


Ken White
NextUp.com
Listen and Get Smart
http://www.NextUp.com

============

Dear Rick Koch,

My only suggestion would be for you to purchase the SDK. There are no end
user products for Linux for AT&T Natural Voices.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Doug Whitson
Wizzard Software
Senior Technical Sales Consultant
Office 954-678-4155 Ext 212
Fax     954-678-4164

-----Original Message-----
From: n1...@ho... [mailto:n1...@ho...]
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 5:04 PM
To: Doug
Subject: RE: AT&T Natural Voices for Linux

Doug,

Thanks for the info. I would be an end user. I use text to speech
in my home automation setup. I just need the ability to call the
tts engine from a script (PERL) and have it generate a .WAV file
with the speech.

I contacted www.nextup.com and they only have the Windows
version.

www.naturalreader.com doesn't work.

Will there be a similar (non-SDK) version for Linux (like there is
for Windows) in the future?

Thanks,

Rick Koch