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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject: Free voices - for TomTom |
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Can anyone advise the best site to download addtional voices from. Are they really free, any snags ? Is the memory in TT920 sufficient. Sorry if this has already been asked but the Search facility came up with a 54-page
Topic, too much to search through !! |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:03 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Andy for those. You didn't confirm about the memory in the TT920 though, is it sufficient ? |
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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:08 am Post subject: |
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Andy, followed instructions, download & pasted a new voice. BUT when I checked my TomTom there is no new voice shown. The 3 files are all showing in Voices on my computer, but do not seem to have progressed to my device, although it was connected.
Can you help ? |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:15 am Post subject: |
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If you get them from TomTom itself, it's probably easiest to use Home to install them (see HERE for their instructions) but for those from anywhere else, it's easiest to just copy and paste using Windows Explorer.
When you connect the Go to the PC, Windows will recognise it as a new drive, just click on the TomTom icon to see all the files and folders
For voices, they will usually download as a "zip" archive. Right click on it to extract the files and you normally end up with two files... a file called "dataxx.chk (where xx is a 2 digit number) which is the actual voice, and a .vif file with the name of the voice.
Copy these files onto the Tom Tom in the 'Voices' directory (you should already have some similar files in there for "Jane" and "Tim" if you are in the UK).
Switch on the Tom Tom, go to 'preferences' 'change voice' and browse for the voice.
The only possible issue is that every voice needs to have a unique 2-digit number (e.g. "Jane" has data05.chk) so if you download any that happen to have the same number as any you already have, you need to rename the .chk file with a new number and edit one of the lines inside the .vif file to give it the same number (it is just a text file and can be opened and edited with Notepad).
As for space....
I can't tell you if you have enough room on your particular Go 'cos I can't see it!
But when you are connected to the PC and can see the Go as a new drive, just right click on the TomTom icon and select properties, it should then show you a pie-chart and tell you how much free space you have.
Each voice file only takes up about 7-800 kB.
EDIT: All the above is for "real" voices.... If you are talking about "text to speech" voices, the only ones I know of are got directly from TomTom themselves via Home. |
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andy-c1 Lifetime Member
Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 1039 Location: East Sussex
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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for your help - Andy_P, but when I connect my TT920 to my computer, I get Tom Tom HOME. I managed to see on that, that there is sufficient space left. The voice I downloaded was from one of your recommended sites, not from Tom Tom. I copied and pasted all 3 files , which I had download to my C drive. These are showing on my computer in my Tom Tom file. I copied and pasted to Tom Tom Home-Voices, but the voice is still not on my device. |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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When you connect the TomTom to the PC, Home may well start up - just shut it down again and then use Explorer as usual.
In the "Home" preferences menu, there is an option to start Home automatically when the computer starts up - I would switch this OFF - who needs it wasting PC resources all the time?
As for your downloaded voice...
It looks like you have just copied it to the Home downloads folder on the PC, rather than the voices folder on the Go itself.
So...
First step: IGNORE Home, it just gets in the way. Shut it down.
Now go to Windows Explorer and look at the list of disk drives. Can you see the TomTom listed there?
If you can, click on it and you shouls now see a list of all the folders and files on the Go. There should be one called "voices".
All you should need to do is copy the .chk and the .vif files that you downloaded into that folder
(If you cannot see the 3-letter extensions (the bit after the dot) on the end of the files you need to enable the view of them in Explorer's Tools menu - go to Tools/Folder options /View tab and UN-TICK where it says "Hide extensions for known file types" in the list of options). I'm not sure what your third file is but you shouldn't need it (see below about telling us EVERYTHING you can though).
If you still have problems after that, it will be easiest to work out what's going wrong if you can be as specific as possible. Tell us:
1. the website
2. the voice
3. what the 3 files are called (including the 3 letters after the dot)
4. where you are putting them on the Go (and how)
5. what you are doing to switch to the voice
Every little detail helps when you are trying to work it out at a distance, it would be so much easier if you were in the same room!
With that info, someone can try downloading and installing the exact same voice, you never know, it might just be a duff one.... |
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angelinalove Occasional Visitor
Joined: Oct 01, 2008 Posts: 6
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 6:16 am Post subject: |
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you should first Switch on the Tom Tom, then go to preferences, 'change voice' and browse for the voice.
Hope this help. |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:51 am Post subject: |
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angelinalove wrote: | you should first Switch on the Tom Tom, then go to preferences, 'change voice' and browse for the voice.
Hope this help. |
I think he might have tried that, Angelina. The problem appears to be that they have not been uploaded to the TomTom at all yet.
theloft wrote: | followed instructions, download & pasted a new voice. BUT when I checked my TomTom there is no new voice shown. The 3 files are all showing in Voices on my computer, but do not seem to have progressed to my device, |
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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 5:46 pm Post subject: free voices for TomTom |
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Hello again Andy and thank you to all who have posted tips.
The site Idownloaded from was the one directed to from the Second one listed above, posted by you on Sep 28th. The site directed to was :-
http://www.gps-data-team.com/pda-gps-navigation/links/index.php?id=mini2&ID=mini2
I did as you suggested and switched off Tom Tom Home. Connected my TT 920 to PC and it is shown as TomTom(H) drive.
Went to file where I downloaded the voice and when I tried to copy to TomTom Voices file, it said that these were already there and did I want to replace! Checked and yes, the three files are showing on the PC. The three files downloaded were as follows:-
mm voice VIF file.vif
mmCHK file.chk
mm BMPfile Bitmap Image.
Disconnected Tom Tom and went to change preferences, change voices but there is no Marilyn Monroe listed or mm for that matter. I notice on the downloaded files that there is not a unique 2-digit number showing, as you mention in another post. How do I correct this. Sorry to be a pain!! |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:54 pm Post subject: Re: free voices for TomTom |
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First, apologies for forgetting that you CAN have 3 files not two, the standard TomTom-supplied voices don't need a .bmp picture file
theloft wrote: | I notice on the downloaded files that there is not a unique 2-digit number showing, as you mention in another post. How do I correct this. Sorry to be a pain!! |
That might be the problem then. Each voice needs its own number. When only TomTom produced voices that was easy to control, but now with voices from all over the place you're bound to get conflicts.
But if this is the first "extra" voice you've tried to add, it seems unusual
Quote: | The three files downloaded were as follows:-
mm voice VIF file.vif
mmCHK file.chk
mm BMPfile Bitmap Image. |
Those don't sound like the right filenames...
I assume the actual page you are downloading the Marilyn Monroe voice is this one?
http://www.gps-data-team.com/pda-gps-navigation/links/index.php
There are three separate buttons you need to click to get the three files and what I get once I've clicked on them are:
data61.vif
data61.chk
data61.bmp
It's unlikely you already have files with the number 61 isn't it?
If you don't, just download those three files and copy them into the voices folder on the TomTom. They should then show up in Change Preferences/Voice preferences/Switch voice.
If you DO already have #61 used, come back for details on what you need to do to change them.
Let us know how you get on. |
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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:30 pm Post subject: Re: free voices for TomTom |
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Andy_P wrote: | First, apologies for forgetting that you CAN have 3 files not two, the standard TomTom-supplied voices don't need a .bmp picture file. Let us know how you get on. |
First my apologies for not getting back to you sooner, but we have been away and other matters took priority as we were not going on a journey which required my Tom Tom.
Anyway, I can report success, in that following your instructions, I have now managed to download a free voice. The only drawback is that my Tom Tom now tells me that as I have chosen a human voice, not a computer voice, it will not read aloud messages or warnings. How will this affect my journeys? Thanks for your help. |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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Computer voices (also known as text to speech or TTS voices) can read out things like POI alerts, phone text messages etc. (as well as reading out street names and numbers).
Using a recorded voice you will not get these features, but on my 720 if I select a non-TTS voice it brings up a screen telling me the above and giving me the option to use a TTS voice *just* for the warnings and messages. |
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theloft Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 109 Location: Buckinghamshire
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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Again a long time before replying, but I gathered that I had a choice, so listened to Joanna Lumley for a while, then swithed back to TTS voice. I don't suppose there are any free to download TTS voices ? |
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