Voice file size (on Ondio) matters?

[x-oph]

After using version 2.5 for some time I've tried the daily builds. Everything's working fine accept that the voice files I've chosen first didn't give a beep.
I've tried most of the other files and it seems to me that only the three smallest of them are working (tough all of them are very fast playing).
Is this a known voice file size problem? Or is my Ondio SP defect?
Or am I handling the files wrong? (I always renamed them to english.voice - except for the German one witch was renamed to deutsch.voice -  and put them to .rockbox\langs
I didn't have any problems with the voice files in the release version...

Here all the files I've tried

Voice file's date      
                          Voice file's
                                    Name of the downloadedarchive
                                                               Result
07.03.2007  06:42         1.096.924 english_Reed.zip          (Works but it's way to fast)
29.08.2006  09:47         1.078.408 english_Reed_fast_cvs.zip      (Works but not with all menu items and it's still faster then english_Reed.zip)
07.03.2007  06:49         1.203.628 english_Synthetic_Dave_UK_English.zip   (Works, but it's to fast)

07.03.2007  06:32         1.974.366 english_VW_Kate            doesn't work (tested on 2007-04-26 and 2007-05-04 daily builds)
07.03.2007  06:35         1.879.310 english_VW_Paul            doesn't work (tested on 2007-04-26 and 2007-05-04 daily builds)
06.04.2007  15:07         1.770.768 american-english_ibmtts_20070406.zip   doesn't work (tested on 2007-04-26 and 2007-05-04 daily builds)
08.04.2007  17:18         1.696.608 british-english_ibmtts_20070406.zip      doesn't work (tested on 2007-05-04 daily build)
03.06.2006  13:51         1.431.488 deutsch-lh-stefan-20060602.zip      doesn't work (tested on 2007-05-04 daily build)
07.03.2007  06:31         1.321.054 english_Cepstral_David.zip         doesn't work (tested on 2007-05-04 daily build)
07.03.2007  06:34         1.579.288 english_Cepstral_Lawrence.zip      doesn't work (tested on 2007-05-04 daily build)
07.03.2007  06:44         1.453.864 english_Simon.zip english.voice      doesn't work (tested on 2007-05-04 daily build)

[JdGordon]

yes, on all archos targets there is a limit (1.5mb I think) for the voice file

[nls]

The voice file must fit in the audio buffer, this buffer uses all the otherwise unused memory and I think it's about 1.2 megs on archoses, it also depends a little on settings like max files in dir and max entries in playlist, try to keep these as low as possible.
(Settings -> General Settings -> System -> Limits)
To see the available buffer, go to System -> Rockbox Info from the main menu.

[pixelma]

The basic problem has already been addressed: the voice files are now too large. That's because the size of the firmware had grown since the release version (new features). Both - the firmware and the voice file have to fit in the 2MB of RAM the Archoses have.*

...and I think it's about 1.2 megs on archoses

It varies a lot and it's not a hard limit - on your OndioSP it should be more than this. My backlight modded OndioFM has about 1.3 MB of available buffer even though the FM and backlight related code adds a lot to the firmware size - compared to the SP.

it also depends a little on settings like max files in dir and max entries in playlist, try to keep these as low as possible.

Yes, you can influence it a bit with settings. Other than the already mentioned ones, there are for example the scrobbler log (which doesn't even work correctly) and cuesheet support that take away a lot of available buffer size too, in case you activate(d) them.

*) This is not true when you run rockbox from ROM (if you use the so called rombox) - the OndioSP is one of two targets where this is still possible with the recent versions. (Excuse me if I'm wrong in assuming that you don't).

[x-oph]

Thank you guys for your answers and advices.

I've played somewhat with the limits with following results:
buffer: 1.252 MB (default limits)
buffer: 1.356 MB (limits: 200 files; playlist 1000)
buffer: 1.369 MB (limits: 50 files; playlist 1000)

At the end of the day I was able to use some of the bigger voice files which are much better to understand

The rombox option seems to be very promising. Sounds to me that it could free some 100k of  the  buffer. I have to take a closer look at this.
I didn't activate the 'scrobbler log' nor the 'cuesheet support' so there's no buffer saving potential available  but thanks for the cue.

This 'backlight mod' for the ondio you've mentioned sounds very interesting to me. I have to search if it's documented somewhere.

[x-oph]

I've just flashed my ondio with RomBox and gained 200KB  

Buffer: 1.568 MB (Limits: 50 files; playlist 1000)

Thanks again!

[pixelma]

This 'backlight mod' for the ondio you've mentioned sounds very interesting to me. I have to search if it's documented somewhere.

Sure it is... http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome?topic=OndioBacklight.  8-)

But it's hard to find the necessary parts and you need good soldering skills. I also saw posts in the "Archived Threads" forum of someone who had done a slightly different mod with the backlight not driven by Rockbox - as with the described mod in the wiki. He only switches it on and off by hand, hence no influence on bin size.

Hopefully soon there will be target specific voice files which means they will be smaller for e.g. the Ondio again because they won't include all the talk clips that aren't needed there - like RGB settings etc. etc. At the moment the voice files are this large because they contain everything.