Voicebox features for Rockbox utility

[nonob]

Hi,

The first issue i had with rbutility was the incapabilities to create talk files on my pc drive when my portable device isn't connected.
So i tried voicebox utility which offer this feature, and i discover others interesting capabilities :

I am a french user and i listen both french and english music, so i have to change TTS language settings each time i have a different nationality artist (album or track).

I can do that with RButility but it take some seconds to display this window :



Then i have to browse to each folder i want create talk files with this language settings, and i can't do a multiple selection.

Now with voicebox, i have installed a modified version of voicebox which just create others language subfolders:
(http://netwalker.free.fr/share/voicebox.zip)



By defaut there are only 3 language folders, but you can create new just by copying all files from one of this subfolder and by change this line in the voiceutils.vbs file :

Set spkr.Voice = spkr.GetVoices("Language=40c").Item(0)

You have to change the ID (here it is 40C for french) , you can find IDS here :
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/VoiceHowto

In this same file i also deleted these lines to have the same ponctuation than with rbutility:

     

Code: [Select]

Text = Replace(Text,"_"," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"-"," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,","," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"."," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,";"," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"("," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,")"," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"+"," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"="," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"~"," ")
     Text = Replace(Text,"  "," ")

Then i started each voicebox.hat, check settings i want, and save a shortcut to my desktop for each language i want (i have to rename each shorcut) :



Then, i copied these three shorcut files to C:\Documents and Settings\myname\SendTo to enable creating talk files by context menu:



Very useful, isn't it ?

So it would be nice that rockbox utility could offer these features ..

1-Create talk files where you want regardless portable device is connected or not.
2-Quickly create files in different languages, for instance by windows context menu?

Thanks

[bluebrother]

Then i have to browse to each folder i want create talk files with this language settings, and i can't do a multiple selection.

In general I'm not really happy with the talkfile creation window myself. It has various issues:
- it doesn't allow selecting multiple folders (as you said)
- it doesn't store various settings you can make
- it doesn't support voice string corrections
- it's confusing and ugly.

Now with voicebox, i have installed a modified version of voicebox which just create others language subfolders:

Well, the difference here is that you are using multiple copies. You can do that with Rockbox Utility as well: just install it as portable version (File / Install Rockbox Utility on player), then move both RockboxUtility.exe and RockboxUtility.ini. If it finds a configuration file in the same folder the binary is located in it uses that configuration file instead of the system one.

This doesn't solve the multiple selection or player attached problem, but it's at least a workaround for the TTS configuration issue. You can also run multiple copies of it at the same time.

So it would be nice that rockbox utility could offer these features ..

1-Create talk files where you want regardless portable device is connected or not.
2-Quickly create files in different languages, for instance by windows context menu?

Well, yes and no
I agree with a lot of your suggestions. However, I think a better approach would be a simple command-line tool (based on Rockbox Utility) to do the job. Also, doing any context menu handling "from" Rockbox Utility is a no-go: (1) it requires a shell extension if you don't use the "Send to" way, (2) it's not portable. However, if you have a command line program you simply pass your configuration to you can create a couple of cmd files that do it the way you want and you're fine.

I'm happy to review patches that implement those functionality. While I'd like to improve those features my time is quite limited, and there are a lot of other issues in Rockbox Utility to address ...

[nonob]

Thanks for your reply and your interest to my suggestions.
Let me know when you will release patch or update.
Have a nice day

[bluebrother]

Let me know when you will release patch or update.

I've just implemented selecting multiple folders for talkfile creation in a way that fits the general idea behind how Rockbox Utility works. It's not completely what you want but you should be able to get pretty close to it using the workarounds discussed in the other thread. Creating a standalone application is still an idea, but currently I'm unlikely to work on that.

You can try the latest changes using a development binary of Rockbox Utility -- I've just updated the Windows binary, see my signature for a link. However, I won't notify you on any further changes -- please follow the changelog of Rockbox Utility. It's not my job to inform people about changes (since they are available on the web), and my time is simply too limited for doing so.

[nonob]

I've just implemented selecting multiple folders for talkfile creation in a way that fits the general idea behind how Rockbox Utility works. It's not completely what you want but you should be able to get pretty close to it using the workarounds discussed in the other thread.

Thanks a lot

However, I won't notify you on any further changes -- please follow the changelog of Rockbox Utility. It's not my job to inform people about changes (since they are available on the web), and my time is simply too limited for doing so.

I understand, no problem

And about that ? :

You can of course trick Rockbox Utility by pointing it to some device that is not the player but accepted -- basically any drive that is FAT formatted.

My PC drive (C:) where i create talk files isn't FAT formatted, it is NTFS formatted, and it works ...

You can even install a Rockbox build on such a "player" -- but if you do so you can confuse the autodetection functionality, so I don't recommend that.
(...)
If you're on Windows you could keep a complete copy of the files on your player on the local hard disk and then use subst to assign that a drive letter, making Rockbox Utility accept it.

Yes i'm on windows but i don't understand the difference between these two tips, if the first tip can confuse autodetection functionality, why the second not ?

[nonob]

Hi

Curiously, i can use RButility 1.2.14 c02bdc3 with my device unplugged.

I just have to choose a local disk and all butons become ungreyed !