Kodi Community Forum
Release Kodi Screen Reader (Text to speech) - Printable Version

+- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv)
+-- Forum: Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=33)
+--- Forum: Add-on Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=27)
+---- Forum: Service Add-ons (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=152)
+---- Thread: Release Kodi Screen Reader (Text to speech) (/showthread.php?tid=196757)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-11-06

Would Kodi Screen Reader work? It's simpler and we don't leave out the partially sighted people?


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - arsivci - 2014-11-13

yes sure, Kodi Screen Reader is fine. We do not leave the parcially sighted ones out, because the reader is more relevant to blinds by its features, since it does not contain any magnification.

Maybe a little of topic it would be, but I would like to ask if there is any friend here having an accessible HTPC experience/configuration and advice.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - blindndangerous - 2014-11-15

Is their a way to disable it reading the clock? Whenever I move (or I think the minute changes in Kodi) the tts now reads that. It's a little annoying, not to big of a problem, but thought I'd mention it. I'm using the latest Kodi from what XBMCUpdate pulled down (hmm, that name should now be changed too now that I think about it) and no problems here. Before I ran the updater, I was on nightly and no problems there either but I think the updater rolled me back. I'm not sure what version I'm running now as I see no way to get the version number from within Kodi or the add/remove programs diglog, just says Kodi Team Kodi, but oh well.
Oh. According to the updater I'm running revision 140526. Please let me know if you need anything tested with NVDA with this addon. I don't think it should be called Kodi reader for the blind, I actually like Kodi TTS the best actually since it's specific to Kodi, but that's just me.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-11-15

(2014-11-15, 19:13)blindndangerous Wrote: Is their a way to disable it reading the clock? Whenever I move (or I think the minute changes in Kodi) the tts now reads that. It's a little annoying, not to big of a problem, but thought I'd mention it.
I assume you must have 'Speak Extra Item Information Automatically' enabled, and that this only happens on the Home window? There is definitely an issue there. By the way what skin are you using?
(2014-11-15, 19:13)blindndangerous Wrote: I'm using the latest Kodi from what XBMCUpdate pulled down (hmm, that name should now be changed too now that I think about it) and no problems here. Before I ran the updater, I was on nightly and no problems there either but I think the updater rolled me back. I'm not sure what version I'm running now as I see no way to get the version number from within Kodi or the add/remove programs diglog, just says Kodi Team Kodi, but oh well.
Oh. According to the updater I'm running revision 140526.
I was going to say you could go to System, then the sub-menu System Info and press F2 while on the summary tab, but when I tested it, it read everything EXCEPT the version. I'll have to look at that as well Smile
(2014-11-15, 19:13)blindndangerous Wrote: Please let me know if you need anything tested with NVDA with this addon.
If something comes up, I'll let you know Smile
(2014-11-15, 19:13)blindndangerous Wrote: I don't think it should be called Kodi reader for the blind, I actually like Kodi TTS the best actually since it's specific to Kodi, but that's just me.
So do you prefer that to just Kodi Screen Reader? I originally called it XBMC TTS because I don't think you could technically call it a screen reader. On the other hand, it basically performs that function more or less. I was leaning towards Kodi Screen Reader lately because I figured it is more clear for everyone, including the sighted users who may wonder what it is when scrolling down the list in the addon installer screen.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-11-21

(2014-11-21, 06:16)Traker1001 Wrote: So I came across this, Jump to 2:49 to avoid all the B.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTL-3fj6HI

I thought it was very fascinating. I most likely won't ever have Comcast and like Kodi thousand times better, however, it was still fascinating none the less.
It's good that Comcast put the effort into making their device accessible, with a decent quality voice even Smile
It reminds me of something I've been thinking about, which is whether I should add more instructional speech, such as directions on how to navigate different views.
(2014-11-21, 06:16)Traker1001 Wrote: As a side note, I haven't said it in a while. But, Thank you. Big Grin
Hey, this has been the most rewarding addon I have written - mostly because of the great users Smile


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - arsivci - 2014-11-26

@ruuk, I really do not know why but when I turned on my XBMC today, tts no longer reads. A sighted friend of mine told me that XBMC functions normally. Any guess?


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - arsivci - 2014-11-26

(2014-11-26, 15:00)arsivci Wrote: @ruuk, I really do not know why but when I turned on my XBMC today, tts no longer reads. A sighted friend of mine told me that XBMC functions normally. Any guess?
Hi, I solved it by uninstaling and reinstalling xbmc.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-11-26

(2014-11-26, 15:00)arsivci Wrote: @ruuk, I really do not know why but when I turned on my XBMC today, tts no longer reads. A sighted friend of mine told me that XBMC functions normally. Any guess?

It's been disabled with F12 would be one reason.
If not that then what speech engine are you using?
I may possibly need a log.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - devinprater - 2014-11-28

Hi all. I'm new to this forum, and really hope I can get help. I rarely have sighted help, and really don't think sighted help should be necessary. I'm on mac OS, and because others have gotten this Haddon to work on the mac, I believe it should work for me. I downloaded the service.xmc.tts, and the repo, and put them in ~/library/applications support/kodi/addons (I'm running the beta of koi 14.) I launch koi for the second time, as I started it first to create the folders for putting the plugging into, and I hear the arrow clicks, but that's it. The folders are unzipped. Should they be zipped? I also put a zipped version in the packages folder. What else could I do?


Re: RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-11-28

(2014-11-28, 02:22)devinprater Wrote: Hi all. I'm new to this forum, and really hope I can get help. I rarely have sighted help, and really don't think sighted help should be necessary. I'm on mac OS, and because others have gotten this Haddon to work on the mac, I believe it should work for me. I downloaded the service.xmc.tts, and the repo, and put them in ~/library/applications support/kodi/addons (I'm running the beta of koi 14.) I launch koi for the second time, as I started it first to create the folders for putting the plugging into, and I hear the arrow clicks, but that's it. The folders are unzipped. Should they be zipped? I also put a zipped version in the packages folder. What else could I do?

It sounds like you did it properly. Unzipping it is correct. You should have a service.xbmc.tts folder in your addons folder. If that's what you have and it's not working then the kodi.log would be useful. I'm not sure where that's located off the top of my head, but if you can't find it I should have more time tomorrow to check where it's located on OSX. OSX is the least tested as I don't own a Mac. I only have a older OSX version virtual machine.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - arsivci - 2014-12-09

@ruuk
I know that we once mentioned it but thought that it could be cool to remind again, it would be perfect if you could implement the subtitle tts reading option that we choose our synth installed on our pc to read subtitles and screen messages on the movie, just like KM player, or is there a way to use km player as the player of xbmc externally? if yes, I can use it in that way too!


Re: RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-12-09

(2014-12-09, 13:10)Traker1001 Wrote: I have noticed in Kodi Helix RC3 (Really any kodi release) under Live TV, that no matter what the view (EPG, Channel, Etc...) TTS won't read the channel selected. Reads show name selected, and extra item info kicks in and reads the description after brief delay, however won't read the channel.
It did read this in Gotham.

Would also be cool if it would read "Time to time" when moving around in the EPG, For example, Channel KCMO, Divorce court, 5pm to 5:30pm.
I'll look into the issue and adding the times soon.
(2014-12-09, 13:10)Traker1001 Wrote: On a side note, hows getting the addon submitted to the official repo going? Anything I can do to help the process? Smile
It's waiting on a decision on how to handle items with binary files included. The NVDA backend includes one, and as it stands the current rules don't allow it. So once that is settled it can go in.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - arsivci - 2014-12-09

(2014-12-09, 11:59)Traker1001 Wrote: I think its a cool idea just to be cool. However, I don't fully understand the purpose that a subtitle tts reader would serve. Maybe Im missing something? Wouldn't reading subtitles out loud be redundant to the talking in the movie itself?

I do believe there is a way to specify an alternative player in Kodi, However I am unsure of how. So you would have to search the forums for it, However, I know I saw it a while back. One of the issues I could see with specifying a alternative player though, I don't believe speech would read the player interface.

On a side note I am unfamiliar with KM player, You mention it read subtitles is it accessible? Or does it just read subtitles?
No, it would not be redundant, because you can configure the level of the tts through which the player
reads the subtitle in a way that it would not outvolume the movie. KM Player has this function that if you have a sapi tts voice installed on your PC and a srt subtitle text file for the desired programme or film, it could recognise and use it as an engine to read subtitles andd screen messsages on the movie. This feature is useful particularly for those who would like to watch something else than their native language with subtitle rather than the dubbed productions.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-12-11

(2014-12-09, 11:44)arsivci Wrote: @ruuk
I know that we once mentioned it but thought that it could be cool to remind again, it would be perfect if you could implement the subtitle tts reading option that we choose our synth installed on our pc to read subtitles and screen messages on the movie, just like KM player, or is there a way to use km player as the player of xbmc externally? if yes, I can use it in that way too!

From the changelog in the TODO section:
Subtitle speech? Maybe only possible with something like pysrt and a subtitle file. https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pysrt

I originally looked at this briefly and it wasn't (as far as I could tell at the time) possible to get the subtitle text from XBMC in the code. I have some ideas on things I might try to make this work, but it is a non-trivial addition. That doesn't mean I won't try to add it at some point, but it isn't the top thing on my priority list.


RE: XBMC TTS (Text To Speech) [Alpha] - ruuk - 2014-12-11

(2014-12-11, 18:38)Traker1001 Wrote:
(2014-12-11, 16:35)ruuk Wrote: From the changelog in the TODO section:
Subtitle speech? Maybe only possible with something like pysrt and a subtitle file. https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pysrt

I originally looked at this briefly and it wasn't (as far as I could tell at the time) possible to get the subtitle text from XBMC in the code. I have some ideas on things I might try to make this work, but it is a non-trivial addition. That doesn't mean I won't try to add it at some point, but it isn't the top thing on my priority list.
Just thinking. Smile

Why would you need to to edit or create SubRip files? Sub files are already provided are they not?

XBMC gets its subtitles from the Subtitle files as well. So you would have to independently load the file, seperate it into Time chunks using the time stamp and send those pieces to the speech engine. I imagine the very difficult, (Possible in KODI?) part would be how to keep the subtitle on track with the timeline of the movie, Otherwise a single pause, buffer, or anything would throw the speech way out of track. Then again how does Kodi keep the text/Time stamps in line with the movie/show? Maybe the same process could be used to jump the speech around in the subtitle file? Then again maybe I'm way off, lol. Big Grin

Another question I would have is would speech really be able to keep up with the subtitle reading? I guess so, since there is another program out there that allows for it. I gotta give that a try sometime to see what it sounds like.

With that said, I echo my hope that if/When done it is done as a separate addon. To me it seems like a completely different resource than what this addon provides. Also seems like you might need to call speech separately (Can you push multiple instances of speech at same time?, Guessing yes since I have had jaws jabber away while Kodi was talking through SAPI directly.) .

Also I echo my surprise that someone hasn't already attempted/created such an addon. Big Grin Anyways, just my random thoughts. Hope I wasn't way off base. If I was good enough at Python, Id give this a try myself, Just for the heck of it, But i'm not there -Yet-. Bit of a slower process to pick it up for me, but I am making progress. More I learn, more I appreciate what developers of Kodi and addons go through and especially Ruuk Wink.

Anyways Im done, lol. Big Grin
pysrt would be used to parse the srt files and get the time indexes for the the text, instead of writing my own parsing code.
I can the monitor the time index of the playing video and have the addon speak the text when the appropriate position is reached.
Then it's probably just a matter of setting a speech rate that works well for subtitle reading.

That's the basic idea I had in mind, though I haven't explored it yet. It looks like all the pieces are there to make it work though.