[MV] Re: Sluggish Computer With ViaVoice 3.x
Eytan Bercovitch
ebercovitch at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 1 09:36:13 PST 2003
Hello all,
I have been using speech recognition on the mac for three years, and
it has been a sad experience. Three years ago, IBM was still
developing ViaVoice and there was still a promise that Dragon would
be porting to the Mac. Meanwhile, Macspeech was looking promising.
Now, Scansoft has become the major player. Under its guidance,
Viavoice seems a dead end line and there is no longer hope of Dragon
entering the scene. Macspeech remains the only player.
I have been trying out the speech recognition programs on Windows and
they are fantastic, better than anything that ever existed for the
Mac and STILL BEING IMPROVED.
I am grateful for Macspeech but it is really not yet ready for the
needs of heavy duty users. I worry that it is facing financial
problems meeting the research costs to compete with Dragon and
ViaVoice for Windows. We are about five years behind Windows on SR
at this point. Five years is a lifetime in the computer world.
*How does a company known for innovation allow something as cutting
edge as SR to become so poorly supported on its platform?!* I
suspect Apple is doing selective pruning, that the digital lifestyle
push has come at the expense of other important causes like SR.
I wonder how anyone who really needs speech recognition can use the
Mac platform anymore. My question to this list is how much you feel
you are sacrificing to use SR on the Mac rather than Windows?
>Sounds like we are all basically screwed when it comes to support for
>ViaVoice on Mac OS X ( 10.2.8+ ). Has anyone spoken with ScanSoft about
>ViaVoice for Mac OS X? If so, will they be making bug fixes to ViaVoice
>to support Mac OS X ( Panther ) and newer? I basically sounds like we
>are down to 1 continuous speech recognition product for Macintosh, and
>it is iListen from MacSpeech. If voice recognition enables you, or your
>a Macintosh enthusiasts that enjoys seeing excellent software available
>on the Macintosh, you should throw your full support behind MacSpeech.
>I know I have.
>
>Thanks...
>
>Todd
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: MacVoice, Speech Recognition List
>[mailto:MacVoice at lists.themacintoshguy.com] On Behalf Of Camner
>Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 8:28 AM
>To: MacVoice, Speech Recognition List
>Subject: [MV] Re: Sluggish Computer With ViaVoice 3.x
>
>
>I can't speak to your other questions, but for me, VV does not play well
>with Panther.
>
>1. I can't start VoiceCenter directly (I get a "fatal error" in VC). I
>CAN
>start from SpeakPad, which launches VC.
>
>2. SpeakPad works, but only while it has focus. As soon as it loses
>focus,
>VV seems to forget about its connection to audio. When I go back to SP,
>the
>mic isn't recognized.
>
>3. #2 means that I can't correct. Once I open the correction window
>and
>put my cursor there, going back to SP means losing the mic.
>
>Thus, for me, Panther and VV are incompatible.
>
>Others may have different experiences.
>
>Robert
>
>On 12/1/03 5:51 AM, "Domains4Days" <Lists at domains4days.com> wrote:
>
>> For some time now my ViaVoice 3.x, when active, has been making my
>entire
>> computer operate much more sluggishly then in the past ( Finder
>Windows
>> opening slowly etc.).
>>
>> Jaguar 10.2.8 with a G4 / 450.
>>
>> I Recently purchased a DUAL 1.25 machine also. After installing
>ViaVoice on
>> that machine, I first backed up my voice model on the old machine -
>and
>> moved it over to the new machine and then restored. ( The last thing I
>want
>> to do is to have to create a voice model from scratch...)
>>
>> Unbelievably, the new dual machine was also sluggish when ViaVoice was
>> active. Lots of waiting - slow Windows etc.
>>
>> Sometime back, I recall being to go into a special window - I think it
>was "
>> analyze my documents" - and process previously stored user
>corrections
>> (from using correction mode) on this page. After processing - believe
>the
>> program would work much faster and free things up.
> >
>> Q: * I no longer see that choice anymore - does anybody know where it
>is?
>>
>> Q: Does anybody have any ideas how to speed things up again? (
>without
>> creating a new voice model ...)
>>
>> Q: does anybody know if ViaVoice 3.x will work on Panther?
>>
>> Q: does anybody know if scan soft will ever update this dying
>application?
>>
>> Interesting note: if I'm sure some of the list members remember a
>thread
>> about a year ago - where if you listened to the ViaVoice audio - it
>had
>> bad static in the recording. My g4/450 certainly had that problem.
>Before I
>> upgraded the new ViaVoice on the new machine - I tested the sound of
>my
>> voice recordings and - interestingly enough - the static was NOT there
>in
>> the recording. And for whatever it's worth - some update note mentions
>that
>> the upgrade changes the recording from 22 K to 44 K to fix the
>problem. For
>> any non audiophiles - that basically means that the file sizes of
>saving
>> audio with your document will be double!
>
>
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>
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>
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