ViaMitchelin voices

[tanda]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows of alternative voice files to use with ViaMitchelin, instead of the "PINGS" you get to warn you of a speed camera etc. Failing that, does anyone know what format they are in, and what file they are in on the SD card.
Thanks for any help.
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Audi A3 Sline sat nav

[martike]

I asked a similar question a while ago.

Take a look at http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=34588&highlight=voices

Wanted the Yoda voice, I did. Have it, I still do not.

[elan2s]

All of the voice commands are in a file called (for English) sounds.zdb. The near and far alarms are .au files. You will find them on your pc in program files/viamichelin/mapsonic/res_pda but these seem to be a vM format. If you can find a way to create some new files then there are many of us who would be interested

[tanda]

Thanks for the replys, I've been looking on the internet for programs, and have found one that will convert text to speech. They have a demo, you type a sentence, and pick a voice, and click "try it", and the lady reads the sentence. So, I typed "30 second warning", and listened to it, then typed "10 second warning", and listened to it. I then went into windows explorer/tempory internet files, and dragged the two files into "My Documents". I then downloaded a FREE program to convert sound files from one format to another, and converted the MP3 files to .au files. I then played them in WINAMP, and they played ok. I then went into winamp/properties, and unticked the .au format, and played them again, but they would not play, so that confirms they are in .au format.
Next , I looked on my PC where you said, and found the "Near and Far Alarm files, I re-named them "10Alarm and 30Alarm" and dragged the new files into the same folder, and re-named the new files "NearAlarm and FarAlarm" as the originals were, did a sync, then looked for them on the PDA, but nothing had changed on the PDA. So I changed the files back again on the PC, and put the new files straight on the PDA, and re-named the originals. In Demo mode, and on a test drive, the visual warnings come up, but no sound warnings at all. So re-naming the originals has disabled the original files, but it won't pick up the new .au files. I have changed the file names back again now, and it all works again. In theory it should work, or have I missed something? I re-named the new files exactly the same, capitals etc. I had thought of having her say, "Warning, speed camers" or whatever, but as ViaMitvhelin use the same two sound files, it would say "warning speed camera" if you were approaching a petrol station, or Tesco's, so you can only use a common voice, so no "warning 50mph Truvo" etc will be possible, just a general warning of an approaching POi. Can anyone see where I have gone wrong? Thanks.
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Audi A3 Sline sat nav

[tanda]

Just a quick update, the ZDB files are database files, I thought if the files I added wern't on the datbase, perhaps thats why It can't read them, so I downloaded a program to convert ZDB files to text, I only have it for 30 days, then I have to pay for it, but all the ZDB files appear to be empty, so why have them?
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Audi A3 Sline sat nav

[martike]

I checked on the "zdb" file extension and found that it's in use by at least 6 different software companies (and ViaMichelin wasn't one of them !), for 6 different purposes, but the only one I've encountered personally is Quicken financial applications.

I can't find anything to suggest that "zdb" is directly linked with any sort of sound files. Has VM taken an available database format and used it to store sound files ?

It could be that your zdb decoding programme also hasn't heard of the VM-specific form of zdb.

Is it possible that the original VM "au" files are also not standard ? They obviously work when played by VM, but have you tried to play them using another application ? If this is the case, then it would explain why your new "true au" files don't work with VM which is expecting "VM au" format.

All of this may be complete rubbish, but on the other hand, it may help.

[tanda]

Hi Martike, The ViaMitchelin .au sound files will NOT play in Winamp or Windows Media Player, but my new .au files will, so VM's .au files aren't recognised .au files for some reason. As for the ZDB files, this is what the softwear says about them,

" CD Catalog Expert is a Windows application, designed to organize and maintain a catalog of your
computer media collection, including CD-ROMs, harddrives, audio CDs, MP3s, removable disks...
This is useful if you want to keep track of a vast CD collection.With CD Catalog Expert, you can
save the drive to a ZDB-file - a database format - and later browse or search. Zdb files can be
convert to Txt/Htm files, so your friends can also browse your CDs without CD Catalog Expert.
You can also batch search through a multiple number of ZDB-files. You can add a comment so that
you can browse the information about the CD-ROMs. CD Catalog Expert also support context menu,
just like winzip. This means, there is a "Add to Catalogs" menu-item on the context menu when you
right click on a drive or folder in windows explorer".

So it should list All the sound files that VM use, I asume thats what they use it for,but again, the softwear does not recognise their zdb files, the note pad document is empty. I may send an e-mail to VM, and see what they have to say about it, I basicly want to know what format they use.
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Audi A3 Sline sat nav

[martike]

So it seems that both "au" and "zdb" files as used by VM are not standard implementations of those file types. Good luck with getting any sort of sensible answer out of them on such a technical question !

[tanda]

Got an answer from ViaMitchelin, very helpfull and imformative,,,,,,,NOT.

"Thank you for your interest in ViaMichelin products and activities.

We would like to apologise for the delay in answering as we are currently receiving a large number of emails.

In response to your message we kindly recommend you not to modify the software as is was intended to be used as it is supplied and since we cannot guarantee the functioning of the product once it's been modified.
For the version 4, we regret to inform you that the audio files cannot be changed.

We hope that we have answered your request, and we are at your disposal should you have any other suggestions or questions.

Yours faithfully,
Thomas

- Customer Relations Department - ""

So I think thats it, I can't go any further with it.
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Audi A3 Sline sat nav

[martike]

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