topic Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English? in GO 800 / 1000 / 2000 / Via / Start 20 and 60 Series (MyTomTom)

Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Doctor — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:15:41 GMT

I have a TOMTOM 1535 and have tried everthing I can think of to change the default vioce from US English "Smantha" to UK English "Emily" without any luck. The "Emily" voice shows up on the device, but is greyed out. I've changed the default language both on the device itself, as well as in the My TomTom control panel. I've done a soft reset too.

Any Help?

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Stefan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:26:17 GMT

When changing the language interface doesn't help then I believe that the voice isn't installed on the device, which may explain why the voice is greyed-out.

I also have a greyed out unselectable voice on the device for the dutch language.:smileyindifferent:

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Doctor — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:47:54 GMT

I have several that aren't greyed out that aren't in my selected language, as well as severl that I can choose from (like English UK) that are. Why, if my selected language is "English US" can I select Spaanish or French?

Any idea?

TIA!

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Chris_McLean — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:40:23 GMT

Because the major ethnic groups populating the North American continent are English speaking (USA & Canada) French (Canada) or Spanish (Mexico) - and in the USA the mix of Hispanic and English speaking is quite high...hence US devices support those voices..

As a Brit with a US device I found it really annoying to hear roads spoken as Ah 31 rather than Aye 31 for the A31 (obviously) and Fawnham instead of Farnham - quite off putting when your already in unfamiliar territory....

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

salmonella — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:31:09 GMT

As a Brit living in the US I would like to hear a familiar voice. I could select Emily with my older tomtom so I fail to understand the limitations on the newer device. Is it normal for Tomtom to reduce functionality on newer models?

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

gbh — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:42:38 GMT

I purchased the European map set for my US tomtom for a recent trip to the UK. However I too found out that the UK voices are greyed out - therefore I had to put up with the standard US voices reading out British road names in a very odd fashion - such as "Ah Thirty One Twenty" followed by the road name.

I recall reading the suggestion somewhere on this forum that it may be a licensing issue - but surely common sense would dictate that appropriate voices be licenced with the correct maps? I purchased a UK map but couldn't select a UK voice. Quite an odd inconsistency.

My nephew's asked for advice on purchasing a Sat Nav - I'll be advising him to stay clear of TomTom because of the draconian limitations of the MyTomTom app and other greyed out so-called 'options'.

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Kenneth — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:41:58 GMT

Hello all,

You can download free voices in other languages from our voice portal (you will need to select your website locale):

http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/voices/

Kenneth

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

redcar — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:54:25 GMT

Kenneth,

Are you trelling us that we can now now download "text to speech" voices in our preferred language?

The complaints in the previous posts in this thread are for content that would not apply to "recorded" voices.

If not, you should get an understandng of your product.

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Stefan — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:50:20 GMT

Hi redcar

TomTom has yet to release a update to be able to download and install additional computer voices. At the moment its only possible to download and install free and premium (paid) voices on the voice portal webpage. For more information, read the following topic:

http://discussions.tomtom.com/t5/TomTom-GO-800-1000-2000-Via/Voice-portal-releases/td-p/107419/page/5

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

gbh — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:48:54 GMT

All I wanted to do was to enable the greyed out "Emily" option - to get English UK pronunciation for the English map road and streetnames.

I tried installing the non-text-to-speech English UK voices Kenneth mentions (Tom and Jane) and installing them deleted the "Emily" text to speech option.

The previously greyed out option no longer appears. I suppose not seeing the option removes the frustration of not being able to select it, but surely English UK streetname pronunciation of a purchased UK map is not too much to expect?

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

salmonella — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:16:24 GMT

The worst part is that I can use the Emily voice on my older tomtom. Did we take a step backward? It seems such a simple implementation as it was a feature available on earlier models. Most of the yanks I work with enjoyed the Queen's English on my old tomtom so much they set Emily as the primary voice on their own devices. Maybe they're punishing us for emigrating? It can't possibly be a memory limit issue as my device has plenty of storage space for "other" downloaded voc's. Oh hang on, I have to pay for those so maybe it's a restricted space.

Sal

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Nora351 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:47:37 GMT

I have just bought a Via 1505. The English voices are greyed out and I cannot activate them. I have taken a current download but still have the problem. What am I doing wrong?

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Nonowt — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 19:25:16 GMT

What you are all looking for is 'Serena' - She speaks English UK with street names (free computer voice) - so you get em 23 instead of m23 and hay 12 instead of a12.... if you know what I mean....

A VERY helpful girl in the support section found this for me and with her help I was able to download it to my GO2535.

A lot better than the poorly pronounced US voices on offer.

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

twinger — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:41:45 GMT

The point is that you can't activate Serena on some devices. On my 1535TM Serena is greyed out and unavailable. This sucks!

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

Nonowt — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 23:39:35 GMT

I originally had 2 greyed out english UK names. Jane and Tim who I downloaded from the web site. I am not sure how this works but the girl from support found what she thought were more english voices.... she did whatever and then I got a message in myTomTom says there was an update! I think we went for Richard first but that turned out to be a US voice. Then I believe we tried Catherine.... French. Finally she sent Serena and we stopped at that?

So why not try support and ask them if they can download Serena to you?

I don't want to give her name in case she did too much (you never know) but each time she wrote something (exactly) like:

I have activated a voice called SERENA try that voice according to what I have found. Please try and let me know what happens.

Giving credit where it is deserved she really did spend a lot of time and effort trying to satisfy my problem and i would like to say what a wonderful job she did!

Re: Change Voice From US English to UK English?

kasmca — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:00:55 GMT

Can you please direct us to where we can download "Serena"?