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Help Google Maps Navigation Voice makes my ears sad :( .....

P

p3dro

Lurker
Hi all,

Is there any way of changing the voice on these, the synthesised voice is AWFUL. Apart from not being able to pronounce English words correctly (E.g. Kew <queue> said as koo - I can't imagine what is must be like if I had to drive down Gloucester or Leicester) it's soooooo grating and harsh on my lugs...
I've tried both English and American English settings but both are as bad as each other.
Is there a download for new voices or one in the pipeline?
I'm shocked this passed Google's quality control!!!!!!

Thanks,
Pete
 
The problem im havinv is that the sound is very quiet and not heard with the radio on. I couldnt sit in silence on a long journey.
 
Yeah. The voice thing gets this WRONG. In America there are people called Keighley. And they pronounce it "Kaylee" No. It's pronouced KEEFLEY. The voice thing does the same thing. KAYLEE. No, Keefley, thanks.

How do I know the correct way to pronounce that name? Because I live near the damn place where it's had that name for over 500 years. So, Americans, if you see anyone with that name. They're saying it wrong.
 
i don't even know where you can change the settings?
when the Navigation programme is running, pressing menu doesn't give me any options to change the voice.
where do you change it?
 
When I went by Motherwell (pronounced... erm... mother-well) the other day, it was pronounced as Mott-her-well :D
 
Kryten2k35 said:
Yeah. The voice thing gets this WRONG. In America there are people called Keighley. And they pronounce it "Kaylee" No. It's pronouced KEEFLEY. The voice thing does the same thing. KAYLEE. No, Keefley, thanks.

How do I know the correct way to pronounce that name? Because I live near the damn place where it's had that name for over 500 years. So, Americans, if you see anyone with that name. They're saying it wrong.
Click to expand...

hehe, I love the ways this kind of thread evolves--examples like Keighley (Keefley) are very specific and ignore the fact that the UK, as example, has an incredibly diverse set of accents and dialects that provide enough difficulties for us locals when we move around parts of it.

try this:
GHOTI is another way of spelling FISH
take the GH from enough (f)
the O from women (i)
and the TI from nation (sh)

I agree that the Nav voice is pretty poor, and makes lots of mistakes, but then again it is still beta... and it is not quite as annoying as the bloke who gave me a lift with his 'amusing' John Cleese satnav a couple of years back--5 hours of Cleese was more than a bit much
 
kboya said:
hehe, I love the ways this kind of thread evolves--examples like Keighley (Keefley) are very specific and ignore the fact that the UK, as example, has an incredibly diverse set of accents and dialects that provide enough difficulties for us locals when we move around parts of it.

try this:
GHOTI is another way of spelling FISH
take the GH from enough (f)
the O from women (i)
and the TI from nation (sh)

I agree that the Nav voice is pretty poor, and makes lots of mistakes, but then again it is still beta... and it is not quite as annoying as the bloke who gave me a lift with his 'amusing' John Cleese satnav a couple of years back--5 hours of Cleese was more than a bit much
Click to expand...


Hehe, it's just that this place has been called such for over 500 years. Yet I see in American TV programs people called "Keighley" as a first name and they spell it all wrong, or pronounce it wrong. One of those. They pronounce it "Kayleigh" (which is a girls name. It's usually boys that I see called this. Makes me chuckle) And like I say, it's Keef-ley.
 
ITS FREE!!! ITS BETA & there are worse things going on in this world at the moment.

Enjoy it as I personally think its a great piece of free software and competes with any mobile phone sat nav I have used before.

Rant over :D
 
I must admit I would pronouce it Kayley because horses dont neef and you dont have neefbours next door :p

I think the voice is about as good as my dedicated TomTom robot voice. I usually have a chuckle when its gets names near me wrong. But thats english for you :D
 
You know what SatNavs need to be able to do ? Turn off ALL names... Roads, towns, whatever. Just say 'In x yards turn right' , then when you pass the turn before 'take the next right'. I will let it off with 'M1' and 'A46'.

The voice on TelMap on my blackberry is so awful I just have it on mute and glance at the screen at opportune moments. In urban driving I find there are enough lights and traffic and suicidal pedestrians to let you directly read 'yards until turn' and check the map pretty happily, and on motorways I'm comfortable enough to check it same way I check my rearview.

It'd be nice if they had independent volume settings too. I use a Jabra SP700 to stream media onto the radio (works great btw, give it a go) but the voice just sits at the same volume as the music, and just gets lost.
 
nacatomi said:
I must admit I would pronouce it Kayley because horses dont neef and you dont have neefbours next door :p

I think the voice is about as good as my dedicated TomTom robot voice. I usually have a chuckle when its gets names near me wrong. But thats english for you :D
Click to expand...

Haha, yeah, it's a good point.

If you've ever seen Jeremy Kyle on TV, most of the people on it are actually from Keighley.
 
ITS FREE!!! ITS BETA & there are worse things going on in this world at the moment.

Enjoy it as I personally think its a great piece of free software and competes with any mobile phone sat nav I have used before.

Rant over :D
Click to expand...

+1 man. Lighten up guys, the software is free! If you feel so strongly about it buy a Tom Tom and be done with it. Synth voices have always had a problem with pronounciation because they're erm, sythesised. But if you employ a teeny bit of common sense you can get the gist of what she's trying to say... and if you get REALLY stuck, just read the screen and double check.

Oh and the voice data is exactly that, a program that takes text DATA and synthesises it into audio. It takes the name that google maps gives it, and generates sounds accordingly. It has no contextual information on these places, so the fact that it has been pronounced a certain way for 500 years has absolutely nothing to do with it. It's a machine! Of course it's going to get things wrong.
 
The sound really makes my ears cringe, I sometimes have to set Nav to vibrate just to alert me to a forthcoming junction or turning, rather than hear that awful drone!

Kryten2k35 said:
If you've ever seen Jeremy Kyle on TV, most of the people on it are actually from Keighley.
Click to expand...

:D!
 
jay_kay said:
ITS FREE!!! ITS BETA & there are worse things going on in this world at the moment.

Enjoy it as I personally think its a great piece of free software and competes with any mobile phone sat nav I have used before.

Rant over :D
Click to expand...

Must say though, having come over from Nokia / Ovi maps on my 5800, they are MUCH better than Google Maps and also free - without Data download, without crashing every 20 minutes or so, with speed and speed limit display, with changeable customisable voices etc.

I'm sincerely hoping that Google Maps evolves quickly to become more acceptable or I might have to just keep my 5800 for navigating.

On the plus side, the bigger screen on my Galaxy S is brilliant for Maps - being able to search destinations from contacts is great and the auto night dimming of the screen is pretty clever
 
On the above recommendations, I bought Grace. how do I make Svox my default in my Galaxy android, please? thx Rich

...Never mind...I stumbled through it on my own. thanks anyhow Rich
 
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