Snow Leopard Support

[Texas]

After upgrading to OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) all my Cepstral voices were removed from my voice list. They won't re-install. Is there any estimate when Cepstral will update their app for Snow Leopard?

[AdamW]

The current release of Cepstral voices stands at 5.1. It is one year-old and is not compatible with Snow Leopard even though the software can be made to work. We are currently working on a free update to holders of valid 5.x licenses, to be made available as soon as is humanly possible. An announcement will be made in the next few weeks.

[jdhuskey]

It's been 8 weeks since this was posted. It's been longer than that since I was told the same thing via an email from support. Nothing has been updated in the FAQs for Mac OS since sometime around mid-2008, so basically, if people don't do their research, you're letting them buy your voices expecting them to work on 10.6. That's not good.

It really wouldn't hurt for you guys to let us know what the hold-up is unless there's no good reason for it. Is there a realistic ETA yet?

[markwlyon]

I've been using Capstral voices for a long time. Now that I have Snow Leopard I have to listen to the system voice.

When will the update be available. Please let us know.

[AdamW]

The new release is about to reach Beta2 today. It should be ready very soon now

[Anglermike]

It should be ready very soon now....
2009 ?
2010 ?

[AdamW]

Cepstral Snow Leopard Beta 2 for all voices has been available on the download website since the 24th. We're still calling it beta since we're seeing some anomalies depending on the upgrade path from Leopard to Snow Leopard.

[Anglermike]

Okay, sorry.
I've only paid attention to the red banner on the homepage, which should be removed, if what is available.
Since I have not been looking for a beta on the download page.

[AdamW]

Well we're the ones who need to apologize. We will change the banner on the website to reflect the fact that Snow Leopard Support is in Beta. Thanks for the feedback.

[Anglermike]

I do not want annoy yes
but
the beta version works fine
the red banner is still on the home page (it should be removed )
and the invitation to acquire a license nerves extremly.
When can I purchase a license?

Greetings from Germany
Mike

[AdamW]

Beta 3 is now posted at www.cepstral.com/download .
It fixes an issue with default character encoding for VoiceOver for German, Spanish and French.

[Anglermike]

At the moment was the third beta release available.
When does the final release be available ?

The constant call to buying a lizenzs disrupts
if you can not buy one lizenzs
because there are none .

And another tip
The red writing on the homepage yet announced the beta version 2
now it's the 3

[AdamW]

The Beta is a part of the 5.x product version. The keys for 5.x licenses will activate the 5.2.0 beta. So if you need to buy a license please go ahead using a 5.x license item.

[jdhuskey]

Is there any place we can view known issues for the beta?

I'm finding that installing beta 3 killed my Apple voices in an ugly way... When I try to switch to Apple's Alex, and have it speak selected text, it says the first word, kind of crackling, and then just stops.

Also, is it normal for selected text, even without Cepstral Voices installed, to get copied to the clipboard before it is spoken using the "Speak selected text" shortcut, or is that how the new Swift Speech Synthesizer interfaces with the Apple Speech Synthesizer?

[AdamW]

We have discovered and reproduced after reports an issue involving switching between Cepstral and Apple voices within a running application (including System Preferences):

- If you play one type of voice (Apple or Cepstral) and switch to the other type, the voice will fail until you restart the application. (This includes switching the system default voice while an application is running)

I that case, here is what happens to the second type to be played:
- The Apple voice will crackle and stop
- The Cepstral voice will be silent

The workaround is to switch voices between Apple and Cepstral as follows:
- If you have already played one type of voice, switch to the other type of voice then restart the application. Do not play the second type as it will fail.
- If you have not played any voices, you can switch back and forth until you play one type. After that you will not be able to play both types until you restart.

This is so far the only reported issue. It is most obvious in the Speech Preference pane.