images.jpegIn October we published an article based on a comment by Jim – Kindle a godsend for cancer patient: Wants text-to-speech for those too weak to hold e-readers. Now, in response to that I have received the following email from Raymond which I think is important enough to print in full. Remember that the Kindle can play MP3s:

Hi Jim,

I saw your comment on Teleread about how you and your wife wish that your Kindle had Text-to-Speech enabled. Am so sorry to hear about both of your cancers and wish you both a speedy recovery and better quality of life.

Instead of waiting for Amazon to implement Text-to-Speech, do it yourself!

I use TextAloud, a fantastic program that lets you convert any text on your computer into speech. Now my computer can READ ALOUD all my ebooks, websites, and documents (like Word and PDF) to me! I can turn any of my ebooks into MP3 audiobooks. The exception to this is DRM-protected ebooks, but I have figured out a way around that. You need to strip their DRM protection first.

Get TextAloud here:
http://www.nextup.com/

TextAloud also can convert text into MP3 files that you can put onto an iPod or MP3 player, so you can listen to books/documents in your bed/car/gym/train!

Since basic computer voices are horribly robotic, I installed 3 AT&T Natural Voices, which take up about 500 MB each, but give you more naturally sounding voices.

The best AT&T voices are Mike, Crystal, and Audrey (all 16 kHz). The best basic voice is Anna. Another good voice is Emily (by ScanSoft). Different companies sell voices that read aloud in up to 21 languages (Chinese, French, Spanish, German, etc)! Test the AT&T voices yourself on this “text-to-speech” demo site:
http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

Please tell your ebook friends about TextAloud! No need to wait for the Text-to-Speech feature on the Kindle. Convert your ebooks on your PC and put them on an MP3 player.

I hope this helps!
Raymond

11 COMMENTS

  1. One big problem: I can’t figure out how to convert Mobipocket/Kindle books to text or HTML, so I can use TextAloud on the whole book. For now, I must do a Ctrl+C to copy 2 ebook pages at a time into the clipboard, from where TextAloud will read it.

    If you want to load in a whole ebook, TextAloud only opens txt, pdf, rtf, doc, and HTML files.

    So practically, if I want to convert a full Mobipocket/Kindle book to MP3, I can’t. I need to find its txt/pdf/HTML version.

    Can anyone help me solve this problem?

  2. Thank you, Felix! Calibre works!! I finally have the missing link in the chain.

    http://calibre-ebook.com/

    I just successfully used Calibre to convert a Mobipocket book and a PDF book to plain text and loaded both entire books into TextAloud. Calibre also did an error-free job of converting the PDF book. In contrast, loading a PDF book directly into TextAloud produced many mistakes.

    Here are all the file formats between which Calibre converts:
    http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/faq.html#what-formats-does-app-support-conversion-to-from

    Thus to convert ebooks to MP3 files:

    1. Use Calibre to convert them to plain text first, or load them directly into TextAloud if you can.
    2. Edit resulting files as you wish.
    3. Use TextAloud’s File Splitter utility to break the big text file up into smaller chunks. Then turn those into MP3s sound files.

    Using the TextAloud File Splitter:
    http://nextup.com/TextAloudHTML.htm#_Toc82924201

    You’re done!

  3. I used Calibre to change Amazon ebooks (.prc) to Barnes & Noble ebooks (.pdb) and vice versa. The catch: all books must have NO DRM protection.

    Also, a video MP3 player can not only PLAY your newly created audiobooks, it can SHOW them as images!

    I just bought the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB Video MP3 player for $35. It plays video/audio, is smaller than a credit card and thin as a pencil, has FM radio with 40 preset stations, 24 hrs rechargeable batteries, a mike to record lectures, memory microSD expansion slot, holds 1000 songs/12 hrs video/2000 photos, has earphones, and can DISPLAY EBOOKS!

    http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Fuze-Video-Player/dp/B0015LOWD4/

    The program “eBook to Images” converts Text, HTML, PDF, and LIT ebooks to pictures that I may view on this video MP3 player. I can wear it on my arm.

    http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/12/14/how-to-convert-pdf-ebooks-to-images-for-reading-on-your-mobile/

  4. I used Calibre to change Amazon ebooks (.prc) to Barnes & Noble ebooks (.pdb) and vice versa. However, all books must have NO DRM protection.

    Also, a video MP3 player can not only PLAY your newly created audiobooks, it can SHOW them as images!

    I just bought the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB Video MP3 player for $35. It plays video/audio, is smaller than a credit card and thin as a pencil, and can DISPLAY EBOOKS!

    http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Fuze-Video-Player/dp/B0015LOWD4/

    The program “eBook to Images” converts Text, HTML, PDF, and LIT ebooks to pictures that I may view on this video MP3 player. I can wear it on my arm and jog.

    http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/12/14/how-to-convert-pdf-ebooks-to-images-for-reading-on-your-mobile/

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.