For those who own, or are thinking of owning a Victor Stream, you’ll be happy to know that a few new voices are available for free download. Prior to this, stream users were sort of “stuck” with the Samantha voice which in my opinion, was good, but not my first choice for reading books. Whether you like Samantha, or not, the idea that it’s now possible to choose a voice is a fantastic advantage of the Stream as it allows folks to customize to taste. So what is the Victor Stream anyway? it’s a small portable device which can be used to read digitized, text-based, audible, daisy, niso, html, and text documents. In addition, the stream can play mp3 files, ogg files and probably others that aren’t coming to mind. Using a keypad on the front of the unit, a user can navigate to specific sections of a book, specific pages, etc…. Click here for more information about the stream.

Dear Victor Reader Stream Customer:

An alternative Stream software with the English U.K. male (Daniel) TTS voice is now available for download at:

http://www.humanware.com/en-canada/support/victor_reader_stream

This alternative version 1.2 software has a male TTS English U.K. voice (Daniel) and can be downloaded to replace the software with the female Samantha voice currently shipped on all English Streams. The Daniel voice will be shipped with future U.K. Streams. If you wish to change back to Samantha female TTS voice you can download and re-install the alternative UPG from the same page.

The functionality of the software is the same for both downloads. Only the TTS voice differs. The complete list of new features for version 1.2 and the installation instructions can be found in the What’s New document in the documentation list on the same above web page. This support page also has links to listen to all Vocalizer TTS voices.

To summarize the Stream software Installation:

- download the zip file with your choice of TTS voice

- Unzip the single UPG upgrade file. You do not require special unzip software with Windows XP or Vista. Simply press Enter on the downloaded zip file and the UPG file will be shown. You can then copy the UPG file to the clipboard and paste it into the root of the Stream SD card.

- Insert the card into the Stream, connect the Stream to AC power, and turn it on.

- The Stream will recognize the special UPG file and initiate the upgrade process. Audio messages will inform you of the start and end of the update process.

- Remove the UPG file from your SD card after updating.

Thank you.

The HumanWare Support Team