calibre friday preview releases

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

This is intentional. The purpose of the check box is to prevent writing very large template results to an OPF. I didn't see the point if the template results are tags. One doesn't have comma-separated images.
Your second image is not the definition of a composite column. It is a standard text column.Yes, and specifically only non-tags composite columns.

Got it.

Suggest making it clear in release notes that it only applies to plain "Column built from other columns" columns.

I mistakenly assumed the OPF file being referenced was the one that gets embedded in format files (i.e. content.opf in an EPUB), rather that the metadata.opf in the book folders. But I see from the tooltip that it only gets excluded when a format file is Sent to a device, but not when its Polished, Saved to disk, Converted etc.

BR

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

But I see from the tooltip that it only gets excluded when a format file is Sent to a device, but not when its Polished, Saved to disk, Converted etc.

BR

I did some tests today on EPUB formats, and found that Polishing (option: Update Metadata in the book files) does exclude the composite template results, reducing the OPF size up to 60% in some cases, depending on how large were the images contained in template results.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

I did some tests today on EPUB formats, and found that Polishing (option: Update Metadata in the book files) does exclude the composite template results, reducing the OPF size up to 60% in some cases, depending on how large were the images contained in template results.

The tooltip needs to reflect that, this is what's there now:

If you check this box then the result of evaluating this column's template will be stored in the backup OPF stored in the library. The same is true when sending to a device, assuming the format has an OPF. One reason to uncheck this box is that the column contains large images.

I was a little surprised to read it was limited to Send to device, but then I assumed it was cut down on comms traffic.

I don't embed uuencoded data in custom columns, my interest was to remove clutter rather than reduce size.

[Comfy.n]

When I did those tests, I was actually minding clutter not size, as in "the less clutter, the less delay in processing metadata changes", as ownedbycats speculated.

But it seems chaley was right in his reply, as I have all functioning well and fast at the moment.

(I had experienced some delay in metadata processing recently, regarding author notes, but after deleting my author Bio column and recreating it, issue was gone)

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

When I did those tests, I was actually minding clutter not size

Who for

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Who for

I don't mind clutter unless clutter makes things laggy for me, that's what I hope what I wrote meant

[kovidgoyal]

Released version 7.17.101. With the major feature being a new text to speech engine for the viewer Read Aloud feature that uses a neural network for more realistic sounding speech. The neural network is run locally on your computer no cloud services are used.

Additionally, the content server viewer's read aloud feature now support word tracking on some browser/OS combinations, such as chrome/firefox on windows, safari on macOS, firefox on android, and probably (not tested) safari on iOS.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Released version 7.17.101. With the major feature being a new text to speech engine for the viewer Read Aloud feature that uses a neural network for more realistic sounding speech. The neural network is run locally on your computer no cloud services are used.

Additionally, the content server viewer's read aloud feature now support word tracking on some browser/OS combinations, such as chrome/firefox on windows, safari on macOS, firefox on android, and probably (not tested) safari on iOS.

Wow, Brilliant!

I did some tests on Viewer and Content Server, everything working fine overall. Pausing doesn't seem to work all the time though, I'd have to restart the viewer to get TTS running again.

On the Content Server I see the word tracking feature working precisely and pausing works fine too. (perhaps because it's using built-in system voices)

I like the wide range of English voices and they're incredibly realistic.

I've also experienced some delay on word tracking in the Viewer, either in flow or paged mode, after "turning pages" sometimes.

I did the attached video captures, one of which captured the delay I mentioned, though I should have left the recording go on for a few more seconds.

[kovidgoyal]

The pause issue I cannot reproduce if you can come up with a reproducer it would be a great help to debug it.

THe page turn delay is because the piper engine doesnt have word-by-word tracking. Only sentence by sentence tracking. So when a sentence is split over the current page and the next page, the page will turn only after the sentence completes.

[jonathan2022]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The pause issue I cannot reproduce if you can come up with a reproducer it would be a great help to debug it.

THe page turn delay is because the piper engine doesnt have word-by-word tracking. Only sentence by sentence tracking. So when a sentence is split over the current page and the next page, the page will turn only after the sentence completes.

Thanks for the update on text to speech engine. current one for windows is boring. but i dont have the data to use Edge all the time. so this will be a game changer. Kovid will new engine be in next release ? do you have any time frame for it. again thanks soooo much

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

THe page turn delay is because the piper engine doesnt have word-by-word tracking. Only sentence by sentence tracking. So when a sentence is split over the current page and the next page, the page will turn only after the sentence completes.

Good to know, so it's working as expected, thanks.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The pause issue I cannot reproduce if you can come up with a reproducer it would be a great help to debug it.

I'm sorry, actually I should have said unpausing instead of pausing. And it happens under two circumstances:

- when I click anywhere in the text below the current text aloud progress - by the way is it ok to do so? I wanted to make the narrator skip a paragraph

- when I change the narrator in the settings

In the weekend I'll play more with it, I've added another video capture but it's not that helpful

[kovidgoyal]

yes clicking in the text is fine. Are you saying it happens when you pasue and then click and then unpause? Similarly are you pausing and then changing the voice and then unpausing?

Note that you dont need to pause to do any of those things.

[kovidgoyal]

@jonathan2022: You are welcome and its already in the preview release and will be in the next calibre release. If you want to try it install the preview release.

[jonathan2022]

trying it now. thanks so much

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Are you saying it happens when you pasue and then click and then unpause?

yes

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Similarly are you pausing and then changing the voice and then unpausing? Note that you dont need to pause to do any of those things.

I've tried both ways: pausing it before changing the voice and clicking the gear with the narration in progress.

I suspect it may have something to do with my bluetooth earbuds as the output device. Sometimes I get weird stuff happening on Windows using them, like focusing the wrong window and playing things I had already dismissed.