After many many hours, I figured out a workaround for the poor TTS on most Tomtom devices.

It impacts all devices that use Loquendo (except maybe the really old GO 910). It does not impact devices that use Vocalizer (ONE-XLS from 2007, ONE 125S, ONE130S, XL325S, XL330S, and iPhone).

To fix TTS, go to your map folder (usually "North America" or "Usa_Canada_and_Mexico") and look for the file cphoneme.dat. Rename this file cphoneme.old.

After that most of your TTS will be fine. If there are any words that are still mispronounced, you can fix them by using notepad to edit the following files:
- \LoquendoTTS\data\roadnrEnglishUS.lex (all models except the GO 720/920)
- \LoquendoTTS\EnglishUs\roadnr.EnglishUs6.8.lex (for the GO 720/920)

Thanks to misterbk, canderson, and malouff for all the additional background research that helped me isolate this fix.

cphoneme.dat is the Teleatlas hint file, that processes localized hints before the Loquendo hint file processes. The problem is that the cphoneme.dat file appears to be using special characters that Loquendo doesn't understand. Many times when words are pulled from cphoneme, the Loquendo error log says it cannot interpret them. Further, when this interpretation error happens, Tomtom stops looking at the roadnrEnglish and EnglishUS.dbl hint files. Loquendo does a great job on its own pronouncing these words without Teleatlas's assistance, as evidenced by the demo at loquendo.com

I hope this helps others, I tested it through a variety of problem roads ("Boston", "San Francisco", etc).

__________________
Current Tomtoms:

GO 740 app 9.054 (weekdays)
Map North America 2GB 850 + full POI + map subscription
+ LIVE services

GO 930 app 8.302 (weekends)
Map North America 850 + map subscription
Map WCE_2GB 825
+ PLUS traffic + Fuel prices + free safety cameras

HOME 2.7.4.1962 - WinXPproSP3

Prior Tomtoms:
Go 720, Go 510, One Limited Edition, One 2nd edition (all sold)

 

Nicely done, MVL.

I had incorrectly suspected that the cphoneme file was related to the cspeech files, acting as an index. The front end of the file appears to be a very long series of tree-style pointers into the depths of the file, none of which I was ever able to crack for format.

This certainly explains how the Loquendo files were being preempted and why changes being made there were showing up in the TTS on a hit or miss basis.

__________________
TT720 - NC 8.351 - NA2GB 850

 

I found three issues with the Loquendo voice engine. I found the answers to two of those issues within this forum.

1. Any selected voice would pronounce highways with a middle zero (Hwy 101) as one west one. Here is the link that describes how to correct this issue. Works like a charm.

Number Enunciation

2. Highway numbers were pronounced as "one hundred and twenty-four" instead of "one two four". The above link also describes what needs to be done to correct this one too.

3. The last one I came up with myself. The abbreviation for Expressway is normally Expy. Some Expressways out here in California are shown as Expwy. The voice will pronounce this as 'xpee'. To correct this issue you need to edit the file "roadnrEnglishUS.lex located in Loquendo/data directory to add the following entry; "expwy" = "expressway" directly under the "expy" = "expressway" entry. That too works like a charm.

__________________
bob

TomTom 730T
App: 8.351 OS:315187
GPS: 1.20 Boot: 5.5120
Map: North_America_2GB v850.2781
TT Home 2.7.5.2014
Gamin 660 (Sold)
Magellan 4040 (Sold)
HP iPAQ 310 (Thinking of selling it)

 

A fourth issue commonly reported by members is that Loquendo says "Branch" instead of "Bridge". Editing the roadnrus file works for that, too.


On my 720, I had also added "razr" = "razor" (my phone), and "13th" = "thirteenth". Loquendo 7 fixed both of those on my 930 without intervention.

__________________
Current Tomtoms:

GO 740 app 9.054 (weekdays)
Map North America 2GB 850 + full POI + map subscription
+ LIVE services

GO 930 app 8.302 (weekends)
Map North America 850 + map subscription
Map WCE_2GB 825
+ PLUS traffic + Fuel prices + free safety cameras

HOME 2.7.4.1962 - WinXPproSP3

Prior Tomtoms:
Go 720, Go 510, One Limited Edition, One 2nd edition (all sold)

 

This is all very interesting however it lacks one very vital piece of information which without this the whole subject is a waste of time for me . That is , HOW DO I OPEN a . LEX file to edit it?
I can't get it to open in anyway.
Maybe it's too simple for the experts so they never consider that it could be an issue?

 

Cancel my previous post as I have just figured out how to do it. Change the . lex . txt and it opens in note pad.
I am quite impressed with myself , I am not as dumb as I thought .

 

The application won't 'see' the file if you keep the extension as .txt. It must be changed back to .lex.

You could have right clicked the .lex file and in the menu that opens, select 'open with' and choose Notepad.

__________________
TomTom 720--NA Map 850--WCE Map 840--NZ Map 835--App 8.351

 

Please treat me gently, I'm new here!

I too would like road numbers to by pronounced as "One One Two" rather than "One Hundred and Twelve".

The problem I have is that I live in and bought my GO 720 in South Africa! Most entries on this forum relate to the USA or Europe.

Searching my device I do not have any 'cphoneme' files or any files with a suffix of 'rex'. Though I do have 'lex' files where I have deleted the 'o = west' entries.

Can anyone please assist me?

My levels are:

GO 720 app 8.351
Home 2.7.3.1894 WinXPproSP3

Maps installed: South Africa V840.2587 and Southern Africa V705.1513

 

While I get what the default contents of the file are doing, it would take quite a bit of brushing up before I could edit that file with any success. It's so seldom that I use SED (or anything like it) that it's like starting from scratch each time.

 

Does this still apply in 2010?