Good day

VC executes various commands in XBMC even though I have the option ticked under Plugins -> TTS. I am a new prospective buyer and would like to test this brilliant software, but because the trial version is limited to only 40 commands it is extremely frustrating when 70% of those command are triggered by the speakers. I assumed that this option is to prevent that from happening (the system listening to itself). Obviously I have it wrong or did something wrong.

Another minor issue I can't get to work is for XBMC to switch from windowed mode using the \ key. I used XJson.Btn.KB

Apologies if this was already answered, I did search the forums and found other very helpful related tips.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Ps. Verification is a bit of overkill! Especially for us non English speaking users

Quote from: MusicmanSA on February 02, 2015, 11:03:38 AM
VC executes various commands in XBMC even though I have the option ticked under Plugins -> TTS. I am a new prospective buyer and would like to test this brilliant software, but because the trial version is limited to only 40 commands it is extremely frustrating when 70% of those command are triggered by the speakers. I assumed that this option is to prevent that from happening (the system listening to itself). Obviously I have it wrong or did something wrong.

Selecting that option in the TTS plugin settings should prevent VC from listening to its own TTS announcements, but only for those commands that are using the TTS.SpeakSync action, not those that use TTS.Speak. Most commands use TTS.Speak, for a variety of reasons.

If 70% of the commands are being triggered by the speakers, it sounds as though you have VC set to "on" mode all the time (rather than, for example, using Prefix mode or staying in Standby until you're ready to issue voice commands again), and perhaps your microphone is too close to your speakers or the input is higher than necessary.

If you haven't yet done so, take a look at the trouble-shooting recognition problems guide: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1321.0

QuoteAnother minor issue I can't get to work is for XBMC to switch from windowed mode using the \ key. I used XJson.Btn.KB

That's the correct action, but maybe the parameter you tried to use was not correct? This works for me in Helix and has previously worked for me in Gotham and in Frodo:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<!--VoxCommando 2.1.3.6-->
<command id="537" name="Toggle window" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
  <action>
    <cmdType>XJson.Btn.KB</cmdType>
    <params>
      <param>backslash</param>
    </params>
    <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
  </action>
  <phrase>Toggle window, backslash, expand window, contract window</phrase>
</command>

Quote from: MusicmanSA on February 02, 2015, 11:03:38 AM
Ps. Verification is a bit of overkill! Especially for us non English speaking users

Thanks for your opinion on this.  If you are referring to the verification questions required to sign up to the forum and make initial posts, I can assure you that it is absolutely necessary to prevent spam.  Only your first one or two posts when you sign up will require verification.

The verification questions were carefully chosen so that they would not be too difficult to answer for most people.

This page might be useful: http://kodi.wiki/view/List_of_XBMC_keynames

Problem solved! Wow, thank you nime5ter, you guys are on the ball, I'm sold, thank you so much. This is by far the best and quickest online support I ever encountered! 

For the benefit of others: What I did to prevent the system to execute commands while it speaks and completely ignore itself was to go through each command that had the TTS.Speak action and replace it with TTS.SpeakSync. A Quick & simple highlight & paste job 
Now my system speaks aloud all my elaborate messages to everyone's amusement without any interference. Awesome stuff!

About the window mode toggle. All I did was to find the voicecommands.xml file and search for the command. Problem was that the command contained: <param>\</param> changed it to <param>backslash</param>. Just be sure VC don't overwrite it when you exit. A simpler route is to simply replace the \ with the word backslash in VC -> Edit Pop-up, exit & save. Sure learned a few tricks in quick time!

As for looking at the link, I did apply the helpful suggestions before I posted, thank you. As for the verification, all-righty then!

Thank you so much for the superb support, this thread can be closed or marked as solved, not sure where or how to do it if required.

Regards,

from a new client!

Quote from: MusicmanSA on February 02, 2015, 01:13:39 PM
About the window mode toggle. All I did was to find the voicecommands.xml file and search for the command. Problem was that the command contained: <param>\</param> changed it to <param>backslash</param>. Just be sure VC don't overwrite it when you exit. A simpler route is to simply replace the \ with the word backslash in VC -> Edit Pop-up, exit & save. Sure learned a few tricks in quick time!

99% of the time we recommend that users create or edit commands using the built in command editing tools.  Only under certain circumstances (such as doing many find/replace as you have done with TTS.SpeakSync) should you edit the XML directly.  When you do it, be very careful and understand that you do it at your own risk!

I'm pretty sure the standard Kodi/Helix configuration does not contain a command for switching the window mode of KODI so if you found a command that contained \ as the parameter, it must be because you created that command, right?

P.S. We don't yet have a mod installed on the forum to mark topics as solved, but you can edit your first post in a topic to change the subject and add (solved) as I have done.

The search function in the command tree editor works quite well for locating a particular command in a big tree. There's a bit of info about this on the Command Tree Editor page of the wiki, in the "Command Editor Menu" section.

http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Command_Tree_Editor

Hi James.

Thanks for the tip! The \ key is the standard keyboard command for switching window mode since I started using XBMC a few years ago, still is. According to the Kodi wiki it still is. http://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls. The command is: backslash
I'm still on Gotham 13.2. Helix must wait, I have a huge library and dozens of custom mods and tweaks I should've kept track of, so not looking forward to do the upgrade.

the way I approached this ... if you do not want to use TTS Sync. (if a long text passed to TTS Sync, VC will be in "Freeze" mode till the text fully spoken
on event tts.start, mute mic
on event tts.end,  wait 500ms then unmute mic ...

while you still can't tell VC to stop talking verbally, you can send TTS.stop through VOXtell or UDP ...etc.