Mic doesn't work in VOXCommando 0.851

[gollumscave]

Hi there!
I stumbled on the youtube video of VoxCommando in combination with XBMC and I was in total shock and awe... I want this so bad!
I immediately downloaded the voxcommando program and read the instruction.. What??? just drop it in a folder, link the programs and it should work? sounded too good to be true....
Unfortunately in my case I was right.... Somehow my microphone doesn't work in Vox.... It is working in all other programs like Rosetta Stone, Skype and windows speech recognition.
In the volume mixers i can see that windows is registering input from my microphone... The volume indicator bars are moving up when the mic registers audio.

I have done the following:
Had XBMC setup already. I'm running build 35325 with Aeon65 skin (version 1.0) on windows 7 32bit.
I have onboard audio and plugged the mic into the front inputs of my case. I'm using HD audio (coax) only.

I have windows speech recognition set to US not UK.
I have setup XBMC to allow control via HTTP with username XBMC and no password on port 8080.
I've checked the option to allow by programs on this pc.

In VOXCommando i've entered the username password settings in the options of the program.
I've restarted the program and generated the XML files.
These are the results:

Artists found: 3329
Albums found: 1870
Songs found: 29131
Genres found: 0

Movies found: 439
TV Show Titles found: 103
Music Videos found: 0
Videogenres found: 28

I've restarted the program several times as well as my pc and regenerated the XML files but VOXCommando just never registers any input from my microphone...
It's in the "green" mode...

What am I missing here? Please help...

[Kalle]

Hi gollumscave,

step by step:

run VC and XBMC as admin?(right click on the programm exe "run as administrator")

can you see any action in commandline in the upper after trigger a command?

Greetings Kalle

[skylive]

Does VC say: "ready!" ?
Thats what my VC 0.851 does too.    
I have to wait about 1 minute. Then VC understands my commands, and is really ready ^^

Or does it understand commands with (xy.z%)? <-- thats how sure VC is, that it understood your command.
Try the TellVoxCommando Programm, you will find it in the Folder of VC.  
Type in the commands and send them to VC. When it works, we will have to concentrate to your Mike setup.

[Wanilton]

"I  have setup XBMC to allow control via HTTP with username XBMC and no password on port 8080.
I've checked the option to allow by programs on this pc.

In VOXCommando i've entered the username password settings in the options of the program."



You mention  that XBMC has put in as Username "XBMC" and left the password field blank. But you mention in Voxcommando options that put the user name and password (password that you have apparently left blank in XBMC) what to put on XBMC have to put the vox.
I suggest you leave these fields Username and Password blank in both programs and test ... 

[jitterjames]

Usually it is that easy, but don't worry we will get you set up.

Everyone else's suggestions sound good.  I will try to summarize and help you track down what is happening.

Most importantly before we start troubleshooting.  What are we starting from?  Did you download the version available here?:    http://voxcommando.com/downloadXBMC.asp   
...and did you change any other settings yet other than the XBMC stuff?

There are 3 possible problems (probably)...

First VC needs to load properly.  If it gets to a green screen with the word ready then it is probably loading OK.  It is possible that you XML data from xbmc could be preventing this.  I need to make my error checking more robust in this area.  The 0 genres could be problem...

Then there is the issue of the mic.  We need to figure out if this is working and if VC is responding to commands. If you speak loudly into the mic, the volume meter at the bottom of the screen should move.  If VC is hearing you then words will appear in the large text box at the top (where the word 'ready' is on startup).  If VC thinks it has understood a command some stuff should appear in the command history window on the left.

If commands are showing up in the history window but nothing is happening in XBMC, then we need to check the http connection to XBMC. (port, username, password, and firewall)

also there is a file named voxLog.txt that is generated each time  you run VC so you could post that here for us to look at.

I bet you've never had such a response to a forum support question before!  There are a lot of very nice people in this little community

Welcome aboard.

[jitterjames]

btw your connection to xbmc is probably ok since GenXML is working.

[gollumscave]

Ok, sorry for not replying for so long... I've been very busy lately...

I've made no progress so far, and will update your responses... here we go...:

KALLE: Yes, i run both as admin by rightclicking.... No difference and I have only 1 account on this PC, so it's admin by default... But also right clicking and run as admin doesn't make a difference... And no actions by the program whatsoever...

SKYLIVE: Vox does say READY! but that's all it says... I've waited for 15 minutes now without any progress... It's not registering any input from my mic. I have tried the TELLVOXCOMMANDO and that works.. If i type "LEFT" in there, the main program receives it. Just nothing from my mic...

WANILTON: My bad... I just typed it in a hurry... But XBMC and VOX are communicating properly hence the XML code wouldn't be generated...

JITTERJAMES: Yes, i've downloaded that XBMC versions. I haven't changed any other settings but the default language. But i reverted that one... I think VC is loading properly. The window pops up, is red and after about 15 seconds it switches to green and says READY....
The Mic... Is doing... NOTHING>.. i mean.. no indicators in the VC program at all. It is working in every other program that i've tried... I also went ahead and test it on a different partition with a virgin installation of Win7, no help... No command and showing up, and no volume meter activity.

The log file:

11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   VoxLog created:
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   Starting VoxCommando, version: 0.851
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   installed language:English (United States)
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   additional info:System.Speech.Internal.ReadOnlyDictionary`2[System.String,System.String]
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   installed language:English (United Kingdom)
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   additional info:System.Speech.Internal.ReadOnlyDictionary`2[System.String,System.String]
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   Loading Command Grammar
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: Vox Commands
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: Keyboard Emu (local PC only)
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\payloads\4directions.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\payloads\4directions.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\payloads\4directions.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: Launch
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: Focus
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Get Song Info
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: XBMC TV+Movies
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   xbmcTvShowTitles.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Request Music by Name
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   xbmcAlbums.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   xbmcArtists.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:07 AM   xbmcSongs.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:08 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:08 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Simple actions
11/28/2010 12:20:36 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:36 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Payload Actions
11/28/2010 12:20:36 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:36 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Go To Windows
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Smart playlists
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   xbmcArtists.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\xbmcArtists.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   xbmcGenres.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   xbmcMovies.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   xbmcTvShowTitles.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\xbmcTvShowTitles.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:37 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Generate XML
11/28/2010 12:20:39 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:39 AM   creating grammar: XBMC browse songs
11/28/2010 12:20:39 AM   error: no commands in grammar, skipping
11/28/2010 12:20:39 AM   using speech engine: Microsoft Speech Recognizer 8.0 for Windows (English - UK)
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   installed language:English (United States)
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   additional info:System.Speech.Internal.ReadOnlyDictionary`2[System.String,System.String]
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   installed language:English (United Kingdom)
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   additional info:System.Speech.Internal.ReadOnlyDictionary`2[System.String,System.String]
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   Loading Command Grammar
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: Vox Commands
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: Keyboard Emu (local PC only)
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\payloads\4directions.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\payloads\4directions.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\payloads\4directions.xml
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: Launch
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: Focus
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Get Song Info
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: XBMC TV+Movies
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   xbmcTvShowTitles.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Request Music by Name
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   xbmcAlbums.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   xbmcArtists.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   xbmcSongs.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:20:51 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Simple actions
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Payload Actions
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Go To Windows
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Smart playlists
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   xbmcArtists.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\xbmcArtists.xml
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   xbmcGenres.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   xbmcMovies.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   xbmcTvShowTitles.xml: loading payloads as phraseOnly
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   Duplicate payloadXML (phrases), reusing: C:\Users\Bert\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\VoxCommandoXBMC 0_851 EN\xbmcTvShowTitles.xml
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:21:15 AM   creating grammar: XBMC Generate XML
11/28/2010 12:21:16 AM   grammar created
11/28/2010 12:21:16 AM   creating grammar: XBMC browse songs
11/28/2010 12:21:16 AM   error: no commands in grammar, skipping
11/28/2010 12:21:16 AM   using speech engine: Microsoft Speech Recognizer 8.0 for Windows (English - US)

BTW, this indeed is an amazing forum response... I usually HATE forums about hard/software because 99% you get replies like RTFM or FAQ or my all time favourite: Have you used the search button? How do they think I ended up there??? Nevermind... The youtube movies are amazing and the forum is just what it needs to be... Great work... There's just 1 little "but" for me.... It ain't workin'

[jitterjames]

OK, this is a weird one.  I'm going see if there is something extra that I can add to the log generation to see if we can glean some more information, and I will post a version for you to try.  In the mean time we can still try some things.

There are only two possible explanations that I can think of.  The mic, or the language settings.

1 - I understand that your mic is working with other programs, but maybe something between the mic and voxcommando is funny.  Either VC is trying to listen to the wrong device, or the input is somehow being disabled or muted or something (I have seen this happen with skype where the levels get set to zero).  I would suggest that you try another mic if you can, just for the hell of it.

Also, remember than VC will use whatever is set as the default input device (not the default communication device), unless you go to advanced speech settings and change it to something else.  See this post: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=334.0

btw, this is really obvious, but VC won't do anything if it is RED, and will only respond to certain commands if it is yellow...

Now, after you have loaded VoxCommando and it is showing green, go and check the microphone settings and make sure that it didn't somehow get muted, or turned way down.

2 - The only other possibility I can think of, there is a problem with the language or culture.
- What language are you using as the default display language in windows?  

try setting the language in VoxCommando's options page to
-   nothing... i.e. blank text field
-   EN-US
-   EN-GB

3 OK, just thought of a third possibility, maybe you should try using the generic VC without all the xbmc commands, just in case something in there is causing a problem.
http://www.voxcommando.com/files/VoxCommando%20%200_851.zip

see if any of those work and report back.  Hopefully soon....  

[gollumscave]

The regular version IS working.....

i just tested with the "Pay attention" command
94.8% accuracy....

WTF?

Could you msn or skype me?

eyemmee@hotmail.com
bert_bal => skype

[jitterjames]

sure hang on

[jitterjames]

if you just copy the options.xml from the regular version over to the non-working xbmc version, does it make any difference?

[gollumscave]

Ok, here's an update for people who have been following this thread:

The regular version (non XBMC) is working on my system. What we (sir JitterJames I ) and me did is copy the XBMC XML's over the normal version. You do this by clicking EDIT and on the right pane click on OPEN and load the xbmc.xml.
Then you drag the XBMC options (8 of them currently) to the left pane and don't forget to click the SAVE button in the left pane afterwards.
Next you restart VC, et voila, c'est tout....

However.... VC is choking on my music library... As soon as I load my songs, the program stops working... I've loaded movies, albums, artists and tv shows.. everything works great... But when I want to generate the songs XML the program dies...
The number of songs I have in XBMC currently surpasses 20.000. Does anyone have this many songs in XBMC with VC and have the program working normally? We might need to do some recoding if the program can't handle that many files....
An option might be to split the songs database into letters... songs A songs B, etc etc ?
just a thought...

I'm currently very enthousiastic about this program and have started programming LOADS of new commando's and try to make them act "normal" and universal... for example, when you ask "what artists is this?" the program is responding without pausing the playback.
When you ask "What album is this" the playback is paused...
What I have done is change the actions cause i didn't like the PAUSE feature. But without the pause feature you can barely hear the program responding.. so what to do? set volume.... like a real dj does....
So when you ask for any song information, what album is this, what song is this, what artist is this, the program will set volume to 80%, then tells you the info requested, and then restores volume back to 100%.
The only bug is that when you started out with volume at a lower setting than 100%....
Is there an option to lower volume by 20% instead of set volume to 80% ?

I will post A LOT more here! Great program, great community!

[jitterjames]

First, regarding your mysterious "XBMC version not working but regular version is working" problem, could you please answer my previous post question.

if you just copy the options.xml from the regular version over to the non-working xbmc version, does it make any difference?

This would be a much simpler solution, and also if it worked, it would help me to figure out the root of the problem, which still remains a mystery to me.  As far as I know, no one else has encountered the same issue.

Regarding VC choking on your song library, it is first necessary for me to know at what exact stage it is actually choking.  You are saying

"As soon as I load my songs, the program stops working"

, but I don't actually know what that means.  When specifically does the program freeze?  You said

"But when I want to generate the songs XML the program dies..."

Does that mean that when you open GenXML and then click the Songs button for XBMC, it freezes immediately after that?  Does it freeze-freeze?  No errors?  Do you need to use task manager to shut it down?  Afterwards, does your folder contain a xbmcSongs.xml file, and is there anything in it?

It is quite possible that the problem is with the number of songs, but more likely it is having problems with a particular song, possibly because of some special ascii character that is not being encoded properly.

XBMC serves up the data to GenXML via a web request so you can actually check that xbmc is doing it's job properly, by first running XBMC and then opening a web browser and pasting the following into the address bar:

Code Select Expand

http://127.0.0.1:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=querymusicdatabase(select%20idSong,%20strTitle%20from%20song)

by doing this you can make sure that at least XBMC is doing it's job, and if you want you can save the results and send them to me so I can have a look.  The best way to do that would be to view source, and then copy and paste the pseudo-xml into a text file, and send that.  Or if it is not actually choking when doing GenXML but rather, when you try to start VC, then just send me your xbmcSongs.xml file.

As far as I know, there is no function for xbmc to adjust the volume by a fixed amount other than a single "unit" as you would by pressing the volume button.  If you watch the video that I made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kR2C6IeaPw You can see that I am actually reducing the volume on info requests rather than pausing.  You can even see the volume adjustment osd pop up (which is annoying).  The way I have done it is to to an

Code Select Expand

xbmc.send   execbuiltin(action(volumedown))
with a repeat of 10

and then later

Code Select Expand

xbmc.send   execbuiltin(action(volumeup))   10

of course this is not ideal.

With mediamonkey I created 2 commands called softmute and softunmute where you can mute to a % of the current volume.  I have also done this in the latest version with the new sound commands that affect the master volume.  Unfortunately the master volume also affects the volume of the TTS (unless you are sending TTS to a different non-default sound device).  I hope to create a similar command for xbmc, but the xbmc interface doesn't make the task quite as simple as with MediaMonkey.  I will try to get this in to either the next version or the one after that.

I'm glad you are having fun playing with the macros.  You can do some pretty cool stuff if you use your imagination.  Yesterday I was experimenting with asking for TV shows on Hulu.

If you get your high-speed service fixed I can come take a look at your songs issue via teamviewer.