Nuvis with real human voices

[+Woodstramp]

I still use my first Nuvi 200. Battery only holds charge for 30 minutes, but it still works fine. (BTW, thanks Garmin, for making such a reliable piece of equipment)

 

I'd like to upgrade to a larger Nuvi soon. Problem is that since I bought this first Nuvi 200 a few years ago, I have purchased other, newer models as gifts for folks since that original 200. All of these gifts had "text to speech" ability. The voices are robotic and very hard for me to understand at times. Guess that is why I've never upgraded. (also notice that the newer ones have jerky, hard to control screens when manually scrolling the maps.)

 

Does Garmin make a larger screen Nuvi without the text to speech robot voices? I'd rather "hear" the British lady say "In .2 miles, turn right." than a garbled robot trying to pronounce a street name.

 

Also, my old Nuvi's maps are fairly out of date....another reason to upgrade. Thanks.

[seldom_sn]

Well I run the 'English Lady' on my 1310 and 1490 and I wouldn't describe her voice as 'robotic'. Just for info, later nuvis use a different speech engine now compared with the 200 series, so it may be worth trying to get a demo at a local store?

"American Jill" is a nag.

[+Woodstramp]

"American Jill" is a nag.

 

Know what you mean, Seldom.

 

When I first got the 200 I couldn't hack the American lady's voice after the first week. Was hoping there'd be a sweet Irish lady hiding in there, but had to settle on the Brit.

[MtnHermit]

Based on my two Nuvis, neither is robotic. You have a choice of Jill or Joe and I believe you can download others. In all cases, a voice actor records instructions, these are saved a .wav? files and pieced together to form a logical instruction.

 

The net is a human voice "Turn Left in 300 feet". Turn left in and 300 feet would have been recorded separate, then stitched together. The faster your speed, the longer the distance.

[+Woodstramp]

sussamb,

 

Like I mentioned above....I've bought a few newer Nuvis for gifts and I've also fiddled with others in stores or in friend's cars. All had text to speech and sounded "roboty" A buddy just bought a new a new Nuvi 40 and it sounds just like the 1350 I got my daughter at Chistmas.

[+Great Scott!]

Garmin has a program that will record your own voice reading the voice instructions.

Search: Garmin Voice Studio

[+vds]

We have a couple Nuvi 1300s and use the Aussie Woman's voice.

 

Yes, the GPS units are called "old Sheila" and "new Sheila".

 

(best thing is Washington roads such as WA Rte 18 are spoken as Western Australia Route 18)

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

 

Course on all of them you can select a non 'text to speech' voice which might suit you better

 

+1

[vagabond]

I still use my first Nuvi 200. Battery only holds charge for 30 minutes, but it still works fine. (BTW, thanks Garmin, for making such a reliable piece of equipment)

 

I'd like to upgrade to a larger Nuvi soon. Problem is that since I bought this first Nuvi 200 a few years ago, I have purchased other, newer models as gifts for folks since that original 200. All of these gifts had "text to speech" ability. The voices are robotic and very hard for me to understand at times. Guess that is why I've never upgraded. (also notice that the newer ones have jerky, hard to control screens when manually scrolling the maps.)

 

Does Garmin make a larger screen Nuvi without the text to speech robot voices? I'd rather "hear" the British lady say "In .2 miles, turn right." than a garbled robot trying to pronounce a street name.

 

Also, my old Nuvi's maps are fairly out of date....another reason to upgrade. Thanks.

Here's a

on replacing the 255 battery.

and battery's

Edited May 14, 2012 by vagabond

[+Woodstramp]

Wasn't aware you could turn off text to speech. Also couldn't stand listening you my own recorded voice.....that'd be worse than the American lady voice.

 

I reckon that my problem with the spoken street names is that even common names don't sound right. Like one local road is called "Blair". The Nuvi will say "Blah-irr".

 

Vagabond, Thanks for that link. Will investigate.

[+Woodstramp]

Yep, all Garmins that have TTS come with non TTS voices as well

 

Did not know that....thanks. I'll study my daughter's 1350 some more.

[sviking]

The Karen Aussie voice is the best.

[savant9]

Try the Yeti voice, its super easy to understand.

[+Guwisti]

Try the Yeti voice, its super easy to understand.

 

Yeti is what mine is set to. I can see where I need to go and he encourages me by cheering me on. I love Yeti!

[seldom_sn]

Yep, all Garmins that have TTS come with non TTS voices as well

 

Did not know that....thanks. I'll study my daughter's 1350 some more.

 

I've got a 1490, US&Canada.

 

I found Yeti in the Garmin Garage, but I can't find Sheila, Australian Lady, English Lady, or Non-TTS. Am I just on the wrong side of the big and little ponds?

[sviking]

I've got a 1490, US&Canada.

 

I found Yeti in the Garmin Garage, but I can't find Sheila, Australian Lady, English Lady, or Non-TTS. Am I just on the wrong side of the big and little ponds?

 

You should be able to run the regular web updater and it will offer you those voices. I run the web updater as a stand-alone application on my computer and don't go through myGarmin, dashboard, etc...

[seldom_sn]

I've got a 1490, US&Canada.

 

I found Yeti in the Garmin Garage, but I can't find Sheila, Australian Lady, English Lady, or Non-TTS. Am I just on the wrong side of the big and little ponds?

 

You should be able to run the regular web updater and it will offer you those voices. I run the web updater as a stand-alone application on my computer and don't go through myGarmin, dashboard, etc...

 

Thanks, sviking. I've seen that screen, but never scrolled through it

[sviking]

Thanks, sviking. I've seen that screen, but never scrolled through it

 

What "screen"? Web updated is an application you download and install from Garmin. You run it with your unit plugged in via USB.

[+QuiltinNana]

We use Squirrley on our Nuvi 1450 and he's a lot of fun. We still answer back to most of his questions

He doesn't say street names, but he can entertain you between stops. We've tried Dr. Frankenstein, but didn't like his voice sounding like it came out of a tin can.

[seldom_sn]

Thanks, sviking. I've seen that screen, but never scrolled through it

 

What "screen"? Web updated is an application you download and install from Garmin. You run it with your unit plugged in via USB.

Well, the "screen" that shows up on the Web Updater after you've updated your unit software and you hit "next". It's a scrolling pop up that lists all the voices and languages I don't have.

[sviking]

Well, the "screen" that shows up on the Web Updater after you've updated your unit software and you hit "next". It's a scrolling pop up that lists all the voices and languages I don't have.

 

Ah, I see... You should be able to just check the boxes for the languages/voices you want and they'll be loaded.

Edited May 22, 2012 by sviking

[+Harry Dolphin]

My caching partner has a nuvi 455 (I think). Set to the 'Samantha' voice. I call her Miss Bossy, and am told that I should stop teasing her. We travel a lot on Tonnelle Avenue (US 1&9 in North Bergen, NJ). That's TAH-nuh-lee, not TOE-nell. (Haven't gotten her to try saying Secaucus yet.) She tried to get even with us the other day, by switching to Afrikaans! We found the reset button quickly! When, on vacation, and we set her for a church, she will gladly tell us "Approaching Street Vincent, on the right."

But, we love her, and she does a very good job. Though she's never explained what a 'roundabout' is. I think it's something like a traffic circle, but not sure...

[sviking]

My caching partner has a nuvi 455 (I think). Set to the 'Samantha' voice. I call her Miss Bossy, and am told that I should stop teasing her. We travel a lot on Tonnelle Avenue (US 1&9 in North Bergen, NJ). That's TAH-nuh-lee, not TOE-nell. (Haven't gotten her to try saying Secaucus yet.) She tried to get even with us the other day, by switching to Afrikaans! We found the reset button quickly! When, on vacation, and we set her for a church, she will gladly tell us "Approaching Street Vincent, on the right."

But, we love her, and she does a very good job. Though she's never explained what a 'roundabout' is. I think it's something like a traffic circle, but not sure...

 

If you think that's funny... Here in Arizona, highways are depicted as AZ-XX. AZ-69 is a major highway leading into Prescott. "Australian Karen" seductively pronounces it as "Highway a** sixtey-nine".