Garmin Voice files thread ,official and customized

[floydo]

I was playing around and tried a couple of voices by renaming the old files in the garmin\voice directory..then using their original names for the new voices per discussions on this thread. This did not work....

ie. Rename Sexy Sedara.vpm to one of the existing voices; English_Australian_Karen.vpm after renaming the original English_Australian_Karen.vpm to Old_English_Australian_Karen.vpm.
After rebooting the nuvi, Karen voice still shows up when selecting it! If Old_English_Australian_Karen.vpm is removed, after rebooting there is no voice for Karen when selected...
In this Nuvi there are associated 1k files (English_Australian_Karen.sum). Looking in them with a txt editor the hyroglyphics do not seem to relate to the original files in an obvious way, but it seems that they must be somehow linked to the vpm files.
Is there something that is missing or did Garmin change the file structure on the newer devices?...this should be very simple, but trying the Stewie voice yielded the same result....
Thx

[nerys71]

i also wonder - how hard would it be to take voice files from gps units and convert BETWEEN gps units? example I have seen programs that can split apart tomtom voice files (they are ogg I think) so if you can take it apart then you can get to each audio file and you know what each one does so "convert" the file to wav and convert the name to its "garmin" equivalent and then make a VPM and do the reverse. take a garmin voice file and make it into a tom tom voice file etc.. would expand the number of voice files we have access too!

[turboccc]

I already tried to convert from TT to Garmin and it is not possible because too many words are missing. The opposite (Garmin to TT) is possible.

[nerys71]

I don't understand? the tom tom voice files have LESS words than the garmin?

[turboccc]

Yes. It is like a ratio of 3:1 or 2:1 (garmin:tt).

[ThaDraGun]

How do I get the downloaded voices on my GPS?
I just got a Nuvi 1450T LMU for xmas.

The only ones I can seem to get on are the ones that can also be downloaded from the Garmin site, anything else doesnt appear on the GPS when its put in the voices folder.

[turboccc]

If this is a non-TTS voice, it may appear as "English American". Which voice did you put in the Voice folder? Also, where is it coming from?

[ThaDraGun]

I got a bunch of voices from the net... torrent sites etc. They said they are Garmin compatible.
They are all either VPM files or VUP files.

Some include: cartman, stewie, borat, elfred, Governator, Sexy Sedara, Garmin Devil, DrNightmare etc etc.

[turboccc]

Ok. Those are all regular non-TTS VPM files (VUP need to be converted). Ther are also probably all tagged as English_American. This means they will appear as such in the Voice menu. Here`s what you should do:

1- On your GPS, rename English_American_.vpm as English_American_.vpm_ (yes, .vpm_) - this will disable that voice and the gps will not see it anymore.
2- Take ONE of your new voice and put it in the Voice folder.
3- Reboot the gps and search for English_American in the voice menu. Select it. Now, you have the new voice.

If you want to change voice, delete the other new voice (or rename its extension) and copy a new one.

[EIcojo]

Tried the Borat and Cartman voices in both Nuvi 310 & Nuvi 775T. The Cartman voice worked in the Nuvi(the Borat renamed as Polski dissapeared), and the Nuvi 310 voice folder only contained voices with extension .vpm, but in the 775T, there were 2 voice files per language in the Voice folder, one a .vpm and the other a .sum. I replaced the .vpm (renaming the Cartman & Borat to the Korea and Polski voices which I cant see my self using anyway), but I couldnt even select the Korean and Polski in the 775T Voice menu as they had dissapeared. I promptly reinstalled the origional voices to get them back, so the 'custom' voices won't work on newer garmins that have both .vpm and .sum as their voice files. Pity.