Category: accessible Devices
Hello everyone. A friend emailed this to me the other day. What do you guys think?
HumanWare launches Victor Reader Stream, a powerful, palm-size DAISY-MP3 player for playing books and music
Longueuil (Quebec, Canada), June 29, 2007
HumanWare is proud to introduce its most compact, most powerful DAISY player to date, the Victor Reader Stream. Blind and low vision people can comfortably hold this new player in the palm of their hand (4.6 x 2.6 x 0.9) and have the flexibility to quickly and accurately access content from digital audio books. Developed with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the Victor Reader Stream uses the latest technology from HumanWare to be able to read digital talking books from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). Not only will you be able to play and navigate the NLS books on cartridges, but you will also have access to NLS download books. The Stream has a USB port to connect to your computer so you can transfer download books and music from your PC to the Stream's SD flash memory card. As the newest member of the family of Victor Reader digital talking book players, the Stream offers the same powerful and simple to use user interface made popular by the Victor Reader Classic+ and Wave players used by thousands worldwide. The Victor Reader Stream can play various electronic book formats, including DAISY, Bookshare, text, wav, MP3 and OGG Vorbis audio files. As well, the ability to play the popular commercial books from Audible.com will be added by September. The player also provides integrated text-to-speech for reading books in text format, such as those from Bookshare. It uses a removable SD flash memory card to store books, music as well as electronic text, and can even record voice notes. "The VR Stream benefits from our many years of expertise learned through developing and marketing tens of thousands of our Victor Reader digital talking book players all over the world," says Gerry Chevalier, Product Manager. "No other DAISY player has offered so much in such a small device." The Stream offers the most advanced DAISY functions, as well as navigation capabilities for all kinds of books, from textbooks to fiction. Students will definitely appreciate Victor Reader Stream for quickly and effectively consulting their school books, making voice notes or recording their teacher during class. This tool is indispensable for people who are required to use reference books as a regular part of their job. "This new player was designed to meet the needs of the increasing number of on-the-go blind and low vision students and professionals," said Gerry Chevalier. "Its small size and flexible SD card storage allow our customers to take their entire book and music library with them anywhere, anytime." The best news of all... priced at only $329, the Stream is your best buy for DAISY players, offering so much performance and functionality at such a low price. Don't forget all NFB and ACB members receive a 5% discount. But that's not all. If you purchase online at HumanWare before July 31, 2007, you have a 10% chance of getting your Stream for free. HumanWare will randomly choose one out of ten July purchasers to receive their Stream at no cost. Victor Reader Stream is available for purchase online in the USA at
http://www.humanware.com/.
The new Stream will become available in other countries over the next several months.
This should be interesting. Has anyone seen the new Book Port from APH? I haven't and am curious as to how much competition the two products will give eachother.
Lou
lou, do you know if the new bookkport is based on some of the technology used in the level star icon such as running on linux?
No, thanks for the input on that. I've been playing with the braille plus which is the APH equivalent of the ICON for about a week now. I'm really impressed with it overall so far. Only problem is the Internet connection seems painfully slow. I want to try it hardwired though. Its so nice to send and receive e-mail from anywhere in the house, though.
Has anyone seen or heard anything else about this new device?
I've heard of the daisy player, but apparently it only plays CDs and audio cds.
hi Gemini, i heard of it, and thinking of getting it in the near future. you can get its review from either ACBRadio or Blind Cool Tech. one thing that serve me the best is it can do recording with very good sound quality, and it can play, text files, mp3, and as well as daisy. the voice that come with this unit is good as well, very clear, i would say much better than bookport.
cheers, Season
Thanks. I was wondering if anyone had tried it.
I have a friend who got the Victor recently and loves it. And he just got the update that will allow him to download books from audible.com.
Instead of the PDAs for the blind, like VoiceSense, BrailleSense or the Humanware ones, I'd look at the EEE series of ultra mobile PCs from Asus. The XP version should be coming out any day now, they'll retail in the $500 range and if you already have a screen reader (or are fine with using NVDA or whatever) those things are a serious deal cheaper and more useful than the PDAs, I never really saw the point of them, I'd rather have a smart phone with MobileSpeak and then a full fledged laptop, my only complaint has been my laptop is a bit too big/heavy and slow to start up, but the EEE should take care of all that, it starts up much faster, is only 2 pounds and you can use an external keybaord with it, and it runs XP, can't do much better than that really.
cheers
-B
Hmm, I thought this device was more like a fancy MP3 player rather than a PDA, but since I have not seen the device, I could be wrong.
The stream is an mp3 player. It also plays wave files, daisy audio files, audible files, and text files. Content is loaded onto a removable SD card. I've had the stream for several months now, and I love it. It's the first completely accessible mp3 player I've seen. As for the new bookport, I'm told that APH has ceased production for the time being.
Yes, it's a reader, not a PDA. It also has a part that can be bought separately that will play the new digital books on flash cards once NLS starts producing those. In the meanwhile, it can be used to download books from NLS.
Wow. This thing sounds really interesting. I'd really like to see one, but I don't think that's going to happen. LOL.
I had a play with one at an expo last month, and found it really very awesome. Also quite intuitive.
I saw one before I got it and I thought that it was cool. I have one now and I love it!
I have one as well, and it is way better than the bookport in every way. It's absolutely awesome!! Not to mention, cheap, or at least, cheaper than the bookport. It's not much more expensive than an ipod.
I wonder why they didn't build in any internal storage may be a couple of gig or so.
Yes, yes!
I think the vs is one of the better new blindness products out there. I've had mine for 6 months now and I just love it.
Just got my Stream a few weeks ago and I'm completely in love. I've tried many different media players over the years with varying degrees of success, and I must say that so far the Stream has everything I could possibly want. I love the random feature in the music folder (I don't know about you but I hate having to listen to all my songs in the exact same order all the time) and the ability to play podcasts in the latest build. Should be hearing back from NLS so I can start playing digital books on there too.
i want to get one so I can play my textbooks without carying around CD's.
Kerry: You submited your application to NLS a few weeks ago and still haven't recieved your log in info? Crap, that means I'll be waiting a long time. I'll be getting my Stream Monday, and am already looking forward to it. BTW, the new update, among other things, now supports WMA files and also BRF.
Oh cool Scott, you'll love it. And I don't know, it might just be that my regional library is really slow. I was told when I purchased mine that getting set up with NLS would normally take less than a week. Am calling them tomorrow to see what's going on.
Well, I sent out the request app yesterday, and already have access to the downloads page. It's quite impressive I must admit. That's not the reason for my response though. I do think it's on your cooperating library's end, because my request was put in over night. Hey, Michigan beats New York at something, how about that? Maybe there is a reason for me to go back after all. LOL
How do you get permission to download digital books from nLS?
Go to
www.nstalkingbooks.org/dtb
There is an application you need to fill out. Be sure you have your Stream's serial number with you. You can find that by hitting the zero button on the stream. it's after all the info about your stream's battery life and all that. You'll also have to provide an e-mail address. It may take a couple of days, but I eventually got an e-mail from NLS with an attachment, I think. This file needs to be put on the stream, either via an SD card, or by plugging the stream to your computer, after you've saved the file in a place where you can easily find it .
PM me if you'd like more details on what to do next.
OK, thanks. Awesome
hm, I might be getting one, but is there a way to play RFB&D books on it, because that is what my Vocational concelier told me, but i'm not sure how that would work.
and is it really better than the book port,
and can I put the SD card from the BP into that and listen to my books that way, or do I have to go download them all over again?
i might be getting 1 as well, just doing some re search in to it. heard it's good
No , the caard from the bookport is actually a flash card, not a SD. SD cards are the chips that go in cameras. Of course, the vR can play books from RFB and D. Have you not done any research? That's one of its primary functions. It is way better than the book. The download speed is much faster if you can put your SD card directly into the computer though, but some SD cards come with USB card readers that look like flash or thumb drives. Do some research, but I think you will see that the VR is much better. I like every thing about, and I was a big BP lover for a while.
The only thing Iwith you could do is ply artists randomly too. And I wish thay'd've used the Leo voice from Sacnsoft instead of Tom or Samantha, (I think that that's the female voic they chose to use.) Leo is much clearer than Tom, and a bit less shaky.
Crap, i didn't think that this post would turn out that bad. JAWS is being stupi and not letting me hear what I erase. Sorry, guys. The voices Gumanware used for the VR are from Scansoft.
no, I don't do the research, my state is giving it to me, I don't really get a say, but then again, they said it might either be the stream or the wave
what is the wave anyway?
Is there any way to switch TTS voices? Mine came with stupid Samantha and I wasn't given a choice. Since I also have a hearing impairment, I don't think this choice was the best for me. I already have enough trouble with certain synthesizers as it is. Yes, it does support RFBD books, but I think you need to purchase a key for it that costs $25. After that, the process is the same as installing your NLS key in terms of getting it on your stream. The other nice thing that I like about the stream is that I can connect directly to my computer and don't even need to remove the SD card. So if you don't have an SD card reader, although the transfer is a bit slower, you can still move stuff from your PC to the stream.
There is another voice. Daniel, and he is british. I think the wave is a CD player. You can only have one voice loaded onto the VR stream at a time. Try Daniel. Or Tom. Good luck. Google it if you have questions. You should always know what you mightbe getting or at least, be aware of it no matter who is purchasng it.
I believe he wave is a CD player. You should have a say in what you get. You're an adult.
but I goe through my state, and they purchace these sort of things in bulk, only because I'm in college, and I did ask them for something on rather short notice.
so, sure I'm an adult, but I do have to put up with the state and what they get for me is what I use.
only cuz I have too.
Nods. I sort-of know how that is. For college books, the stream can do more. That would be my suggestion. Can you not tell them, or at least, suggest what is better or something? Not be rude to them, but say, " I've done some research, and over all, I feel that this does more," or something like that. I don't know.
I was expecting to get a bookport for school, but I had heard it was no longer being manufactured or something, so Adaptive Technology Resources in Madison, had to get me thestream. I'm glad they got me this rather than the bookport. I also have a Victyr wave, which is a CD plaer thatis made to play boks fromthe rEcordings for the blind and Dyslexic, but I'd rather use the stream for those.
Agreed. Yeah the stream is much better. Loads better.
Hh my Lord, sorry for the typos ...
It's cool.
I just ordered my Stream. I'm excited about it. I really shouldn't spend the money on this right now, but it's something I really want. I know I'll probably end up kicking myself in the butt later on, but for now, I'm excited about it. I just hope that it's worth it.
Oh, don't worry, it will be.
Well guys, I received my Stream today. I've been listening to the tutorial and familiarizing myself with some of its features. There's still a lot to learn, though. I've been approved to be a part of the DTB download pilot for NLS, so I'm excited about that.
btw, I have a stream question?
How do you fastforward, for example I am listening to a dasiey book and while taking notes I just passed something I want to hear again.
I can skip by minute or page or level but I can't figure out how to just skip back a few words or so. I tried holding it down like you would on a cd player and that doesn't seem to work either.
The time-jump feature should help with that.
How exactly does that work?
No, the time jump probably won't help too much with that if you have just passed the word or sentence that you want to hear again. Time jump won't help because you can only jump by minute and hour, but not by second. Why not just use the rewind button, which is located on the bottom row of buttons on the stream. This is when the portion of the stream where the sd card, AC adapter port and USB port are facing away from you. It is the button to the left of the square play button. Each press of rewind takes you back 5 seconds, and each press of fast forward, located just to the right of the play button, will jump you forward 5 seconds. To use time jump,, locate the button on the upper must left portion of the stream's pannel of buttons. This is just above the number one and has a more rough surface than the buttons below it. Press this once, and depending on the file you are in, the stream will say go to heading, page, or time jump. Press this until you get to the time jump option, and then enter the time you would like to jump to. For example, if I want to jump to the point 3 hours and 21 minutes in to a file, I would enter 0321, followed by the pound button to confirm. Then, press play, and you will be at the desired location in the file. HTH
I knew all of that, but what if I needed to go back say an hour or two, but I really didn't know exactly where, is there another way besides the rewind/fast foward, time jump, and the four/six keys?
It depends on the type of content that you are listening to. If it's just an mp3 file, unless you insert a bookmark, the answer is no. If it's a marked up daisy file, though, depending on how it was tagged, you can also jump by heading. There is no other way that I'm aware of.
Are you guys signed up for the Victor user list?
No, I'm not.
For those interested, here is the link the the Stream users list web site:
http://vrstreamusers.org/
You can sign up for the email list, and check out the archives.