Read aloud feature in Calibre 6.12 : error message

[Bill Boquet]

OS : Windows 10
Calibre 6.11 : Read aloud feature is working, but only the English US female voice is proposed.
I installed Calibre 6.12 in the hope that French language will be supported.
Calibre 6.12 : Read aloud is no longer working, with error message :
calibre 6.12 embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.10.1
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: fr
Successfully initialized third party plugins:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\gui2\viewer\tts.py", line 95, in action
  File "calibre\gui2\viewer\tts.py", line 101, in play
  File "calibre\gui2\viewer\tts.py", line 75, in tts_client
  File "calibre\gui2\tts\windows.py", line 56, in __init__
  File "calibre\utils\windows\winspeech.py", line 453, in get_audio_device
  File "calibre\utils\windows\winspeech.py", line 410, in wait_for
TimeoutError: Timed out waiting for: Audio device

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

That error indicates your system is not returning an available ausio
device. You might get more information if you run the viewer as

calibre-debug -w file.epub

in a command prompt and post the output after starting read aloud.

[Bill Boquet (bill-boquet)]

Thanks Kovid for lightning speed answer ;-).
Indeed on another computer with Calibre 6.12, Read aloud feature is working flawlessly.
So status is : resolved. I will further dig in tonight on my home computer, to see what went wrong.
P.S. There are now 3 English US voices with Calibre 6.12, but unfortunately no French voice.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

The list of voices comes from the Windows OS. The change in 6.12 is to
use a newer non-deprecated API to list voices which gives access to more
voices.

[Bill Boquet (bill-boquet)]

As suggested, I ran at home the viewer in debug mode :

C:\Users\Parents\Desktop>calibre-debug -w "Ovaldé, Véronique - Fille en colère sur un banc de pierre (2023).epub"
Failed to initialize plugin: 'C:\\Users\\Parents\\AppData\\Roaming\\calibre\\plugins\\DeDRM.zip'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\customize\ui.py", line 744, in initialize_plugins
  File "calibre\customize\ui.py", line 64, in load_plugin
  File "calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 307, in load
  File "importlib\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1050, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked
  File "calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 199, in exec_module
  File "calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 195, in get_code
  File "calibre_plugins.dedrm.__init__", line 164
    print u"{0} v{1}: Copying needed library files from plugin's zip".format(PLUGIN_NAME, PLUGIN_VERSION)
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'. Did you mean print(...)?
QPA platform: windows
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 94.14671814671814 x 94.07407407407408
ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
ApplicationPaletteChange event received
qt.webenginecontext:

GL Type: desktop
Surface Type: OpenGL
Surface Profile: CompatibilityProfile
Surface Version: 4.6
QSG RHI Backend: OpenGL
Using Supported QSG Backend: yes
Using Software Dynamic GL: no
Using Multithreaded OpenGL: yes

Init Parameters:
  * application-name calibre
  * browser-subprocess-path C:\Program Files\Calibre2\app\bin\QtWebEngineProcess.exe
  * create-default-gl-context
  * disable-es3-gl-context
  * disable-features ConsolidatedMovementXY,InstalledApp,BackgroundFetch,WebOTP,WebPayments,WebUSB,PictureInPicture
  * disable-speech-api
  * enable-features NetworkServiceInProcess,TracingServiceInProcess
  * enable-threaded-compositing
  * in-process-gpu
  * use-gl desktop

[0.000] Load of book started
[1.406] prepared emitted
[1.438] webview loading requested
[1.860] bridge ready
[3.531] iframe ready
[3.875] loading finished
winspeech:-> 1 audio_device
winspeech:<- 0 error {"error": "Le fichier spécifié est introuvable.", "file": "winspeech.cpp", "hr": "0x80070002", "line": 867, "msg": "Failed to initialize SpeechSynthesizer and MediaPlayer"}
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre\gui2\viewer\tts.py", line 59, in dispatch_on_main_thread
  File "calibre\gui2\tts\windows.py", line 100, in handle_event
calibre.utils.windows.winspeech.SpeechError: There was an error in the Windows Speech subsystem. Failed to initialize SpeechSynthesizer and MediaPlayer: Le fichier spécifié est introuvable.
File: winspeech.cpp Line: 867 HRESULT: 0x80070002
calibre 6.12 embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.10.1
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0',...

[Bill Boquet (bill-boquet)]

"The list of voices comes from the Windows OS."
I use a native french Windows OS, therefore I thought that french voices would come by default. As a matter of fact, only the EN-US voice is installed by default in localized OS :
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/appendix-a-supported-languages-and-voices-4486e345-7730-53da-fcfe-55cc64300f01

As Calibre 6.11 was working, I reinstalled it and I downloaded the French voice as instructed.
Bingo : Calibre reads my ebook in french with voice aloud !
Thanks for the tips Kovid, best regards, Bill

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

That error indicates you dont have the media player dlls installed in
windows. Possibly you are using windows N. Install those and you will be
fine.

[Bill Boquet (bill-boquet)]

Hi Kovid,
I have regular Windows 10, not N. However, Google suggested me that subsequent app installations could have corrupted Windows Media Player dlls.
I followed your advice and removed Windows Media Player, then reinstalled it after reboot.
I upgraded to Calibre 6.12 ... and all issues are now resolved. Cherry on the cake : only one french voice was available in 6.11, now 6.12 offers the 3 supported french voices.
Many thanks for your quick feedback and your precious and effective support. Status is now "resolved" for 100% of my issues.
By the way thanks also for your great baby Calibre, the best ebook companion.
Cheers, Bill
P.S. I don't know how to close a topic, forgive my ignorance.