mispronunciation of Left and right on Garmin 265

Use Lee or Daniel instead, as long as you don't mind the voice accent and the fact it's a man's voice. Personally, for the English speaking world Karen I believe is the best voice, despite her occasional mispronunciation of "route" as "rout-e". I found Jill and Emily to be somewhat grating.

I think all of the voices have problems of some sort. Jill use to have this same type problem you are describing prior to the last update using webupdater. It was so hard to understand that I was switching around to different voices trying to find the best one. Since the update she seems to only have problems with words having 2 vowels together like "brook" or the word "going". She sounds like she is underwater when pronouncing these types of words.

I know it doesn't help but I think all you can do is keep looking for the voice updates using the webupdater.

With my hearing I can't understand the english and australian voices so I'm glad they fixed Jill somewhat.

Would you direct to whereever I can get voices that do not come on original GPS. Jill is grating on me that I had almost do without a GPS rather than listen to her.
We really like the male voices best.
Thanks
bj

This is the only Garmin we have had a problem with. I have one, the one with the problem belongs to my husband, my 3 sons have them and no problem. Have two from 600 series and two from 700 series. It is just the 265W that is driving us crazy.
Thanks for suggestions.
bj

Well, for one thing, some of the mispronunciations can be corrected. Go to http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/TTS_Speech_Doctor and download the program on the page. If it complains about a missing tabctl32.ocx file, look that file up on google and download it into the TTS_Speech Doctor directory.

Check Garmin for other voices. You could download Garmin Voice Studio, but Voice Studio doesn't create TTS voices.

That's really strange, I have been using Jack for over a year now and he pronounces left and right perfectly with my 855. That's why I switched to him because I thought he spoke clearer then the other voices.

I don't recall anyone with a 265W ever reporting this particular problem and I don't have one. I would try refreshing all of the firmware and voice files followed by a master reset, if you have WEBUPDATER, it can't hurt. If you haven't done this before here are some steps to follow,

1. Switch the voice in the GPS to a voice that you would never really use. (I don't know that tyhis step is needed but I would leave a voice that is selected on the GPS alone, that is why I'm suggesting one you would never use)

2. Connect the GPS to your PC.

3. Backup or copy all files on your GPS to a safe location on your hard drive.

4. Switch to view the "x:\Garmin\Voice" folder on the GPS unit.

5. Delete all of the voices that you would like to refresh with new software. Jill, Jack, Karen, Lee, etc. or all voices except for the voice you have switched to in the GPS.

6. Start webupdater and when it asks, reinstall your current firmware. After the firmware update it will show updates for all of the support files. Select all of the voices and any other files that you would like reinstalled.

7. When the updates are finished disconnect your GPS from the computer and let it complete the firmware installation process.

8. THen do the Master Reset on your GPS.

When you are completely done you can reconnect to your PC and copy the Current.gpx file from your backup location back to the x:\Garmin\GPX folder so you have all of your favorites again.

NOT TO WORRY

Garmin has set the voices in their units to pay respect to Japanese communities either in Japan or elsewhere, so that anytime you drive through them and the unit speaks it will do so with a slight Japanese accent on certain words such as 'left' and 'right'

This is most probably what you are hearing.

[FROM THE INTERNET]

Why Japanese people pronounce the R and L sounds funny

Japanese people have a lot of difficulty differentiating the R and L sounds, especially in English. This is why funnily translated English that one sees in Japan is commonly called Engrish. (Recently people are calling funny English in China Chinglish.)

There's a simple reason why Japanese people can't pronounce R and L correctly. They don't exist in Japanese. It is not, as was asked of me once, a genetic defect. Japanese people who spent their childhood years in an English speaking country can pronounce both sounds fine.

The Japanese version of the 'rrr' type of sound, the ra ri ru re ro (ら　り　る　れ　ろ) row in the phonetic hiragana alphabet, is somewhere between R and L.

So, 'rice' gets pronounced 'lice', 'balloon' as 'baroon', etc.

.......... 'Believe it or NOT' .....

Very interesting observation, roata...

I use my 750 and 855 mostly and both have a problem similar to yours. Since this occurs identically on my 750 and 855, I'm amazed that others haven't had the issue and that they say theirs speak perfectly.

My issue is with Jill and "left." Oddly, Jill says "left" two different ways: 1) in the middle of a sentence like "Turn left on University Avenue." she's perfect; 2) at the end of a sentence like "Arriving at Home, on Left." the word "left" is completely crazy sounding--it's hard to even describe. I have the latest firmware and voices on each nuvi and in all cases, they exhibit this. It's been true for earlier firmware and voice versions as well. I see this only with Jill by the way. To me, Jack speaks well. I still prefer Karen, although there are the occasional things like BL is spoken "bllll" while Jack and Jill say "Business Loop." Odder with Karen--and continuing with my hearing differences in a word at different times, Karen pronounces Kachina as CATCH-in-ah some times while at other times she correctly says kah-CHEE-nah. I wish I knew more about these voice engines to understand how a given word's sound can be different at different times.

More:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30497

There is a road near my home called "Glen Head Road". Jack pronounces it as "Glen Hedge Road".

Jack promounces County Ounty. We have lots of County Road address so this is an irritant not a problem with which way to turn, once we realized what was happening.
We Have a 765 that has spoken perfectly for the last 4 or 5 years.
Like others we also notice that the left right thing is not all the time. e.g. it will say left (clear) for several turns and then suddenly says reft so bad that we truly do not know if it is saying left or right.
You would think with so many people having th problem that Garmin would do an update to fix it.
the last person I talked to sounded like they had never heard of such a thing.
Said it would be sent to research to try to find the problem. Needless to say I am holding my breath until Hear from them.
It is at least some consolation to know I am not the only one with the problem.
Thanks everyone
Will try everything that has been suggested.
bj

I just went on Garmin site to do the updates etc and when I went to voices I found that Jill no longer exist. The only female American English is Samantha. She is the one that is the problem on my GPS.
Is there somewhere else to get voices other than Garmin.com
Thanks
bj

Samantha exists on 2x5 models (and maybe others). Jill exists for other models like 37xx, 760, ... Samantha uses the Vocalizer speech engine and Jill uses the RealSpeak engine. I am pretty sure both exists.

That would explain why our older GPS's are clear with Jill and not with Samantha. Maybe the same thing is true with Jack. Sure wich we could get RealSpeak on the 265.
Thanks at least this makes sense.
bj

I use Australian Karen on my 260W. Along with some other phrases I changed “left” and “Right”. So now when approaching a turn I hear Karen’s sweet accented voice say “portside” and “starboard”.

How do you change phrases on a GPS
thanks
bj

Look here
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/16263e

Haven't had the nuvi very long, but did notice with my old Street Pilot that sometimes Jack "mispronounced" left to sound like right. Seriously on more then one occasion I was told to turn left when the screen showed a right turn. Fortunately the times it happened I was still in a familiar area and knew what turn to make even without looking at the screen.