Is Chime TTS still needed? I installed it a while ago and have been using it but I noticed it producing several errors in my ha logs while I was trying to troubleshoot another unrelated issues. I was thinking maybe there might be something newer that would provide some of same features. Piper, Music Assistant, etc. I remember just loading this based off a YouTube recommendation.
#Chime TTS still needed?
sweet trail
river verge
Is Chime TTS still needed? I installed it a while ago and have been using it bu...
assist_satellite.announce now (and has done for a while) provides the ability to add a preannounce chime before TTS. either default or custom. although i think chimeTTS does have some random other features along with it. so I could understand some people still using it. but if you just want a chime before text then you probably don't need it.
Some of the stuff they use is planned to be depricated.
Paulus raised it with them as an issue HERE but I don't really think that the integration is in active development anymore.
If you can do what you need without it then probably best to ditch it.
sweet trail
The chime voice used is much more natural 🙂 - The one from satellite seems forced and rushed and isn't pleasant 🙂
Not the end of the world and would rather use it than have a bunch of errors and be running something unsupported.
river verge
The chime voice used is much more natural 🙂 - The one from satellite seems forc...
you can specify any media in the announce action so you can a different chime if you want when you call it.
sweet trail
I have the preannouce option selected but its not playing a chime for some reason either.
river verge
I have the preannouce option selected but its not playing a chime for some reaso...
what are you outputting to?
sweet trail
Yeah I would have to self create the file and upload it for something more natural.
Home Assistant Voice Preview.
river verge
Home Assistant Voice Preview.
which firmware version is it running? can see it in its device page.
river verge
25.1.0
that is a pretty old version. do you have the update entity enabled and does the VPE have access to the internet?
sweet trail
I don't see an update entity.
It has the same access as HA as its on the same network.
river verge
in its configuration section
you are missing a lot of newer features.
also ensure your home assistant install is up to date too.
sweet trail
Oh i see what I did I put it on a different network than HA so it does not have the same access.
river verge
Oh i see what I did I put it on a different network than HA so it does not have ...
yeah some people put it on an iot vlan and this causes various problems. it should really be on the same network as your ha server and have internet access.
sweet trail
yeah i don't see an update entity for it
But maybe if I expose it to the internet for a second it will show.
river verge
yeah i don't see an update entity for it
may look a little different for you as your on old version but should give you an idea of what your looking for with the update entity.
sweet trail
I see it says Up-to-date 🙂
Is there a way to force it to check
I have one disabled entity of Beta Firmware.
river verge
Is there a way to force it to check
in settings system updates then can refresh in the corner. this refreshes all update entities
or i think you can power cycle the VPE too
sweet trail
That worked thanks
Well I gave it port 80 and 443 access is all it needed for update
Probably only needs 443.
river verge
yeah, it pulls from github.
sweet trail
Now we are on 25.12.4
river verge
Now we are on 25.12.4
that is latest.
if you are interested in all the stuff you missed you could look through the release notes of various versions HERE
suffice it to say that there has been a bunch of improvements. you were on on almost the original release firmware.
you can probably steel the chimetts audio file for the chime you like and upload it as general media then make use of it.
sweet trail
Yeah I was looking into copying their mp3s folder over somewhere was going to put it under tts. But wasn't sure the best spot for it.
river verge
Yeah I was looking into copying their mp3s folder over somewhere was going to pu...
I would just upload the ones you want to "my media" I have a few things I chucked in there just uploading via the media browser in the UI.
sweet trail
Interesting chime tts makes the tts into an mp3 that is stored under my media so could keep it around to at least create the media id i would want and then find the file and move it.
its in a temp directory
river verge
Interesting chime tts makes the tts into an mp3 that is stored under my media so...
it used to be that you could only send 1 media file so it needed to do some stuff to combine them before sending.
now you can send preannounce and announcement separately.
piper can "stream" too so it can start sending the file before the entire thing is generated (speeds things up when its a long message)
the whole voice setup has gone through a massive amount of improvements since the vpe was first released.
sweet trail
What is less intensive creating an mp3 with what you want it to say or doing the tts?
river verge
What is less intensive creating an mp3 with what you want it to say or doing the...
when you use ssist_satellite.announce it will use the TTS settings of the pipeline attached to the device.
can just use that in automations or whatever
or with custom pre-announce:
inner thicket
`assist_satellite.announce` now (and has done for a while) provides the ability ...
Don't mean to hijack this thread but since chimeTTS is not active anymore, is there a way I can use this internal integration without a remote voice satellite?
river verge
Don't mean to hijack this thread but since chimeTTS is not active anymore, is th...
what exactly do you mean? add a chime to outputting to a different type of media player? what are you outputting to?
inner thicket
Yes, output to a media_player with the specified message and preannounce_media_id. I don't see the assist_satellite.announce action that I can call.
sweet trail
I ended up choosing a media id and select piper and typing a custom message and selecting custom voice. Some announcements I like a different voice type for the message. This works like Chime now for what I was doing.
river verge
Yes, output to a `media_player` with the specified `message` and `preannounce_me...
if its not a device that supports preannounce media I think you can add it via adding the media player to Music Assistant which then creates a music assistant version of the media player. you might be able to send directly to that now I haven't tried but there is also some settings in music assistant to allow for adding a preannounce. its been a while since i looked into it though tbh.
river verge
I ended up choosing a media id and select piper and typing a custom message and ...
yeah that makes sense if you want other voices.
inner thicket
if its not a device that supports preannounce media I think you can add it via a...
Thanks, didn't know Music Assistant has an announcement feature. I'll look into it.
river verge
Thanks, didn't know Music Assistant has an announcement feature. I'll look into ...
yeah I remember using it before the announce action and pre-announce media was a thing. but i imagine that is still useful for other media players.
sweet trail
Chime has been removed and all TTS automatons moved over to assist_satellite. Thanks so much for your help. This issue can be closed.