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- Czech audio
37 Comments
This one uses a TTS so there should be no issue for sentences, and also some languages will never get every sentence because they're using a voice recording. The audio in Duolingo is done by 3rd parties, with the exception of Swahili, beta shouldn't affect their implementation.
It seems to be my web browser, hopefully it'll be fixed soon.
By the way, I think I found the issue on Safari.
All the sounds that are played (including sentences from other courses) return with MIME type "audio/mpeg", however, the Czech sentences are being returned as "binary/octect-stream", so even trying to open the sound individually will not show the audio player as any other audio file in Safari.
My iPad just threw a funny five minutes, but here goes with the version numbers etc:
iOS 10.3.3 (just double checked, it's up to date)
Safari 602.1 (nb, there's no obvious way to find this out on an iPad, as Safari comes bundled with the OS, so this version number is according to an online tool and I can't even pretend to guess if it's accurate or not. That said, it got everything else right, so...)
Chrome 61.0.3163.73 (I literally just updated this - for some reason, it gave me a previous version to download from the app store. The only change is supposedly a QR code button, so I am not expecting a lot to change, but I am going to try again, and if it makes a difference, I'll let you folks know.)
Edited to add: No, it hasn't made any difference having the latest version of Chrome. In both Safari and Chrome, if I get an audio question and click the snail button (i.e. not the automatic version of the audio), then I get a little swirly thing in the top LH corner of my screen, that I'm used to meaning "I'm just loading something, wait a moment", but the audio never appears.
I've turned the sound up, I've taken it off mute (usually Duolingo overrides that anyway, but in the interest of pursuing all avenues), and I've tried it in two different browsers. No dice :-/
Ok so that's the reason, on iOS all browsers need to use SafariWebServices, so Firefox, Chrome, etc... are in reality a wrapper for Safari.
The problem might be that the TTS is using a format that Safari doesn't support.
The solution for now is to use it on desktop on a supported browser, both Chrome and Firefox handle the audio just fine.
Because Apple doesn't follow industry standards. Instead prefer proprietary formats.
Also, it's not Duolingo's fault, each language needs a different TTS if they want to achieve a good result, so they use 3rd party libraries, also for iOS you shouldn't use the website, that's what the app is for.
This is a BETA release, you should expect errors, you can just wait to the final release when all this issues will be fixed.
... I still don't understand, to be honest. Do you really mean that some TTS only works with one browser?? (Not everyone has the flexibility to change; even if I regularly used a desktop, which I don't, I am leary of Chrome as the times I've installed it on laptops, it has invariably caused huge problems.)
I use the website version on iOS because it's better; I find the app frustrating, slow, and not great from a learning POV. Until now, that's never been an issue.
Oh dear! I am not finding the vocabulary or grammar of the first few lessons hard (background in Slavic languages helps a lot!), but I'm getting no audio whatsoever (ended up turning the speakers off, because the audio questions were so frustrating) and so I'm getting zero feel for the sound of the language. I can guess a lot, but some of the accented vowels in particular, it's really definitely guesswork!
1496
If someone might have missed my posting in the DuoLingo sub-forum and HelpfulDuo Czech announcement thread, I am trying to re-link it in those new sticky / up-voted / more replies threads from the Czech sub-forum:
HOWTO enable TTS audio for EN-CZ questions on L2 target language right hand side answers/solutions with the installation of Camilo's user script "DuoLingo tree enhancer": https://www.duolingo.com/comment/24321450$comment_id=24324257
This works for me on Windows and Firefox web browser.
1496
What version? I am using V50.1.0. Does it work with this version on your side?
Maybe it is even OS dependent (I am not using Win 10, 8.1, etc.).....
The Audio does not work for you for the first skill and all contained lessons?