IBM ViaVoice 9 Pro USB Edition

I have a 4 day old Dell (Celeron 1.1GHz, 512M RAM) running Windows XP and needed voice recognition software that worked. I have it now.

We have tried Dragon Naturally Speaking on 2 machines now, and it always complained about the sound quality using both a standard microphone and the headset that came bundled with it. Admittedly that's an old version we have, but it doesn't inspire confidence.

So I figured we really needed a headset with the best audio performance we could find, and the USB headset bundled with Via Voice 9 sounded like it would do the trick.

It does. Via Voice 9 completely meets our expectations.

Installation was straightforward. The only glitch we had was when I didn't quite plug the microphone in all the way, and the installation software flashed up a dialog screen with a picture of the USB unit and the plug, and prompted me to check the plug. Which I did, and it was smooth sailing thereafter. Too easy.

Don't waste your time with cheap voice recognition software - it's just too frustrating. If you want a system that works, I can definitely recommend this package. My fiancee (who is a writer, and finishing up her PhD thesis, and hence fairly demanding of her software) types about 70 words per minute and yet now prefers to use Via Voice for drafts, dictating directly into Word 2000 and Outlook Express. Of course you need to budget time for training and corrections, but it's surprisingly accurate after less than 2 days of usage. You can (and definitely should) train it to recognise words you use as part of your everyday typing, this will improve the accuracy substantially.

It works. End of story.

Having used speech recognition programs on a daily basis for many years due to the fact I have a severe disability. I was eager to upgrade to the latest offering from IBM, "ViaVoice Pro 9 USB Edition." I desperately needed a ViaVoice product that worked with Windows XP. I wish I had not bothered. Like Mr Parkhead, it would not allow me to import my voice model from ViaVoice 8. If I wanted to use this product, I too would have to set up a new voice model. I must concur completely with what the reviewer Parkhead has said. There is nothing new in this from version 8. This is version 8 with bits added on so it works with Windows XP. For reviewer Angelo to claim he could see the difference immediately, I can only conclude he has never used ViaVoice Pro version 8. Take it from someone who has used the product daily since its release a year ago; there is no difference at all. If you own the American English version of 8, you can download a patch costing $5 about £3 in our money, which will make version 8 compatible with XP. I have contacted IBM asking for an explanation as to why we need to buy a complete version instead of a patch but no explanation was forthcoming. I also asked why we get a mono headset while the Americans have a stereo headset but again no explanation was offered. Despite several phone calls to IBM, they were not interested in my complaint or concerns and offered me nothing byway of compensation. In all seriousness, I could not recommend this as a stand-alone new product to people who already own ViaVoice Pro 8 but if you do not own a ViaVoice product at all then I would certainly recommend it. ViaVoice is an excellent overall product concept that I would recommend to anyone needing a speech recognition package but for previous owners of ViaVoice you will be sorely disappointed if you buy version 9 thinking you are getting something new. IBM assure me there will be an upgrade version for XP available shortly but even that is going to cost around £50 so unless you really need to use ViaVoice with XP don't bother buying this or the upgrade. There is nothing new in this from version 8, they have not even fixed all the glitches and idiosyncrasies that 8 had. In conclusion, and I cannot stress this strongly enough if you already own ViaVoice 8 and you do not intend to upgrade your system to Windows XP do not bother buying version 9 because you already have it.

having used ViaVoice Pro 8 successfully for almost a year I was keen to receive and try out their latest offering ViaVoice Pro 9 USB edition. How disappointed I was. Firstly it would not allow me to import my voice model from ViaVoice 8 which meant starting from scratch. Having set up a new voice model the programme finally opened properly and what a disappointment it was. From what I can see there is nothing new in this from version 8. As far as I can tell all they have done is enable it to work with Windows XP. This could have been achieved with a free patch that could have been downloaded from the IBM website. In my opinion this is nothing more than an exercise in making money by IBM. Take my advice and wait for the upgrade version. It is not worth the expense of buying the full version 9. I accept that it works as well as version 8 but that's as far as it goes. This is version 8 enabled for Windows XP and that's it. A very expensive exercise in upgrading a product that has been around for a year. IBM should be ashamed of themselves for passing this off as a new product because it isn't, it's an old product rehashed and repackaged.