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For latest release of Obi 5.0 kindly visit Latest Release Notes.

Obi 4.8 , released on October 20, 2022

 

Obi 4.8 continues to address the needs of DAISY members. It introduces higher sampling rates of 48 kHz and 96 kHz for higher audio quality, commands for trimming trailing silence from sections for making production more efficient, option to customize the override behaviour for the Preview before Recording command, along with other improvements and bug fixes.

The new features and enhancements of Obi 4.8 release are briefed below. For feedback, comments and bug reports please contact us via email: obi.feedback@gmail.com.

Please note that support for Windows XP is deprecated from Obi 4.0 onwards. The users of Windows XP are requested to install Obi 3.9.1.

Highlights of Obi 4.8 release

New sampling rates introduced for enhanced audio quality

This release comes with the ability to choose the sample rates 48000 Hz and 96000 Hz for your project in addition to the existing sample rates. These higher sample rates ensure better audio quality but take more disk space. Obi’s backend and audio engine has been refactored for supporting these higher quality sampling rates. You can select these sample rates from the Audio Settings dialog while creating a new project.

Trim trailing silence more efficiently

If there is silence at the end of a section, readers will experience a lag while listening to the contents of the book. You can trim this trailing silence more efficiently from the end of sections using new commands provided in the submenu of Trim silence from section end under Sections menu or the context menu. You can apply these commands on single section, multiple sections, or entire project. The commands are also available in Multi-section Operations dialog.

Option to customize override behaviour for Preview before recording command

You can instruct the Preview before recording command to override audio of current phrase or audio of all subsequent phrases of the section. The Audio tab of the Preferences dialog has a new checkbox Delete following phrases while doing preview before recording that lets you disable deletion of the phrases following the phrase being recorded.

You can find help on the functionality of these features in the “What’s New?” page of Obi Help, which can be viewed by clicking on the Help contents menu item under Help menu of Obi.

Go to Obi 4.8 download page

 

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in this release:

  • If a section of the project was empty, Trim silence from end of all sections command threw an exception.
  • Trim silence from end of all sections command was not able to identify the silence at the end of the last section of the project.
  • Improper phrase role was assigned on merging a skippable phrase with the silence phrase. Now if a skippable phrase is merged with silence phrase, the role of skippable phrase will be retained.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in 4.8 beta release:

  • The reading order of audio files in MP3 players was distorted if the count of the sections exported by Obi exceeded 1,000.
  • When a phrase was selected in the Content View, and Escape key was pressed to move the selection to the section, it made the tab order of the phrases unpredictable.
  • The alignment of the user interface has been fixed for different localizations.
  • Provided warning message that gets displayed when user tries to import an audio file from the project directory of the current project.

For complete list of fixed bugs please visit fixed issues page

Download

To download Obi 4.8 please visit download page.

Known limitation

There are some limitations in this release. The team is working consciously towards resolving them. Please visit the known limitations page to know more about them.

Support

If you would like to discuss some Obi feature or report a bug, you can send an email to obi.feedback@gmail.com or file issue on Obi issue tracker. To verify if the bug has already been submitted, please see the list of reported bugs.

Obi 4.7 , released on December 14, 2021

 

Obi 4.7 comes with simplified production workflows based on the CSV file as well as other enhancements. It can import new project from a CSV file, import metadata from CSV in an existing project, export To-Do timings as cue markers for making audio processing easy in external software, makes CSV created by exporting To-Do timings user-friendly, displays comments of the To-Do phrases in collect special phrases dialog, along with other improvements and bug fixes.

The new features and enhancements of Obi 4.7 release are briefed below. For feedback, comments and bug reports please contact us via email: obi.feedback@gmail.com.

Please note that support for Windows XP is deprecated from Obi 4.0 onwards. The users of Windows XP are requested to install Obi 3.9.1.

Highlights of Obi 4.7 release

Create a project from a CSV file

Now you can import entire project from a CSV file by importing audio along with the structure. Obi now accepts full path of audio files in columns 4 through 8 of the CSV. You can choose to apply phrase detection on these audio files from check box Apply phrase detection while creating a project by importing a CSV file from Project tab of Preferences dialog. In addition, you can provide metadata in the file named “metadata.csv” and store it in the same location as the CSV. Metadata will also be imported during the import.

Import Metadata from a CSV file

Obi enables you to import the key-value pairs from a CSV file and populate them in the metadata of the existing project. The Edit menu contains a new item Import Metadata that enables this functionality.

Updated French and Portuguese language packs

Many thanks to the following contributors for the translations:

  • BrailleNet for French translation.
  • Vitor Ferreira for Portuguese translation.

Ability to export To-Do marks as cue markers in WAV file

You can now choose to export To-Do marks from your project to exported WAV files as cue markers. It makes it easy to process the audio in external audio processing tools like Adobe Audition, SoundForge etc. This option is available in DAISY 3 and DAISY 2.02export. The Export dialog has a new checkbox Write TODO timing as cue mark to enable this functionality. Please note that cue marks can be written only in WAV files.

Option to use semicolon instead of comma in the CSV file being imported

You can instruct Obi to use semicolon instead of comma in the CSV file during the operation Creating a project by importing a CSV file. Check the checkbox Use semicolon as separator instead of comma while creating a project by importing a CSV file in the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.

Import audio for “Page” while generating speech for pages

New Obi enables you to import human voice for page labels while generating speech for pages. It is especially useful when audio is being generated for the books in languages other than English. The page numbers, however, will be converted to speech using TTS.

Export of To-Do timings to CSV made more user-friendly

When you choose to write To-Do timings to a CSV file in the Export dialog, they are written in both decimal and user-friendly (hh:mm:ss) formats.

Display of To-Do comments when collecting To-Do phrases

The Collect Special Phrases dialog also displays To-Do comments when collecting To-Do phrases.

You can find help on the functionality of these features in the “What’s New?” page of Obi Help, which can be viewed by clicking on the Help contents menu item under Help menu of Obi.

Go to Obi 4.7 download page

 

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in this release:

  • While navigating to Next To-Do phrase, if user presses NO for the message box to show section containing To-Do phrase, then also the section containing next To-Do phrase was shown.
  • Import metadata from CSV useed to import the date even if it was in the wrong format.
  • Import metadata features now maps DAISY 2.02 metadata to DAISY 3 metadata, and prevents duplicate entries of the same metadata.
  • New menu item, Contents Latest (English) added in Help menu to ensure that up to date English version of help is available to the users of localized Obi. At this time, the menu item will only be displayed in French and German localization.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in 4.7 beta release:

  • The comments on the To-Do phrases can now be searched using find functionality.
  • When To-Do was marked during recording, the To-Do cursor position was marked at the beginning of the recording phrase, but it should be at the end of the recording phrase.
  • If a To-Do empty phrase had a comment, it was unintentionally removed by the recording operation.
  • Export to DAISY threw an exception if metadata dtb:revision was empty or it had non integer string.
  • Multiple sections operation menu item was disabled when selection was on a phrase.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in 4.7 alpha release:

  • On some computers Audio import could not import file names with accents.
  • The dialog box for adding comment to To-Do phrase was not visible in very long phrase.
  • After reset of Audio preferences, the installed TTS combo box showed the same TTS multiple times.

For complete list of fixed bugs please visit fixed issues page

Download

To download Obi 4.7 please visit download page.

Known limitation

There are some limitations in this release. The team is working consciously towards resolving them. Please visit the known limitations page to know more about them.

Support

If you would like to discuss some Obi feature or report a bug, you can send an email to obi.feedback@gmail.com or file issue on Obi issue tracker. To verify if the bug has already been submitted, please see the list of reported bugs.

Obi 4.6 , released on February 23, 2021

 

Obi 4.6 comes with new audio processing features like highly demanded noise reduction and ability to mix audio (like music) from external file, along with enhancements to the existing features like fade in and fade out and enriched user interface to apply normalization and noise reduction on multiple phrases and entire book.

It further improves production workflows by enhancing audio file import feature with the capability of importing the cue markers along with the wav files, adds ability to export To-do points to the CSV file for external processing, provides option to start recording from the beginning of the section when the section has only empty pages, provides easy way to set default project directory and more.

The release also comes with the reference implementation of the new audio books specifications from W3C.

The new features and enhancements of Obi 4.6 release are briefed below. For feedback, comments and bug reports please contact us via email: obi.feedback@gmail.com.

Please note that support for Windows XP is deprecated from version 4.0 onwards. The users of Windows XP are requested to install Obi 3.9.1.

Highlights of Obi 4.6 release

Suppress unwanted noise using noise reduction

While recording the audio content of the book, some unwanted noise like sound from air-conditioner, laptop fan, etc., might get recorded. You can suppress these sounds by using the Noise reduction feature of Audio processing functionality. You can use this functionality from the menu item Tools->Audio Processing->Noise Reduction or from Multi phrase operations dialog.

Ability to apply noise reduction and normalization on multiple sections and the whole book

You can now apply noise reduction and normalize features of audio processing functionality on multiple sections and the entire audio of the book. The Multi Sections Operations dialog contains new buttons, Noise Reduction and Normalize, to give access to these features. You can also apply these operations on whole book. The dialog boxes for these operations have a checkbox Apply on whole book that enable this functionality.

Mix audio from external file to the content of the phrase

If you ever wanted to add a background music to some part of the book, you can do it with new Obi. Obi lets you mix audio from external files to the audio content of the phrase. The menu item Tools->Audio Processing->Audio Mixer gives access to this functionality.

Enhancements to fade in and fade out functionality

Earlier, Fade in and Fade out commands used to process audio from the beginning of the selected phrase. This release enables you to select a position inside the phrase from where the processing will be done.

Updated French language pack

Many thanks to BrailleNet, France for consistently updating the French language pack.

Import cue markers from wave audio file while importing audio

The import audio files functionality has been enhanced to import the cue markers along with the wav files. Cue markers are the time positions that can be embedded in the wav file when you are recording audio in tools like SoundForge , Adobe Audition etc. Obi detects the cue markers and splits imported audio at the cue markers from the wave audio file being imported. To enable this, select the radio button Split at cue points in wave audio files in the Import audio files dialog.

Export to DAISY can now also export To-do marks to CSV file

DAISY 3 and DAISY 2 export functionality now supports exporting To-do marks along with the exported audio file names to the CSV file. To activate this, check the checkbox Create CSV containing Todo timings in the Export dialog. The users can use the timing information in the CSV file to perform processing on specific parts of the respective audio files with the external processing tools.

Added support for new audio books specifications from W3C

W3C has been working on a new specification for audio books, which has been released recently. In order to aggressively support advancements in technology, Obi provides reference implementation of the W3C audio books specifications. You can select export to WP audio books from the Export dialog. Please note that this specification is very new, so its wide support should not be expected at this time.

Easily set default project directory while initializing Obi

The Obi’s initial Configuration Dialog now provides an option to set the default project directory for Obi projects. It provides the users an easy way to select a safe location for creating Obi projects, where they are less likely to face windows 10 permission related issues.

Option to start recording from the beginning of the section when the section has all empty pages

Some production houses create the structure of the book consisting of empty sections and empty pages before sending it to the narrators for recording. In this scenario, you would want to record at the beginning of the section instead of following the default behaviour of recording at the end of the section. You can enable this functionality by checking the checkbox Record at the starting of section with record section command if section has only empty pages. As the name suggests, if the section has all empty phrases, recording will start from the first empty phrase of the section.

Obi is now in GitHub

In September 2020 Obi development environment had been migrated to GitHub. The new repository is at https://github.com/daisy/obi/

You can find help on the functionality of these features in the “What’s New?” page of Obi Help, which can be viewed by clicking on the Help contents menu item under Help menu of Obi.

Go to Obi 4.6 download page

 

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in this release:

  • Updated URL for checking new releases of Obi. This change is transparent to the users.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in 4.6 beta release:

  • If empty phrase is selected, the cursor position in the phrase properties always stated 0 seconds.
  • When selected input/output device is removed, Obi falls back to primary device, but the user interface of Audio Preferences was not updated accordingly.
  • The submenu Online resources / issue tracker in the Help menu now points to Obi’s new GitHub development repository.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in 4.6 alpha release:

  • FFmpeg.exe audio library is now included in Obi’s installer for saving users from complexities of downloading and installing the library separately.
  • Corrected hyperlink to Online resources and issue tracker submenu under the Help menu. It stopped working after the service provider (Cloudforge) of development website changed its URL.
  • Fixed the issue in which Play on navigate stopped working after applying audio processing.

For complete list of fixed bugs please visit fixed issues page

Download

To download Obi 4.6 please visit download page.

Known limitation

There are some limitations in this release. The team is working consciously towards resolving them. Please visit the known limitations page to know more about them.

Support

If you would like to discuss some Obi feature or report a bug, you can send an email to obi.feedback@gmail.com or file issue on Obi issue tracker. To verify if the bug has already been submitted, please see the list of reported bugs.

Obi 4.5, released on March 31, 2020

Obi 4.5 presents new and enhanced audio processing functionality to increase/decrease the volume, fade in, fade out, or normalize audio, and also incorporates the old functionality in the new audio processing interface.

The new version also makes Obi more user friendly and brings usability improvements like capability of adding comment to a Todo phrase, ability to mark Todo at the exact time point in a phrase, option to view peak meter inside the main Obi window and more.

The new features and enhancements of Obi 4.5 release are briefed below. For feedback, comments and bug reports please contact us via email: obi.feedback@gmail.com.

Please note that support for Windows XP is deprecated from version 4.0 onwards. The users of Windows XP are requested to install Obi 3.9.1.

Highlights of Obi 4.5 release

New and enhanced audio processing

Obi presents new and enhanced audio processing functionality, which enables the users to increase/decrease the volume,  fade in, fade out, or normalize audio. It can be accessed from the submenu of Tools->Audio Processing. The old audio processing features have also been merged in the new audio processing functionality.

Updated French language pack

Many thanks to BrailleNet, France for consistently updating the French language pack.

Ability to export to the device MegaVoice (Envoy Connect)

Obi can now export the project according to the specifications of MegaVoice (Envoy Connect), which is an easy-to-use audio book playing device that has a linear playback mechanism and a simple, user-friendly interface. You can use this functionality by checking the checkbox MegaVoice (Envoy Connect) in the Export Selection dialog.

Introduced comments for Todo phrases to facilitate editing

You can now insert a comment for a Todo phrase specifying the reason for marking it as Todo or giving some cues to the editor. Todo comment can be placed using the submenu of Phrases->Todo Comment or by using the context menu. If the selected phrase is not Todo, Obi will first mark it Todo and then add the comment.

Ability to mark Todo on exact time position in a phrase

New Obi enables you to mark Todo on the exact time position in a phrase. This speeds up the process of editing, as the editor will not have to go through the entire contents of the phrase to look for the position where editing has to be performed. This feature is especially useful for long phrases.

Peak meter can now be shown in main Obi window

This release presents the option to display peak meter inside the main Obi window, thereby facilitating the users to work with the full view of Content view. It is positioned on the right of the TOC view and can be shown by clicking Show peak meter inside Obi on View menu.

Option to start or stop recording using single key shortcuts in TOC view

Single key shortcuts make working in Obi very easy for new users. Till now, they worked only in Content view, but now you can use the single key shortcuts ‘R’ and ‘T’, for starting and stopping recording respectively, in TOC view also. This functionality can be enabled by checking the check box Start and stop recording using single key shortcuts from TOC view via Additional audio settings in audio preferences.

Separate preference for giving warning before deleting a section

Earlier there was a project preference that activated warning message for section manipulations like cut, delete and rename. To make section manipulation more efficient, this release presents a separate preference that will enable warning message for delete operation only. It can be turned on by checking the check box Warn before deleting section in project preferences.

You can find help on the functionality of these features in the “What’s New?” page of Obi Help, which can be viewed by clicking on the Help contents menu item under Help menu of Obi.

Go to Obi 4.5  download page

 

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in this release

  • For first time installation of Obi, added a check for detecting high resolution of user’s computer screen to recommend the high resolution configuration.
  • Fixed issue: The existing Files and directories inside the selected Megavoice export directory were not deleted by the Megavoice export functionality.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in RC release

  • Added option to cancel recording in the information dialog that is shown when the recording is started by selecting a section in the TOC View.
  • The Peak Meter inside main Obi window is switched on in all Vision Australia profiles.

List of some major bugs fixed & behaviour changes made in alpha release

  • To avoid performance issues in user interface, the mouse wheel scrolling of the Content View is restricted to scrolling limited number of screens at a time.
  • The comboboxes of Quick Configuration dialog are made non-editable to prevent invalid input from the user.

For complete list of fixed bugs please visit fixed issues page

Download

To download Obi 4.5 please visit download page.

Known limitation

There are some limitations in this release. The team is working consciously towards resolving them. Please visit the known limitations page to know more about them.

Support

If you would like to discuss some Obi feature or report a bug, you can send an email to obi.feedback@gmail.com. To verify if the bug has already been submitted, please see the list of reported bugs.

Obi 4.5 RC—October 18, 2019

Obi 4.5 release candidate (test release) presents a series of updates to usability and functionality listed below.

Detail on New Features and Enhancements of Obi 4.5

  • Obi presents new and enhanced audio processing functionality, which enables the users to increase/decrease the volume, fade in, fade out, or normalize audio. It can be accessed from the submenu of Tools->Audio Processing. The old audio processing features have also been merged in the new audio processing functionality.
  • Many thanks to BrailleNet, France for updating the French language pack.
  • Introduced comments for Todo phrases to facilitate editing—You can now insert a comment for a Todo phrase specifying the reason for marking it as Todo or giving some cues to the editor. Todo comment can be placed using the submenu of Phrases->Todo Comment or by using the context menu. If the selected phrase is not Todo, Obi will first mark it Todo and then add the comment.
  • Ability to mark Todo on exact time position in a phrase—Obi enables you to mark Todo on the exact time position in a phrase. This speeds up the process of editing, as the editor will not have to go through the entire contents of the phrase to look for the position where editing has to be performed. This feature is especially useful for long phrases.
  • Peak meter can now be shown in main Obi window—This release presents the option to display peak meter inside the main Obi window, so that users can work with the full view of Content view. Found on the right of the TOC view, it can be shown by clicking Show peak meter inside Obi in the View menu.
  • Option to start or stop recording using single key shortcuts in TOC view—Single key shortcuts make working in Obi very easy for new users.  You can now use the single key shortcuts R and T, for starting and stopping recording respectively. Check the check box Start and stop recording using single key shortcuts from the TOC view via Additional audio settings in audio preferences.
  • Separate preference for giving warning before deleting a section—To make section manipulation more efficient, this release includes a  warning message for the delete operation. It can be turned on by checking the check box Warn before deleting section in project preferences.

Some of the Major Bugs that have been Fixed and Behaviour Changes made in the 4.5 release:

  • Added option to cancel recording in the information dialog that is shown when the recording is started by selecting a section in the TOC View.
  • The Peak Meter inside main Obi window is switched on in all Vision Australia profiles.
  • To avoid performance issues in the user interface, the mouse wheel scrolling of the Content View is restricted to scrolling limited number of screens at a time.
  • The comboboxes of the Quick Configuration dialog are now non-editable to prevent invalid input from the user.

Obi 4.5 test release downloads

Obi 4.3—December 2018

Obi 4.3 was an incremental release bringing usability enhancements and improvements requested by DAISY members.

Please note that support for Windows XP is deprecated from version 4.0 onwards. The users of Windows XP are requested to install Obi 3.9.1.

Detail on New Features and Enhancements of Obi 4.3

  • Introduction of a dialog for quick configuration of Obi when it is started the first time—This release introduces a convenient way of configuring the basic settings in Obi such as input device name, output device name, and profiles, via the Configurations dialog. which appears when you first start Obi after installation. You can modify these settings any time later by using the Preferences dialog.
  • Facility to restrict unintended modification of structure while narration—You can disable the modification of the structure of your project by checking the check box Switch to read only structure via the Project tab of the Preferences dialog. This feature is very useful for preventing unintended modification of structure while recording.
  • Updated language pack for French—Many thanks to European Digital Reading Lab for consistently updating the French translation.
    Choice of removing accents from the filenames during DAISY 2.02 export—Obi can now normalize accents during the production of books in languages that contain accents. If you choose to append section names to audio file names for non-English books, the file names may contain some characters that may create issues in accessing them. This feature normalizes the accents in file names to curb such issues. The Audio tab of the Preferences dialog provides the check box Remove accents from filenames during DAISY 2.02 export to activate or deactivate this functionality.
  • Project and audio preferences made more manageable by segregation—Obi now classifies a few project and audio settings as additional settings, if they are not used frequently by users. You can access these settings by using the Additional Project settings and Additional Audio Settings button in the Project and Audio tabs of the Preferences dialog respectively.
  • New keyboard shortcut for pasting multiple phrases—You can now conveniently paste multiple phrases by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Z.

Some of the Major Bugs that have been Fixed and Behaviour Changes made in the 4.3 release

  • In the TOC view, the copy command copied full name of the section even when a part of the section name was selected.
  • When a new section was created and multiple phrases were copied and pasted (using multiple phrase operations), the undo command could not remove all the copied phrases in one go.
  • Removing the headphones/earphones while navigating Content View in Play on navigate mode resulted in the null reference crash.
  • Replaced the Preserve Zoom checkbox in Zoomed Waveform view with a button to prevent the checkbox from altering the space bar behaviour, which is supposed to start and pause the playback.
  • One was not able to paste a set of phrases multiple times by giving consecutive paste multiple phrases commands.
  • Added a message to inform that skippable structures are not exported to DAISY 2.02 file set.
  • TODO mark position in a phrase is now preserved in an Obi session. The caveat is that currently it is not saved when Obi is restarted or project is opened again.
  • User registration dialog now needs explicit authorization of the user for sharing the personal data with Obi team.

Known Limitations of Obi 4.3

There are some limitations in this release which the team is working consciously towards resolving:

  • Pipeline-lite does not work with non western characters in file path—Pipeline-lite is not able to operate if there are non western characters in path of the file. It is recommended to keep non western characters away from the file paths on which Pipeline-lite needs to work. This means that the DAISY 3 export folder and the DAISY 2.02 export folder should be placed at a location where there are no non western characters in its path. This only affects validation, mp3 encoding and fileset renaming process and does not hinder normal operations of book authoring.
  • EPUB 3 export & import does not support skippable structures yet—The skippable structures like footnotes, sidebars, notes etc. are yet not supported by EPUB 3 export & import. The support will be added as the EPUB 3 navigable audio-only guidelines will progress.
  • Error messages are not so user friendly—Error messages in message boxes when some invalid operation is done, give information. But these messages are not so user friendly, especially the exception messages. These will be replaced with more user friendly text in future.

Obi 4.2—August 30, 2018

Obi 4.2 release candidate (test release) presents a series of updates to usability and functionality listed below.

Detail on New Features and Enhancements of Obi 4.2

  • Obi 4.2 makes editing of book much more efficient with introduction of the ability to cut, copy, paste, delete and merge multiple phrases. Simply select multiple phrases using Begin mark and End mark from the Multi phrase operations submenu under Phrases menu, and select the desired operation from the dialog thus opened.
  • Enhanced the performance of audio editing in Zoomed Waveform View. This is a step forward towards improving the overall performance of the user interface.
  • Introduced the functionality to replace the existing TOC of the project with the structure from an XHTML, CSV, or delimited text file. You can use this feature from Import and replace TOC submenu under Sections menu.
  • Multi-sections Operations dialog enhanced with a new button to Show the Contents of selected section in the Content View and ability to highlight sections with no audio.
  • More options for bitrate added to MP3 encoding in the Export dialog. The new options are 96, 160, 224 and 320 Kbps.

Some of the Major Bugs that have been Fixed and Behaviour Changes made in the 4.2 release:

  • When import audio files command encountered files of the same name in data directory, the file renamed alert message was repeated for each file, which was annoying.
  • Import and replace TOC could be invoked even when the recording was going on.
  • Sometimes status bar of the Recording Toolbar use to change by itself, without execution of any command.
  • Improved efficiency of the feature that highlights empty section in TOC view.

Obi 4.1—December 2017

Obi 4.1 was an incremental release that implemented the first set of features requested by the Daisy community in the Obi-Tobi survey, 2017. It brought enhancements such as:

  • the ability to import audio files within an existing structure of sections
  • the calculation of total duration of audio content in a set of contiguous phrases
  • enhancements to multi-phrase operations and multi-sections operations dialog

along with some other improvements. as detailed below.

Detail on New Features and Enhancements of Obi 4.1

  • Audio import was enhanced to enable the placement of imported audio files within the existing structure of sections in the following ways:
  • Import audio files in selected section (existing behaviour):  All the files will be imported in the selected section.
  • Import audio files in each section (new):  The files will be imported one in each section starting from the current section. This feature enables you to place the files in the existing contiguous sections.
  • Create a new section for each audio file (same as before): Creates a new section for each audio file after the selected section.
  • Calculating the Duration of Audio Content in a Set of Phrases
  • Obi lets you calculate the duration of audio content in a set of contiguous phrases of your project.
  • Place the Begin Mark on the first phrase to be included in the calculation and the End Mark on the last phrase to be included.
  • You will be presented with the Multi-phrase operations dialog. Choose Time Elapsed and press OK.
  • Obi will calculate the total duration of audio content in the selected set of phrases and display it in a dialog. If the Begin Mark and End Mark is applied on waveforms of phrases, then the time between the cursors will be included in the calculation.
  • UI of the Preferences Dialog Redesigned—The user interface of the Preferences dialog has been redesigned to present a better view of configurations and personalization; the functionality and features remain the same.
  • Updated Language Packs for French and German. Many thanks to the following organizations and individuals for the translations:
  • European Digital Reading Lab for French
  • Hermann Dremel (atz) for German
  • Multi-Section Operation Dialog Indicates Sections with no Audio—The Sections List field of Multi-section Operations dialog now augments the names of sections having no audio content to enable users to identify empty sections at a glance. Earlier this kind of functionality was only available in TOC view after enabling option of Highlight empty sections in TOC view.
  • Audio Processing and Renumber Page Commands can be Applied to Selected Phrases across Sections—You can now execute Audio processing and Renumber pages commands on a set of selected phrases spanning multiple sections. Multi-phrase operations enable you to place a Begin mark and End mark on the phrases of different sections for enabling this functionality.
  • Option to Disable Message Box asking to Move to Another Section—When a command such as Go to Page results in moving the focus to a phrase of another section, Obi displays a message box alerting the user that the respective section will be displayed in the Content view. This message box can be disabled or enabled via the check box Do not show message box when moving to a phrase in another section via the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.

Some of the Major Bugs that have been Fixed and Behaviour Changes made in the 4.1 release:

  • When the Begin mark is applied on a phrase during playback, the selection is moved to the phrase currently being played to ensure that the mark is placed correctly.
  • If the option of Retain initial silence during phrase detection is disabled, then the On-the-fly phrase detection operation marks the first phrase as Todo. This helps in ensuring that the phrase is inspected for silence later.

Known Limitations of Obi 4.1

This release of Obi 4.1 has some limitations in it which are known and listed below:

  • Inability to Select Multiple Items Collectively—A single item can only be selected at a time in Obi. This means that only a single phrase or a single section can be selected. So, operations like copy, paste, merge, delete etc. operate on a single phrase or a single section. Some relief is provided for these limitations with operations like Merge multiple sections, merge with preceding / following phrases, delete following phrases, phrase detection on multiple phrases / sections, multiple section operations dialog and audio processing on multiple phrases.
  • Pipeline-lite does not work with Non Western Characters in File Path—Pipeline-lite is not able to operate if there are non western characters in the path of the file. This means, the Daisy 3 export folder and the Daisy 2.02 export folder have to be placed at a location where there are no non western characters in its path. This only affects validation, mp3 encoding and the fileset renaming process and does not hinder normal operations of book authoring.
  • EPUB 3 Export & Import does not support Skippable Structures yet—Skippable structures like footnotes, sidebars, notes etc. are yet not supported by EPUB 3 export & import. The support will be added as the EPUB 3 navigable audio-only guidelines progress.
  • Error Messages are not so User Friendly—Error messages give information. But these messages are not very user friendly, especially the exception messages. These will be replaced with more user friendly text in future.

Obi 4.0

The 4.0 release upgraded Obi to .NET framework 4.0 to keep pace with new technology. It also provided reference implementation for Media Overlays playback requirements, which allow EPUB 3 reading systems to produce similar behaviour to Daisy TOC navigation. Other important enhancements of this release included automated page generation in a specified time interval, quick glance at project structure via Multi-section Operations dialog and the preservation of characters while importing old NCC files.

Please note that support for Windows XP is deprecated from version 4.0 onwards. The users of Windows XP are requested to install Obi 3.9.1.

Detail on Features and Enhancements of Obi 4.0

  • Obi is Upgraded to .NET 4.0 and Support for Windows XP is Deprecated—Obi 4.0 uses .NET framework 4.0 (based on latest CLR 4.0) instead of .NET 2.0 to keep pace with new technology. This upgrade to CLR 4.0 is a major step forward in providing a base for upgrading Obi to the latest versions of .net frameworks in future releases, and to enable the use of latest libraries. The support for Windows XP is also deprecated from this release onwards – please note that users of Windows XP should install Obi 3.9.1.
  • New Language Pack for German and Updated Language Packs for French and Portuguese—Many thanks to the following organizations and individuals for the translations:
  • Hermann Dremel (atz) for German
  • European Digital Reading Lab for French
  • Vitor Ferreira for Portuguese

You can switch the language of the user interface via the User Profile tab of the Preferences dialog.

  • Automated Page Generation—Obi enables you to insert page phrases in your recorded book via an automated process. Click Phrases->Auto Page Generation, and you will be presented with a dialog box to specify parameters such as the time gap in pages, create pages at the end of a section only, etc. When you click OKin the dialog, Obi will create page phrases in the entire project as per the selections made by you. This feature is useful for books that do not have pre-defined pages and where pages are inserted primarily to aid navigation.
  • Option to Generate Media Overlays for Navigation Document in EPUB Export—To enable playback of headings while navigating the table of contents in EPUB player, Obi provides a checkbox Create Media Overlays for Navigation Doc in the Export dialog which gives you the option to generate this in your EPUB thus synchronizing the headings audio with the TOC entries.This provides the TOC playback behaviour similar to that provided by NCX file in Daisy. The feature implements The Daisy Consortium’s Media Overlays Playback Requirements for the content. Note:  Obi is the first production tool to implement this feature in EPUB 3, so reading systems’ support may be a little behind.
  • Multi-section Operations Dialog now shows Pages contained in a Section in Sections List—For quick inspection of the project structure, the Multi-section operations dialog now shows the list of pages contained in a section along with the name and level of the section in the Sections List field.
  • Option to Import old NCC files with Windows 1252 Encoding to Prevent Distortion of Characters—It is now possible to import NCC files with Windows 1252 encoding to help preserve non-English characters. You can activate this option via the checkbox Import NCC files with Windows 1252 encoding in the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Option to Play the Phrase just Recorded—Obi can now play the phrase just recorded as soon as recording stops via the checkbox Play the recorded phrase when recording stops in the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog. If the audio was recorded in multiple phrases, audio from the last recorded phrase will be played.
  • Choice of Merging First Two Phrases after On-the-fly Phrase Detection—You can choose to merge the first two phrases after the process of on-the-fly phrase detection. This is useful when recording starts at the beginning of the section as it prevents a silent phrase at the beginning, which then becomes the heading phrase by default. This feature is activated via the checkbox Merge first two phrases after recording with phrase detection in the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog.

Some of the Major Bugs that were Fixed and Behaviour Changes made in the 4.0 release

  • In the VA-Shortcuts profile, the shortcut Ctrl+F12 has been assigned to the Project Propertiesdialog.
  • Improved error messages for input and output audio drivers are now apparent inAudio Preferences.
  • If part of the waveform of a phrase was selected and the playback of another phrase was being executed, use of the shortcut shift+V resulted in an exception.
  • If there was an empty phrase in the section before the selected phrase, the Elapse in section timer of transport bar showed the incorrect time when in a stop state.
  • If the system was set to the languages that use ‘,’ instead of ‘.’ for decimals, the time in Daisy 2.02 export was being corrupted when the total duration of the book exceeded 24 hours.
  • Sometimes the audio cursor kept moving in a single phrase even when the playback reached subsequent phrases.
  • Sometimes the Auto Generate pages feature started to create pages from a section other than the one specified in the Starting Index combo box.
  • If the selected phrase was different from the playback phrase, the elapse back command would misbehave while moving to the previous phrase.
  • A backup file is now created every 2 hours even if the user has not activated the auto-save option in the Project Preferences dialog.
  • The performance of the Auto Generate pages feature has been improved.

Some of the Major Bugs that were Fixed and Behaviour Changes made in the 4.0 alpha release

  • On high resolution screens, zoom was being reset at the execution of the Record command.
  • Sometimes the cursor in Zoomed Waveform View scrolled out of the visible area on execution of audio editing command or during undo.
  • The state of the Preserve Zoom check box is now saved when closing Zoom Waveform view.
  • In Daisy 2.02 export, padding is added to time if the audio clip time is less than 3 decimal places. This is specifically for the Old Daisy 2.02 players which require exactly 3 decimal places in smil time.
  • When changing the language of Obi’s UI, users do not now need to search for the language-country combination; it can be changed by simply selecting the language code.
  • When the Special Phrase List dialog box is expanded, the list box showing the phrases is also expanded to facilitate users.

Obi 3.9.1 —December 14, 2016

Obi 3.9.1 is an incremental release for updating French, Spanish, Finnish and Portuguese language packs. You can switch the language via the User Profile tab of the Preferences dialog.
In addition, a new field is added to section properties for showing the list of page numbers in a section.

New features in Obi 3.9 release

  • Obi comes with high performance version for 64 bit windows, in addition to existing 32 bit version for better utilization of capability of 64 bit operating systems. [Note: Java runtime 32 bit (version 7) will be required even for 64 bit Obi installer because Pipeline backend is still 32 bit]
  • Added option to improve efficiency for higher resolution screens. To enable it, you can check the check box “Enlarge phrases as per increase in screen resolution” in the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Introduced the capability to Rollback the last Cleanup operation. It can be activated from the submenu of Clean unreferenced audio under Tools menu.
  • Refined on-the-fly phrase detection, and added Option to skip auto-splitting of pages during the operation.
  • Implemented the capability to select the desired font for Obi’s UI using the Color & Font tab of the Preferences dialog. The first phase enables selection of popular English fonts.
  • Waveform channel colors can now be personalized. the colors for channel mono, stereo channel 1 and stereo channel 2 can be changed from Color & Font tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Added Option to warn before cutting, deleting, or renaming sections. It can be activated from the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Added more information to the Properties dialogs for advance users. Phrase Properties Dialog shows the audio file name for the selected phrase and the Project Properties Dialog shows number of files managed by the project. It can be enabled from the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • The active audio profile is now shown in title bar.
  • Audio zoom for Content View can be preserved across obi sessions. It can be disable from the check box, Preserve audio zoom for Content View in the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Audio zoom in Zoomed Waveform View can also be preserved for reapplying on the next view session. It can be disable from the check box, Preserve zoom in the Zoom Waveform View.
  • Added keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U to turn on/off Play on Navigate feature spontaneously.
  • Zoom waveform panel keyboard shortcuts for next phrase and previous phrase have been changed to Alt+Right Arrow and Alt+Left Arrow respectively to make them in sync with the transport bar keyboard shortcuts.
  • The Visibility of Small page phrases has been improved.
  • The width of TOC view can now be fixed for ensuring consistent visibility of book’s structure irrespective of Obi window size. It can be enabled via the Project tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Transport Bar can now show cursor time in stop state also. It can be activated from the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • An option has been introduced to move the focus to the last phrase played. It can be activated from the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • Option added to record from first empty phrase with Record Section command. It can be activated from the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog.
  • XHTML export enhanced: new list of metadata entries are inserted in the beginning of the exported XHTML file for facilitating narrators.

List of some major bugs fixed and behavior changes made in this release:

  • If the background color of live recording waveform panel was changed, white patches were seen when a part of panel was selected and then deselected.

List of some major bugs fixed and behavior changes made in Obi 3.9 release:

  • If Play on Navigate was active and next phrases were loaded in Zoomed Waveform View one after the other, the audio cursor failed to move to newly loaded phrases.
  • If a heading contained the letters “aud”, and the project was exported with the option of append section names to audio file names, the letters “aud” were removed from the file names.
  • Audio profiles status in the title bar had inconsistent behaviour.

List of some major bugs fixed and behavior changes made in beta 2 release:

  • If peak meter and TOC view were hidden, Zoomed Waveform View threw exception while navigating phrases.
  • If there were empty pages after the recording position, the recording command in VA-Overwrite profile selected the last empty page of section instead of selecting the last recorded phrase.
  • Setting system to some regional languages spoiled time in smil duration attribute due to representation of decimal with comma.
  • Live Recording waveform panel threw an Exception occasionally, when recording was stopped.
  • On changing language, the font was not reset to default.
  • The size of preferences dialog is now saved in Obi’s settings file.

List of some major bugs fixed and behavior changes made in beta release:

  • On some systems, rare glitches were observed in the recorded audio.
  • If zoomed Waveform View was invoked on an empty page, an exception was thrown.
  • If focus was moved to another phrase while recording, the green color of the phrase being recorded also moved to the selected phrase.
  • Obi’s log file has been moved to the users settings directory from program files to prevent the problems related to permissions.

List of some major bugs fixed and behavior changes made in alpha release:

  • Setting system to some regional languages spoiled smil timings, due to the conventions of representing decimal with comma instead of dot.
  • The new check box to disable creation of new headings and pages while recording fail to work in some cases.
  • Even if a profile was deleted from profile list in the advance preferences, it was not deleted from the recording toolbar preferences.
  • If the Preview before Recording command was stopped during the preview (i.e. before recording was initiated), the recording could not start again.
  • If the user changed the path of XHTML export in the Export dialog, the location of the exported XHTML file did not change.