I've recently installed DNS8 on my laptop, and results so far seem pretty good, especially considering I haven't specifically trained any vocab (I use a lot of geographical names, which can confuse it).

However, I had to replace the original disk, which was scratched. The (very helpful btw) person in tech support said that they had had some problems with dual core processors, and couldn't guarantee it would work.

So far, so good, but before I go ahead and do a whole load of set up improvements, does anyone know:

1) Is DNS using the full abilities of both processors, or just one - in which case, I'd guess my desktop would still be more powerful for when I'm not on the move?

2) Any ideas of possible dates for DNS9, or any other upgrades to benefit more from the latest processor developments? The support guy said nothing was planned, but in my experience, there are usually more insiders on the outside!



Equipment:

Mic - "Talk Mics headset" (see talking.co.uk)
USB pod - came with the DNS7 box - should I upgrade this?

PC - Don't know exact spec, but I think it is 3200+AMD, quiet fan, Audigy Platinum sound card - bought 1 year ago, build with DNS8 in mind.

Laptop - Sony Vaio VGN-SZ1VP/C (dual core T2500, 2GHZ)

jabird,

While I don't have any direct experience I have heard that dual core processors do not work particularly well with DNS as it was not designed, nor is it likely to be until they become mainstream, for that type of computer. Yes, your desktop is probably faster.

Based on experience you should not need a USB pod for the Sony laptop.

John Wickett
Dictated with DNS Professional Version 8.1
902-651-2152
wickworks@xplornet.com
902-368-0141
john.wickett@vac-acc.gc.ca

Wow!

I am absolutely blown away. When you said "should not need", that could easily have been interpreted as "well, I'm using it anyway, I might as well keep it". Instead, I have just detached the USB pod, and connected the microphone directly to the sound sockets.

On the desktop, I would typically get a signal to noise ratio in the low 20s, whereas tests I was running earlier using the pause advised by other forum members were getting results of 22 to 23 on the desktop and 23 to 27 on the laptop. Now that I have removed the pod, I have had the "signal too high" message much less frequently, and consistently got a ratio of 30 or above -- peaking at a whopping 33.

I know that signal to noise ratio is just one figure, but considering that I have done virtually no vocabulary optimisation, I'm pretty impressed to have dictated this with just five corrections.

I think I'll stick with the laptop for now, but am still slightly confused about whether I should set this up as a roaming user, or just continue as a fresh user, considering that this is a new computer, with the microphone now run without the USB pod. I could easily transfer some text documents for vocabulary training -- or should I still make full use of all the sound files which the desktop version will have stored?

PS -- I am speaking as a technophile with "ADHD induced" (i.e. far too much time previously spent in front of my computer on very unproductive activities) RSI, so I will use any excuse going to avoid getting to understand how to set up the roaming user feature. However, I do at least now have the patience to understand that doing something which might take a few hours, but then save many days further down the line, should be a worthwhile activity!

There also seems to be a lot of talk here about the advantages of Dragon professional over preferred -- I haven't previously understood these, but if I'm missing out on something, I'm sure it would be well worth the investment. A few weeks ago, I had a good routine going of dictating for the first hour of each day, and am fortunate to be able to delegate the corrections to a very well trusted colleague (brother!). Ideally, I would like to delegate more of the coding and design aspects of what I do to other people, which would give me even more time to write content, potentially increasing my usage towards two or even three hours per day.

Many thanks in advance for any further tips.

J

Sorry for the enthusiasm, but I'm really chuffed with what I've learnt from this forum today, so thanks for the advice. I don't know if there's a longer laptop versus desktop debate elsewhere (please forgive my impatience in not looking for one), but one other consideration has to be the issue of internal noise. Since learning more about signal to noise ratio, I have become more alert to anything in a room which generates noise, and have even tried switching the fridge off to see if that made any difference! Nothing has had a chance to melt, but it goes without saying that the processor on this laptop is so much quieter than the desktop, even though the latter is supposed to have some form of noise reduction architecture.

Forums have been my great undoing in the past, but responding to threads has always been so much easier to do via the keyboard. This really isn't so wise if there is a debate going on, as four or five replies can so rapidly become the equivalent of a couple of pages of A4. However, with these improvements in performance, I feel so much more able to create short paragraphs without having to go through the kind of editing process (dictate, third-party edit, print, final check) that I would have done previously.

Thanks again,

J.

Hi,
We are using a dual core processor (Pentium D 3.2Ghz) with DNS Pro 8.1 and 2 GB RAM and we haven't had any problems, Dragon really flies compared to our previous system a Pentium 4 2.6GHz and 768 MB RAM. I haven't tried with an Intel Core Duo yet...

I am running GDragon 8 on a dual-core AMD Athlon X2 4400+ with no problems. I think it's about a 2.2 GHz clock. I don't understand why Dragon would have any trouble running on a dual processor chip. I believe Dragon is single threaded, but that just means it wouldn't use the 2nd CPU very much. It should have no problem running on one of the two CPUs. And I haven't noticed any problems, although I haven't used it that much because I've been busy.

The question of when Dragon will become multi-threaded is not trivial. To make a single threaded program multi-threaded, the whole program structure must be re-designed and a lot of re-coding must be done, then debugged, etc, so this is not a trivial process, and I wouldn't expect to see it until essentially all processors sold are dual-core or 4-core. But you should be able to run single threaded spftware on a dual processor machine with no problem.

Regards, Jim Green

Jim,

Rather than creating a "roaming user", I find it easier to store words and macros on a jump drive and then swap them as required. However, I still live in the old-fashioned world, and have a tendency to do what I have always done in order to get things working properly.

John Wickett
Dictated with DNS Professional Version 8.1
902-651-2152
wickworks@xplornet.com
902-368-0141
john.wickett@vac-acc.gc.ca

"I find it easier to store words and macros on a jump drive and then swap them as required"

John, that sounds really handy, especially for the vocab for me? can you tell me how to? & can you do it with corrections to your user profile? is it a particular file you just copy & paste to the dragon on the other machine?

Just adding to Martin's excellent advice... you might want to download the latest copy of our Quick Tips which is our version of the NaturallySpeaking knowledgebase.

The Quick Tips are already arranged in an easily searchable PDF form. You can search the way you would with Microsoft Word, it includes a table of contents which are even hyperlinked. PDF files are also one of the most popular ways to distribute documents and preserve formatting because they can be universally read by anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader which is freely available to everyone. Not everyone has Microsoft Word. We could save the KnowBrainer knowledgebase as a Rich Text document which could also be opened on any PC, because all PCs include WordPad but that would make the file very large because it's over 50 pages and would require a 25.7 Mb download. Now you know why many companies distribute files in PDF format. The PDF version of this file is considerably less than 1 Mb.

Hi Lunis,

Thank you for reminding me of the quick tips file. I have just been browsing this and I notice that the shortcut link for accelerating NaturallySpeaking is somewhat out of date and refers to DNS 8. On my computer the shortcut should be >>> C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start /High /D"C:\Program Files\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking9\Program" natspeak.exe <<<.

Mark

Thanks for catching that. We have updated and uploaded a new Quick Tips.pdf file.