chime_tts

Chime TTS is a custom Home Assistant integration that eliminates the audio lag between playing a chime/notification sound effect before a TTS audio notification.

If you find Chime TTS useful, consider showing your support:

• What is Chime TTS?
• Features
• Quick Start
• How Do I Use It?
• Support & Discussion

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What is Chime TTS?

Chime TTS is a custom Home Assistant integration that locally combines TTS audio and sound effects into seamless audio for playback in a single action call, eliminating the lag. Chime TTS includes a suite of options to further customize the audio.

The Problem:

Adding a notification chime before Text-To-Speech (TTS) audio messages requires two separate action calls, which introduces lag due to networking latency of cloud TTS platforms, audio processing, and delays before media_player playback begins.

The Solution:

Chime TTS addresses this issue by combining the audio files into a single file locally on your Home Assistant device. This combined file is then played through your speakers in one seamless event, eliminating any lag.

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Features

Chime TTS offers various features that enhance TTS audio playback experience:

• No lag or timing issues: Precise timing between audio files without cloud TTS delays.
• Customizable audio cues: Play preset or custom audio before and after TTS messages.
• Flexible TTS platform selection: Supports various TTS platform integrations.
• Easy action invocation: Use the chime_tts.say and chime_tts.say_url actions in automations and scripts.
• Set media player volume: Notifications can be played at a defined volume and restored after playback.
• Restore previous audio: Chime TTS supports pausing and resuming currently playing audio beyond the media player platforms supported by Home Assistant (eg: HomePods).
• Mix and match TTS platforms: Combine TTS audio using multiple TTS platforms within the same audio announcement.
• Configurable TTS speed: Set the TTS audio speed anywhere from 1-500%.
• Configurable TTS pitch: Set the pitch for TTS audio, allowing for more customization.
• Support for FFmpeg arguments: Apply FFmpeg jobs to the generated audio, or specific jobs to specific chimes and TTS audio segments.
• Configurable delay: Set custom delays between chimes & TTS audio.
• Configurable overlay: Set custom overlay durations between chimes & TTS audio.
• Caching: Cache audio for faster playback.
• Speaker Groups: Group speakers for simultaneous playback (on supported platforms).

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Quick Start

Follow these easy steps to get started with Chime TTS:

1. Installation - Quickly install Chime TTS via HACS or manually.
2. Add the Integration - Add Chime TTS to your Home Assistant instance.

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How Do I Use It?

Actions

Chime TTS adds 4 new actions to your Home Assistant instance: chime_tts.say, chime_tts.say_url, chime_tts.replay and chime_tts.clear_cache. Discover how you can use these actions and the features they offer:

• chime_tts.say: Play audio and TTS messages with various settings.
• chime_tts.say_url: Generates a publicly accessible URL to the MP3 file generated by chime_tts.say.
• chime_tts.replay: Repeats the previous action call made to chime_tts.say.
• chime_tts.clear_cache: Clear generated audio cache.

Notify Entities

Chime TTS adds a notify platform: "chime_tts", which allows you to create fully customised notify entries for use in your automations and scripts.

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Configuration & Documentation

For configuration, examples and documentation check out the official Chime TTS site.

Support and Discussion

For questions, suggestions, and community discussion about Chime TTS, visit our Community Forum.

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