What is the Victor Reader Stream?
The Victor Reader Stream from Humanware is a handheld digital audio book reader, music player, and audio recorder that is easy to use. In addition to human voice recorded audio books from sources such as Audible.com or the National Library Service (
https://nlsbard.loc.gov), the Stream can also read books and files delivered in a text format, such as those available from Bookshare.org or Gutenberg.org – and even newspapers from NFB-NEWSLINE. Text format material is read to you by the Stream’s built-in speech synthesizers, in either a male or female voice. Depending on your mood, listen to classics, best-sellers, reference books, magazines, newspapers, podcasts, old-time radio shows, music, audio notes of meetings you’ve attended, and Word documents (saved as .txt).
How do I use the Stream?
Whether you are blind or visually impaired, the Victor Reader Stream is intuitive and easy to use. The buttons are well-spaced and easy to see and/or feel with tactile markers to help you orient yourself on the keypad. The keys are laid out like the keys on a telephone with different shaped buttons, providing quick and easy use. There is even a “key describer” mode that can be turned on to speak the function of each button you press.
Content is stored on an SD memory card (this is the media that is used in most digital cameras) that slides into the Victor Reader Stream. Ai Squared includes a free 2 GB SD card with every device. This holds a LOT of content but for those of you who are packrats, you could purchase larger SD cards from your local electronics store (up to 32 GB!). The spoken menus and commands make it simple to locate and play all of the files you have stored on the device.
You will never lose your place. When you turn off the Victor Reader Stream in the middle of a book, don’t worry. When you turn your Stream back on and press the Play button, it will automatically start reading from where you left off. It’s easy to navigate through the different sections of a book by fast forwarding, rewinding, or by using the Time Jump options. And depending on how the material is created, you may be able to navigate by chapter, section or page. For added security, create your own bookmark to save your place. If you typically fall asleep while reading a book, the Stream’s got you covered: there’s a “Sleep mode” button you can press to turn off the Victor Reader Stream after either 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes.
When you’re listening to a book, you can adjust the speed, tone, and volume. For music on the other hand, you can adjust the speed, base, treble, and volume.
The internal, user-replaceable, rechargeable battery gives you 15 hours of use, and it takes only 4 hours to fully charge.
Sick of struggling with small print manuals? The Victor Reader Stream has a built-in user guide for you to listen to; navigating to your section of interest is a snap.
Where can I bring my Stream?
The Victor Reader Stream weighs a mere 6 ounces and comes with a convenient carrying pouch and belt clip. This lets you take it on vacation, on your bus or subway commute, planes, trains, and automobiles, your bicycle, a walk, to your meetings, the beach…
How do I get content from my computer to the Victor Reader Stream?
When you slide the SD memory card into the Victor Reader Stream, it automatically creates the folder structure required for the different “bookshelves”. The different bookshelves include Talking Books, Other Books, Audible, Music, Podcasts, Text Files, and Audio Notes. You can transfer files directly from your computer by dragging and dropping to the SD memory card in the Victor Reader Stream (and vice versa) via the provided USB cable. The Stream Companion software, included with the Victor Reader Stream, makes this process painless. You don’t need to search around for the appropriate files. The Stream Companion software helps you find the files you want in each bookshelf.
Where do I get content for the Victor Reader Stream?
Audio Books and Magazines (human voice recorded)
- Members of the National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a division of the U.S. Library of Congress can download an unlimited number of human-recorded audio books and magazines from the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) site at https://nlsbard.loc.gov at no cost.
- A few of the many humanly-recorded magazines available to download from the NLS are Discover, National Geographic, Consumer Reports, U.S. News & World Report, The Nation, People, Good Housekeeping, and Sports Illustrated.
- Members of the Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic can download audio books from http://www.rfbd.org.
- Audio books and magazines can be purchased and downloaded from commercial web sites such as http://www.audible.com.
- LibriVox provides free audio books from the public domain: http://www.librivox.org/.
Books in Text format (read by the Victor Reader Stream’s built-in synthesizer)
- Gutenberg website (http://www.gutenberg.org) has books in the public domain that can be downloaded for free.
- Bookshare members can download from Bookshare.org. Membership is free for students and $50/year for others, with a $25 registration fee.
- There is also a free online books library at http://www.onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.
Newspapers
You can register for a free online newspaper delivery service from
http://www.nfbnewsline.org.
After registering, you can create lists of your favorite newspapers. When you install the NFB-Newsline In Your Pocket software, it is easy to get the newspapers onto your Victor Reader Stream. You simply connect your Victor Reader Stream to your computer with the USB cable, open the NFB-Newsline software and it starts the transfer of all the latest in your favorites list – and it’s a very quick transfer. The material is in text format, so the Victor Reader Stream’s built-in synthesizer reads it aloud for you. It is easy to navigate to each section of the newspaper. Keep in mind that not all states sponsor this service. Currently, residents who live in Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Nevada, Alaska, Maine, and Arkansas do not have access to this service. However, for all other states, members have access to all available newspapers in every state. Check out the following web site for a listing of available newspapers:
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Participating_Newspapers.asp?SnID=728045634.
Music
You can download from any music store that has music in either .mp3 or .wav format.
You can also “rip” from your own music CD collection using a CD ripper program such as Windows Media Player or Express Rip. This converts your purchased music on CDs to .mp3 files onto your computer, which you can then easily transfer to your Victor Reader Stream using the Stream Companion software.
Additionally, you can create music playlists using the Companion software.
Text files
The following file types can be transferred to the Victor Reader Stream:
- .txt
- html
- NISO
- DAISY
- .xml
For example, you could create an MS Word document, save it as .txt and transfer to your Stream. You could either have it read continuously or navigate through the document by paragraph, line, sentence, word, or character – you can even have it spell the words out loud for you.
Audio notes
Take audio notes at a meeting and then transfer to your computer using the Stream Companion software (which converts it to .wav format) and email it to your boss. On a less business-like note, record your grandchild singing and then email it to a friend.
Other material sources
For a comprehensive listing of other online sources of material for your Victor Reader Stream, please visit
http://www.aisquared.com/spotlight/stream/documentation/content.
How does the built-in speech synthesizer sound?
Here are samples of both the male and female voices:
http://www.aisquared.com/spotlight/stream/resources/voices.
What can I do ahead of time before getting my Victor Reader Stream?
The following actions can be taken before purchasing or receiving your Victor Reader Stream:
- Check out all of the above web sites to see what great material is available to you.
- If you would like the ability to download an unlimited number of human-recorded audio books and magazines, sign up with the National Library Service. If you already get the audio cassettes on tape through the mail (in the green plastic cases), then you’re halfway there. Simply follow the Bard application instructions at https://nlsbard.loc.gov. If you’re not currently a member of NLS, then contact the Division of Blind Services in your state or email and ask them how to become a member (include your name and address). The Victor Reader Stream will need to be “authorized” to play content from the NLS to prevent unauthorized use. Here are the steps for authorization (you’ll need your Stream serial number for this):
- Go to https://nlsbard.loc.gov and log in.
- Click on the link near the bottom, “Update Account Settings”
- Click on the link “add a purchased player”
- Under the “Humanware Victor Reader Stream” section, click on the drop down box to change the “0” to a “1”
- Click on “Submit Player Request” button
- You will receive an email from “NLS Authorization” in a few days with the information they request, including the serial number of your Victor Reader Stream. You can get the serial number by clicking on the Number “0” on the Victor Reader Stream.
- After following the instructions in the email, the final step will be receiving an authorization file via email from Humanware with instructions on how to authorize your Victor Reader Stream for NLS book reading.
- If you would like to listen to newspapers and magazines with the Victor Reader Stream’s built-in synthesizer, sign up for NFB-Newsline. Make sure your state supports this service. You can register at no cost from http://www.nfbnewsline.org . Their online application is at https://www.nfbnewsline.net/Nl2/NL2NewUserReqInput.jsp.
- You could also download and install their NFB-Newsline In Your Pocket software ahead of time and call the Newslines’s toll free number to set up your favorites list.
- If you would like to purchase commercially recorded books, magazines, or subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, create an account on http://www.audible.com.
- To get a head start, you can download and install the Stream Companion software from our website: http://www.aisquared.com/spotlight/stream/resources/software. The Victor Reader manual (which does not come in a printed format with the Victor Reader Stream) can also be downloaded from the following link: http://www.aisquared.com/spotlight/stream/documentation/guide.
- Sign up for Stream News Wire to get all the latest information and free updates for the Victor Reader Stream: http://www.humanware.com/en-canada/products/blindness/dtb_players/compact_models/stream_news.
- You could also gather your music files on your PC as described in the Music section above.
What do I do when I receive my Victor Reader Stream?
- Plug the power adaptor in to the top right edge of the Victor Reader Stream and plug into a wall outlet to charge up the device. You can still use the device while it is charging.
- To turn it on, hold in the Power button for about 2 seconds (you will hear 1 beep). To turn off the device, you would again hold in the power button for about 2 seconds (you will hear 2 beeps). This small circular power button is located on the left edge of the Victor Reader Stream near the top.
- To find out the current charge level, press the “0” key. This gives you valuable information including the charge level, “very low”, “low”, “medium”, or “high”. From “very low”, it could take up to 4 hours to fully charge.
- Your new Victor Reader Stream includes a 2 GB SD card that’s already inserted into the Stream. The appropriate folders for the bookshelf structure are automatically created on the SD card, and we’ve included a few sample books and music files for you to play around with.
- To get files onto the inserted SD card, you will need to connect the Victor Reader Stream to your PC.
- First, make sure it’s turned off. Plug in the small end of the long USB cable that came with your Stream into the top left edge of the device and connect the wider end to your PC’s USB port. Turn the Stream on.
- As long as the battery has some charge left you do not need to have the Victor Reader plugged into the wall outlet to transfer files. But you can have it plugged in to charge while connected to your PC if you wish.
- Now you can transfer material from your PC to your Stream (and vice versa when needed). You cannot use the device for listening while it is connected to your PC.
- To easily transfer your files to the proper bookshelf folder, install the Stream Companion software (if you haven’t already) and open the program. Select the appropriate bookshelf from the tabs across the top in the software. For example, select “Talking Books” to transfer audio books you have downloaded from the National Library Service (BARD) web site (put a checkmark in “Include Zip Files” so you don’t have to unzip these books). Or, for transferring music, select the “Music” tab. In the top section of the application, put a checkmark in the files you would like to transfer. Click on the “Transfer/Remove...” button. The bottom half of the screen shows the files on the Victor Reader Stream. To transfer files back to your PC, select files in the bottom section and then select “Transfer/Remove...”.
- Once you have content to play, you may disconnect the Victor Reader Stream as follows.
- Left-click on “Safely Remove Hardware” down in the task manager (near bottom right of screen), then select “Safely Remove USB Mass Storage Device” and click on “OK”. Turn off the Victor Reader Stream and disconnect it from the USB cable.
- Turn the device back on to start listening!
- You can select the desired bookshelf by clicking on the “1” key until you hear it announce the bookshelf you desire.
- Once you are in the correct bookshelf, you can navigate between different files (or books) by using the “4” and “6” keys.
- Click the Play/Pause button to start listening.
- Use the up/down triangular buttons on the left edge of the Victor Reader Stream to adjust the volume.
- Click the power button briefly to toggle to a different variable to adjust (speed and tone for audio books; speed, bass and treble for music).
- To select a navigation mode (i.e. Level 1, Level 2, Folder, File), click on the Number “2” key to select the desired navigation type. The navigation type options vary depending on what type of bookshelf you’re in. To help you learn the function of each button on the Victor Reader Stream, hold the “0” key down until you hear “Key describer on”. Now when you press a button, the Victor Reader Stream will tell you the purpose of that button. Hold the “0” key again until you hear “Key describer off” so you can continue to use the device.
Where can I find more information?
- We’ve made two great videos that show the Stream in action. You can find these at http://www.aisquared.com/spotlight/stream. While you’re there, you can download the User Guide, Stream FAQ’s, testimonials and so much more.
- On the Victor Reader Stream, hold the “1” key down until you hear “Enter User Guide”. Click on the “6” key until you get to the section of interest. Clicking the “4” key will bring you back to the previous section. Click the “2” key to select a different navigation level if you wish to skip across major sections of the manual.
- Press the Play button to start listening.
What accessories can I purchase for the Victor Reader Stream?
The Victor Reader Stream has a standard headphone jack like a typical MP3 player, so you can purchase other headphones instead of using the provided ear buds. For example, headphones with a volume control on the cord are handy. Or you could buy a Y-connector so two people could listen at the same time with two headphone sets. Another option is to purchase a small speaker that connects to the headphone jack. This would be useful to have so you can listen to a book while you’re cooking. For use in the car, you could either use the headphones or purchase an FM transmitter that connects to the headphone jack and allows you to listen through your car speakers. You can also purchase an additional battery from
http://www.humanware.com if 15 hours of continuous listening is not enough between charges.
