Hi Steve, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say. Its akin to how you look at a half filled glass of drink, is it half full or half empty.
I don't know the answer to your first question.The second and third are sort of linked and the answer is yes. When I was testing the TV at RNIB, they had connected an external USB drive and I was able to successfully set up something to record and access programs that had been previously recorded.
There's considerable scope for development, but in my view its a good start. Yusuf On 18/03/2012 20:12, Steve Hyde-Dryden wrote:
Hi Yusuf, Yes, whilst I agree with your sentiment, it is a really great leap forward to incorporate voice guidance on their new range, it is an oversight not to include the facility for the main operating system of the telly. It can be alikened to the Sky Talker which is very good and a step forward but it doesn't take you all the way. The thing is though that we are all virtually stabbing in the dark as only a couple of people have really had the chance to try it out in some detail. So, could I ask you a couple of questions? 1 Can you change inputs easily? Example, HDMI to Composite or PC? Can you get the voice on this? 2 I presume that it wouldn't read data on an SD card or USB? 3 If you can access the EPG, the guy giving the talk on Insight said you can use your own media storage and record, can you get the speech with this? Kind regards Steve -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Yusuf Sent: 18 March 2012 19:57 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: Panasonic Viera smart TV with Voice guidance Hang on a minute here. I was one of the testers and I did suggest making the various other menus accessible. I'm sure the RNIB were doing the same thing. But we can't make Panasonic do it. The fact they went through user testing is a pretty positive step I would have thought. Since the law isn't in place to make companies make all their products accessible from the outset, its a matter of working with them and persuading them that its in their interests to make them accessible. Sure the TV has its limitations and sure you can legitimately argue that it has accessibility drawbacks. But it wasn't that long ago that you couldn't turn on voice over as a blind person on your own. Apple changed that and now you can. Whose to say that Panasonic won't do the same thing, and improve their products accessibility as time goes by. I'm not saying that anyone should go and by it, or they shouldn't, just that we should take into account what the TV does as well as what it doesn't do. In my view the voice is better than the one on the Smart Talk, its a smoother experience, the responsiveness is better, we obviously have access to channel info, audiodescription info and, this is a winner from my perspective, recording and playback options. But I do recognise that not being able to access the TVs own menus, including scanning for channels and setting up the TTS independently are drawbacks, as is the inability to access the various web features. It is a step forward, I don't think we've ever had 30 tVs with TTS onboard released at the same time. It'll be interesting to see if other TV manufacturers take up the challenge. Yusuf On 18/03/2012 19:36, martin wilsher wrote:I agree with all that has been said here. the thing needs to be accessible from the word go, and this isn't. what on earth were the RNIB thinking of when giving their blessing to this box? if it is not accessible when you turn it on, it's not accessible at all imho. ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Iain Lackie<mailto:ilackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> *To:* access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *Sent:* Sunday, March 18, 2012 7:28 PM *Subject:* [access-uk] Re: Panasonic Viera smart TV with Voice guidance For a long time now, I have been saying that one of the points which impresses me still about the Sonus DAB radio is that it allows access to the menu system. The station names may be out of date, but I can live with that. Any television which doesn’t allow access by voice to the menu system cannot in my view truly be described as accessible, especially if you have to gain access to the menu system to switch the voice on. Iain *From:* Barry Hill<mailto:barry.hill3@xxxxxxx> *Sent:* Sunday, March 18, 2012 7:20 PM *To:* access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *Subject:* [access-uk] Re: Panasonic Viera smart TV with Voice guidance Now, did the RNIB say we want this that and the other, for Panasonic to simply do what they wanted and use the endoursement of the RNIB as a publicity stunt, or did the RNIB fall short of their obligation to VI users? Cheers Barry *From:*access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *william lomas *Sent:* 18 March 2012 5:53 PM *To:* access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx *Subject:* [access-uk] Re: Panasonic Viera smart TV with Voice guidance and yet they are supposed to have consulted with RNIB during this development cycle? On 18 Mar 2012, at 17:13, Gary Robinson wrote: Hi all, yesterday I had a chance to have a lookat the new Panasonic Viera smart TV range which includes voice guidance and audio description as mentioned on this list and on Insight radio last month. On the plus side, you can choose male/female voice, set voice rate and volume. The voice is good, it sounded better than my Goodmans Smart talk box and more responsive. IT speaks the channel, programme you are on and works within the programme guide, but sadly doesn't work within the various settings menus. Ironically therefore like audio description on DVDs you probably won't be able to turn on the voice guidance without sighted help. Sadly therefore and very frustratingly given the sheer amount of functionality and connectivity these TVs have (Internet, wifi,DLNA,USB,SD etc) most of the functionality will be wasted so far as a visually impaired user is concerned. There is a Viera remote control App for Apple devices, but i don't think this will help in providing access to the multiplicity of set up menus which controlmost of this very flexible TV's features. The full price of the 32" model is around £499 though it will probably be available cheaper if you look around. whilst Panasonic are probably to be commended on including voice guidance as standard across the range, it is nontheless very frustrating to be in effect short changed by the limitations of what they have provided. I am going to try to speak to someone in panasonic technical department and see if there is any way of getting the set up screen information output to an external device which might give a way of getting more access to these otherwise very impressive TVs. 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