TTS stops at chapter end

[X-Ryl669]

First thank you for your application it's really nice.

The issue here is that once I start reading with TTS, it runs smoothly until it reaches the end of a chapter and then, it stops. I have to unlock my phone for the TTS to resume. Sometimes, it doesn't even resume and what's displayed on the screen is the previous chapter (like if the TTS continued the whole chapter and the next). I have to stop the TTS engine by clicking the X icon, change the chapter manually and restart the TTS from that point.

Is it expected behavior?

I've checked the "Seamless Chapter Transition" in the Visual Options menu, but it doesn't make any difference with or without.

[Aryan-Raj3112]

is this in pagination or vertical?

[Aryan-Raj3112]

any file you can keep recreating this in?

[X-Ryl669]

It happens in both (paginated & scroll mode). I've sent you the EPUB file by email.

[Aryan-Raj3112]

try this in the new update

[X-Ryl669]

It works better (it doesn't stop at every chapter end like before), but it's not perfect. For example, it still failed to cross chapter 50 to 51 in the epub file I've sent you. Also, when waking up the device screen, the reading position is completely desynchronized with the displayed page (it's like 40 pages ahead). If I stop the reading and resume it, it restart 40 pages back.

[Aryan-Raj3112]

the reading position is completely desynchronized

which mode?

[X-Ryl669]

Paginated for now, haven't tested scrolling mode again.

[Aryan-Raj3112]

now the tts chunk position is persisted when you open the file again and also there's a locate icon on the tts control which will navigate to the playing chunk

[X-Ryl669]

Ok, retried today with latest release. The TTS doesn't stop at chapter end anymore and it works for most of the chapters. But for some chapters, it just fails and auto resume at the beginning of the chapter (instead of continuing on the next chapter). I've sent you a file that's failing. When it happens, I have to stop TTS, open the chapter list, select the next one and resume TTS from here.

Also, sometimes, the scroll position isn't updated while TTS is running (probably because the screen is off in that case) and if I switch on the screen, I'm still at the beginning of the chapter. I have to wait until the next paragraph is played for the screen's scroll position to update and sync with TTS. This doesn't happen when the screen is on, so it's likely a missing scroll sync in "onResume" handler.

[Aryan-Raj3112]

Try this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17PGZDvZ6HM53KRAJtzC2jlyXYb94DtXU/view?usp=sharing

[X-Ryl669]

Testing, will let you know how it performs ASAP.

[X-Ryl669]

Ok I see the link on the bottom to go back to the last chapter read and it works.

However, the TTS is still rewinding to the beginning of chapters for some chapter (like in "Kashwak / 7" if you play it entirely, it doesn't go to "Kashwak / 8" but restart at / 7, see the epub I've sent you).

Also, the TTS engine is started as soon as a book is opened (not as soon as it's used) and isn't stopped when playing stop. This leads to a huge battery consumption for the TTS engine even when no used. If I close Episteme, the TTS engine is closed but it's a PITA to close Episteme each time I put the phone to sleep.

Do you want the log cat for the application if it's any help for you (or maybe adding more log before so I can help debugging?)

[X-Ryl669]

Ok, I think I've found something fishy in the source code:
Here you have:

   if (!::player.isInitialized || !player.playWhenReady) {
            Timber.tag(TTS_NOTIFICATION_DIAG_TAG).w("Task removed while player is not playWhenReady. Calling stopSelf().")
            stopSelf()
        }

If I understand correctly, if I pause the TTS then player.playWhenReady stays true. If I background the app, this will be fired then, and stopSelf will never be called because player.playWhenReady is true. If stopSelf isn't called, onDestroy doesn't run and TextToSpeech.shutdown() is never called, leaving the engine bound (via a system service, not your application) forever, burning battery uselessly.

I think the fix is to call stopSelf if player isInitialized is true (only skipping it if it's not initialized yet) or unconditionally here.