Better voices

video/render.sh

@@ -14,11 +14,13 @@
 #                    bootstrap step; you supply real account credentials.
 #
 # Usage:
-#   ./render.sh                       # local stack, English homepage landscape + portrait
-#   ./render.sh --prod                # prod, English homepage landscape + portrait
+#   ./render.sh                       # local stack, EVERY video (see the set below)
+#   ./render.sh --prod                # prod, every video
 #   ./render.sh --target prod         # same as --prod
-#   VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET=ads ./render.sh --prod   # render social ads instead
-#   VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET=demo ./render.sh --prod  # render every homepage locale
+#   VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET=homepage-en ./render.sh  # just the English homepage cut
+#   VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET=ads ./render.sh --prod   # just the social ads
+#   VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET=demo ./render.sh --prod  # just the homepage locales
+#   VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET=twins ./render.sh --prod # just the cheaper-twin ads
 #   ./render.sh --fresh-auth          # force re-auth even if cache is fresh
 #   ./render.sh --resume              # preserve completed recordings and continue
 #   ./render.sh --no-encode           # stop at WebM, skip MP4 encode
@@ -37,6 +39,17 @@
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
+# -- storyboard set -----------------------------------------------------------
+# A bare ./render.sh means "re-render the videos", so it renders all of them:
+# every ad, every cheaper-twin ad, and every homepage locale in both aspects.
+# It used to default to the English homepage pair alone, which left everything
+# else to drift until someone remembered to set this by hand. Narrow it with
+# VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET (the sets are enumerated in src/storyboard.ts, which
+# rejects an unknown name rather than guessing). Nothing here is cheap: this is
+# 23 storyboards, so expect a long run and reach for a narrower set when you
+# only changed one video.
+export VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET="${VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET:-all}"
+
 # -- target -------------------------------------------------------------------
 TARGET="${TARGET:-local}"
 parsed_args=()

video/src/storyboard.ts

@@ -92,7 +92,28 @@ const DESKTOP_MAP_ZOOM_MS = 2800;
 const SHEET_DOWN = 0.12;
 const SHEET_UP = 0.5;
 
-type RecordingLocale = 'en' | 'de' | 'zh' | 'hi';
+/**
+ * Sampling shared by every narration track, homepage recordings and ads alike.
+ * It lives in one place because there is no reason for the two sets to drift:
+ * the seed is the only knob that legitimately differs between them, so it stays
+ * out of here (it is per-set, and re-rolling it with CONSECUTIVE values is the
+ * documented escape from a rambling take).
+ *
+ * cfgWeight 1 tightens the delivery: the same cue reads ~15% shorter than at
+ * Chatterbox's default 0.5, and the runner sizes each cue's wall-time to the
+ * measured audio, so the cuts shorten to match rather than desync.
+ *
+ * These values feed synth.py's cache fingerprint, so changing any of them
+ * re-synthesizes every cue of every storyboard on the next render.
+ */
+const NARRATION_SAMPLING = {
+  temperature: 0.8,
+  exaggeration: 0.6,
+  cfgWeight: 1,
+  speedFactor: 1,
+} as const;
+
+type RecordingLocale = 'en' | 'fr' | 'de' | 'zh' | 'hi' | 'hu';
 
 interface RecordingLocalization {
   name: string;
@@ -165,6 +186,38 @@ const RECORDING_LOCALIZATIONS: Record<RecordingLocale, RecordingLocalization> =
       outro: 'Stop paying for the name. Find the value.',
     },
   },
+  fr: {
+    name: 'recording-fr',
+    appLanguage: 'fr',
+    ttsLanguage: 'fr',
+    voice: 'French-F.wav',
+    promptText:
+      'Appartement à moins de £600k, 35 min du centre de Londres, bonnes écoles, faible criminalité, rues calmes',
+    travelTimeLabel: 'Centre de Londres',
+    exportButtonTitle: 'Exporter vers Excel',
+    exportConfirmLabel: 'Exporter',
+    closeDrawerLabel: 'Fermer le tiroir',
+    colourMapTitle: 'Colorer la carte',
+    brand: {
+      name: 'Perfect Postcode',
+      tagline: 'Trouvez le code postal sous-estimé.',
+      url: BRAND_URL,
+    },
+    cues: {
+      hook: "La réputation d'un quartier est déjà dans le prix. Sa vraie valeur, non.",
+      brief:
+        'Alors commencez par l’essentiel. Budget, trajet, écoles, et même le calme de la rue.',
+      search:
+        'Une demande, et l’Angleterre se réduit aux codes postaux qui valent votre argent.',
+      commute: 'Resserrez le trajet, et il n’en reste que quelques-uns, en quelques secondes.',
+      streets: 'Au niveau de la rue, les meilleures adresses ressortent d’elles-mêmes.',
+      open:
+        'Ouvrez-en un, et il montre ses preuves. Prix de vente, écoles, criminalité, bruit, internet.',
+      shortlist:
+        'Gardez les meilleures affaires, exportez-les, et allez voir sur place.',
+      outro: 'Ne payez plus pour le nom. Trouvez la valeur.',
+    },
+  },
   de: {
     name: 'recording-de',
     appLanguage: 'de',
@@ -256,6 +309,43 @@ const RECORDING_LOCALIZATIONS: Record<RecordingLocale, RecordingLocalization> =
       outro: 'Stop paying for the name. Find the value.',
     },
   },
+  hu: {
+    name: 'recording-hu',
+    appLanguage: 'hu',
+    // Hungarian UI, English narration, exactly like `hi` above. Not a
+    // compromise we chose: the multilingual checkpoint speaks 23 languages
+    // and Hungarian is not one of them, so an accented English read is the
+    // only way to voice this cut. `en` therefore keeps it on the original
+    // checkpoint, and Hungarian-F.wav carries the accent.
+    ttsLanguage: 'en',
+    voice: 'Hungarian-F.wav',
+    // English on screen too, matching `hi`: the typed brief is read aloud by
+    // the English VO, so a Hungarian brief would drift from the narration.
+    promptText: 'Flat under £600k, 35 min to central London, good schools, low crime, quiet streets',
+    travelTimeLabel: 'Central London',
+    exportButtonTitle: 'Exportálás Excelbe',
+    exportConfirmLabel: 'Exportálás',
+    closeDrawerLabel: 'Panel bezárása',
+    colourMapTitle: 'Térkép színezése',
+    brand: {
+      name: 'Perfect Postcode',
+      tagline: 'Find the hidden-gem postcode.',
+      url: BRAND_URL,
+    },
+    cues: {
+      hook: "A postcode's reputation is priced in. Its value isn't.",
+      brief:
+        'So start with the brief. Budget, commute, schools, even how quiet the street is.',
+      search: 'One brief, and England narrows to the postcodes worth your money.',
+      commute: 'Tighten the commute, and the keepers narrow further in seconds.',
+      streets: 'Down at street level, the strongest streets start to stand out.',
+      open:
+        'Open one, and it shows its work. Sold prices, schools, crime, noise, broadband.',
+      shortlist:
+        'Keep the best-value few, export them, and scout where it actually counts.',
+      outro: 'Stop paying for the name. Find the value.',
+    },
+  },
 };
 
 /**
@@ -560,10 +650,7 @@ function createRecordingStoryboard(
     voice: {
       voice: copy.voice,
       language: copy.ttsLanguage,
-      temperature: 0.8,
-      exaggeration: 0.5,
-      cfgWeight: 0.5,
-      speedFactor: 1,
+      ...NARRATION_SAMPLING,
       seed: 42,
     },
     content: {
@@ -617,7 +704,7 @@ function createRecordingStoryboard(
   };
 }
 
-const RECORDING_LOCALES: readonly RecordingLocale[] = ['en', 'de', 'zh', 'hi'];
+const RECORDING_LOCALES: readonly RecordingLocale[] = ['en', 'fr', 'de', 'zh', 'hi', 'hu'];
 const RECORDING_FORM_FACTORS: readonly FormFactor[] = ['desktop', 'mobile'];
 
 const ENGLISH_HOMEPAGE_STORYBOARDS: Storyboard[] = RECORDING_FORM_FACTORS.map((formFactor) =>
@@ -714,10 +801,7 @@ const AD_BRAND = {
 const AD_VOICE = {
   voice: 'Southern-M.wav',
   language: 'en',
-  temperature: 0.8,
-  exaggeration: 0.5,
-  cfgWeight: 0.5,
-  speedFactor: 1,
+  ...NARRATION_SAMPLING,
   seed: 87,
 };
 
@@ -1550,6 +1634,10 @@ function createTwinConfig(pair: TwinPair): DemoAdStoryboardConfig {
 const TWIN_AD_CONFIGS: DemoAdStoryboardConfig[] = TWIN_PAIRS.map(createTwinConfig);
 const TWIN_AD_STORYBOARDS = TWIN_AD_CONFIGS.map(createDemoAdStoryboard);
 
+// render.sh exports `all`, so this fallback is only what a bare `node
+// dist/record.js` gets. The two defaults differ on purpose: render.sh is the
+// "re-render the videos" entry point, while an ad-hoc node run that surprised
+// you with 23 recordings would be hostile.
 const STORYBOARD_SET = process.env.VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET ?? 'homepage-en';
 
 export const storyboards: Storyboard[] = (() => {
@@ -1558,13 +1646,23 @@ export const storyboards: Storyboard[] = (() => {
       return ENGLISH_HOMEPAGE_STORYBOARDS;
     case 'demo':
       return DEMO_STORYBOARDS;
-    case 'all':
-      return [...AD_STORYBOARDS, ...DEMO_STORYBOARDS];
+    case 'ads':
+      return AD_STORYBOARDS;
     case 'twins':
       return TWIN_AD_STORYBOARDS;
-    case 'ads':
+    case 'all':
+      // Every publishable slug, twins included. `all` is what render.sh runs by
+      // default, so a set left out here is one that quietly stops being
+      // re-rendered and rots in frontend/public/video.
+      return [...AD_STORYBOARDS, ...TWIN_AD_STORYBOARDS, ...DEMO_STORYBOARDS];
     default:
-      return AD_STORYBOARDS;
+      // Never fall back to a set. This used to default to the ads, so a typo'd
+      // VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET spent a long render producing the wrong videos and
+      // said nothing.
+      throw new Error(
+        `Unknown VIDEO_STORYBOARD_SET "${STORYBOARD_SET}". ` +
+          'Known: homepage-en, demo, ads, twins, all.'
+      );
   }
 })();
 

video/tts/synth.py

@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import urllib.request
 import wave
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Any
 
 DEFAULT_SERVER = "http://host.docker.internal:8004"
 
@@ -163,7 +164,7 @@ def _post(url: str, payload: dict, timeout: float) -> bytes:
         return response.read()
 
 
-def _get_json(url: str, timeout: float) -> dict:
+def _get_json(url: str, timeout: float) -> Any:
     with urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=timeout) as response:
         return json.loads(response.read())
 
@@ -438,14 +439,26 @@ def check_voice_exists(server: str, voice: str) -> None:
 
     /tts does reject an unknown predefined voice, but this names the mistake
     and lists the alternatives instead of surfacing a server stack trace.
+
+    Ask /get_predefined_voices, NOT /v1/audio/voices. The latter looks right but
+    answers a different, wider list (it also carries reference clips and the
+    bundled sample pack) and it lags behind uploads: on 2026-07-15 it omitted
+    French-F.wav and Hungarian-F.wav while /tts synthesized both happily. So it
+    fails a perfectly good voice and blames the storyboard. The filenames from
+    /get_predefined_voices are exactly the `predefined_voice_id` vocabulary.
     """
     try:
-        voices = _get_json(f"{server}/v1/audio/voices", INFO_TIMEOUT_S).get("voices", [])
+        listed = _get_json(f"{server}/get_predefined_voices", INFO_TIMEOUT_S)
     except (urllib.error.URLError, OSError, json.JSONDecodeError):
         return  # Non-fatal: /tts still validates the name.
+    voices = sorted(
+        str(entry["filename"])
+        for entry in listed
+        if isinstance(entry, dict) and entry.get("filename")
+    )
     if voices and voice not in voices:
         raise SystemExit(
-            f"[synth] unknown predefined voice {voice!r}. Available: {', '.join(sorted(voices))}"
+            f"[synth] unknown predefined voice {voice!r}. Available: {', '.join(voices)}"
         )