PocketBook Verse Pro · Guides
Read aloud and play audiobooks on the PocketBook Verse Pro
The Verse Pro can read ebooks aloud with text-to-speech and play your own MP3 and M4B audiobook files — both over Bluetooth. Here is how to set up each.
Audio is the Verse Pro’s clearest advantage over a Kobo or Kindle: it will read your ebooks aloud, and it will play audiobook files you own. Both go out over Bluetooth, both cost battery, and both are held back only by the quality of the synthetic voice and the lack of support for DRM-locked audio.
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Know what the Verse Pro can do that most readers cannot
It has two separate audio abilities. Text-to-speech reads a normal ebook aloud in a synthetic voice. Audiobook playback plays actual recorded audio files that you copy on yourself — MP3, M4A, M4B and OGG. There is no speaker, so both need Bluetooth.
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Pair your headphones
Put the headphones into pairing mode. On the Verse Pro, open Settings, then Bluetooth, turn it on, and select your headphones from the list. They reconnect automatically afterwards when both are on and in range.
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Set up a text-to-speech voice
Text-to-speech needs a voice package. Go to Settings, then "Language" or "Text-to-Speech", and download a voice for the language you read in. Some firmware includes one or two voices already. The download is over Wi-Fi and is a one-time step per language.
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Read a book aloud
Open an ebook, tap the top centre for the reading menu, and choose the text-to-speech or "Voice" option. Playback controls and a reading-speed setting appear. The page turns itself as it reads, and it can keep going with the screen off.
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Play your own audiobook files
Copy MP3, M4B or M4A files to the Verse Pro by USB, into the "Music" or "Books" folder. They appear in the Library alongside your ebooks. Open one to get a player with chapter navigation, a sleep timer and a playback-speed control.
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Understand the limits
The synthetic text-to-speech voice is functional, not natural — it is for listening while doing something else, not a substitute for a produced audiobook. And the Verse Pro cannot play DRM-protected audiobooks from Audible or a library app; only unprotected files.