Has anyone used Dragon's Naturally Speaking Software using Parallels and NT? I'd like to know if there are any problems before I splurge.
there are issues about microphones i have not bothered to experiment because these days I type faster than when I got Dragon NS on my Sony Vaio Possibly worked OK using a usb digi recorder then playing back for speech recognition later ????? just search the Forums Hugh W
It works very well once you get it to recognize your microphone. Make sure you have a USB mic that is on the Dragon approved list, then set it as the input in MacOS before you fire up Parallels.
DNS experience The ONLY thing that I use windows for is DNS Professional Medical version. I use it to dictate into a electronic version of people's medical records over a Citrix connection. Performance maximized a few versions back. Now, longer delays waiting for word recognition and there are times when the programs just seems to skip every sixth word. Nuance states that they are surprised it works at all. Several requests with custumer support have failed to turn up anything that improves performace. The installation acts at times, as though I was working on the old dumb terminals on a large network. Your speech goes into a 'buffer' where the sounds are stored and then interpreted. Unfortuantely, it acts like it is constantly 'polling' OSX to see if that OS needs attention. Result is more mistakes and occationaly frustrating refusals to learn. Still it is MUCH better than than the alternatives - manual input or buying a PC to run one program.
DNS experience The ONLY thing that I use windows for is DNS Professional Medical version. I use it to dictate into a electronic version of people's medical records over a Citrix connection. Performance maximized a few versions back. Now, longer delays waiting for word recognition and there are times when the programs just seems to skip every sixth word. Nuance states that they are surprised it works at all. Several requests with custumer support have failed to turn up anything that improves performace. The installation acts at times, as though I was working on the old dumb terminals on a large network. Your speech goes into a 'buffer' where the sounds are stored and then interpreted. Unfortuantely, it acts like it is constantly 'polling' OSX to see if that OS needs attention. Result is more mistakes and occationaly frustrating refusals to learn. Still it is MUCH better than than the alternatives - manual input or buying a PC to run one program.
Yes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can run under Parallels on a Mac, but there are a few important considerations. Performance: Dragon tends to perform best on a native Windows installation. Running it through Parallels can introduce some lag or occasional recognition errors, especially with long dictation sessions. Audio input: Make sure you configure your microphone correctly. USB headsets generally work better than built-in microphones when using virtualization. Version compatibility: Check that the version of Dragon you plan to use is fully supported on the Windows version running inside Parallels. Some older versions may have issues with certain Windows releases. System resources: Running both Parallels and Dragon simultaneously requires sufficient CPU and RAM. A more powerful Mac will handle it more smoothly. Do use Dragon in this setup successfully, but if you rely heavily on dictation for professional work, performance may not match a native Windows machine. If possible, test it in your Parallels environment before purchasing to ensure it meets your needs.
