Google TTS API: Encoding GET request with PHP -
--- solved --- problem solved. solution simple: file_get_contents("http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=de&q=".urlencode($str)."&ie=utf-8") to coming here search engine: make sure set file charset utf-8, include ie=utf-8 parameter url, urlencode string. should fine then. original post was: i have problem making php send correctly encoded request google tts api. $str='this german string contains crazy umlaute ä (like in häuser) or ü (like in Übermensch). sehr deutsch halt.'; file_get_contents("http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=de&q=".$str."&ie=utf-8"); all included php files encoded in utf-8 (no byte order marks). google tts returns me mp3 file spells "umlaute" not Übermensch, a~1/4bermensch. problem has nothing client side. i think google expecting ascii string, might problem? when type line browser manually however, spells correctly. see also: stackoverflow - google tts ...