Reducing audio dropouts - Run Hoster 3.000
 

The best way to reduce audio dropouts is to upgrade to Hoster 2.219 or 3.000. If you have Hoster 2.1xx or higher, just click your download link to get version 2.219.

We did a major speed up of our playing code that draws the lyrics screen. There were some Producer's discs (Zoom and Pop Hits Monthly) that heavily use fade in/out on their graphics and even lyrics that place HIGH DEMANDS on the drawing code. In Hoster 2.219 and higher, this problem has not been reported any longer.

Click here to see screen images or click here to see the changes from 2.209 and higher..


Everything below is to fix problems with Hoster 2.209 and EARLIER Versions.

Because Windows is designed for the whole world to use, it has many features that are not necessary for everyone. Because playing professional audio is very demanding, we recommend you make the following changes to your Windows Operating System. These will prevent or reduce audio dropouts while you are playing.

Disable Windows Display Options

There are several Windows options that can cause audio dropouts when switching between running programs. We recommend you disable these by following these steps:
<ol>
<li>Right click on a blank space of your desktop and click <strong>Properties</strong> to see the <strong>Display Properties</strong> window.</li>

<li>Click the <strong>Screen Saver Tab</strong></li>

<li>Click the arrow to the right of screen saver drop down list and select <strong>(None)</strong>.</li>

<li>Click the <strong>Power button</strong> on this tab to see <strong>Power Options Properties</strong> window.</li>

<li>In the Power Schemes group, click the dropdown arrow and select either <strong>Full Power</strong> or <strong>Always On</strong> and click <strong>OK</strong> to close this window.</li>

<li>Return to the <strong>Display Properties</strong> window.<br>
For Windows XP - Click the <strong>Appearence Tab</strong> and click the <strong>Effects button</strong>...
For Windows 2000 - Click the <strong>Effects Tab</strong>...<br>
and uncheck the <strong>Use the FollowingTransition Effect for Menus and Tool Tips to Fade</strong> box.</li>

<li><span class="blue">If you have a laptop</span> - Click the <strong>Hibernation Tab</strong> and <span class="red">uncheck</span> <strong>Enable Hibernation</strong>.</li>

<li>Click <strong>OK</strong> to close the <strong>Display Properties</strong> window.</li>
</ol>
Disable Windows Alarm Sounds

Windows has various message boxes that can play different audio wave files. To prevent these from sounding while you are playing a song, you must disable them. Follow these directions to disable the sound for a particular type of message box. The two message boxes that can appear in Hoster are called <strong>Exclamation</strong> and <strong>Question</strong> below.
<ol>
<li>Click the Windows <strong>Start</strong> button.</li>

<li>Click <strong>Settings...</strong> and then <strong>Control Panel</strong>.</li>

<li>Click the <strong>Sounds and Multimedia</strong> option.</li>

<li>In the Sounds Tab that appears on top, scroll down until you find the <strong>Exclamation</strong> title and click it to select it.</li>

<li>In the <strong>Name:</strong> field below, click the drop down arrow and select [None] at the very top. This will disable any sound playing when an Exclamation message box appears.</li>

<li>Click the <strong>Apply</strong> button at the bottom right to finish this selection.</li>

<li>Do the same for the <strong>Question</strong> selection so it also will not play a sound.</li>

<li>Click the <strong>OK</strong> button to finish this selection and close this dialog box.</li>

<li>Your Exclamation and Question message boxes will no longer play a sound when they appear for Hoster or ANY OTHER program.</li>
</ol>

There are more recommendations in the Hoster manual.