MTU has been addressing the issues with starting and stopping in every beta and it's getting better.
The next beta will be available for us to test this evening. It seems to be related to the newer versions of Windows Media Player.
I've been running my shows with Hoster 4.XX ever since the program was released and then some (last night with 4.02 beta 2), overall it's doing a great job. What I do that seems to help is play the first song at a very low volume (or with no volume at all) to check and see if it's running in sync and to give the program a chance to reset itself.
Next to getting Hoster Vista ready, this is a top priority issue. They'll get it here soon, please be patient.
Jim