Hoster 3.0

[gpayne]

Does anyone know what direction MTU is going in for Hoster 3.0? There are posts by MTU on the site saying there is going to be a 3.0 but I have not seen a list of any features etc.

Thanks

George

P.S. Hoster is great

[gpayne]

I guess your right George!!! It would have been nice if you would included where it should have been posted, but I guess I can figure it out!

Thanks for you help!!!

George

[George]

NO !!

I meant I'd posted in the wrong forum.

Boy, this is going to get confusing for some with two of us signing George

Take care,

George

[Eric Whitehouse]

So give us a clue. Where has it been posted please ?

[gpayne]

I posted it in the new hoster new requests forum.

Sorry George! I thought you were chastising me for posting in the wrong forum!

Thanks

gpayne

[MTUSUPPORT]

There is no where that it has been posted yet. So you will have to wait as everyone else is. It will be here in the future .....

[gpayne]

I understand! I hope I don't make any decisions about new equipment that I may not need because Hoster 3.0 might have it!!

Thanks

gpayne

[Beavis]

hey gp,
come live in my world...it is perfect !! strippers included !!

right bryan?

[admin]

MTU defined this market, did all the ground work proving what can be done, then some other fellows moved in on us. Understand so far? Good.

Now, due to our highly ethical, moral, legal stance, we refused to support the MP3+G format, which was initially designed to allow trading Karaoke CDG files as easy as Napster was swapping MP3 files. Swapping was proven to be illegal due to Napster being sued in Court, and loosing. We were legally correct, but hampered in the market. Are you with me? Good.

So, ALL the competitors that moved in on us, support the MP3+G format. As will always happen, when multiple vendors support a format, it becomes a de-facto standard. Since there was the free "crack" software called TOOLZ that did the conversion of a .bin file to MP3+G format, even honest folks who owned their discs jumped on this format. Thus groweth the de-facto standard even more. OK?

After a while, MTU realized that it was futile to continue to refuse to suport the MP3+G format. Hoster 3.0 will have this support, as well as playing MP3 audio songs, and (MTU format) KMA Karaoke files, and WMA audio files and a future MTU format we have been working towards for 5 years now.

You might say, MTU has taken off the kid-gloves, and we are coming out fighting. Every competitor will feel our answer. As long as you stay with MTU, you will see that we will have something for each type of user.

Some common overview features of Hoster® Platimum 3.0 are:

1. New Features - There will be a charge for 3.0. We have given our customers over $80,000 of developments for free this year. It's time we get some payback. Our competitors offer NO FREE UPGRADES, and the one who says they do, in reality change the product name or major version and you have to buy the "new product" at retail! So, in effect, they sell their "entry" product for a lower price than MTU, pull you into their camp... and then soak you on upgrades. Well... we too can play that game, but we won't soak our existing customers. You won't pay retail for upgrades from MTU as you do to our competitors.
   
   
2. No more Tabs - The Playlist and Import Tracks Tabs structure turned out to be a problem. It prevents Hot Keys, and updating fields as you go between Tabs. Tabs have now been removed. The Playlist is the Hoster window. The Import Command on the menu bar will display the Import Tracks dialog that does all it does now with more features coming.
   
   
3. Hot Keys - We will have full support for operations by keyboard keys, not just clicking the controls.
   
   
4. Play MP3+G and MP3 Files - We will have full support (actually already do) for playing these files along with KMA and WMA in the same Playlist. Eventually we will offer converting MP3+G files to our KMA format, including all the Song Parameters we save in the file header, so you can use them in your Songs Database and Song Books.
   
   
5. Platinum-Bronze - Our secret!
   
   
6. Upward Mobility - With the new architecture, we will be free to do anything you want us to, and that we dream up. Hoster 3.0 is "fully modern Millie", with 4 years of development and debug history behind it.
   
   
7. Competitors Features - We now look at the best features of our competitors and, as they have done to us for 2 years, we will now do unto them... except we have a VERY SOLID base we are starting from to "out-do" their features. MTU's creativity and listening to our customers is reknown for generating new features! Knowledge is Universal. What you do with it is Unique. MTU has 35 years experience in Professional product development... all focused at the Karaoke market of tomorrow.
   
   
8. Installation Options - We have been working on some very sophisticated ways to allow you to move your Registered Hoster from one computer to another, when you need to upgrade or your computer fails. We will even preserve your "persistent" settings, such as colors, fonts, window sizes and locations... all those things you work through when you first started up to make Hoster work "your way".
   
   
9. Encrypt Songs - For those of you who have systems you let out for rental, or hire a KJ to run your show at your contracted Venue, you will be able to encrypt all your KMA songs to only run on that Hoster. If they are stolen, there is no damage. Your employees will not become your competitors by ripping you off.

We will soon have our new store on-line. This will allow us to offer many different options that were difficult to handle before. You will have your own private "My Account" and "My Software" area where you can change your record, see your RegCodes (that you forgot to print and save ), and communicate better with MTU. Our scripts already check the database of who owns what, so we can help guide you based on what you have ordered.

All for now. If I didn't say too much, I'm sorry... that's the way things are at this time.

[Beavis]

i know this isnt the right forum bryan, but ....how about a skins tool. let some of the folks here make different looking screens to share with others.


personally, i hate the way hoster looks ! it looks like amateurs designed the way it looks (and only the way it looks !!!!!) i know whats under the hood is pure Genius.

on another note i like the upgrade when the song stops playing the screen goes back to the desktop on my computer!

[gpayne]

Thank you very much MTU for giving some answers to my original post about Hoster 3.0. I own just about every piece of software you have developed. I am very pleased with it and I am happy to own it or have a liscense if you will. I understand fully what can happen to companies that flirt with copyright infringement(321 Studios and their xcopy software) etc. I as of yet have not made one cent doing DJ/Kj shows. I have however done approximately 30 shows for free. They were just parties! I am getting to the point rapidly where I have spent a considerable amount of money on equipment to do these music/karaoke parties and believe I have as much material in music songs and karaoke songs as many dj/kj's. I am willing to spend more, but would like soon to let the parties pay for the equipment I buy. Therefore I am trying to decide what to buy. For me, a dj/kj software program would be the best of all worlds. I would like to be able to play music doing crossfades and mixes etc. as well as karaoke. From what I can see, MTU may be providing that with future releases of Hoster. I have a Cavs unit with about 2400 songs on two disks and about 1,000 kma songs on my hard drive. Granted, this is not a huge amount but it will get larger. I would hope to be able to use either kma songs format or super cdg songs in mcg format either way I wanted to go. I realize that that neither you or the Cavs people want each other to be able to convert each other's formats. However, as you have said there are converters out there. You already convert CD+G format to your own proprietary format. I thought CD+G was proprietary. The people who sell super cdg format(mcg) have done the same. What stops you from converting their format to yours or them converting yours to theirs? I think the key is that what ever you convert, you have bought it and it is legally yours to do with as the law allows. This is why I brought up the issue of being able to import legally bought and paid for content protected wma files into hoster. The thing here as I see it is when you take the format of it from some disk that is meant to play in a cd player or dvd player (Cavs) and want to make the file smaller and use it on a computer, it takes on a whole new meaning. I believe you are basically format shifting it(putting in on different medium). You still bought the rights to use it when you paid for it. The problem is everyone wants to tell you that you can't use it any way but the way they intended for it to be used. This limits one's reason to go out and create something new or ones reason to buy something new. I believe MTU's product is the best there is at this point in time. I am a faithful customer. I am happy and appreciative of the fact that MTU listens to its customers and continually updates a great product. The thing is though, as you already know, there is no limit to what your customers want in a product. If you don't supply it though, and they can find it somewhere else, they will. I use Hoster and a Cavs unit every time I do a Dj/Kj party. I have never had a failure with Hoster. It is very hard to use the Cavs unit when someone wants to sing a song that is on a different disk. The reader must spin up and read the disk etc. It is by far much easier to use Hoster. I will probably not buy any more super cdg disks but I can't just throw away $500.00 worth of songs. I guess you could say I made a mistake. I know it now. Tha'ts why I wanted an idea of what was going to be in Hoster 3.0. I did not want to make another mistake.

Thanks

gpayne

P.S. This could be a hoster testimonial.