Are EZH disc's a problem?

[Kate Hurrell]

I am having trouble on several EZH karaoke disc's including 25/27 & 28 and more recent releases as Hoster does not seem to recognize the layout/format (either it can not read the disc's or does not record properly), please advise!

These disc's are part of the ESSENTIAL range which have been renamed to EASY KARAOKE and EZH are the U.K chart hit series.

I am receiving no error message but Hoster is not reading the disc when I press READ CD TRACKS, the busy icon appears but then disappears after a short time, OR it reads and imports SOME but not all the tracks and some of these imported tracks have distorted sound & graphics.

I use a Plexwriter 16/10/40A

[quaizywabbit]

they might have some form of copy protection.......

will they play in a standard CDG disk player?

[Kate Hurrell]

Yes they have copy protection and yes they all play perfectly in cdg players, I have found others too including 1 backstage cdg, 1 Toptunes cdg and 1 Music Maestro but my main concern is the EZH disc's as I have around 20 that won't copy. I have tried coping onto Microstudio but I have the same problem, is there any upgrades in the pipeline to correct this? All these EZH disc's are in the Hoster pre-programmed songlist - Please advise!

[nreel]

What version of Hoster are you using?

[Kate Hurrell]

I am up to date with the latest version, I only purchased Hoster last month.

[MTUSUPPORT]

Do these have an extra track that shows up after the last audio track? Such as the CD has 15 tracks of CDG songs on it. In Hoster it will show 16 tracks and the very last track will show that it is around 6 or 12 seconds? This is the Multisession security, which has been described on the forums hundreds of times. You can do a search in the forums for Multisession and come up with the ways to get around it.

[Kate Hurrell]

These disc's do not have multisession security. On the few tracks that it will import of the more recent releases, it can take 30min's plus each time per track.

P.S. Is Doug Cox still working for the company?

[MTUSUPPORT]

Can you tell us where we can get one of these discs? We have never seen this type of security.

Yes, Doug is still here.

[Kate Hurrell]

Easy Karaoke are located in the U.K. at:

Easy Karaoke Ltd
Unit 18 Watford Metro Centre
Dwight Road
Watford
Herts
WD18 9SB
England

Tel: +44 (0) 1923 211 806
Fax: +44 (0) 1923 218 309
Web http://www.easykaraoke.com

Easy Karaoke discs provide very good quality cdg tracks and are much superior to the likes of Sunfly who also produce U.K. chart hits.

As I have said before all Easy Karaoke discs are listed on Hoster in the pre-programmed song list!

[Kate Hurrell]

HELLO, HELLO!

Can somebody please give me an update to this situation, I can not use around 20 of my EZH disc's in Hoster.

Has anybody ordered these disc's to examine the security?

I have regretably not purchased anymore EHZ disc's due to this problem so currenty I am running a couple of months behind in my U.K charts.

Do I repurchase these tracks with a different manufacturer to use Hoster or do I buy a different software elsewhere and keep using my choice of disc's?

If you are working on correcting this problem then please keep me informed and I will carry on using my cdg player + laptop until this is resolved, providing I am not kept in the dark!

[MTUSUPPORT]

This will be looked at in the future, not sure when. Currently our engineers are all on tight deadlines for other developements.

[Kate Hurrell]

Can I Have A Refund on Hoster then please?

Originally I wanted a program to back up all my songs in case of disc damage or other unexpected problems and was persuaded to purchase Hoster.

Afterwards I found that:

1) Hoster can not be used as a backup program as no other MTU program can read the KMA format! Nor does MTU have any plans to do this!

So I try running my show with Hoster -

2) Hoster can not read/record all the disc's that MTU claim it can read on their pre-installed song list! Plus MTU can not tell me when to expect a solution!

So why do I have Hoster???

[nreel]

FYI

The pre-installed Song List (Bucket.MDB) is only a TOOL that one MAY USE (NOT, MUST USE) to make Importing easier. That is to say, it only makes it easier, when one is importing a Disc, and, one chooses to use the Bucket.MDB as a means to "Prefill" the Artist and Songtitle information in order to SAVE one from having to TYPE IT ALL IN.

I don't see where MTU has represented that the Hoster Database contains all Song information that Hoster ALLOWS Importing.

A case-in-point would be any SoundChoice Mediacloqed Disc. SoundChoice provides Track information on these Discs but these discs will not Play in a Pioneer 888 Player.

The Bucket.MDB contains Disc/Track information on SoundChoice's Mediacloqed discs but Hoster cannot Import these Discs because the CDROM, which has nothing to do with CURRENT Hoster Programming, will not read these Discs.

Now, with that said, have you tried reinstalling Hoster? Sometimes this helps.

Are the discs, which are taking alot of time to read, scratched? Badly scratched discs can take an unbelievable amount of time to read, if at all.

Are you sure that your Reading Speed is set to MAX, for your CDROM, in the TOOLS/CD-DVD Drive Defaults Menu?

Have you installed any other BURNING Software that may have caused your CDROM to slow?

Does your CDROM read at the correct speed when Importing any other BRAND or when using any other BURNING Software?

[mindonstrike]

You say these EZH cdg's have copy protection but not multi-session. What kind of security is it?

I would think that if this is a good quality brand as you report, there would be other EZH/Hoster users having problems with them.
Based on the fact that yours is the only report of a problem with this brand, and I know of no problems with the other brands you mentioned, I'm inclined to think it's a hardware problem as nreel suggested and/or possibly a poor media quality problem

IMHO
Sam

P.S. I was going to purchase one of these to check out but they don't seem to be available in the U.S.

[admin]

Originally Posted by Kate Hurrell

HELLO, HELLO!

Can somebody please give me an update to this situation, I can not use around 20 of my EZH disc's in Hoster.

Has anybody ordered these disc's to examine the security?

I have regretably not purchased anymore EHZ disc's due to this problem so currenty I am running a couple of months behind in my U.K charts.

Do I repurchase these tracks with a different manufacturer to use Hoster or do I buy a different software elsewhere and keep using my choice of disc's?

If you are working on correcting this problem then please keep me informed and I will carry on using my cdg player + laptop until this is resolved, providing I am not kept in the dark!

Kate, we do take VERIFIED problems with particular discs seriously.

Nreel and Mindonstrike have given you to very good pieces of wisdom. Please post your answers to the questions that were asked. It does so far... sound like you may have a computer related problem.

We need to rule that out before we spend valuable resources on a unique problem.

I look forward to your answers here.

[Kate Hurrell]

I have tried reinstalling Hoster

All the discs are in excellent condition

Reading Speed is set to MAX for my CDROM

No other BURNING Software has been installed

My CDROM reads at the correct speed when importing

[admin]

Originally Posted by Kate Hurrell

1) Hoster can not be used as a backup program as no other MTU program can read the KMA format! Nor does MTU have any plans to do this!
2) Hoster can not read/record all the disc's that MTU claim it can read on their pre-installed song list! Plus MTU can not tell me when to expect a solution!

Kate, I don't have an immediate solution for you. As has been said, no other UK or other user has reported any problem with Essential discs. One of our workstation users in the UK records and mixes the music for Essential. I'll ask him what he can find out about this EZH series.

As to your questions above:

1. We are adding support for KMA format files converting back to CDG into our Microstudio software. It will be out this summer. This will allow taking KMA files and writing them to a CDG disc, in CDG format.
   
   
2. Right now, we are adding new CD Reading code into Hoster that should allow importing any standard disc on almost any CD/DVD drive. It has already been proven to allow importing Multisession protected discs. This should be beta testing by the end of this month. We expect to release it late June to early July. This really needs 3-4 weeks of testing to insure it is safe to release.

We can say that many Sound Choice users have reported 20 - 30 minute per track import time. It turns out if you make a backup copy of the same disc with Microstudio USING QUALITY MEDIA, then import it in Hoster, it takes only tens of seconds per track to import. In this proven case, it is the low quality media that was used by the producer. That is a fact, but I don't know if it applies to your EZH series.

We will try to buy one of these discs next week, as UK businesses are closed at this hour.


Here's a possible work-around:

Do you have any other software that can read these discs into MP3+G or ZIP files? That is what you would be using if you don't use Hoster. Well, Hoster 3.108 can import these files into KMA formats that add to our Songs Database and our Playlist, and our Song Book. So, try another import program and see if they can read these discs. If not, you got stuck with a new protection that won't import to any PC software.

Don't throw out the baby with the water. Try another import program to get MP3+G or ZIP files.

Another player (aka Hoster playing competitor) won't do you any good unless you have some way of ripping the discs into a compressed format that any of us can use.

This is a unique problem so far, which historically tells us all it is your computer setup. Work with us, not against us and we'll all try to get you running.

Have you made ALL Windows updates on your computer? If not, that might be the reason.

[admin]

Non standard problems take longer to diagnose. Your's is a unique one-of-a-kind and we all are trying to help you. The more you try to make Hoster work, and post what you have tried, the faster we will come to an understanding of what is wrong. It may be these discs have a new, unique protection. I doubt it though. I think as the others do that your system has something wrong with it.

Do you have MTU's Microstudio or any other CD Reading and Writing sofware? If so, please try to make a backup copy of the EZH discs. If this fails, it may be a new protection. Use Mitsui or Song CDR media.