singer's disc

[WDEWDAD7]

I have a problem that I have sent to the forum before, that I thought the 3.301 upgrade would cure. It did not. When I put in a singer's disc while another song is playing, the music slows way down while reading the disc, and returns to normal speed while recording. Of course, the video continues, so not only does it slow down, but it is now out of sync. I never had this problem until the 3.3 upgrade. Any ideas? Yes, I am up to date on my updates. Thanks, Daryl

[MTUSUPPORT]

What kind of computer do you have? How fast is it, how much Memory is in it?

It sounds like a hardware issue on your system, if it slows downl that much, that you notice it, while importing.

I have not had any other customers state this at anytime.

[WDEWDAD7]

I have Windows XP Pro/2002/version 5.1; Western 200 GB Hard Drive, 107 used/79 free. Plextor Premium ...Pentium 4 , 1.5 GB RAM.

I had problems last year with 4 corrupted songs affecting this function. Re-unstalled Hoster and cleaned it up. Has worked until I did the 3.3 upgrade. Sent a message to critical before, was told 3.301 would probably clear it up. I uninstalled 3.3 and did the complete 3.301 upgrade. Music still slows down/drags while " reading " the singers disc; but resume to normal speed during recording. Of course, the words/video keeps going, som it ends up out of sync. Would liie to know how to remedy. Thank you, Daryl.

[WDEWDAD7]

Hello, I posted earlier in the week concerning " drag " while downloading a singer's disc. I know I entered it in critical registration, for a reason. I hope to find out what the problem is, and fix it. The first response was that it sounded like a hardware problem. I didn't have the problem until I downloaded the 3.3 upgrade. Probably coincidence; but, one post mentioned that the 3.301 would likely fix that problem. It didn't; but, I did uninstall 3.3 and did a full 3.301 download. If it is a Hoster thing, and avenue to fix it would be nice. But, if it is a hardware issue, is there a computer wise person out there that might have a suggestion or recommendation? I'm not necessarily trying to get free comp work; but the guy who built my computer is very busy, not always ready at hand to come and spend time on my computer. He is the wiz, I'm not. I am a musician/KJ. My computer wisdom only goes so far...like half way around the block..lol. Hope my humor on myself will peak some else's curiosity. In the meantime, I will keep trying my local comp guy here. Thanks, Daryl.

[ddouglass]

A few thoughts while MTUSupport ponders this problem.

1. Are your Hard Drive and CD both on the same cable or on separate cables. If on the same this could cause the slow down because the song you are playing and the one you are reading (importing) are sharing the same data path.

2. Are any other programs running in the background such as Nero, Roxio and antivirus program or spyware program. These will all eat up working memory. Have your computer guy shutdown any unneeded processes. When you are doing your show disable your antivirus and spyware programs, etc.

3. Just a wild shot but when was the last time you defragmented your hard drive? The more fragmented it gets the slower your machine goes.

You said this didn't start until you loaded version 3.300. I don't know of too many programmers these days who clean up their code. Most just jump over bad or changed code and leave it in the program. (Not saying MTU does that ) Version 3.300 did add quite a bit of changes and additions which means Hoster's resident memory size increased making the amount of free working memory more critical. So what may work fine with earlier versions may start causing problems with newer/larger versions.

[WDEWDAD7]

Thank you for replying and offering some suggestions. First, if I understand your question right, I am not running a seperate cd player. This is the Hoster program, downloading a singer's disc in to the rotation while another karaoke singer is singing. It reads and records the disc fine. Just that it drags way down during the first session. Next, I do clean and defrag my computer regularly. Also, I do have Winamp, and I usually have it in the background, or play an occasional song from the list, or for fill if there may be a gap in singers. My first thought was that it was Winamp; so I closed Winamp and tried a singer's disc. It still did the same thing. It worked fine before I upgraded to 3.3; not saying that 3.3 is the culprit. Just that it DID work right. I would have thought that the un-install of 3.3 and install of 3.301 would have been the remedy.

[ddouglass]

WDEWDAD7,
Actually my question was refering to the cable connection inside the computer. Are the hard drive and the CD drive both connected to the motherboard by one ribbon (flat) cable or two separate cables?

My second question was maybe a bit confusing. Do you have Roxio or Nero installed on this computer? Do you have an antivirus program (Symantec or Macafee) installed?

[WDEWDAD7]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

WDEWDAD7,
Actually my question was refering to the cable connection inside the computer. Are the hard drive and the CD drive both connected to the motherboard by one ribbon (flat) cable or two separate cables?

My second question was maybe a bit confusing. Do you have Roxio or Nero installed on this computer? Do you have an antivirus program (Symantec or Macafee) installed?

Well, I know that the hard drive and cd connections are seperate, and I have Nero. I have cleaned, defraqgged, re-started. As I said before, while a singer is singer, when I do the download from another singer's discs, when it " reads" the disc, it drags the music way down as the graphics continue. Then when it "writes" the cd, the music returns to normal. The music and graphics are no longer is sync. The download plays fine. I can download in-between singers, but that kind of defeats the purpose. I have plenty fo memory, and have all the updates. Help?? Would like to know how to remedy.

[ddouglass]

Unfortunately I have always used Roxio so if anyone has the info on Nero help us. The only thing I can think to try is look in Start/Programs/Startup and delete any shortcuts referring to Nero. This will prevent Nero from interfering and won't keep Nero from starting when you want to use it.

There may be a registry entry for Nero also, but someone else will have to direct you on how to fix that. Both Roxio and Nero will check the singers CD when you insert it, if their startup file is active and this will drag down the read for Hoster.

Hope this is it.

[George]

To see everything that is running in the background, click START, RUN, type in MSCONFIG, click OK, and select STARTUP tab.

Simply uncheck anything you don't want running. I'd leave SysTray and any anti-virus, spyware, or firewall programs running.

George

[WDEWDAD7]

Guys, thanks for your replies and suggestions. I just spoke with the guy that built my computer. He said I DON"T have Nero. He didn't install Roxio nor Nero. The only burning systems I have are Hoster, Winamp, and whatever came with my Windows XP Pro. However, now he isn't as sure that he put the hard drive and Cd on seperate cables. He is going to stop by Wednesday and inspect what he did do. He thought that was the most feasable reason. The only things I have installed on this computer is Hoster and Winamp. I tried putting the singer's disc in without Winamp going, so that rules it out. What's weird is that it used to work right. I have 43% free space yet. Curious that as far as I know, I am the only one who is or has exprienced this. Seems odd that this hasn't come up before. Thanks guys, and keep on rockin. Daryl.

[WDEWDAD7]

Originally Posted by WDEWDAD7

Guys, thanks for your replies and suggestions. I just spoke with the guy that built my computer. He said I DON"T have Nero. He didn't install Roxio nor Nero. The only burning systems I have are Hoster, Winamp, and whatever came with my Windows XP Pro. However, now he isn't as sure that he put the hard drive and Cd on seperate cables. He is going to stop by Wednesday and inspect what he did do. He thought that was the most feasable reason. The only things I have installed on this computer is Hoster and Winamp. I tried putting the singer's disc in without Winamp going, so that rules it out. What's weird is that it used to work right. I have 43% free space yet. Curious that as far as I know, I am the only one who is or has exprienced this. Seems odd that this hasn't come up before. Thanks guys, and keep on rockin. Daryl.

Well, it took ahwile; but, my computer guy looked at my computer. The hard drive & cd ARe on seperate cables, as he thought. Still do not know what is causing them drag when playing singer's discs.Only things done to this computer were upgrade to 3.3 and then 3.12. Have defragged, etc. I CAN do the singer's disc in between singers( kind of defeats the purpose). another concern is; is the problem a cascading problem. Will something else be affected.

[WDEWDAD7]

MTU support, do you have a clue as to what may be causing the "drag" when I download another singer's disc, while another singer is singing? I would really like to resolve the problem. Thank you in advance, Daryl.

[WDEWDAD7]

Where did it go? I have asked several times how to rememdy a "drag" problem. Some have offered assistance. I know MTU support is busy, but, I asked support specifically about this problem. I have heard from them once, asking specifics about my computer. I check the site today, and critical registration is gone. What's up?

[ddouglass]

Apparently there is a change going on with the website. In another section Doug had said they had a problem with their webmaster and were changing to someone else. I am sure everything will be back to normal in a couple of days.

As far as your drag problem, no one else has experienced this, so we don't have a clue how to help and I am sure MTU is having the same problem.

I can only think of one other remote possibilty you can try. Go to your control panel/sounds and audio devices properties. Then click on the audio tab. At the top is a section for sound playback with a an advanced button. Click on it and go to the performance tab. There are two adjustments here. One is hardware acceleration and the other is sample rate. You can try adjusting these and see if that fixes the drag. This may take some time as you will have to make a change, apply it, then try importing while playing after each change. I wouldn't take the sample rate down more than half way though as beyond that your sound would degrade to much to be any good. Good Luck!

[George]

Originally Posted by WDEWDAD7

Where did it go? I have asked several times how to rememdy a "drag" problem. Some have offered assistance. I know MTU support is busy, but, I asked support specifically about this problem. I have heard from them once, asking specifics about my computer. I check the site today, and critical registration is gone. What's up?

Post#13, just above yours is a specific request to support dealing with the problem, and a lot of other posts above that all dealing with the problem.

Maybe they merged the threads together if they were scattered, which is the way they should be anyway.

Dunno, just guessing as it seems the topic is well discussed here. Multiple threads dealing with the same problem cause nothing but confusion.

George

[DJYale]

Shot in the dark here just to clear something up for myself...


You stated you have 1.5GB RAM, I'm assuming this is 3x512Mb sticks, if it isn't let me know, were all 3 purchased @ the same time and @ the same rating, I.E, 3x512MB 3200 chips. I only ask because I have seen problems before with mismatched speeds on DDR sticks...

[admin]

Thank you for your patience. I am sorry that MTU has not responded before now. We are in a "hurricane" solving unavoidable tasks that have taken time from all of us.

I merged your thread from the "Critical" Forum into here so we have a "total" picture of your problem.

The diagnosis offered here by others is impressive and insightful. I commend all who are helping here in our absence!

#1. Try the changes suggested by ddouglass about the hardware accelerator, as that has caused problems with video-audio sync in the past.

#2. DJYale has made an excellent point also about the RAM. 1.5GB and 3 memory sticks seems unlikely to me. Ask your tech guru about the RAM. If they were from different manufacturers, that could be your problem as we have seen very weird problems caused by this very point.

However... given that you say the problem didn't exist before 3.301 does imply it is something within Hoster itself. The problem appears to be a "thread priority" conflict. We can't put our senior programmer on it yet, but as soon as he finishes a critical task, I'll have him look at this.

You are the only one experiencing this problem, so everyone is at a loss as to the cause. The first round is to try exactly what is being recommended here. Once you reply on the above 2 points, we'll all have more facts to move on. I'm hoping we can all help you find a "cause" why your system is doing this. The more facts you tell us, the faster a fix may appear.

We just released Hoster 3.303, which has some changes that could affect this problem. Our web site is in a complete state of flux, so we can't upgrade links to download the new 3.303 code. Only new orders are currently able to get 3.303. I hate being in limbo! However, I'll get you a private link to get 3.303 to see if that solves your problem.

[MTUSUPPORT]

I have tested this on my computer and there is no problem on my system.

I had a song playing, it was about 20 seconds into the Song, then I started the Import of a CDG disc as you would when a singer brings a disc in by clicking the CDG button, typing in the Track number, Singers name and Song title. I had no audio drop outs at all.

I was using version 3.303 with a Pioneer Laptop DVR-K05 drive Firmware Version 1.03.

What firmware does your drive have? Here is the Link to the latest firmware update for your Plextor Premium drive: http://www.plextor.com/english/suppo...m_Premium.html

[lmcmains]

Originally Posted by MTUSUPPORT

I have tested this on my computer and there is no problem on my system.

I had a song playing, it was about 20 seconds into the Song, then I started the Import of a CDG disc as you would when a singer brings a disc in by clicking the CDG button, typing in the Track number, Singers name and Song title. I had no audio drop outs at all.

I was using version 3.303 with a Pioneer Laptop DVR-K05 drive Firmware Version 1.03.

What firmware does your drive have? Here is the Link to the latest firmware update for your Plextor Premium drive: http://www.plextor.com/english/suppo...m_Premium.html

Bryan
I also imported a singers disc while playing a song and had no drop out's at all. I am using a home built Shuttle AMD 2800 CPU and 1gb of memory. I also used Ver. 3.303 Hoster. This is also using a Plextor 716a.