Sound Choice Star Series

[RandyMcCharles]

I have read a good number of the posts regarding copy protection on some Sound Choice CDGs and am wondering if many of the postings are outdated. Perhaps Hoster V4 has additional logic to get around some of the protection.

I have been importing my CDG collection to Hoster V4 and have now started on my Sound Choice CDGs. The only problem I have found so far is with the Star Series (i.e 2123, 2229, 2314).

The Online Database doesn't find them. Since this series is popular and has been out there for a while I am surprised.

The Local Database search returns all the disk information, the only problem being that the time for track 16 is a few minutes too long. (Track 16 is a copy of track 8, but with background vocals)

If I select all tracks and import, tracks 1-15 import fine. Track 16 hangs because the time is longer than the track. It looks like Hoster attempts to read for the displayed time and doesn't quit when the data runs out.

Clicking cancel doesn't cancel. The only recourse appears to be to kill the Hoster task.

It seems to me that if Hoster attempted to read the calculated time, but ended the recording normally if data runs out first, the 16th track could be captured.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by RandyMcCharles

I have read a good number of the posts regarding copy protection on some Sound Choice CDGs and am wondering if many of the postings are outdated. Perhaps Hoster V4 has additional logic to get around some of the protection.

I have been importing my CDG collection to Hoster V4 and have now started on my Sound Choice CDGs. The only problem I have found so far is with the Star Series (i.e 2123, 2229, 2314).

The Online Database doesn't find them. Since this series is popular and has been out there for a while I am surprised.

The Local Database search returns all the disk information, the only problem being that the time for track 16 is a few minutes too long. (Track 16 is a copy of track 8, but with background vocals)

If I select all tracks and import, tracks 1-15 import fine. Track 16 hangs because the time is longer than the track. It looks like Hoster attempts to read for the displayed time and doesn't quit when the data runs out.

Clicking cancel doesn't cancel. The only recourse appears to be to kill the Hoster task.

It seems to me that if Hoster attempted to read the calculated time, but ended the recording normally if data runs out first, the 16th track could be captured.

Hoster doesn't have any way to get around those copy protected disks, however those aren't copy protected if you can import even one track.
As far as the online database it is an outside source for disk information from FreeDB and their information for karaoke CDs is limited at best.
The duration information you see before a track imports comes from the CD. After a track is imported that time is corrected by Hoster.
Tracks are recorded (burned) on a CD from the inside (track 1) to the outside of the disk (16 in this case). The area on the outside of course takes the most abuse by us, so if these have been played a lot the outer tracks will take longer for Hoster to get through that part of the disk. I am not sure why it isn't cancelling as it has worked in the past.
For now, if you have Microstudio try importing those last tracks through it. If it is showing a longer duration and seems to hang the same way in Microstudio you can cancel in it and it will write what it has already recorded to the file which should be everything at that point. Then you can use those to import them into Hoster from Hard drive. Be sure to have the default field order set to include DiskID, track, title, and artist, so when you import them they will add to the right BookID.

[RandyMcCharles]

Thanks Dale

This track 16 problem has been consistent with every Star Series disk I have. I do have Microstudio so I'll give that a shot. I also have a couple of Country Karaoke CDGs that Hoster has difficulty reading. I'll try those with Microstudio as well.

Just a note that all of my CDGs are pristine. Mine is a personal collection that I began about a year ago. Most of my CDGs have never been played. Any trouble I have importing is not from wear on the CDGs.

[ddouglass]

These are what is called Multi-session disks and that is where the problem with the duration comes in. I know it was working in Hoster before but something may have changed in all the shuffling of code, so they may need to look at it again.
Microstudio though should fix it for the short term.

[WaltR]

I had a similar problem recently. I don't remember which version of hoster but I had a disk that holster wouldn't read the last track. Another diskk, hoster wouldn't read at all. I was using a plextor drive that I purchased from mtu. I tried both disk in microstudio and had the same negative results. I then tried a dvd drive (i/o magic) and it read everything with no problem. Maybe it is a quirk in the drive you are using.