I Have Hoster/Laptop Questions and Hope You Have Answers

[Wrahn]

I have questions, I hope someone has answers. I have had Micro Studio for sometime now and at present, as I indicate before, I’m doing a demo of Hoster on my wife’s Compaq Presario C302NR Laptop, running Microsoft XP SP3, with Intel Celeron M Processor (1.6GHz, IMB L2 cache, 533MH FSB). I upgraded the 512MB memory to 1GB. It has a 60GB hard drive and I have a portable 60 GB Maxtor III Mini Edition external hard drive. At age 68, my use of Hoster would be limited to home use and friend’s parties. I’ve also been a volunteer at an assisted care facility when my mother was a resident and may do that again. It seems to me the program is great for those who are in business, but I’m not sure it’s suited for just home use. Therefore, I need some help form the folks that use the program. Thanks to the folks on this forum, I’ve already figured out how to use the dual display and get the TV in color. (Use an S-video to S-video cable).
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When I loaded some of my CDs that were manufacture’s CD they loaded fairly easily, but when I loaded CDs I created from taking songs from different CDs, I had to enter all the information manually. I have compilation CDs, so I have only what I want from the various CDs I have. In some cases, I bought the CD for just one song. As an example, I bought an Hawaiian CD just for Don Ho’s, “Hawaiian Wedding” and “I’ll Remember You” because I was married in chemas-microsoft-com:officemarttags" />Hawaii and wanted to be able to sing those songs to my wife. By using the compilation CD I didn’t have to haul the stuff I didn’t want. QUESTION: How difficult is it to load about 100+ CDs into my laptop with about 25% being compilation CDs?

I list all my CDs into an MS Excel file and then I move the tracks to an MS Access file that is printed out as a list by Title and by Artist. QUESTIONs: How does the database and the song book work in Hoster? Can I transfer the track information to Access or from Access to the program?

Since I use the program mainly for myself, my Excel and Access file listings indicate additional information. I include what key change to make, if it’s multiplex and what audio CD the song is located in case I what to do the song, but don’t know the song and it’s not multiplex. Yes, have audio CDs which have songs I have in Karaoke and I do list the CD next to the song. QUESTION: Is there a way in Hoster to indicate the key change setting for the song, or other information?

I have hooked up the laptop to my system (mixer/amp) and he sound seems to be as good as when I use my JVC Karaoke Player. Thanks to the folks here I also can do the dual display, so I feel my wife’s laptop might work OK with Hoster. I also like the fact that I have XP rather than Vista. QUESTIONs: In case my laptop doesn’t work out, what should I get, and does Vista now work as well as XP with Hoster? What brand of computer does MTU use for the computer they sell?

Once again thanks for any help and or advice you can provide,

Wes