Need recommendation and advice...

[Harryoke]

Long story short, some time back I got a PC from MTU with Hoster, and had problems with it...getting it to do what it was supposed to do, so I eventually gave up on it. Some time later, I switched to laptop to DJ from, and attempted to use Compuhost to run my karaoke shows from the laptop. While I love that product, I cannot find time to re-rip all my discs to the proper format. 85-90% of my discs are already ripped to KMA format on the old Hoster machine.

My laptop has Vista...and in an attempt to thwart having to rerip my discs, I am considering coming back to MTU. I know a couple of users who are having no problems, so I am assuming maybe my issues were unique to me, and starting over may result in different results.

Currently I have Hoster 3.31 installed. Here are my questions:

1. If I am going to use a Vista installed laptop (Toshiba Satellite A135-s4727... Pentium Dual Core T2080 / 1.73 GHz - RAM : 2 GB - HD : 160 GB - DVD/R) what is the best version of Hoster for me to consider?

2. What kind of cash outlay is it going to cost to upgrade?

3. Is it going to be a hassle to put the new version on a laptop if the old version is on the desktop I got from MTU? (Mini cube).

4a. If I decide to upgrade my laptop anytime soon, how hard is it to move Hoster to my new laptop from the old one? Is that a big deal?

4b. Is it possible to cheaply license a second laptop as a backup? I carry a backup PC generally, but it wont do me any good if I cant play the karaoke files on it, LOL. I am seriously considering a new laptop for this project and using the old laptop as a backup.


5. Are there any obstacles in this thought that I am not seeing?

Thanks in advance for the info and advice and direction.