Hoster 4.30 and drives

[WaltR]

I upgraded to Hoster 4.30 and also the latest version of Microstudio.

One of the new features in Microstudio was a fix to allow more disk drives to work with the program. My Emachine drive now works with Microstudio but it still is very eratic with Hoster 4.30. I would have thought that the same coding or programmings would have been used in both products. I have no idea what make drive it is. Also, in some older versions of Hoster the drive would work until a new upgrade was available then the drive wouldn't work any longer. What is this about?

Walt

[ddouglass]

First the two programs are not coded the same. Because Microstudio both Reads and writes to discs and Hoster only reads from them the programing is different.
It depends on whether the drive is capable of reading CDG, whether it is using the newer universal language adopted by all manufacturers for drive communication, and age of the drive will also play into this.

Define what you mean by eratic?

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

First the two programs are not coded the same. Because Microstudio both Reads and writes to discs and Hoster only reads from them the programing is different.
It depends on whether the drive is capable of reading CDG, whether it is using the newer universal language adopted by all manufacturers for drive communication, and age of the drive will also play into this.

Define what you mean by eratic?

By eratic, I mean where before in Hoster it would not read the disk (except for audio) now it will read some tracks and playback the audio with the lyrics. Most tracks just play back with audio but no graphics, just screen color changes.

[ddouglass]

I get the feeling from your talking about this Emachine that you have had it for quite a while. Could be the drive is failing. The older a drive gets the less intense the laser gets, so it starts getting a lot of errors. Just a possibility.
Are the imports into Microstudio crisp and without glitches?

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

I get the feeling from your talking about this Emachine that you have had it for quite a while. Could be the drive is failing. The older a drive gets the less intense the laser gets, so it starts getting a lot of errors. Just a possibility.
Are the imports into Microstudio crisp and without glitches?

It is pretty old. I bought it in 2003 but it sure has been a work horse. I have the memory maxed out which is 1,250 gig. It only has one memory slot availabe which I can only put up to 1 gig. The other slot is internal and is 256m. I tried once to take it apart to see if I could gain access to the other slot but after removing the screws, I couldn't figure out how to get the bottom at the back to release and I didn't want to break the enclosure so I put the screws back in and let well enough alone. As far as the drive, it works great with DVD's and cd's in other programs. As I mentioned, it worked in some earlier versions of Hoster then when I upgraded to a newer version it wouldn't work with CDG's. Then once when I did another upgrade it started working again. I assumed it had something to do with the hoster programming. I still have my Plextor I bought from MTU many years ago and it is still going strong. Also I didn't mention, when I write a disk in Microstudio (latest version) it will play back in Microstudion but doesn't work well in Hoster.

Walt

[ddouglass]

Seems to me that some drives write the disks where the players can read them and some don't. With the old floppy drives this was usually head alignment problem that would allow the original drive to read but a correctly aligned one wouldn't. I don't know if this could be a problem with CD drives but it seems plausable to me.

[WaltR]

I don't know if I should start a new thread for this but since we are talking about disk drives, I just found a new issue.

I have Plextor usb drive I purchased from MTU sometime ago. I have been using this drive with my EMachine lap top with xp home addition to import disks to Hoster. It has worked flawlessly and is still going strong.

I also have a HP Pavilion lap top runnig vista. I use this computer as a backup. I have hoster 4.30 on both computers. What I have done in the past is copy the kma files to an external usb hard drive as a backup. I also have always copied the kma files from the external hard drive to the HP to keep it updated.

Here is what I discovered today. I updated the HP as mentioned above. Then for some reason I tried to import a disk using the Plextor Drive (PX-712A). Everytime I tried to load a track from the plextor to the playlist, it would shut down hoster. I even tried to use this drive to import a disk and it shut down hoster everytime I hit the import button. I tried to reinstall hoster and ended up with the same result. I hooked up the plextor to the Emachine and it imported the disk without any problems. Anyone have an idea why it shuts hoster down in the HP Vista machine?

Walt

[Roy Dennis]

On your Vista machine have you done all the latest custom updates including updating Windows Media player to version 11 and directx 10. ?

Media player You need Version 9 or higher for XP, Version 11 for Vista or Version 12 for Windows 7.
DirectX Version 10: Check it by click Start button > click Run > type in dxdiag and view the version on the page that appears (System tab).

Roy

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

On your Vista machine have you done all the latest custom updates including updating Windows Media player to version 11 and directx 10. ?

Media player You need Version 9 or higher for XP, Version 11 for Vista or Version 12 for Windows 7.
DirectX Version 10: Check it by click Start button > click Run > type in dxdiag and view the version on the page that appears (System tab).

Roy

I'm not sure about DirectX Version 10. I don't know how to check this. I have Media Player Version 11 and I always allow the computer to update the priority updates. How can I check on the DirectX version?

Walt

[Roy Dennis]

The instructions are in the previous post

[ddouglass]

Walt did you have the USB drive set as the default drive for Hoster?

[WaltR]

[quote=ddouglass;103193]Walt did you have the USB drive set as the default drive for Hoster?[/quote

yes and it works in other programs. As soon as I hit "add track" in the playlist or "import tracks" in the import screen, it shuts down hoster.

Walt

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

The instructions are in the previous post

Sorry Roy. I'm trying to work here faster than my mind can keep up.


Thanks I'll check the directx.

Walt

[WaltR]

DirectX Version 11

[WaltR]

downloaded hoster 4.31, installed, problem went away....go figure???

Walt

[ddouglass]

Glad to hear that Walt.