Importing mp3g zip files to hoster

[admin]

Originally Posted by Mustangt93

Well, I have to admit. I have noticed that high pitch hissy sound and don't really care for it that much. But, at the same time I don't want to have to have a 3 terabyte hard drive to hold all my files, either. But, as you said...the damage has already been done anyway, right? So, even if I converted my mp3g zip files to KMA it wouldn't really do any good, right? Hard to get back what's already been destroyed. But, I am kind of a stickler for good quality. I was known for that for years around my karaoke shows. The good singers came to my shows because they knew I had the best quality in karaoke CD's and in equipment.

If you have your original CDG discs, you can use Hoster to import them as KMA. We ALLOW you to select the WMA compression ratio for the quality -vs- storage you can live with. A 128Kb WMA ratio is equal to an MP3 160Kb ratio, but takes a lot less storage. That... is why MTU chose WMA for our compression in our KMA files; you get the best audio and smaller storage requirements.

[Mustangt93]

Well, the program that I used to originally upload my cdg's to my hard drive was the power CDG program. And that actually has a section where you can set the constant bit rate for the amount of quality that you want and I put the highest quality available so that may be close to where the KMA's that you guys have. But, I do definitely notice that high pitch noise you're talking about in the songs. I just try to compensate by bringing down the high levels on the EQ and bring the low and low mids up some. Seems to do ok. But, I do notice it for sure. Answer me this...is there a difference in quality between the mp3G and the mp3g zipped file? Does that compress it even more or just combine the files together in one folder but not do anything to the quality? Thats the way my files are right now...mp3g zipped.

[admin]

Originally Posted by Mustangt93

Well, the program that I used to originally upload my cdg's to my hard drive was the power CDG program. And that actually has a section where you can set the constant bit rate for the amount of quality that you want and I put the highest quality available so that may be close to where the KMA's that you guys have. But, I do definitely notice that high pitch noise you're talking about in the songs. I just try to compensate by bringing down the high levels on the EQ and bring the low and low mids up some. Seems to do ok. But, I do notice it for sure. Answer me this...is there a difference in quality between the mp3G and the mp3g zipped file? Does that compress it even more or just combine the files together in one folder but not do anything to the quality? Thats the way my files are right now...mp3g zipped.

They have absolutely identical sound quality.

MP3 and WMA do Audio psycho-acoustic compression that removes parts of the audio the human ear does not perceive.

ZIP does data compression that does not affect the audio quality.

Question: Since you used the Power product, do you see any random color changes in the files that came from disc tracks #10 and higher?

If so, would you try to import a few of those same tracks from Chartbuster discs into Hoster as KMA and then look at them?

I'd love to know the results. When we did this test in the past we found the Power files had lots of damage that continually degraded up to the last lyric panel.

[Mustangt93]

Are you talking about the chartbuster only or any of the CDG's that I've uploaded from track 10 and up? I haven't noticed anything on any of the other discs besides chartbuster. All my sound choice and DKK's and things seem to be fine. The chartbuster, however...do look strange from the first moment you pull it up. Im not sure why but the chartbusters seem to have something in them that keeps them from copying well. As a matter of fact...chartbusters used to look strange on even my regular vocopro players when I would play them. The vocopro I used to have actually cues the songs directly up to the music and bypasses that 7 second delay of silence at the beginning. Something about starting a charbuster CDG from anywhere but the beginning causes the track to degrade. It's like you will get words the end up showing up on the screen and will just STAY there the entire song making it difficult for the singers to read the words. All the other discs...like sound choice will do that when it first comes up...but as soon as the screen switches to the next set of lyrics...it goes away. The charterbusters won't go away on the next set of lyrics. So, when I pull up the chartbusters in the mp3g zip files...they look all blocky...kind of like old atari graphics or something. But, I will say I was at a guys karaoke show just a couple of weeks ago that uses the hoster and HIS chartbusters were doing that too. So, apparently it's something about the way they copy since it does it on the hoster or the power CDG.

[Mustangt93]

Did than answer your question?

[admin]

Originally Posted by admin

[b]Question: Since you used the Power product, do you see any random color changes in the files that came from disc tracks #10 and higher?

If so, would you try to import a few of those same tracks from Chartbuster discs into Hoster as KMA and then look at them?

I'd love to know the results. When we did this test in the past we found the Power files had lots of damage that continually degraded up to the last lyric panel.

Chartbuster uss WARPED disc media; so cheap we have never found their source.

As the disc rotates, it gets closer and further away from the reading optics, defocusing the reading light beam. We spent 3 years and close to $100,000 pefecting our error correction.

Thus, my question is if you import an MP3G using "Power", and then import the same song with Hoster as a KMA file, then play both back under Hoster (removes any variance between players), if you pause play in the last lyric panel, does the KMA file have a LOT less graphic clutter (uncorrected errors) than the Power MP3. That's the answer I'm looking for.

While the last lyric screen is paused, you can press the Alt key and the "PrtScn" button (Print Screen) and it will capture to the clipboard the "window" the mouse arrow is currently in. If this is the Hoster Show Display, this is what we need to see. Once you have the image from the Show Display, open Windows Paint program, click the Edit menu, and the Paste command and your image will appear in Paint. Click the File menu Save command and your image will save as a .bmp file.

Do this for the MP3G song and again the KMA song, and post both images as attachments. Then we all can see the difference. IF... "Power" has improved their import error correction equal to ours, their won't be much difference. However, I doubt if any competitor has equalled our error correction. Just my two cents.

Originally Posted by Mustangt93

Are you talking about the chartbuster only or any of the CDG's that I've uploaded from track 10 and up? I haven't noticed anything on any of the other discs besides chartbuster. All my sound choice and DKK's and things seem to be fine. The chartbuster, however...do look strange from the first moment you pull it up. Im not sure why but the chartbusters seem to have something in them that keeps them from copying well. As a matter of fact...chartbusters used to look strange on even my regular vocopro players when I would play them. The vocopro I used to have actually cues the songs directly up to the music and bypasses that 7 second delay of silence at the beginning. Something about starting a charbuster CDG from anywhere but the beginning causes the track to degrade. It's like you will get words the end up showing up on the screen and will just STAY there the entire song making it difficult for the singers to read the words. All the other discs...like sound choice will do that when it first comes up...but as soon as the screen switches to the next set of lyrics...it goes away. The charterbusters won't go away on the next set of lyrics. So, when I pull up the chartbusters in the mp3g zip files...they look all blocky...kind of like old atari graphics or something. But, I will say I was at a guys karaoke show just a couple of weeks ago that uses the hoster and HIS chartbusters were doing that too. So, apparently it's something about the way they copy since it does it on the hoster or the power CDG.

The warped discs from Chartbuster - look at them from the edge and you can see the warp - won't play well on Karaoke Players, or import without significant error correction. It is my current belief that Hoster and Microstudio have the best error correction on the market. It shows up best on Chartbuster discs.

Also, Chartbuster CDG songs don't have "clear screen" commands embeded with the lyrics that erases all past graphic errors from then on.

[Mustangt93]

Well, being that this is pretty new to me..the whole burning to hardrive and learning how to you use them...it may take me a while to get all this information you need and get it sent to you.

I do know notice a couple of things about power CDG that are a bit aggrivating. I can't use the player that I bought from you guys to import the songs in my computer with my windows 7 computer. It does work with the player in my older laptop with the windows XP on it. On the windows 7 on the newer computer it will detect the drive...its just that when I try to put a disc in and read it...it won't read. But, on my older one with XP it reads fine. Also, hoster doesn't play well on either of my computers. I went in and did the thing the instructions say on the hoster manual about changing the parameters and turning off automatic Disc detection and all that stuff but neither computer will play the software correctly...even after going thru all the steps in the tutorial. Im sure the main problem with my XP laptop is that it's older and probably doesnt' have enough memory to run it. The newer computer with the windows 7 will play the songs but the lyrics all run behind..they're not with the music. And I've tried everything the manual tells me to do to fix this problem. So, Im kind of stumped on this. The Siglos...which is the program that power CDG has to actually run the shows runs fine on both computers with no issues like that. So, Im not sure how to fix that problem on hoster since I've tried everything the manual says to do to correct it. Any suggestions? Also, I still only actually have the hoster demo since I'm trying to figure out what my issues are before I buy the complete program. Does that have anything to do with it?