Hoster 4.05 - The Factory Status - Released 9/29/08

[admin]

Hoster 4.00 is gettig cleaner. We found last night that Windows Media that is part of our player code version 9.0 is very different from 11.0. We are now integrating changes to work with 11.0, which is what most of you now have due to the Windows Updates delivering it.

Until we get this part running, we can't do another Beta Test. Things are going well so far so I'm confident we'll get Beta 42 out either today or tomorrow.

Our current target for release is either this Friday or next Monday.

[admin]

We just released Beta 44 for testing tonight. Beta 43 had a number of random problems reported by single users, and a few had duplicate reports. If testing goes well tonight, 4.00 will release this week.

It is getting cleaner with each Beta Version. Some of the reported bugs are old (never been reported before), so our testers are really wringing it out! We are all ready to release, but want it to be clean.

To insure you will be able to continue a show, even if 4.00 fails for you, we have compiled 3.321a into 4.00 as a separately runnable 3.40 version. Thus, you can use 4.00 unless you find a problem you don't want to deal with, fire up 3.40 with the same playlist, and keep running. The playlists and KMA files are compatible. You can even run a copy of both at the same time, so cutting over could be very fast.

We are finding that Microsoft XP and Windows Media Player 11 or 12 consume almost all of 512MB RAM. Hoster 4.00 can run with them, but we just don't have much RAM to use, causing slowdowns and sporadic, unexplainable problems. If you have 512MB RAM, upgrade your systems to at least 1GB, and I'd recommend 2GB while you are at it to save time and money.

We will start on 4.01 to run under Vista the day we release 4.00. We are now 99% confident we know why Vista was giving us such heartburn. We estimate it will take about 40 hours to recode, then testing begins. We expect 4.01 will release in July.

[admin]

I chose to delay release of 4.00 as we are hopefully within a week of releasing 4.01. We currently expect to get a Final Release Candidate out tonight for testing on both XP and Vista.

Hoster requires Internet Explorer 7 to run reliably. This is standard with all Vista versions. For XP users, upgrade now so you will be ready to install and run Hoster 4. The new Show Display with 4 views (Lyrics, Intermission, Audio DJ, and Video VJ) runs from a customized version of Internet Explorer, free of all cluttering controls.

Some of our testers also found that XP SP3 makes Hoster run better. You can download and install this over the Internet free by clicking your Windows Start button, then the "Windows Upgrade" link. Select "Custom" versus "Express" and allow it to find everything you need to install before installing SR3.

We have used the latest technologies available to make Hoster the most advanced product on the market today.

Current target release is Friday, July 11th, or Monday July 14th.