3.319 audio tempo change problem while importing singer's disc

[Beavis]

and to all who dont back up there files, make sure you do it asap !!

we tell everyone all the time to back up, back up, back up !!

this way if your files every get deleted, all you have to do is drag and drop them from your back up and BANG !!! your up and running.


BACK UP= no more re-importing cd-g's !!!

[djcharli]

I to have reinstalled hoster 3316 and it didn't help me, I still can not import songs when someone else is singing I have done all up dates ect. I hope MTU figures this thing out soon,

[scottccook]

ok, I was able to get mine to work again. I had upgraded from 3310 to 3317 to 3319, I tried going back to 3317 and that didn't work. Went back to 3310, AND NOW IT WORKS AGAIN. I am so excited. I didn't have any problems when had upgraded to 3317 before but going back to it did not work (Wierd huh?). What ever, it works now, and hoster is still the best. I just hate to hear my customers say "This doesn't happen at other places that use a regular Karaoke Player" Those folks usally get the number one finger on my right hand, if you know what I mean. Any way admin, good luck figuring out this latest glitch.

[djcharli]

I am so happy for you I am going to try and go back to my origanal version of Hoster I hope I can get mine to work again I'll let you know

[admin]

Read this Post about Hoster 3.320, and then download and install it.

The problem is in 3.318 and 3.319, now fixed in 3.320.

We too thought we had a virus when we unknowingly lost files not related to Hoster at all. We are confident we found the code that along with Windows' random operations did the NTSF index damage. We are confident we have fixed the problem, but only you folks seeing the problem repeatedly can tell us it is fixed.

Thank you for your patience. We truly are sorry this happened, and believe we have solved it.

So far, we don't know what is causing audio glitching while importing Singers disc tracks. VERY FEW users are experiencing this, so it "appears" to be system related.

WE SUSPECT... it is probably made worse by lower computer RAM and slower graphics cards with less RAM. We now recommend 512MB for Windows 2000, 1GB for XP and 2GB for Vista and at least 64MB Video RAM.

One of our Beta Testers has a REALLY OLD Matrox graphics card with 32MB RAM. When he upgraded his Windows .NET to 2.0, all his problems disappeared.

Think about it... as you upgrade Windows, it uses more RAM than it did before. Also, every release of Hoster contains new features that add more demands on the CPU, hard drive and graphics card.

Going back to 3.310 is one solution, but I encourage you to at least try 3.320. You can still return to 3.310 if it doesn't fix all the problems here.

[scottccook]

I wish I could say that upgrading to 3320 worked, but it did not. Went back to 3310, and all is well. I really don't know what to say, I have done all updates, and defraged. It's just wierd. Something is screwing with the processing speed or the sound card. I am no where near computer smart, but can anything in the new programs mess with the speed or the sound?

[admin]

Originally Posted by scottccook

I wish I could say that upgrading to 3320 worked, but it did not. Went back to 3310, and all is well. I really don't know what to say, I have done all updates, and defraged. It's just wierd. Something is screwing with the processing speed or the sound card. I am no where near computer smart, but can anything in the new programs mess with the speed or the sound?

Scott, can you tell us what failed for you?

Was it still dropping audio while importing a CDG disc?

If that is the case, please read the manual installation section on changes to make to Windows to prevent audio dropouts and make them if not done already.

[scottccook]

I am not having problems with audio drop out, I am having problems with the tempo of the music slowing down and static while loading a singers disk. Once the disk loads, the tempo goes back to normal but, the words do not match the music. I thought I had it all worked out by going back to 3310, but saturday night it happened again. I do not know how to check the video memory, but like i said before, this computer is MTU built. You used a radeon 9200, if that helps. Device Manager says evrything is running fine, scan disk didn't come up with anything. I have 1.5 Gig of Ram, so I am confused. Could the Plextor 712A be going bad? I have also noticed that when I insert a disk, the yellow light blinks anywhere lately from 30 seconds to 2 min. before it turns green. a couple of times, it has just stayed a steady yellow. I have always just blamed the disk. i just need it fixed soon. HELP ME ADMIN!!!!!

[ddouglass]

Scott have you updated the firmware on the Plextor?

[scottccook]

Yes I have updated all drivers and firmware.

[admin]

Scott, thank you for elaborating on exactly what is going wrong.

We have NEVER heard anything in Hoster change the playback speed, or add crackling. This has us stumped.

Can you try a new DVD drive? It appears to me that yours is internal mounted.

[admin]

Originally Posted by djcharli

I hope I can get mine to work again I'll let you know

Originally Posted by teddyt

I am not happy with 3.319. I can't go back to 3.312 because I forgot to copy the product code. I can't begin to say how dissappointed I am.

teddyt, do you need the installation file for 3.312? If so, please post your request here as I'm here daily now. We are working as fast as we can to identify what is causing this problem.

So far, we cannot re-create it on any of our computers, making us think it may be something related to your computer. Please do the tests below and post your results so we know.

Originally Posted by scottccook

I am not having problems with audio drop out, I am having problems with the tempo of the music slowing down and static while loading a singers disk.

Gentlemen, and anyone else too... try the following diagnostic tests. After each item, test to see if the tempo of the playing file stops changing while importing a Singer's disc track.

1. Clean your CD/DVD Drive laser. OfficeMax and other office supply stores have an "Optical Disc Laser Cleaning Disc" you insert in the drive, spin it up for a few minutes, then eject it. If this doesn't make the drive spin up and go from yellow to green faster, then something else is wrong. The point you made about 30 seconds to 2 minutes to go green says something is wrong with the drive or disc media.


2. Inspect the disc you are testing with. Is is scratched? Look at it edge wise to see if it is flat or warped? Are there fingerprint smudges? Have you tested with more than one disc? If not, get your newest disc and test with it. Better yet, use Microstudio and make a clean new disc. I'll trust that disc before any of the Karaoke manufacturers discs! Test to see if tempo changes.


3. Check the Hardware Accelerator setting. Follow these steps to do this:
A.. Click the Start button
B. Click RUN
C. Enter "dxdiag" (without the quotes) and press the Enter key
D. In the dialog that appears, on the front "System" page, in the "System Information" box, find the DirectX Version: at the bottom of the list. It should be 9.0c. If not, you should upgrade your DirectX version.
E. Click the Sound or Sound1 Tab at the top of this dialog.
F. Find the Hardware Sound Accelerator slider.
G. Note where it was, and adjust it first to one setting from the left (full left is NONE).
H. Save the changes and


4. Find out if you have .NET 2.0 or higher installed. Follow these steps to do this:
A. Click the Start button
B. Click the Settings menu item
C. Click "Control Panel"
D. Click the "Add/Remove Programs" item
E. In the window that appears, scroll to the Microsoft .NET Framework and write down which of these is the highest you have:
1.1
1.1 Hotfix
2.0
2.0 Service Pack 1
3.0
3.0 Service Pack 1.

Some users have seen problems disappear by upgrading to NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 or higher.

If you don't have at least 2.2 installed, follow these steps to upgrade:
1. Click the Start button
2. Click the Windows Update menu item
3. When the Internet page appears, wait until you see the "Express" and "Custom" buttons. Click Custom to have it scan your computer to see what you have, and calculate what you need.
4. If you see anything for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.2 or 2.2 Service Pack 1, select the later one to download and install.

Please post back here what you discover with each of these fixes.

[teddyt]

Thanks for the offer but, I did find my reg. code for 3.312 and it was working fine. Just a little slow when adding other peoples songs. I went 3.313 and so far it's working ok and a little faster. I will do the things suggested and continue to advance back up to 3.320. It will be a few days before I can do this as I'm really busy this week. Thanks again.

[admin]

I have emailed all 3 of you folks to test 3.321 Beta 1 for your problem. Since we can't re-create the problem, your testing is crucial to know if we fixed it. Here is what we have done.

Playing Audio Slows Down When Importing Singer's Disc - We discovered that the "CDG import code" did not release Windows to process other operations while it was running. Thus, it could preempt and starve the playing audio, causing it to have dropouts, and slow down, getting behind the lyrics display. We HOPE this fixed the problem. I am giving a link to download 3.321 Beta 1 to the 3 folks who have been struggling with this.

[teddyt]

Well, all is fornot as far as this matter is for me. My computer crashed and there is no way I can afford to purchase a new one at this time. So until then I'm back to using cd's. I appreciated all MTU has done. I had a great conversation Friday. Because of the crash I have to believe that my problems were mostly the computer and not MTU's fault. Once again thanks for all who helped in this matter.

[Beavis]

just reformat and re-install !

if you need a new hard drive they are cheap !!


what part of the country are you from ?? usa ???

ship it to me, i will do it for free !!

[admin]

Originally Posted by scottccook

I wish I could say that upgrading to 3320 worked, but it did not. Went back to 3310, and all is well. I really don't know what to say, I have done all updates, and defraged. It's just wierd. Something is screwing with the processing speed or the sound card. I am no where near computer smart, but can anything in the new programs mess with the speed or the sound?

Originally Posted by djcharli

I am so happy for you I am going to try and go back to my origanal version of Hoster I hope I can get mine to work again I'll let you know

For both of you, clearly something is remaining "installed" after you remove 3.318, 3.319, or 3.320. The only thing it can be is your Hoster Default Registry Keys where we store the persistence settings for your dialog box positions, sizes, default folders, etc. These are NOT removed (no program does this) when you do a REMOVE - either Windows Add/Remove Programs or run a Hoster installation program and select REMOVE.

Thus, there is only one thing left to try, and that is totally deleting your Registry Keys. This will allow re-installing Hoster back to a pristine state as if it had never been install on the computer before.

THIS WILL NOT remove your KMA files, but I do, Do, DO hope you already have a backup of them on another hard drive. You do don't you? GOOD!

* Close Hoster
* Run the Hoster install program and select REMOVE. Follow directions to finish.
* Click the Windows Start button
* Click RUN
* Enter "regedit" without the ""
* In the screen that apppears, at the top find HKEY_CURRENT_USER and click the + to its left
* Scroll down and find "Software" and click its +
* Scroll down and find "Micro Technology Unlimited" and click its +
* Click the + beside "Hoster"
* Click the "Default" folder. It will show a LOT of entries in the right side screen.
* With the "Default" folder selected (blue) in the left side screen (under "Hoster"), right click it and select Delete. If asked, approve deleting the folder
* Close the RegEdit screen
* Run the Hoster 3.310 or 3.312 install program you have been using and install it.
* Test to see if the playing song still changes tempo and has crackle/scratchy sounds while importing a Singer's disc.

Please post back here what your results are.

[kedmison]

I am currently using Hoster 3.316. Many moons ago I was having problems importing a singers disc. Each time I tried would distort the current selection. After many tries in researching here on MTU, I gave up.

Today I was using my Dell E1505 which is what I use with Hoster. I noticed that my DVD movies where doing the same thing with the audio. Very choppy.

Tried update of drivers etc. Nothing worked. Then I found this at:

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199767

"There is a 90% probability that this is due to your DVD drive being stuck in PIO mode. Go to device manager, expand IDE controllers and check the advanced tab under device properties of your secondary IDE channel. Look next to current transfer mode, and I believe you'll see PIO.

To resolve this (still in device manager), expand CD/DVD drives and uninstall your drive, then uninstall the secondary IDE channel. Reboot your system, allowing XP to reinstall these devices. Then go back and change the setting to "DMA if available", and reboot again."

I did. It worked! Not only did it make my DVD movie work; but it also now allows me to import a disc while playing a current selection.

Hope this helps.

Kelly - a happy MTU customer since 2002

[ddouglass]

Good find Kelly. Just as an FYI for the rest of us do you remember where you found this? I think MTUSupport should create a FAQ on this so others who have had this problem can find it.

[scottccook]

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!!!! Everything is working great again. Thank You MTU, AGAIN YOU ROCK! Ended up changing the cdrom drive. So, I don't know if Kedmison's fix would have worked or not. It is strange, because the drive seemed to be working fine in every other way. How would the drive get stuck in PMI Mode, and how can we prevent this from happening again?

Thank you again, not only to MTU but to all who helped out.