Problems Playing Tracks in MicroStudio

[jaddams]

Hi there:

When using custom assembly in Microstudio, I am able to extract and assemble perfect perfect karaoke CD+Gs which play excellent on my Pioneer CLD-V760 karaoke player. They also play at my local karaoke bar. However, when I try to play them on my computer using Microstudio, I get the title page and that's it! No graphics and the soundtrack sound like a stuck record.

I am a computer technician certified by Novel and Microsoft, and I also a Widows beta tester.

I am running microstudio version 2.315
My computer is a Pentium 4 which I built around an Asus P4B-533-E motherboard with 1024 MB RAM
DirectX 8.1 (4.08.01.0819
Windows XP Professional +SP!
CPU Intel 2.26GHz
My graphics card is ATI Radeon (Main driver At12dvag.dll, version 6.13.10.6166 (the latest)
SoundCard SB Audigy Audio (8400) (Driver e10kx2k.sys) Version 5.12.01.0129 (English)

Any ideas?

Thank you

[George]

Have you tried upgrading the drivers as posted this forum by Support on 9/16 ? Might help.

Take care,

George

[jaddams]

Thanks George

I have installed all MTU's current drivers. Still no go!

Jon

[George]

Don't know if this is even relevant to your problem, but it has been reported that Microstudio will not play some brand discs. As I recall one is NIKKODO(may not be spelled right). Reason I bring this up: is that a possibility, or are you having this problem across the board? If that's not it, I'm up a tree on this one, and support will be needed. They probably have been holding off to see if the drivers wer the problem.

Take care,

George

[jaddams]

George

The devil here was the same one that causes problems in HKPro and that is the Audigy card. The hardfware accelaration must be decreased.

Having don that, my complete system is working excellent. I must send MTU a testimonial. I find these an excelllent suite of programs.

Thanks:

Jon

[chanmainor]

We are in the same situation. Same drivers, same versions, except I'm on Windows98 on a Gateway.

Microstudio version 2.315
Directix 8 or better (yep, that's what it said).

the message I get when I try to play a track in microstudio is an error message that says my video card doesn't support 320x240 256 colors.

Who the heck writes software to support 320x240 resolution graphics?!

I don't want to buy another graphics card, since mine supports millions of colors above 1024x768. Is there another fix?

[George]

If you've updated the drivers per the post this forum dated 9/16, switched to default drivers rather than the MTU drivers, and have Direct X8.0 or better there is a possibility you may need to go to the video card manufacturers site and download updated drivers to support direct X 8.0 or better. This usually takes care of the problem.

Hope it is your solution.

George

[jaddams]

Right on George...Nobody could explain it better. IT WORKS.........

Take Care

Jon

[admin]

Well, that turns out to be a very deep coding problem. The Karaoke CDG format is very close to the 320x240 format. Thus, by forcing this resolution (BTW: this is a very typical technique used by game programmers), we didn't have to scale the CDG lyrics/graphics images.

Karaoke players have a hardware chip that takes the CDG R-W data and converts it into the pixel display that you see. We have to do this same function in software, on a lowly general purpose CPU... not one dedicated to and designed for running the CDG graphic computations.

So... we took a short cut that also allows Microstudio to run on even slower computer chips.

Your solutions...
1. Try George's excellent suggestion of updating your video drivers.

2. Replace your video card with one that does support the older 320x240 format (it was used by many games in the past).

3. Wait for Microstudio 2.317 to release which has entirely new software routines for displaying ($15,000 worth!!!!!!!!!!) that will use whatever resolution your computer is running. Of course, this will likely require a faster CPU speed, and we haven't release it yet so I can't tell you how fast. The old required 350MHz, the new may require 700MHz or faster... don't really know yet.

There is a rule of the Universe you should memorize if you haven't yet. It goes like this:

Cheap... Fast... Good... Pick any two.

That applies to roller skates, cars, fine restaurants, wives (and husbands)... everything in our Universe!!!! You can't get all 3 in one package. We traded off the fast by using 320x240. Now you know....