Karaoke Forums

Thinking of Buying the MTU Ruggedized Laptop...Who here has it and is it the best way to start a pro karaoke biz?  Does anyone have a better setup that competes or is this the best designed system available?  

Also, are there any great sites to download high quality/popular mp3+G or is the best way to buy cd+G and rip them to the hardrive?

Thanks,

New KJ Luke

Very expensive.  What are you going to do, buy 2 of them?  One for a backup.

Get 2 good fast laptop computers and buy a hosting program.  Get yourself a songbook writing program that works with (KJ Rip & Zip.  It's $5.)

Make all of your song book corrections first before you rip all the songs and have to re edit the ripped titles and artists.

What are you going to do about a PA system and all the other needed equipment?  

The music is going to be your biggest expense.

You are not looking at a cheap start up cost.

Best bet is to get a decent laptop with a TV out and large hard drive. Then run something like Sax and Dotty's show hoster. You can fuind it at http://www.sax-n-dotty.co.uk/. You will also need a copy of winamp (version 2.54 runs best). Add on the pacemaker keyshift pluggin and the CD+G pluggin and you are ready to go. Import your MP3s+G files as Zipped files. If you have Microsoft Access then you can import the song list from Sax and Dotty's.

This is the instalation I always use and is nice and reliable.

IMHO....
Save your money and buy and "off the shelf" laptop.  Just make sure to max out the ram in it.  For the price of 1 MTU system you can probably get 2-3"off the shelf" systems.

Personaly I have 2 systems, both on Dell laptops (about $600 each),  2 maxtor external USB hard drives, and built  ""custom cases from a aluminum breifcases I bought at the Home Depot.

I use Sax & Dottys Show Presenter for the Hosting program, and Open Office's spread sheet to make my books.


Investment (less music and the PA system) probably arount $1800

The older of the 2 systems has been running for almost 4 years with no problems.

I would never spend that much!  Get yourself a good Vostro from DEll, at that price you'll get a Core2 Duo, XP home or Pro, 2 gig ram and a 7200 rpm drive, that's way better than the MTU laptop in my opinion!

you can get the laptop and software for less than their laptop costs without the software. I got mine at walmart and it works well.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I would buy two nice Dell laptops, a very nice padded case, and Compuhost for the price you can get that "ruggedized" laptop for. If you are relatively careful about keeping it in the case, there is no reason the one laptop won't serve you for years. If it conks out, bring out the second one. Or trade them off to even out the wear.

BUY the CDGs and rip em yourself.

1.  It gives you another form of a backup if a PC crashes (all u would need is a CDG player.
2.  If any accuses you of using pirated music, all you have to do is show the CDGs.
3.  If gives you the control of the quality of the rip.

Don't paid receipts work anymore?

Provided it was a legal source to begin with & downloads are still technically in the 'gray' - 'iffy' area at this time in the law.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

How are we supposed to know if a site has everything needed to be 100% legal?

And what would that require from them and us?

Thanks for all the replys.  Why would I need two laptops?  Isn't one laptop and a backup external drive sufficient?  Also, do these Dell/ "Off the Shelf" laptops have TV outs?  Also, does everyone prefer PC to Mac?

Thanks,

Luke

Computers crash eventually, a second laptop for back up is pretty commonplace.
Most of the laptops today have the s-video out to connect to the tv.
PC over Mac for karaoke software, as no one makes a really good program for Mac as of yet.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Extra external drive full of music is just that.  If you can't play the music because the operating system or monitor or keyboard or mouse or video card or sound card or Etc goes bad, then what?

What are you going to do with the external hard drive? Plug it into what?

I've had to switch mine a few times because of some internal software and hardware problems.  10 minutes i was back up and running.  

Not packing up and heading for the door early.

Because it seemed like you were ready to spend $2,300. We were ready to help you do that.

Seriously though, I am glad I have two laptops. I can toss the second one in and have peace of mind. You can accomplish the same thing by setting up an hour early and being only 15 minutes from your home desktop machine, too.

I also have a second mixer which I put in with my setup. Since I have a powered mixer, an amp, more than one speaker, and extra patch cables too, the show can pretty much go on if any one piece fails.

And I'm not even a pro! But I play one at home.