Karaoke Forums

I currently use VCDs and CDGs but I am tired of having to change out the disks each time someone wants a new song. I have a laptop with S-video and VGA outputs and and external hard drive. I already have a mic mixer and wireless mics. What would I need in terms of software and additional hardware to be able to play the songs with video on my computer and have them show on the TV screen. I also want the capability to be able to search for songs by title/artist.

I have looked into the DVD players with USB connections and the HDD players, but I'm not sure if they have search and menu functions and if so how user friendly those functions are.

This will be for home use only.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

You might want to look at RoxBox as I know that it has the search capabilities that you are looking for and you can include VCD titles in your database after naming them correctly. website is www.kjamp.com for their player. It is winamp based but they include the winamp software including all the plugins. The nice thing, if your VCD's are Multiplex is they have the only Multiplex plugin for winamp.

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

Danny

Will RoxBox/winamp? actually play and dispay dvd's and/or vcd's through hosting software?

first you gotta include .dat files in the playable list in winamp. It will only play VCD's as far as I am know. You have to name the files. then they will be able to be used in roxbox's database.

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

I don't know about the vcd's, but for the cdg's you will need something to rip the discs into your computer.I use Power cd+g burner. I also use winamp to play my files with the cdg plugin. For my rotation and to organize my playlist, I use Auto kdj. All this software is free except the Power cd+g burner. But that program is well worth the whole $39 USD investment.
You could rip the discs with free software as well, but the process takes a couple of programs and a few steps and can be confusing for someone new. Power cd+g burner is a simple point and click one step process.

I am currently working on a computerised system that basically provides a searchable menuing system just like what you see in karaoke lounges in Asia - with touch screen selection capability of the singer's images on screen; song/artist search by the first letter of each word; playlist; etc. The video is ported to the big screen tv through a second VGA card in the system. This system runs on windows and it works just like a professional system at home. The problem now I have is transferring all my karaoke VCDs, DVDs, LDs and CDG disks over to the hard drive. And this takes a lot of time. Anyone interested can contact me to custom build. My system is much better than the box-player units (such as CAVS or some karaoke DVD players from China) in the market today. My email is mchew328(at)gmail.com. I will be setting up a web site hopefully in near future.... I do this part time...so that getting these kinds of administrative stuff may be a bit of a hassle..