Karaoke Forums

I am on the hunt for a laptop and was wondering what some of you all had. and did you have to get one specially made or can you get external video cards and such for them to go with Karaoke. What kind of attachments do you have for yours?

I have had terrific luck with Toshiba Laptops for durability and performance.

I look for the following specs:

Dual Core Processor
2mg Ram
200 gig HD
Dual Display Graphics Card
S-Video Out
At least 3 USB outs
PCMCIA Card or PC Card Slot (for Sound Card) Creative makes a PC Slot Sound Card that works really well.

That is a good start and you should be able to find the above for $600-$800

If you will be using this for KJ work you will want to get the Extended Warranty with Accidental Coverage as well.


Good Luck

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

I have two Dell Inspiron 1520 machines. I use the VGA out on one of them, and the SVideo out on the other, so you don't need an external video card. You can get a USB sound card for about $40-100.

Since you probably have to buy Vista, you will of course need at least 2G of ram. You probably want to have 300G internal disk drive to have enough space for a substantial music library. Personally I find external drives to be unnecessary, extra time to set up and more moving parts and cables to fail.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I've owned 3. First one was a Toshiba with 15" screen. Died just out of one year-surprised me-could have been a virus that killed it because my daughter was using it. Ran real hot-it had a Athlon 64 dual core processor. No more AMD or Toshibas for me.

Next one is a Dell Inspiron 1720. Decent computer, 17" screen, 160GB hard drive which I am about to replace with a 320GB. No problems at all in about a year. This is what I am using for my singing show, DJing and Karaoke hosting. Solid machine. Could be a bit faster-1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo and a fairly basic video car I suppose. It has both S-video out and VGA out for hooking up an external monitor. This seems to be standard on pretty much every laptop.

Third was a Acer with 15" screen that I got for my daughter to replace the Toshiba. This was a big surprise because for the money it's a well made computer. $399+tax at Best Buy this past summer. 160BG drive I believe. Not a single problem, high quality case, screen and just a solid, well built machine. I will buy another Acer FOR SHURE.

Even though a laptop with a 17" screen is bulkier and heavier, I'd rather have the bigger screen. This is a matter of personal preference and most folks do fine with a 15" screen.

Ok, here's what I have at this moment,,,and might I add this has worked flawlessly for three years now.

Gateway MX7118
AMD Athlon 64 processor 3400+
787 MHz, 1 gig RAM
80 gig internal harddrive
500 gig Maxtor external harddrive
Windows XP Pro

This laptop has 4 USB ports, one firewire 400 port, S-Video output, and of course VGA, and is wireless, which I rarely get to use. However, it's really not the fastest on start up time, but that doesn't seem to bother me at my shows, because I usually have other things to do when setting up, while it's booting. But because it's three years old, I am looking at buying either a Toshiba Satellite or a HP Pavilion laptop. Both have eveything that I need to use as far as hardware go's. The Vista will probably go out the door and will install XP Pro on this one as well. Vista is just not that good for the programs I run, not bad, but not good either.

I will still use the Behringer UCA202 which takes a USB signal and turns it into an RCA output, which in turn goes directly into an RF Modulator. However, I might try and start using the VGA output, dunno yet.

I forgot to mention that now that I've been running Vista for over a year and have gotten used to it, I would never go back to XP now.

I've found programs that do what I want that run under Vista just fine. Windows 7 which is coming soon is Vista with a few changes and a different name.

Most software companies realize that they need to be Vista compatible and they're working at doing that. If software is Vista compatible then it will be compatible with windows 7 and therefore millions of computers for years to come. XP was a great and stable operating system, but eventually everything move forward whether we are ready or not.

I was at bestbuy window shopping and saw this one what do you all think about this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173191&st=gateway+2616&type=product&id=1218044029373

First of all I wouldn't buy a floppy disk at Best Buy if it was free and they bought me lunch. Or dinner at Red Lobster! Worst service of any company I've ever dealt with and I am not alone. Great price, good selection, terrible horrible service after the sale.

Having said that, I have a Toshiba A105 Intel Celeron M 1.46ghz, 2gb ram, 80gb hdd, wifi, cd-rw/dvd. I purchased it used for $220 bucks. Purchased in November, working great, it's fast. It is wireless although I rarely use the net. I rip all my music from my home pc, play the music thru a external hard drive (160 gb passport) which fits easily with my laptop and compuhost dongle in my laptop case. It is fast and has worked great so far. I've convinced myself I will never spend $700 on a laptop for karaoke since that is all I will run on it.

The problem with that one is that it has no SVideo and no VGA output. It has an HDMI, but I don't know how to convert that to what you need for a lyrics screen.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

You really want a laptop and a good deal? Watch Deals2buy.com for a week or two. You'll find some really good deals.

I am having a hard time finding a laptop with s video on it, does anyone know of any on the market today?

it transmits both audio and video in a digital signal, hdtvs, blue ray, and other new junk is set up for it. you can get cables that go from hdmi into 3 rca or adapters, and switches that distribute the signal. don't buy hdmi from best buy, or major retailers....the price is really jacked up...much cheaper on line.

This really surprises me as S-Video Out is standard on most all laptops except Sony.

It would be hard not to find a Toshiba without S-Video.


As for the Best Buy comment, I guess it depends on what part of the country you are in. The Best Buy stores here walk on water as far as I'm concerned. Everything over $400 I buy has their extended warranty and I have had multiple items replaced over the years all with no questions asked. Oh well.

I have 3 Toshiba Laptops in play and have had no problems except a bad battery once and it was replaced w/extended warranty. One of my Toshiba's is going on 5 years of shows with no issues.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

personally, I won't by a gateway.....

Johnny,,,
I sorta agreed with you when I bought my Gateway at first, I really was leery,,but took the chance, and it has really been an outstanding laptop. I also own a Toshiba, it's my wifes, and it's ok, has a small issue with heat, but we put a cooling pad under it, and it works fine. Both of these lappies have s-video. But, the story these days is,,that s-video is on the way "out". Most manu's have discontinued s-video, you will have to just search by laptops with it installed. Good luck

I've got a Toshiba going on 5 years of weekly shows also. It's never given me a problem.

Build and Price one on Dell's website

I just got a pretty nice HP Pavillion. Vista unfortunately, but Hoster works with it so all good there. DVD drive reads & writes cdg (with Hoster & Microstudio - not on GoldenHawk, Compuhosts ripper or CDG ripper).
Intel 2.00GHz Dual Core
4 GB RAM
320 gb hd on board

Nice little system overall. Don't like the onboard Realtek sound & do use my external Lexicon Alpha USB interface. MUCH better sound quality.

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

You Know...all I run is an E Machines 2ghz Dual Core.....1gig Memory..vga out....6 usb ports....120 gig internal hard drive (I keep MP3's on this.........Karaoke on an external). And it works FANTASIC. What I DO recommend is that WHATEVER your machine..use it SOLELY for your work........Mine cos £250 GBP (about $400)..and regularly out performs Friends/competitors more expensive models...as their machines get corrupted with whatever they do on the internet...

Lonman, I am currently looking at a hp compac presario laptop. I saw your post about the dvd drive on YOUR new hp reads and rips cdg's with Hoster, and Microstudio. I have Compuhost, the laptop I am looking at has Vista Home Premium, how can I find out if the dvd drive will read and rip cdg's using Cdgrip and Compuhost, before I buy it. Is there some spec I should look for, or what?

Thanks,
Rosario