Karaoke Forums

the only thing that i can say against a kiosk is that everyone who sells software says something along the lines of "I put everything together from used parts on ebay for less than $200"

I would challenge anyone to go on ebay or anywhere else for that matter and find a WORKING touch screen for less than $200. let alone a computer that still works PLUS a touch screen.

the cheapest touchscreen I have been able to find STARTS at $250.

Now you can get kits that supposedly add this functionality to a monitor for cheap, but the nuts and bolts of it is its just too complicated/too much of a hassle to bother.

As for karaoke loop it would be nice if there was something similar for Canada. the majority of people in my area don't read advertising when they are looking for a karaoke show to go to.

-James

I just looked at eBay to verify... and you can still find them.

I purchased 6 Panasonic Toughbooks with waterproof keyboards, shock-mounted HDDs and yes, touch-screens. The average cost of those machines was $75 each.

I didn't make my kiosk from parts gathered on eBay. I just bought old XP laptops that I thought would survive the bar atmosphere. So far so good.

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Never the same show twice!

Jclaydon is in Canada. That makes a huge difference since many of those sellers won't ship to Canada, or their shipping costs negate any savings. I recently spent almost $400 for mine. Worth it, though.

Obstacles and reasons why not.

Easily overcome with a little results oriented thought and planning.

I'd be willing to help out a neighbor from the north... If you find something you want on eBay and they won't ship to Canada... pm me and I'll cover the transaction and ship it to you.

I did this with a rare set of disks out of the UK last year. The seller stated that they did not ship outside of the UK. I have a friend who lives here and her brother lives in London. I had the items shipped there and he posted them to me. The shipping was so cheap that he didn't even bother to charge me (I sent him a gift cert for an online retailer).

Honestly, I'd like to help. That is why I posted in this thread to begin with.

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Never the same show twice!

I am using my kiosk for the first time tonight. It'sa panasonic toughbook as well. I forgetwhat I paid for it. wasn't much though. although I think I paid less for my hosting computer than for the toughbook.

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

Do you use XP or Win 7?

Compuhost is the only one that is dependent on it's own hosting software because it appears to me that it uses a DDE connection (Dynamic Data Exchange) between the host machine and the kiosks... this can result in the kiosk(s) crashing if the host program crashes. (ask MtnKaraoke - he knows the problem and the fix)

Songfinder can work with literally anything - including disc based - if you can make a 4-column Excel file, it will even work with your DJ music if you like.

Diafel can give you some perspective on how difficult it is to set up, since it would be better to hear from her than (biased) me.

She's also a very smart cookie when it comes to computer techno-knowledge....

actually i run Vista. wish someone would make a Linux compatible hosting program someday though.
i understand the bias part, but i have heard good things on here about your system as well Chip.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

I'm not saying cheap equipment can't be found, just that for me its a hell of a lot harder than people seem to make it sound.

It doesn't really matter either way because I'm not working anymore anyway. Altho I may end up putting together something for a friend of mine if she's interested.

Man the universe just LOVES to prove me wrong sometimes, here i am bitching about never being able to find something i would be able to afford as a kiosk and I found this

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/370536981465?ssP ... 1423.l2649

Now if it just manages to stay unsold until Fridav i just might be able to swing it *crossing fingers*

Better make sure the screen resolution will go as high as 1024x768 because if it doesn't, you might have problems.

Diafel sent one back that advertised it could but when it arrived it couldn't and there was no driver available.....

I'm gonna stay with books. The connection speed of the kiosk wasn't fast enough. It timed out on a request from one of my singers while someone was singing. It worked fine before I started the show. Then while I was demonstrating the kiosk to one of my singers after I got the first one singing it timed out and wouldn't send the request. I went back to running the show the old way.

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

Connection speed should never affect anything. A kiosk sends such little data it should not matter.

If you have set up an "ad hoc" network, (computer to computer) then I'd suggest that you get a router and set it up as an "infrastructure" network. I've never had any issues with infrastructure.

Ad hoc networks put more load on the processor.

You can also try your local freecycle group. Go to freecycle.org and search for your city. I got two free laptops over time that way!

Yes.. jclaydon... the picture of that toughbook tells me the screen is the small version... the bevel is almost 1 inch.
The C28 came with a couple of different touchscreens. You need the larger of the two. The bevel on the larger one is about 1/2 an inch.

c. staley informed you correctly with regard to resolution requirements.

Danny, I had timing issues with the kiosk at first, make sure you are updated to the latest version of BOTH, Compuhost and the server/kiosk. Also, look for interference from magnets (speaker cabs) or other electrical sources and try to avoid them in line of site for the server and kiosk. I've been using this system for over 6 months now and I'll never go back to slips if I can avoid it.

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Never the same show twice!

Precisely! Definitely go with a router. Doing it ad hoc (comp to comp) can definitely lag things and there's too much that can go wrong. I have ZERO lag time or connection issues with mine running a router. It like it's not even there to my host machine.
And once set up with a router, I never need to reset anything again. I connect everything, start it up and away we go!

I was just about to chime in about that!
It did TECHNICALLY go to the higher resolution, but I had to scroll the screen to see all of it. It's because it was originally built for Win2K and they installed WinXP on it. There are proper video drivers for 2k, and it correctly goes to the higher resolution, but NOT in XP.

actually i put in a bid for a touchscreen monitor I found which i would prefer. This is the first thing i have managed to find on my own where the bidding hasn't already gone over $100.

I have 3 old computers i could use for a kiosk station, I could just never find a touchscreen monitor for cheap. If I win my bid, i'll get the monitor for less than $100 including shipping.

mostly right now I just wanted something i could set up to play around with test in case I ever got back into hosting, but it wasn't important enough to me to spend a lot of money on.

thanks for all the help/advice

-James

As stated before as well, I just find deals on used laptops. Picked up a few macbook pro (old versions) for $150 or less. They are in great condition, work perfect for how I use them and similar to the kiosk as far as user know how. Everyone has actually warmed up to them, the new people get help from me OR someone who already knows. People do still ask for the books to browse, but more times than not, its straight to the laptops and away we go.

Well I missed out on the cheap monitor, again. some lucky SOB beat me by $1.

But I did find another one that was a little more expensive, $150 total including shipping. It's a bit of a stretch for me budget wise but overall I'm still pretty excited that i'll have something to play with.

-James