Karaoke Forums

Hi,

Can someone recommend a lap top for under $1000.  that's good enough for karaoke.  It will be used professionally.  What brand and features do you recommend?

Thanks,
Alan

Hi Alan.  Welcome to the forums.

Different karaoke programs have different requirements.  My pat reply is to ALWAYS decide first, which program you want to use and then buy or build your computer to meet those requirements.

Search out all the different programs.  Download their demos and look them over.  Then decided.  Again, welcome to our group.  Lot's of good advice here.

Kelly

AS Kellyoke stated, pick your program first, then buy the laptop to match it.  And as I have said before, it seem the the more expensive of a hosting program you get, the more expensive/powerful computer you will need.

As for buying a computer, I recomend Dell laptops.  I have 2 Dell laptops, and 2 dsktops, and never had a problem.  One of the laptops has been used at least 2 times a week for 2 years hosting karaoke, and never had a problem.

Most of dell laptops now support EXTENDED desktop, and whatever brand you buy, make sure it can have a 2nd display hooked up that will show the EXTEND desktop.  Some people confuse this with DUAL monitors, but that only means you can have 2 displays hooked up, but both displays will show the same thing.

And, be sure you purchase one with s-video out..

(It makes the two screen setup easier..)

You may wish to try/audition the audio specs out prior to purchase..

My Toshiba works fine, but a friend had to turn off some "Effects" to get smooth audio..

And a 500 USB drive for music..  (Mine is 400, but oh well)

And consider a spare data drive..

Good luck..

Thanks everyone for the replys.  I am going to use Compuhost.  I tried the others and like Compuhost the best.

As for laptop sound, will the standard Soundblaster Audigy card that Dell offers in it's laptops be good enough?  What about the video card?

I am going to use the laptop for Karaoke only.

Thanks again
Alan

That is in the ear of the beholder.  Some will INSIST that you must upgrade to a "PRO" level sound card, but it may not be necessary to you.  Give it a try and see what YOU think, not what others TELL you to do.

Just make sure it will suport 2 displays with EXTENDED DESKTOP.  And, as JD meister said, get one with S-VIDEO OUT for the 2nd display.  It does make things easier.

Nothing is just "good enough" for karaoke.

Quality makes or breaks you.  

It will be a big factor in determining your success.

I can only advise you to stay away from HP/Compaq products, because there is, virtually, no intelligent support available from most of the "techs" in India.

I've contacted India several times for help to set up dual monitors and resolve related issues, and they were just lost.  The first person I spoke to told me that the only purpose of the S-video slot on my laptop was to get images from my TV (which she couldn't expalin to me how to accomplish that)

If not for the folks in this forum, I'd still be lost regarding such matters!

Many "Media Edition" laptops, may have video in and out, including a "Tuner Function", but for karaoke, only out is required..

I bought a "Desktop" that has I/O front and rear, s-video, composite, (red, yellow, white) TV tuner, and firewire. (IEEE 1394)

Yes, I bought right.. $30.00 at the local "Goodwill" thrift store.. It's a Gateway..  LMAO

Never be afraid to experiment..

I use a compaq presario m2000 its fairly basic but does the job. I dont do karaoke however, I simply run the cdg files as my backing when I sing and use sax & dottys or roxbox. The one thing I would recommend above all else is you never purchase anything with a celeron chip. Celeron and audio just do not mix. My lappy has an amd chip and it has never missed a beat. I do however use an external usb sound module.
I have used my lappy virtually every weekend for gigs since the purchase September last year. Some of my gigs are 8 hours or so (no I dont sing for 8 hours but at a wedding etc I normally am providing background music whilst dining so the lappy is on and working for lengthy periods) and it has never once caused me probs.

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Check out this laptop:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp ... &tab=specs
The laptop is only $399 after rebate.  With the money you'll save, you can buy at least 1 gig of memory, an external hard drive, and a USB sound card.

I have owned three HP desktop computers and a new Compaq notebook.  In the past I have never had a major concern with HP support.  What I experienced, however, since I purchased the notebook is a travesty.  I have had called numerous times on three technical matters and they have not been able to answer.  One guy was so flustered he said he'd have to research the matter and call me back.  That has never happened to me before and he never called me back.  I am strongly urging everyone to avoid HP computers unless you are convinced you will never need tech support.

Tech support on their printers still seems to be alright.

Currious to know why is that?

It has something to do with the bus. This was from the tech that set up the community radio station I ran. It was a recommendation back 5 years ago. When I moved from the village I ran the station in I took my trusted AMD with me. 5 years on when I decided I needed to upgrade, I decided I couldnt justify the difference between the price of celeron to pentium (AMD werent available at the store I was dealing with) so I figured even a celeron would be faster and better than the 5 year old amd. WRONG!!! I could multitask on amd never on celeron. I couldnt record on a celeron and have anthing else open. Every time I opened even a word document music I was playing skipped. So I got rid of the bloody thing and went back to AMD this baby is dual core and I have every confidence that it will give me the 5 years service that my orig one gave me.

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Hs nothing to do with music ONLY.  The celeron processors are just stripped down models of the P4.  They don't have as much processing power, and no matter what apps you were runnning, music, games, word proceesing, ect.., it just runs slower.

I think you will find if you do some enquiring one has a side bus one has a front bus, so they are not the same

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

The main difference is the P4 has twice the on chip L2 memory  as the Celeron does. 128 vs 256 mb..

http://www.tomshardware.com/2002/09/03/battling_brothers/index.html

^^ Info site..

Celeron processors have 256 KB L2 cache compared to the P4's 512 KB, that means the P4 can process bigger chucks of data than the celeron

Celeron bus speeds, called FSB or front side bus, are slower, 400 MHz compared to P4's 800 MHz FSB.

When a P4 is benchmarked against a Celeron processor, differences are noticed mostly in gamming and graphics.  To over come that you can compensate by buying a better graphics card.   Unless you are a serious gamer whould should notice to big of a difference betwen a P4 and a Celeron, when doing every day tasks on the PC.

Yes I do belive that you had a bad experince with a Celeron.  But it could have been a host of other things that were the problem(the OS running, softare running in the background, amount of ram availble, ect...), and possibly could not have been the processor.  If you want a true comparison of a processor, you must run the processors on identical machines.

oh I thought the same thing so installed a extra gig of ram and every time I wanted to record on the fly ie, run sax & dottys and cool edit pro I struck the same prob.
No amount of ram helped.
Horses for courses. You see why it would be no use in a radio station using one computer to automate a program as well as record and produce ads. (one soundcard for on air another one for cueing and production)
Celeron cant cope with serious multitasking of any kind.

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

No single processor computer can multitask..

The faster they are the more they seem to multitask, but they really don't.

Two processors, and software that knows you have two processors, will work..

Try to find it..  LOL