Karaoke Forums

Hello everybody,

I'm new to the forums and from West Michigan.  I have a DJ rig and am looking to add karaoke.  Digital seems to be the future of karaoke, and I prefer to go this route.  I have heard a lot about the legalities of it all, who knows what the final outcome will be but I wont be surprised if it turns out much like the whole Napster/other file sharing programs did.  Some lawsuits, but still around on a pay basis.  I am interested in the CAVS JB-199 system, but I've heard a lot about poor customer support and problems with the units.  Anyone use them or care to chime in?  What about the quality of music they use?  It looks like it's all panorama.  Are they any good? Personally I prefer soundchoice.  Any advice is greatly appreciated, as I am planning to make a purchase ASAP.

IF you want a CAVS unit, do what Johnny said.  A competior of mine switched to CAVS and imported his discs on to it.  I have noticed a lot of problems with lyrics not syncing up.  Not sure if that was becasue his disc were abused, or if it was a CAVS problem.

My advice, skip the CAVS system, and go directly to a PC based system.  There are a bunch of threads in the TECHNICAL QUESTION forum on hardware/software to use.  For under $1000 you can buy/setup a damn nice karaoke PC.  And if you want to go bare bones, you can do it for under $500.

before you convert ANY files to digital, you better be aware of what SC and PHM (Stellar Records) are doing now!

http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=9065

^^^^ Yes, I read that thread earlier, along with the others pertaining to the issue.  As long as the CD+Gs are legaly bought, I doubt they will do anything to those of us that have a 1 to 1 ratio back-up.  With CAVS you upload discs right to the hard drive. AND the files are encrypted, so duplicates can not be made.  Or, if songs can be bought and downloaded from SC directly, that solves that problem.

I love the idea of going pc based, but a big issue is buying a large amount of legal digital karaoke in a bundle type package.  You can pick up a CAVS with up to 20,000 songs pre-loaded.  I doubt there are any big bundle packages that you can pick up for a decent price elsewhere.  Not to mention, buying a few smaller bundles, and getting who knows how many duplicates.  As far as lyrics not syncing well, could be the brand of karaoke or could be not enough memory.  I'd get a gig of ram to help battle that problem.  I've just read a lot about others using the CAVS systems and even though they have a good reputation, when you have problems the support can be lacking.  I may just grab one and go from there.  May be the cheapest route to get a decent song selection without an upfront investment of thousands and thousands just in the music.  I like the concept, and the dual screen control option.  It can essentially be set up like a computer.  Just was hoping to hear from some CAVS users here to finalize my decision one way or the other.  I'll have to stick around, because kj-ing will be new to me.  I've been a long time karaoke singer, now its time to run the show!

BE vey careful on where you get your CAVS unit with 20,000 songs on it.
AFAIK, the only songs that come legally pre-loaded on a CAVS unit are CB, THM and DKK.....
http://www.cavsusa.com/song_package.html

IF you buy them from someone pre-loaded with more than that, make sure you get the ORIGINAL discs that they loaded on the CAVS unit, otherwise it is very illegal!

Where can you legally buy Sound Choice files off the Internet?

I'd be VERY cautious about the CAVs units that claim they have "rights" to the DK library!

Song Factory supposedly had the rights... DK has not been in business of karaoke manufacturing in a VERY long time... who would CAVS go thru to get legit licensing?

Matt,
Is absoulutily correct, to my knowledge cavs has never been able to have any documentation that, they have any right to have the original DK 1-99.and the guy who owns the applause rights is a guy by the name of eric brown and I'm almost positive he has never given the licensing of the applause versions either. To the qustion before the reason the graphics are always off on the cavs and pretty much all hard drive systems is when you compress the content of the music to the hard drive, the graphics don't compress, only the music. You should also read the SC and Stellar statements that matt is talking about before you change

Are you sure this is the reason?

_________________
I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

It is unlikely that the "rights" owned by a karaoke manu that has gone out of business has not been sold/transferred to another party.  That was my first reaction when a CAVS dealer told me he can load up Music Maestro onto a system because "they are out of business".  He didn't even suggest that he had obtained any rights to do so.

Since it appears that MM went bancrupt, I would guess the bancruptcy court assigned those rights to the creditors?  If that assumption is correct, who the new owner is of MM's rights is part of the public record.

yup

and those that think that they can convert the manus that have gone out of business or bankrupt better rethink it a bit.

Now I personally stood by the fact that I bought the discs, and converted THOSE purchases... nobody was out anything. So while I broke the law, I didn't STEAL anything.

Thes folks that have the whole DK1-99, MM, and other stuff better watch themselves. Eventually, someone's going to do some screaming! !

Matt, is exactly right, About the only things on cav's are out of business Companies. However the underlying copyrights to all those songs are owned by the artist and publishers. No one except them have the right to give for karaoke and none of them have. Again even if DK, MM, CB, gave cav's the right to put their copyrighted music on the hard drive you would still have to have the underlying copyright holders written permission. Which is why Both SC and Stellar continue to tell you they don't have the right to put their music in a  format for hd use.

I still find the whole ordeal baffling... I was under the impression that the stuff loaded on CAVS machines was authorized and encrypted, which is why they are able to do it because it can not be copied as in a normal hard drive set-up.  Anyhow, I did end up ordering the CAVS JB-199 Premeir, as it seems to be the top of the line unit available today.  Can't wait to get it and play around with it!

Unless the quality was very poor to begin with  YES that's the biggest reason for the words to be different on a HD verses the same brand cdg.