Karaoke Forums

I was wondering I anyone else has noticed a slight delay in the words (on screen) being synchronized with the music using the Compuhost program.

The delay is only about .5 seconds (or less on some songs) but it was noticed and a couple of singers commented on it. Otherwise the music did not appear to be skipping, and both the sound and video seemed to function ok (except for not being exactly synced).

The possibilities I am considering as causes are:
1. The program Compuhost
2. Songs on external hard drive (access time)
3. My computer is not fast enough (but it is only 1.5 years old)
4. I saved my songs as .wav files and pulling the info off of the HD may be causing the delay.
5. Combinations of the above?

Any other possilbities, experience of the problem or thoughts?

If this problem persists do I not have to pay songwriters  for sync rights? (just kidding)

I use Compuhost and it works perfectly and love it... I also use an external hard drive too... may wanna troubleshoot the other options

My guess is that it may be the lack of CPU & Ram combined with using .WAV files as your source (which is way more resource intensive than MP3's)

I also have the same problem on one of my computers. I have Compuhost host on two computers and they both have the same hard drive and processor, also windows XP, but one has a delay if I put it on DX mode. I have tried everything that I know of and no change, so I just use the standard mode.

First you have to make sure that you have at least a DiectX 9.0 or above. If doesn't work, you may have to use the Standard mode which eliminates the Tempo key from working. Try putting it on Standard and see if it works.

To change it to standard, go to file, system device support manager, and select standard.

Good luck!
Rick

 Okay????  Care to explain the bit about MP3s being less resouce intensive than WAV???

But I agree that the first place to look would be RAM.  I had no hand in writing Compuhost but it sounds as if there is a delay between the music playback and the video being started within the program.  The most likely cause of this I think would be a read/write operation being called for hard drive.  There might not be any syncronization built into their CDG interpreter so the delay would go uncorrected.  That's all a semi-educated guess of course.

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Okay, who took my pants?

Gio into display props and set theme on windows classic. (This might solve It by itself)

Go here and do these steps.


Check this link
Do a disc cleanup and defrag if you never have.

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I am trying converting all of my sound files to MP3 instead of .wav.

The theory is that the transfer rate from the hard drive is limited to no more than 60 MB/second with USB 2.0. Most likely less, depending on the hard drive specs. My hard drive lists 34MB/second as the transfer rate.

If a song is about 40mb with a .wav file and only 1/4 that or less as a MP3, that could account for the delay. This is assuming that the song "starts" by downloading the sound file and then downloading the .cdg file from the hard drive. If the program incorparates the appropriate delay for the .mp3 files, it would be insufficient for the .wav files which will take about a second longer to pull from the hard drive.

While the .wav files may be faster to convert for sound, it may be the limiting factor is disk access time. In an internal hard drive the data transfer rate is going to be 100MB/second or faster and that is less likely to be noticable as a delay when using .wav files vs .mp3.

I started conversion last night and I am up to the letter "G" in artist name after about 10 hours. I suspect it will take a couple days, but fortunately I don't have to go back to the disks, and it is all hands off time.

In any case it may solve the problem. Will get back to this later.

The audio track starts the video The delay is caused when the video is cached The size of the cache determines the length of the delay. It is an efficiency and resource problem not audio.

No need to sacrifice audio for video...

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I am thinking on a similar theory, but also with the theory that the audio starts the song before it is completely downloaded from the external hard drive. Assuming that the song starts to play after about 10MB of the 40MB song is loaded into memory it may take another 30MB of download time for the drive to start downloading the video. Since the video files are small and should take less than .1 second to get from the hard drive. But the acess time for the other 30MB of audio to be downloaded may be enough for the delay.

I doubt it is a raw memory issue, as I am running only compuhost during my shows, and my laptop has 2GB of memory and a 1.6 Athlon processor. That is far more than the minimums for compuhost (512MB, 1.2 Athlon). Certainly it may be a question of how the computer is using it efficiently. No doubt Bill Gates thinks he has a better idea about the priorities of system resources on my computer than I do....

It may also be due to virus protection software, but I think I have that turned off. Virus protection software also makes it "difficult" to be sure that things are all turned off, as once again they assume they know what my priorities are, and think that I may be "wrong" or making a mistake when I turn it off.

Doc Im not familar with compuhost I run roxbox It actually unzips both files onto the c drive before playing I have actually tried wireless from main system to laptop with no problems or delay. I dont know if compuhost has a forum will google.

Didnt work got this thread tho....

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Compuhost has a forum for "registered owners" I tried to apply to the forum, and although I have a legit bought copy of the program that I thought I registered, for some reason it would not let me on the forum.

I have been a CompuHost user for quite awhile, and VERY happy!

As for your problem, CompuHost now offers TWO hardware compatibility modes, Standard and Enhanced Feature modes. They have introduced the Enhanced Feature mode to make way for some really exciting feature enhancements in the near future.

However, in order to utilize the Enhanced Feature mode your Video Device must be able to fully support Directx9, provide adequate Video Memory (128mb at least), and provide adequate video bandwidth (Most cheaper or older Video Devices lack in this area.

If you are experiencing lyrics timing issues, your Video Device is NOT up to the job. SO, you should switch back to the Standard - Legacy/Compatibility Mode. To do this, select File | Devices and Options from the Main Menu, and then click the "Change Hardware Support Mode" button.

As for their forums, I do know that you MUST use the email address you provided during purchase for verification reasons, if they are unable to cross reference your access will be denied. They've been forced to limit access to users only due to some really childish antacks by a competitor.

If all else fails, simply contact their support staff via the support form on their website, they have always been VERY responsive when I needed them.

Good Luck,
tbreen

I managed to switch out of the "enhanced" compuhost mode during the show, but did not notice much  if any improvement.

Did you shut down and restart CompuHost after changing the operation mode as indicated by the popup? If not, you won't see a difference. The change only takes affect AFTER restarting the application.

tbreen

Yep I restarted the program.

Well I figured out the cause of the problem, sort of.

The delay only occurs when I use my external sound card, and Compuhost.

When I use the external sound card the music plays a bit slow, not really enough to detect by ear, but after about 3 minutes into a song the lyrics are about 1 second late. This is about a 0.5% slower music than the video.

When I run the sound through the internal laptop soundcard I get no detectable delay. But when I run it through the soundcard and use Compuhost, the delay of about 1 second is there towards the end of a long song.

When I run a different program (Siglos Karaoke) it appears to have no delay with either the internal or external sound card.

The external soundcard I am using is a USB Creative Labs Sound Blaster.

The converting to .mp3 from wavs did not help
Having the files on the internal vs external hard drive did not help.
Changing from legacy to default mode in Compuhost did not help.
Removing a whole bunch of "junk" from my startup menu and other "windows" components did not seem to help, although I feel better without some of the junk being on my computer every time I start it.


Working theory is that Compuhost has a "delay" adjust for differnt soundcards, and the variable for my card is "wrong". In any case it appears to work fine with my internal sound card, for now. How much that will hurt my overall sound quality remains to be seen.

Keep your sound card and dump Compuhost for some other hosting program. AutOK is free.

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

Just went to the Creative webpage and updated my drivers, and now it does work ok with compuhost now.

I had just bought the sound card brand new 2 weeks ago, so I thought the sound card drivers from the cd were up to date enough. Apparently not.

After four hours of repeatedly listening to "lets dance" by Bowie, karaoke version, I think I have it all sorted out.

*The song had some background vocals for some of the refrains that matched some of the onscreen lyrics.

Don't get rid of Compuhost, it is one of the best programs in the market. I've tried many and have found it to be the best.

Rick

kudos to you for finding the solution on updating the drivers.

I am still quite happy with my winamp program as well as the clubdjpro!

Way to go!  These kind of issues can drive you crazy!

If you ever experience this again, there is a work around that seems to temporarily solve the problem until your next reboot.

In XP :

Start > Run> type DXDIAG

This will launch the DXDIAG Tool

Click on Sound Tab at top

Then in the middle of the dialog box is "Hardware sound acceleration level"

Change the acceleration level from wherever it's at to a higher setting then back to where it was.

Then try you sound video sync with CompuHost and see if that takes care of the problem.

Don't ask me why this works cause I have no idea, but it seems to do the trick.

Once you close windows and restart the settings will not automatically be saved so each time you reboot you will need to perform this little manuver.

Again this is meant only to be a workaround and it will get your show up and running.

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Scott