portable DVD player plays karaoke?

Just talk about kJams stuff with each other, describe things you did that worked, talk about your setup, anything that doesn't fit into the other forums!
Post Reply

how many duet songs do you perform?

none
1
33%
one
0
No votes
two
0
No votes
three or more
2
67%
 
Total votes: 3

randyj
Posts: 88
Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:19 pm
Location: Seattle area

portable DVD player plays karaoke?

Post by randyj »

saw a guy playing a CD+G on one of those battery powered DVD players with the 6" - 9" built-in screen (15-20 cm)

went to consumer electronics store, looked at 10 models, none of them specified "CD+G" or Karaoke (big surprise). Absolutely no surprise: the teenager in the blue shirt had never heard of CD+G.

wondering if some of them would actually work, just not advertised.

anybody seen this? If you have a portable dvd player, does it play CD+G karaoke discs? What is the make/model?

Thanks! -Randy

randyj
Posts: 88
Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:19 pm
Location: Seattle area

several models work

Post by randyj »

This will come in handy when practicing the more challenging duets (with lots of harmonizing)... we can practice anywhere without a laptop.

Forget looking at spec's on the box. They don't bother listing CDG compatibility. However...

Actually trying a CDG in several players at various places (pawn shop, Radio Shack, Fry's, Best Buy) I have found the following:

- most portable DVD players WILL play CDG karaoke
- of the ones that worked, they all had the same chipset / software
(obvious because of the way the player informs you of "loading" and "time remaining" etc.)
- this is also obvious because ALL of the players have the same limitation:
- you cannot fast-forward or reverse WITHIN a karaoke song... only "skip track" works
- LG players did NOT work
- All of the cheaper DVD players worked.
- they were all able to play rewritable CD-RW disc. Unfortunately, many commercial karaoke machines do NOT read CD-RW
- some players had a problem with some Music Maestro tracks -- it would play the song, but the lyrics would not change color. Ah ha! The author chose white and yellow for the lyrics. Mess with the settings (brightness, color hue, contrast) and all is good.

-Randy

dave
Site Admin
Posts: 6688
Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:02 am
Location: Seattle
Contact:

Wow!

Post by dave »

That is utterly fascinating!!

The reason they can't fast forward or rewind is that they stream the data off the disc, and every frame depends 99% on every frame that preceded it. ie: to play a frame at time 4:20, you must play every frame up to and including 4:19. Now, you know that kJams has no trouble scrubbing back and forth in time, and I can do this because I load the whole movie in memory and render all the frames that come before it *very quickly*. :)

Post Reply