andytaylor125
Hi,
So I'm borrowing my friend's karaoke discs for a gig in a couple of weeks and I'm thinking it would be much better if I could play them through virtual dj instead of his DVD/karaoke player.
I've tried just putting a CD+G karaoke disc into my VDJ gig laptop and it will play the audio perfectly, but won't display the visuals.
Does anybody know a way to make vdj show the karaoke visuals straight from the disc? Or perhaps even another bit of software that will play them straight from the CD?
Thanks in advance!
BTW, also, if anybody knows anything about indian karaoke I'd love some advice!!!
:-)
So I'm borrowing my friend's karaoke discs for a gig in a couple of weeks and I'm thinking it would be much better if I could play them through virtual dj instead of his DVD/karaoke player.
I've tried just putting a CD+G karaoke disc into my VDJ gig laptop and it will play the audio perfectly, but won't display the visuals.
Does anybody know a way to make vdj show the karaoke visuals straight from the disc? Or perhaps even another bit of software that will play them straight from the CD?
Thanks in advance!
BTW, also, if anybody knows anything about indian karaoke I'd love some advice!!!
:-)
Posté Tue 25 Aug 09 @ 7:25 am
DJRudeDoGG
If you have them why not rip them to your drive? Check out my YouTube channel for my four part series on ripping CDG discs and then playing them in VDJ...
http://www.youtube.com/rudedogg66
Search through my uploaded videos
DJ RuDe
http://www.youtube.com/rudedogg66
Search through my uploaded videos
DJ RuDe
Posté Tue 25 Aug 09 @ 12:48 pm
andytaylor125
Thanks for the reply, I could, but I do about 1 karaoke per year, and since they're not my discs I might be infringing copyright a bit. Would be a lot of effort just for one gig.
It's a real shame my mate doesn't use a computer to DJ with otherwise we could do it as a joint thing between us and halve the workload.
It's a real shame my mate doesn't use a computer to DJ with otherwise we could do it as a joint thing between us and halve the workload.
Posté Tue 25 Aug 09 @ 4:50 pm
Conaway
I have the same problem. Although I have all my karaoke files encoded and on my hard drive, I sometimes have people who bring their own disk. The only way to play these disks is to have a video switchbox connected to my cdg player and video out from the computer, (which is hard because I built a new computer system and went with DVI video inputs). The other way is to encode the guest disk which runs into piracy isues. MTU hoster softare rips the guest disk into a temp file which is deleted when the computer is shut down. Also putting a guest disk into your computer opens yourself up to viruses.
Posté Tue 25 Aug 09 @ 7:26 pm
DJRudeDoGG
It's nice to see a person of integrity these days but I wouldn't really consider that a copyright infringement per se. It's not the same as jacking it from of the net and since you rarely do karaoke I wouldn't see it as a big issue anyway.
Once in a while a friend of mine gets a few new discs and I rip them to my drive and vice versa. I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on music since at least 1978, so ripping a CD or CDG here and there that I'll rarely use isn't an issue to me.
When a guest hands me a disk to play (if it's a factory disc that is), sometimes I'll rip it to my drive to have it for later.
DJ RuDe
Once in a while a friend of mine gets a few new discs and I rip them to my drive and vice versa. I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on music since at least 1978, so ripping a CD or CDG here and there that I'll rarely use isn't an issue to me.
When a guest hands me a disk to play (if it's a factory disc that is), sometimes I'll rip it to my drive to have it for later.
DJ RuDe
Posté Tue 25 Aug 09 @ 9:03 pm
DiskJockeyWatty
I have the same issue with CDGs. I have converted all the dusk I own to my computer, but can not play them directly. So I do what he said. Spliter to my CDG player in the case that someone brings their own disk and I don't already have the song they want.
Posté Tue 25 Aug 09 @ 9:03 pm
andytaylor125
Yeah, that's true, it's more about the effort it would take (There's at least 200 discs to rip) so it's simply not worth the effort.
If I can't find a way to play them straight off the laptop, I'm gonna connect up my usb video input thing (link below) and run the karaoke player through that. Virtual DJ sees it as a webcam and so I'm just gonna use the camera plugin to display the karaoke visuals on screen.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/KWorld-MAKER-USB2-0-VS-USB2800D-Direct/dp/B0007W5LWI
Would still like any other suggestions though- I'm sure there must be a bit of software that will play them, or maybe even some sort of codec I could add in vdj to make them play.
If I can't find a way to play them straight off the laptop, I'm gonna connect up my usb video input thing (link below) and run the karaoke player through that. Virtual DJ sees it as a webcam and so I'm just gonna use the camera plugin to display the karaoke visuals on screen.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/KWorld-MAKER-USB2-0-VS-USB2800D-Direct/dp/B0007W5LWI
Would still like any other suggestions though- I'm sure there must be a bit of software that will play them, or maybe even some sort of codec I could add in vdj to make them play.
Posté Wed 26 Aug 09 @ 4:34 am
frd1963
andytaylor125 wrote :
I'm gonna connect up my usb video input thing (link below) and run the karaoke player through that. Virtual DJ sees it as a webcam and so I'm just gonna use the camera plugin to display the karaoke visuals on screen.
That's a good idea, especially for anyone going straight from the computer's VGA/DVI/HDMI to their projector/TV. I use a video mixer in my rig (Videonics MX-1) but it is such a waste of space for the few times I really need it, and limits me to S-video quality output from the computer.
Posté Wed 26 Aug 09 @ 7:06 am
andytaylor125
Yeah, I use VGA to get to my projector, so that's exactly why I thought of doing it.
I haven't tried it with my lastest laptop yet, so I best give it a go before the gig! Also to check for latency. The quality isn't great, but for karaoke lyrics I think it'll be fine.
I haven't tried it with my lastest laptop yet, so I best give it a go before the gig! Also to check for latency. The quality isn't great, but for karaoke lyrics I think it'll be fine.
Posté Wed 26 Aug 09 @ 12:11 pm
andytaylor125
Just for the benefit of anybody reading this. I hooked that kworld usb video input thing to a DVD player and it works! The quality is pretty decent as well!
Just one thing, in the vdj video settings I have "keep ratio (full)" checked to keep every in proportion, but this does not work for the camera input, for that I have to alter the aspect ratio settings on the DVD player to match the aspect ratio of the output screen/window. No biggie, but just so people know.
Just one thing, in the vdj video settings I have "keep ratio (full)" checked to keep every in proportion, but this does not work for the camera input, for that I have to alter the aspect ratio settings on the DVD player to match the aspect ratio of the output screen/window. No biggie, but just so people know.
Posté Fri 28 Aug 09 @ 6:26 pm
DJRudeDoGG
What is it?
Posté Fri 28 Aug 09 @ 7:23 pm
Dazmax
As far as I am aware some drives will not read/display the graphic part on CDG discs.
There are some programs like Clone CD fore example that can check the reading drive and tell you if it is compatible.
With Clone CD you have to set the software to read the side code from the CDG disc when copying or it will be treated as a normal audio cd.
Hope this helps.
Daz
There are some programs like Clone CD fore example that can check the reading drive and tell you if it is compatible.
With Clone CD you have to set the software to read the side code from the CDG disc when copying or it will be treated as a normal audio cd.
Hope this helps.
Daz
Posté Sat 29 Aug 09 @ 7:43 am
andytaylor125
Hi Dazmax, my drive will play karaoke files.I can play and rip them with audiograbber. I'm pretty sure it's something that the developers would have to add to the CD audio decoder or something.
@ RudeDogg: Do you mean what's the kworld video input thing?
If you do, check the link further up the thread. It's a usb device that lets you plug any video source into your computer. The purpose they market it for is transferring old videos onto your computer, but you can hook up anything with a composite or s-video output to it.
The bit that's useful to us is that you can plug it in and vdj thinks that it's a webcam. So you could hook up a video camera/video player/karaoke player/betamax player/other laptop with custom visuals, or whatever and get it to appear on the vdj video output. It's pretty cool.
I was thinking of getting some cool visuals software like "r4" (made by rabid hamster if you want to search for it) on a second laptop and running that for visuals that move in time to the music.
@ RudeDogg: Do you mean what's the kworld video input thing?
If you do, check the link further up the thread. It's a usb device that lets you plug any video source into your computer. The purpose they market it for is transferring old videos onto your computer, but you can hook up anything with a composite or s-video output to it.
The bit that's useful to us is that you can plug it in and vdj thinks that it's a webcam. So you could hook up a video camera/video player/karaoke player/betamax player/other laptop with custom visuals, or whatever and get it to appear on the vdj video output. It's pretty cool.
I was thinking of getting some cool visuals software like "r4" (made by rabid hamster if you want to search for it) on a second laptop and running that for visuals that move in time to the music.
Posté Sat 29 Aug 09 @ 9:03 pm
Dazmax
Certainly sounds like the software then.
VDJ must be treating the discs like audio cds and not seeing the side coded graphics.
I wonder if you could install something like Winamp with its cdg plugin and configure VDJ to make use of the plugin.
Daz
VDJ must be treating the discs like audio cds and not seeing the side coded graphics.
I wonder if you could install something like Winamp with its cdg plugin and configure VDJ to make use of the plugin.
Daz
Posté Sun 30 Aug 09 @ 4:54 am
andytaylor125
Yeah, that's a thought. I tried looking for a windows media player plugin for karaoke. I found one, but couldn't make it work on windows 7 on my home laptop and didn't want to risk messing with my gig laptop.
If there was a plugin for media player that worked it could be quite easy because one of the codec options is "windows media player video" or something. But no dice yet.
If there was a plugin for media player that worked it could be quite easy because one of the codec options is "windows media player video" or something. But no dice yet.
Posté Mon 31 Aug 09 @ 6:07 pm
spectrum
Not a bad idea! I design and build Rack Mount computer systems for dj’s and I been able to use a Video Capture Card like one from Pinnacles for external video sources. VDJ will recognize other PCI boards in the system under the “camera” menu. These boards do provide a better quality image but cost more. The USB Video Capture device is a good, inexpensive alternative and our testing proves that it works well. This is also a great solution for those using a Laptop.
Most of the DJ’s we service are almost 100% computerized. We always suggest a CD for backup. However, for the person bring a CD+G to a show could present a problem. Ten years we found a small, walkman size CD+G player from Panasonic (Model SL-VP57) to use for a “backup”. Now I use it for that surprise CD+G a customer may bring to a show. However, instead of the “video switch”, we now use the Camera mode on VDJ as an external input.
While VDJ can read DVD’s and other discs from the computer hardware, providing the proper encoding and special CD+G disc drives, it may not be worth the problems for VDJ to start supporting CD+G drives. This will work!
Rich McCoy
Hardware Engineer
Most of the DJ’s we service are almost 100% computerized. We always suggest a CD for backup. However, for the person bring a CD+G to a show could present a problem. Ten years we found a small, walkman size CD+G player from Panasonic (Model SL-VP57) to use for a “backup”. Now I use it for that surprise CD+G a customer may bring to a show. However, instead of the “video switch”, we now use the Camera mode on VDJ as an external input.
While VDJ can read DVD’s and other discs from the computer hardware, providing the proper encoding and special CD+G disc drives, it may not be worth the problems for VDJ to start supporting CD+G drives. This will work!
Rich McCoy
Hardware Engineer
Posté Thu 03 Sep 09 @ 10:01 pm
bryantpb
Dazmax wrote :
As far as I am aware some drives will not read/display the graphic part on CDG discs.
Daz
Daz
A LOT of drives woon't, in fact.
Posté Fri 04 Sep 09 @ 12:51 am
andytaylor125
Thanks for the input Spectrum, interesting that we came to the same conclusion. If I end up doing more karaoke I might look into that karaoke CD walkman option.
Posté Fri 04 Sep 09 @ 12:35 pm
spectrum
I build one system with a CD+G compatible Disk Drive in it. There are still a few manufactures around that offer these drives. TriceraSoft has a good list at http://www.tricerasoft.com/drivelist.html . They also have a good CD+G Ripping program (CDG Ripper) for $37. This is a very good program but does not include their CDG Database. However, it is a simple text file that can be created with a Text Editor.
Posté Fri 04 Sep 09 @ 6:06 pm