Digital Karaoke On A Laptop Computer

    Digital karaoke is the future of the karaoke business and for several good reasons. CDG karaoke discs have always been a nuisance to transport, store, handle, and maintain. A KJ will seldom get through an entire performance without at least one instance of broken graphics or skipping because of a scratched, dirty, or defective disc.

    Digital karaoke is the solution. All your karaoke songs are stored on the hard drive of a computer in the MP3+G or some other compressed format. The songs are played with karaoke "hosting" software. The hosting software will have many needed features such as digital key control, next song cueing, song / artist search, singer history, and others depending on the software.

    The three types of computers used for hosting karaoke are laptops, portable PCs, and rackmount PCs. Each has their advantages and disavantages. While laptops are presently the most commonly used, portables and rackmounts are becoming increasingly popular.

Computer Requirements
    You should purchase a computer of sturdy design that has "shock mounted" components and a "spill proof" keyboard. A computer used for performing karaoke shows receives a lot more punishment than one that you use at home, school, or in the office.

At least a 1 GHz Celeron, Pentium, or AMD processor and 512 MB ram. A faster processor and more ram will make for better performance.

Stereo sound card with stereo audio output.

Dual display graphic card with TV out, at least 32 MB RAM, and latest DirectX version support. Dual display is necessary in order to display your workstation on the laptop while displaying the karaoke screen to the singers. You will find that most "off the shelf" laptop computers do not meet this requirement and cannot be upgraded because of their integrated graphics configuration.

Windows XP or Vista operating system, as most hosting software requires this.

Large capacity internal and/or external hard drive for storing the song tracks. 80 GB or larger recommended.

External or internal CD or DVD drive that supports the CD+G format. Necessary for extracting the contents of karaoke CD+G discs to the hard drive.

Hosting software like MTU's Hoster that will extract and convert the karaoke song tracks, organize the song files, play the song tracks, and more.

You will connect the computer to your amplifier and monitor in much the same way as you would connect a standard karaoke disc player. You may need adapter cables that connect from your audio and video cards to your amp and monitor. This will depend on the types of connections your laptop provides.

You can shop around, build your laptop with various components, and hope that it all comes together to create a flawlessly working karaoke laptop. Or, you can simply purchase a pre-configured "karaoke ready laptop" that is ready to use right out of the box.

Karaoke Ready
Hoster LC
Laptop Computer

Karaoke Ready Hoster Ruggedized Laptop Computer

Karaoke Ready
Hoster Ruggedized
Laptop Computer