Best notebook PC(s) for karaoke gigs?

[sajohnson]

It's easy to go overboard when building your karaoke laptop. I'm guilty of this myself. I have to have the latest and greatest sound and graphics cards around. The truth is, if your only using the laptop for karaoke you are just wasting money.

The integrated sound card that comes standard in most laptops will work just fine. I don't think you will even notice any difference in your sound with a 24 bit external sound card.

A standard integrated video card with at least 128 MB video ram and extended desktop will display the CDG graphics on the laptop and remote screens just as good as the most powerful graphics card you can buy.

I recently bought my niece a refurbished Dell laptop with audio and video components like I just mentioned. Installed JustKaraoke on it and loaded her CDGs onto the internal hard drive with Power CD+G Burner. I connected it to my professional sound system and it worked and sounded just as good as my expensive laptop.

Thanks for the advise wiseguy.

You say, "A standard integrated video card with at least 128 MB video ram and extended desktop will display the CDG graphics on the laptop and remote screens just as good as the most powerful graphics card you can buy."

Just to make sure I understand -- are you saying that the standard video card on any late model notebook will simultaneously send two different video signals to two separate monitors -- the notebook's display and an external monitor?

My wife's main concern is being able to display the video from the host program on her notebook display, perform searches, etc, while the lyrics are being displayed on the monitor(s) for the singer(s).

What about optical digital out? Seems to me like the way to go, but it sounds like the RS ground loop eliminator works well also. Either way you've got an extra box between the the notebook and the mixer.

[wiseguy]

Actually, CD+G is not a video format. It is a 16 color graphic format that requires limited video resources. In fact JustKaraoke will run well on only 64 MB of video ram. I recommend 128 MB just to assure that things always run smoothly.

Unlike Karafun, JustKaraoke is a karaoke hosting application that allows you to display your workstation on the laptop while displaying the karaoke on other monitors ot TVs. The crowd never sees your work screen.

I don't know why some people have a problem with ground loop hum. It has never been a problem for me and I don't use an eliminator. If it does happen to be a problem for you then the eliminator would be the way to go.

[sajohnson]

Actually, CD+G is not a video format. It is a 16 color graphic format that requires limited video resources. In fact JustKaraoke will run well on only 64 MB of video ram. I recommend 128 MB just to assure that things always run smoothly.

Unlike Karafun, JustKaraoke is a karaoke hosting application that allows you to display your workstation on the laptop while displaying the karaoke on other monitors ot TVs. The crowd never sees your work screen.

I don't know why some people have a problem with ground loop hum. It has never been a problem for me and I don't use an eliminator. If it does happen to be a problem for you then the eliminator would be the way to go.

I wonder if simply switching from Karafun to JustKaraoke would solve my wife's problem?

Couldn't hurt to try I guess.

[Bigdog]

Just to make sure I understand -- are you saying that the standard video card on any late model notebook will simultaneously send two different video signals to two separate monitors -- the notebook's display and an external monitor?


Not so. You must have a video card that has that feature. Not all do. Check it before you buy.


What about optical digital out? Seems to me like the way to go, but it sounds like the RS ground loop eliminator works well also. Either way you've got an extra box between the the notebook and the mixer.

The RS ground loop thing is as big as a "D" cell battery with wires out both ends.

I started working in a brand new bar in a brand new building. They have state of the art TVs and sound systems. I had a ground loop problem with both the video and sound. If you set up and have the problem and have no way to fix the problem you will go home with empty pockets. We are not talking about hundreds of dollars. Probably $50 or less to take care of both issues. You NEVER know which bar or house party or wedding hall will have the problem. Be prepared. Not cheap. You are being paid to provide a service. People expect that everything will go perfectly.

A bar owner just put a 60" TV out on the patio wall fed from the coax cable on the inside. Whatever he did screwed up the reception on my main bar karaoke TV right above my head. Now to fix the problem, I will have to run another coax wire directly to that TV. Am I mad about that? YES ...Does the TV crap picture look bad? YES...Does it reflect on me and my show? YES...So I'll have to fix the problem myself.

What's optical digital?

I opted to use the VGA out plug. You do not want to be plugging and unplugging video or any other plugs into your mother board night after night. These sockets are pretty delicate. If you ruin the socket you're screwed. New mother board time and that means another new computer. The VGA socket is bigger and stronger. Plus it has the screws to keep the plug locked in. Less wiggle. I have all my laptop wiring permanently wired for that very reason.

You can the use whatever type of output you want with the VGA converter. You still need an RF Modulator and an RF Amplifier.

[sajohnson]

Just to make sure I understand -- are you saying that the standard video card on any late model notebook will simultaneously send two different video signals to two separate monitors -- the notebook's display and an external monitor?


Not so. You must have a video card that has that feature. Not all do. Check it before you buy.


What about optical digital out? Seems to me like the way to go, but it sounds like the RS ground loop eliminator works well also. Either way you've got an extra box between the the notebook and the mixer.

The RS ground loop thing is as big as a "D" cell battery with wires out both ends.

I started working in a brand new bar in a brand new building. They have state of the art TVs and sound systems. I had a ground loop problem with both the video and sound. If you set up and have the problem and have no way to fix the problem you will go home with empty pockets. We are not talking about hundreds of dollars. Probably $50 or less to take care of both issues. You NEVER know which bar or house party or wedding hall will have the problem. Be prepared. Not cheap. You are being paid to provide a service. People expect that everything will go perfectly.

A bar owner just put a 60" TV out on the patio wall fed from the coax cable on the inside. Whatever he did screwed up the reception on my main bar karaoke TV right above my head. Now to fix the problem, I will have to run another coax wire directly to that TV. Am I mad about that? YES ...Does the TV crap picture look bad? YES...Does it reflect on me and my show? YES...So I'll have to fix the problem myself.

What's optical digital?

I opted to use the VGA out plug. You do not want to be plugging and unplugging video or any other plugs into your mother board night after night. These sockets are pretty delicate. If you ruin the socket you're screwed. New mother board time and that means another new computer. The VGA socket is bigger and stronger. Plus it has the screws to keep the plug locked in. Less wiggle. I have all my laptop wiring permanently wired for that very reason.

You can the use whatever type of output you want with the VGA converter. You still need an RF Modulator and an RF Amplifier.

Good advice Bigdog.

Optical digital is a S/PDIF audio signal carried over optical fiber cable (as opposed to an ordinary RCA cable). See this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

Some notebooks use the 1/8" audio out jack to serve dual duty -- regular analog L/R out _or_ S/PDIF optical out.

Why do you say you need an RF Modulator and an RF Amplifier?

[DanG2006]

For tv's that only have coaxial inputs. If there are RCA or S-Video inputs then the RF Modulator is not needed.

[Bigdog]

Call me old fashioned, but I always...well 95% of the time run black coax cable TV wire to all my TVs. I have 100 foot reel of it that I use to make my TV runs. They make RF modulators for S-video too.
If you feed multiple TVs you will lose signal strength. And this also depends on how long the cables runs are. You need the RF amplifier to boost the signal. My amplifier has 4 outputs. So I can feed 4 different TVs without a problem.

The RCA goes into the RF modulator to convert it to coax.

I also because of the VGA converter box have the option to run RCA or S-video to the TVs. I do run RCA sometimes. But my cable of choice is coax 1st. Stronger and able to handle the abuse of people stepping on it and the constant winding/unwinding. They make pushon connectors so you don't have to worry about threads.

If you use digital audio out, does that require a special digital mixer?

[sajohnson]

Call me old fashioned, but I always...well 95% of the time run black coax cable TV wire to all my TVs. I have 100 foot reel of it that I use to make my TV runs. They make RF modulators for S-video too.
If you feed multiple TVs you will lose signal strength. And this also depends on how long the cables runs are. You need the RF amplifier to boost the signal. My amplifier has 4 outputs. So I can feed 4 different TVs without a problem.

The RCA goes into the RF modulator to convert it to coax.

I also because of the VGA converter box have the option to run RCA or S-video to the TVs. I do run RCA sometimes. But my cable of choice is coax 1st. Stronger and able to handle the abuse of people stepping on it and the constant winding/unwinding. They make pushon connectors so you don't have to worry about threads.

If you use digital audio out, does that require a special digital mixer?

No, although it would be nice to have mixer with digital inputs -- then the signal could remain digital until just before amplification.

The reason she uses the optical out is to electrically isolate the notebook an eliminate all noise. However, this does require the use of a digital to analog (D>A) converter because her Mackie powered mixer is analog only.