Karaoke Forums

Plus side -
New video engine plays mp4's correctly - Only requirement is apple quick time plugin on computer.
More reports

Minus side -
Singer history still hard locked to media file location. Move or delete a song or folder from the media list and singer history for the changed song or songs in folder are lost automatically and permanently.
Prior 2015 versions triggered a file lock error if the number of songs in a folder being removed was too large(>15000 usually). New version no longer displays the file lock error but it will not allow removal of a folder containing a large number of songs. Only way to remedy currently is to delete the Karmadb.mdb file and start over which of course deletes all of your singer history.

Reports will only be accurate if you NEVER EVER EVER now or in 20 years from now move or delete a song or folder.

Just be aware that your singer history is ALWAYS held hostage to the current location of the media files.

I was having an issue all night with it. I did the update, and the damned thing kept not showing vid 2. I kept having to restart the program. I returened to 2015 - 04 - 20, on the advice of Chris A.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Bob will NOT fix that. He thinks those of us that have an issue with this are nothing but complete morons. Not very good at taking criticism, and he has terrible manners for a guy that owns a software company.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I am reposting this from another location just for informational purposes -

Some Karma related news -

1) Bob has removed the Karaosoft Support FB page. He says it was taking up too much time that he could use working on programming. I agree with him. I was moderating there and my workload increased tremendously just in the couple weeks it was active.

2) Karma has been updated twice in the last couple days - a 5.20 and a 5.21 build. The new Engine to support MP4 videos is in both as is the new Slide Show feature.

*** These are BOTH Beta Builds ***

***DO NOT UPGRADE MINUTES BEFORE YOUR SHOW***

In fact, I would recommend not upgrading any of your show machines to these builds without testing it a lot first.

I have not tested the Slide Show yet because I got hung up on the MP4 Support. It still doesn't work for me on two different machines. But this may be due to CODEC conflicts as I do a lot of testing and fiddling on both machines. I will be testing on a clean machine later this afternoon and will post to this thread with my results.

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-Chris

It's the "Blame the user" mentality.

Taking down tech support because it "takes up too much time" is VERY telling on the quality of code & lack of QA. If people are having that many problems, maybe the problem isn't the users.

I ran into the same issue once last night. Were the video was not showing up on vid 2. I also noticed that the video on vid 1 wasn't clearing every song. Although it appears to have been fixed on the newest update.

One thing I liked is it appeared to use less system resources. So that was a plus. What I'm really waiting for is the next update that will allow us to set time frames on the reports we generate.

I am not going to make excuses for Bob, but i will lend some perspective.

There are some really smart computer guys out there. They create awesome programs, solve a lot of problems, and make a lot of people happy with what they create. but they may not be good with dealing with customers directly. It is one of the reasons why places like Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech companies don't have the programmers and developers doing tech support.

It is actually really hard for most tech people to not expect everyone that uses their technologies to know as more as they do. It's why companies have Evangelists and such that have the social skills to translate the tech to end-users in a fashion that makes sense.

Even with all of my public speaking experience and people skills, i sometimes have a hard time reconciling why people don't "just know how to do things" that I have been doing for 30 years.

And that is a hard concept for a lot of us to understand because as KJ's, we have the skill set that lets us deal with people in a way that the tech guys can't. It comes naturally to us to be nice and cordial and smile even when we don't want to.

Bob doesn't have that filter. Bob is one guy, with a bunch of stuff on his plate. He may not be the best person to support his own products, but that is what we have. We either accept that, or we don't. I have learned how to accept it and work with him.

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-Chris

That is all well and good, but then hire a representative to take care of the public for you. If there are problems with the program, and people are annoyed about it, then the issues need to be addressed. Telling people they are morons is NOT a solution to the problem. We all paid for this program. We, for the most part, love the program. But there are a few legit problems. The tethered history is the worst of them. The things like small video issues are bugs that happen, and are usually fixed,in time. But the history issue is something that NEEDS to be worked on. Problems like corruption can crop up, or a drive failure, or whatever, and files have to be moved. To be told that there is NEVER any reason to move files, and that you are unprofessional, or an idiot for doing that is just crude and barbaric behavior. SOOOOOO, hire someone to deal with the public, and take their concerns to heart.

Chris, will you be letting us know when the official patches come out, because the update pop-up doesn't mention anything about the update being a beta. I really don't have the time to mess with bad updates. I am only interested in official updates, that improve the program. Thanks.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

At the time I was summarily banned from the facebook forum (responding to Bob using "Bobspeak*" for his latest put down of another user), I'd say a full 50 to 70% of the problems posted were directly tied to the history/media problem. Lost history and program lockups due to Access file locking issues.

Granted, the percentage is skewed as most of the Bobalytes** would never presume to question his authority even if they had serious problems with a release but I know that most rational people would prefer software that works for their convenience not the developers.

I had hoped that the Facebook page would be a great way for users to get together, compare experiences, solve issues, and create a constructive community that could give and receive valuable feedback on the programs.

I think his taking it down smacks more of "They're not playing the way I want them to so I'm taking my ball & bat & bases and going home" then it does of time concerns.

Chris, myself, and other very computer literate and long time users of the software were more than willing to take the time to offer instruction and workarounds for problems but there is only so much one can do when Nero just sits there playing his fiddle.

I put up a "Banned from Karaosoft" facebook page and will use it to steer people here to this website. I guess we are all banned in a way now that he dropped the facebook page so everyone is welcome to come visit.

I am not employed by Bob nor am I compensated by Bob in anyway.

I am not an "official" liason, but I will provide information as it is made available to me.

As far as updates go, I recommend turning OFF the option to check for updates within Karma and to wait for news or occasionally check the web site to see when updates are made available.

Also - Test, test, test - before running a show with it. Oh, and back up your machine regularly.

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-Chris

+1. I have said this very thing dozens of times. The personality needed for coding is not the personality needed for dealing with the public.