MCG Manager

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Buttons above are numbered for references throughout the User Manual. We briefly describe the functions below.

1. File
   • Exit - Close program
2. Help
   • User Manual
   • Online Upgrade
   • About MCG Manager
3. Source - CD+G disc or Folder of song files to be converted
4. SubFolder - To select song files in all sibling and sub folders
5. Songs - Number of song files selected
6. Check All - To check all song files
7. Filename - Filename of song file
8. Title - Title of song file
9. Artist- Artist name of song file
10. Index - Index number of song file
11. Size - Size of song file in bytes
12. Folder - Location of song file
13. Settings - Encode settings
14. Filenaming - Labeling title and artist name from filename
15. Loadtext - Loading text song list for title and artist name
16. LoadIDTag - Loading title and artist name from ID Tag
17. AutoIndexing - Numbering song files
18. Video - Start encoding video song files (MP4, AVI)
19. Encode - Start encoding CD+G, MP3+G, ZIP song files

31. Target - Destination folder
32. Disk - Available bytes in Target
33. Filename - Filename of song file
34. Title - Titla of song file
35. Singer - Singer name of song file
36. Index - Index number of song file
37. Size - Size of song file
38. Logview - Event log
39. Reindex - Re-index/re-number song files
40. Format - Format Target drive to FAT32
41. InxMake - Create INX file for song files to create Super CD+G
42. Save - Save song files in Target

1. Overview

CAVS MCG Manager has the following main functions.

• Encode (extract) song files of CD+G discs to an external device such as a USB drive.
• Label song files with title and artist information such that the songs can be searched by title, artist, and index.*
• Organizes song files in the MP3 + MCG format such that the songs play instantly upon selection.*

*Note that the MCG Manager can label or organize the songs files that extracted from CD+G discs as well as song files of MP3+G or zip format that are available in a hard drive or external drive.

CAVS MCG Manager program can make the song files to play in

• CAVS DVD Karaoke players: DVD-105G USB, DVD-203G USB, DVD-205G SUB, DVD-305G USB
• CAVS IPS-11G Karaoke player
• CAVS Karaoke Jukebox: JB-99, JB-199, JB-199 II, JB-199 III, JB-199 mini, JB-199 mini pro
• CAVS Laptop Karaoke: SR101, PR101, PO101, EC101, CO101
• CAVS Touch Screen Karaoke: TC101, TC103, TB101, TB103, TA101, TA103
• CAVS PC Karaoke programs: PlayCDG PE, PlayCDG SP, PlayCDG KJ Deluxe, PlayCDG KJ Deluxe 64 LT

CAVS MCG Manager program can convert song files to create

• Super CD+G discs

1.1 Features

• Encode (extract) CD+G discs to MP3 + MCG files.
• Encode MP3+G and ZIP files to MP3 + MCG files.
• Label song files from CD+G discs with the title and artist information such that the songs can be searched under title, artist, or index.
• Label song files from MP3+G or ZIP format with the title and artist information such that the songs can be searched under title, artist, or index.
• Organizes song files such that the songs play instantly upon selection.
• Prepare the song files to create a Super CD+G disc.
• Create a song list for printing.

1.2 Requirements

• Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
• DVD RW disc drive (to encode CD+G discs or write Super CD+G discs).
• Internet connection (to access online data base for title and artist name information).
• External device such as a USB flash drive, USB hard drive, or SD card that is formatted as FAT32.

1.3 General functions

1. Adjusting window and field width
   

   

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   The width of the right and left windows and each field can be adjusted for better viewing.
2. Upgrade
   

   

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   Go to Help and select Online Upgrade to upgrade the MCG Manager program to the latest version.

2. Encoding songs from a CD+G disc

2.1 Into a new folder

1. Insert a CD+G disc into the DVD RW disc drive of your PC. Close any pop-up programs such Windows Media player.
2. Start the MCG Manager program.
3. Press the Source(3) button and select the disc drive. The tracks in the CD+G disc will show up in the Source window. The title and artist fields will automatically fill in from online if the disc information is found in public data base.



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4. Press the Target(31) button and select a folder of your choice (such as C:\Karaoke Songs). If the folder has not been created, click on the folder that is above in the file heirarchy, click on Make New Folder, and input a new folder’s name.
   
   

   

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   Note that the external device to use with the CAVS 205G USB Karaoke machine must be formatted FAT32. But the C:\ drive of a PC/laptop is likey to be formatted as NTSF. The MCG Manager program will automatically recoginizes this and when the Target drive is not FAT32, it will save the encoded files only as temporary and issue a warning. The user can at a later time copy the folder C:\Karaoke Songs onto a FAT32 formatted device, run the MCG Manager with the FAT32 device as the Target, and click on the Save(42) button.
   
5. Press Settings(13) button and select FreeDB to fill in the title and artist fields. If the CD+G disc information is found online, the title and artist information will automatically fill in. If not found, a message will appear stating that the disc information is not found online.
   

   

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   If the CD+G disc information is not found online, you can try to find the disc information manually by searching in Yahoo, Google, Bing, etc. You can also double click on each of fields, type in the input, and press Enter when done.
6. Place a check mark on the songs you wish to extract or press CheckAll(6) button for all songs. Press the Encode(19) button to begin encoding.



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7. When the encoding is complete, the encoded song files will be shown in the Target window with temporary numbers as shown below.



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8. Press the Save(42) button. A message will appear reminding you that the folder C:\Karaoke Songs is not formatted as FAT32.



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9. Click OK and OK to continue. The encoded files will now show with their permanent numbers in C:\Karaoke Songs.



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2.2 Into an existing folder with song files

1. Insert a new CD+G disc into the DVD RW drive of your PC. Close any pop-up programs such Windows Media player..
2. Start the MCG Manager program.
3. Press Source(3) button and select the disc drive. The tracks in the new CD+G disc will show up in the Source window.
4. Press Target(31) button and select the folder with existing song files (such as C:\Karaoke Songs). The folder will show the existing encoded song files (MCG).



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5. Press the Settings(13) button and select FreeDB. If the new disc information is found online, the title and artist fields will automatically fill in. If not found, a message will appear stating that the disc information is not found.
   

   

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   If the disc information is not found under FreeDB, you can search manually for the disc information online using Yahoo, Google, Bing, etc. To input the titles and artist names, double click on each of the tilte and artist fields, type in the names, and press Enter to complete.
6. Place the checkmark on the songs you wish to encode or press CheckAll(6) button for all songs. Press Encode(19) to start encoding.



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7. When the encoding is complete, the new encoded song files will show at the bottom of the Target window below the old encoded song files. The new encoded song files will be indexed with temporary numbers.



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8. Press the Save(42) button. A message will appear reminding you that the folder C:\Karaoke Songs is not formatted as FAT32.



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9. Click OK and OK to continue. The new encoded files will show the new index numbers that are sequential to the index numbers of the old encoded files.



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3. Encoding songs from a MP3+G or ZIP files

3.1 Into a new folder

1. Start the MCG Manager program.
2. Press Source(3) and select the folder in which the MP3+G or ZIP files are stored. For the MP3+G files, only the CDG files will be displayed.
   
   If the folder with song files has many sibling folders and/or subfolders which also contains song files, place a check mark on the SubFolder(4) option. Next press Source(3) and select the folder. The song files in all of the sibling foders and subfolders will appear in the Source window. In the example below, we select a folder Y:\Source which has many subfolders, sub-subfolders, etc. with both MP3+G and ZIP formats.

   

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   Note that by using the Subfolder option to bring up all files in the sibling folders and subfolders, we may have scouped up some non-song files, such as .txt, .jpg, etc. To remove the non-song files, click on Type to sort the song files by Type.

   

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   Mark the non-song files by click and shift-click. Right click on the marked non-song files and select Delete.

   

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3. Press Target(31) and select a folder (such as C:\Karaoke Songs 2) to store the encoded MP3 + MCG files. If the folder has not been created, click on the folder that is above in the file heirarchy, click on Make New Folder, and input a new folder's name.

   

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   Note that the external device to use with the CAVS 205G USB Karaoke machine must be formatted FAT32. But the C:\ drive of a PC/laptop is likey to be formatted as NTSF. The MCG Manager program will automatically recoginizes this and when the Target drive is not FAT32, it will save the encoded files only as temporary and issue a warning. The user can at a later time copy the folder onto a FAT32 formatted device, run the MCG Manager with the FAT32 device as the Target, and click on the Save(42) button.
   
4. For the song files in a folder, there is no online database that we can use to find the title and artist information. Thus the FreeDB option in Settings cannot be used. The MCG Manager program provides instead the following four techniques to input the information. For a video instruction, see "How to use MCG Manager".
   
   • ID Tag:
     The title and artist information is embedded in the ID TAG of the song files. Press LoadIDTag (16) to search the ID Tags.

     

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     Note that loading title and artist information from ID Tag can take a considerable time. The MCG Manager program must search each song file and unzip prior to search if the song files are of ZIP format. To cancel the search, double-click on Cancel at the bottom.
     
   • Filenaming:
     The title and artist information is written in the filenames of the song files. Here we look for a consistant pattern of the filenames, such as "artist-title", "album-artist-title" or "album-track-artist-title" and pick off the title and artist information.
     • Mark the songs with a same pattern using click and shift-click.
     • Right click on the marked songs. Select FileNaming and the following popup window will appear.

     

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     • First select the delimiter that is used to separate the title and artist information. It is usually the dash "-" but at times it is the underscore "_" or the pipe sign "|".
       

       

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       Note that if the delimiter must be changed, it must be done before selecting the order of title and artist information.
     • Next put in the order of title and artist information from the filename. Here an order {skip}-{skip}-{artist}-{title} is selected for song filenames such as "ASK1050 - 04 - Twain, Shania - Man I Feel Like A Woman.zip".

       

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     • When done, press OK. The title and arist fields of the selected songs will be filled in.

     

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   • Loadtxt:
     In case where the song filenames are generic, such as 00001, 00002, ... or track 01, track 02, ..., we can use a separate song list file in TXT format to fill in the title and artist fields, if such a file exits. For example, consider a MP3+G folder with filenames 00001.mp3 + 00001.cdg, 00002,mp3 + 00002.cdg, etc.

     

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     • Press the Loadtxt button and a pop up window will appear to select a song list file.

       

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     • Select the song list file, which is Songlist.txt in the example below, and press Open. A confirmation message will appear indicating how many songs will be updated. Press Yes.

       

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     • The title and artist fields are filled in from the song list file.

       

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     • The song list has to be of following form:
       

       000001|LOVE ME TENDER|ELVIS PRESLEY
       000002|MY WAY|FRANK SINATRA
       ...
       or
       000001#LOVE ME TENDER#ELVIS PRESLEY
       000002#MY WAY#FRANK SINATRA
       ...

       Save the song list file as ASCII or UTF-8 text file.
   
   
   • Manual Typing:
     The fourth technique to fill in the title and artist information is to manually type them in. This is like the last resort and is available at all times for inputting as well as editing.
     • Double click any title or artist field.

       

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     • Type in the name and press Enter to save.

       

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5. With the title and artist information filled in, it is time to double check our work.
   • Click on Title field to sort the song files by Title.

     

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     If there are song files with missing titles which wll show up at the top, then we have made some mistakes in inputting the title. Go through the song files with missing titles to re-assign the titles using any of the four techniques.
   • Next click on Artist field to sort the song files by Artist.

     

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     If there are song files with missing artists which wll show up at the top, then we have made some mistakes in inputting the artist. Go through the song files with missing artists to re-assign the artist using any of the four techniques.


6. Place checkmarks on the songs you wish to encode.
   • Check all song files by clicking on the Checkbox(6).

     

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   • You can select any subset of the song files by click and shift-click to mark the song files, right-click on the marked song files, and select Check.

     

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7. Press Encode(19) to start encoding.

   

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8. When the encoding is completed, press the Save button. The warning message indicating that the folder C:\Karaoke Songs 2 is not formatted as FAT32 will appear. Press OK.



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9. The "Save ... Successful end" message will appear. Press OK.



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10. The encoded files will appear with their permanent number in the folder C:\Karaoke Songs 2 at Target window.



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3.2 Into an existing folder with song files

1. Start the MCG Manager program.
2. Press Source(3) and select the folder in which the MP3+G or ZIP files are stored. For the MP3+G files, only the CDG files will be displayed.
   
   If the folder with song files has many sibling folders and/or subfolders which also contains song files, place a check mark on the SubFolder(4) option. Next press Source(3) and select the folder. The song files in all of the sibling foders and subfolders will appear in the Source window. In the example below, we select a folder Y:\Source which has many subfolders, sub-subfolders, etc. with both MP3+G and ZIP formats.

   

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   Note that by using the Subfolder option to bring up all files in the sibling folders and subfolders, we may have scouped up some non-song files, such as .txt, .jpg, etc. To remove the non-song files, click on Type to sort the song files by Type.

   

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   Mark the non-song files by click and shift-click. Right click on the marked non-song files and select Delete.

   

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3. Press Target(31) and select a folder (such as C:\Karaoke Songs 2) which already contains the encoded mp3 + mcg song files.



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4. For the song files in a folder, there is no online database that we can use to find the title and artist information. Thus the FreeDB option in Settings cannot be used. The MCG Manager program provides instead the following four techniques to input the information. For a video instruction, see "How to use MCG Manager".
   
   • ID Tag:
     The title and artist information is embedded in the ID TAG of the song files. Press LoadIDTag (16) to search the ID Tags.

     

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     Note that loading title and artist information from ID Tag can take a considerable time. The MCG Manager program must search each song file and unzip prior to search if the song files are of ZIP format. To cancel the search, double-click on Cancel at the bottom.
     
   • Filenaming:
     The title and artist information is written in the filenames of the song files. Here we look for a consistant pattern of the filenames, such as "artist-title", "album-artist-title" or "album-track-artist-title" and pick off the title and artist information.
     • Mark the songs with a same pattern using click and shift-click.
     • Right click on the marked songs. Select FileNaming and the following popup window will appear.

     

     [Click to view large picture]

     • First select the delimiter that is used to separate the title and artist information. It is usually the dash "-" but at times it is the underscore "_" or the pipe sign "|".
       

       

       [Click to view large picture]

       Note that if the delimiter must be changed, it must be done before selecting the order of title and artist information.
     • Next put in the order of title and artist information from the filename. Here an order {skip}-{skip}-{artist}-{title} is selected for song filenames such as "ASK1050 - 04 - Twain, Shania - Man I Feel Like A Woman.zip".

       

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     • When done, press OK. The title and arist fields of the selected songs will be filled in.

     

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   • Loadtxt:
     In case where the song filenames are generic, such as 00001, 00002, ... or track 01, track 02, ..., we can use a separate song list file in TXT format to fill in the title and artist fields, if such a file exits. For example, consider a MP3+G folder with filenames 00001.mp3 + 00001.cdg, 00002,mp3 + 00002.cdg, etc.

     

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     • Press the Loadtxt button and a pop up window will appear to select a song list file.

       

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     • Select the song list file, which is Songlist.txt in the example below, and press Open. A confirmation message will appear indicating how many songs will be updated. Press Yes.

       

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     • The title and artist fields are filled in from the song list file.

       

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     • The song list has to be of following form:
       

       000001|LOVE ME TENDER|ELVIS PRESLEY
       000002|MY WAY|FRANK SINATRA
       ...
       or
       000001#LOVE ME TENDER#ELVIS PRESLEY
       000002#MY WAY#FRANK SINATRA
       ...

       Save the song list file as ASCII or UTF-8 text file.
   
   
   • Manual Typing:
     The fourth technique to fill in the title and artist information is to manually type them in. This is like the last resort and is available at all times for inputting as well as editing.
     • Double click any title or artist field.

       

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     • Type in the name and press Enter to save.

       

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5. With the title and artist information filled in, it is time to double check our work.
   • Click on Title field to sort the song files by Title.

     

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     If there are song files with missing titles which wll show up at the top, then we have made some mistakes in inputting the title. Go through the song files with missing titles to re-assign the titles using any of the four techniques.
   • Next click on Artist field to sort the song files by Artist.

     

     [Click to view large picture]

     If there are song files with missing artists which wll show up at the top, then we have made some mistakes in inputting the artist. Go through the song files with missing artists to re-assign the artist using any of the four techniques.


6. Place checkmarks on the songs you wish to encode.
   • Check all song files by clicking on the Checkbox(6).

     

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   • You can select any subset of the song files by click and shift-click to mark the song files, right-click on the marked song files, and select Check.

     

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7. Press Encode(19) to start encoding.

   

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8. When the encoding is completed, press the Save button. The warning message indicating that the folder C:\Karaoke Songs 2 is not formatted as FAT32 will appear. Press OK.



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9. The "Save ... Successful end" message will appear. Press OK.



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10. The encoded files will appear with their permanent number in the folder C:\Karaoke Songs 2 at Target window.



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4. How to make an external device (flash drive, hard drive, or SD caed) for CAVS 205G USB Karaoke Machine

In the previous sections, the songs were encoded into the folder C:\Karaoke Songs or C:\Karaoke Songs 2 at the Target window. The C:\ drive however was not formatted as FAT32 and produced the warning message. Here the folder C:\Karaoke Songs or C:\Karaoke Songs 2 is copied onto a USB flash drive formatted as FAT32, and is processed again by the MCG Manager for use with CAVS 205G USB karaoke machine. The procedure is same for making external USB hard drive or SD card formatted FAT32.

1. From the Windows desktop, start the File Explorer and go to the folder C:\Karaoke Songs or C:\Karaoke Songs 2. Right click on the folder and select Copy.



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2. Go to the USB flash drive (formatted FAT32) and paste the folder.



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3. The folder Karaoke Songs is now copied onto the USB flash drive.



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4. Start the MCG Manager and open the folder Karaoke Songs or Karaoke Songs 2 in the USB flash drive as the Target.



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5. Click on the Save(42) button. The "Save,.. Successful end" message will appear as below, without any warning message.



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6. The USB flash drive is now ready for use with the CAVS 2025G USB Karaoke player. Insert the USB flash drive into a CAVS 205G USB Karaoke player and play the songs. For detail instruction on how to play the songs from an external USB device, refer to the video instruction on "How to play MP3+G and MP3+MCG flash drive".


7. Note that inside the Karaoke Songs folder, there are JUKE.TXT, ENGLISH.INX, and SCDG.CFG files.

   

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   • JUKE.TXT - Song list text file. It can be used to print the song list. For detail instruction on how to print the song list, go to Section 5.
   • ENGLISH.INX - Song list hex file. It enables CAVS 205G USB Karaoke Machine to platy each song instantly and search the songs by title, artist, or index.
   • SCDG.CFG - Super CD+G list file. It can be used to create a Super CD+G disc. For detail instruction on how to create a Super CD+G disc, go to Section 6.

5. How to print song list

This section shows how to print the song list JUKE.TXT from the folder Karaoke Songs of the USB flash drive or the C:\ drive. The instruction is based on using the Microsoft Excel program to open, sort, and print the song list.

1. Start the Excel program. Go to File > Open inside the Excel program and navigate to the Karaoke Songs folder. In this example, we go to the folder Karaoke Songs or Karaoke Songs 2 in the USB flash drive that is created previously in the Section 4 above.



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2. There will be no file shown in the folder to select from. Click on the down arrow button with "All Excel Files (...", which is shown below with a red circle.



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3. In the popup window that appears, select "All Files".



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4. Several files will appear in the folder Karaoke Songs or Karaoke Songs 2. Select JUKE.TXT and press Open.



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5. The Text Import Wizard window will popup. Select Delimited as shown in the red circle, and press Next.



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6. Place a checkmark on Others and input the pipe sign "|" symbol which is Shift - \ on keyboard. Press Next.

   

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7. The first column of the JUKE.TXT will be marked in black color. Select Text as shown in the red circle. Press Finish.



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8. The JUKE.TXT file will now show in three column of Index, Title, and Artist. From this point, you can edit the file as you wish (or as you can) and print..



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9. As an example, we will continue editing the song list in one particular way for printing. First for the Index column, press A to mark the column and press Center Alignment as shown in the red circles.

   

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10. Press B to mark the Title column. Right click on B and select Column Width. Input 45 and press OK. Press the Left Alignment button.



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11. Press C to mark the Artist column. Right click on C and select Column Width. Input 40 and press OK. Press the Left Alignment button.



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12. Next we sort the song list by Title. Press the red circle 1 to select all. Press the red circle 2 and select Custom Sort. In the Sort popup (the red circle 3) window, select Column B. Press OK.

    

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13. The resulting song list is as follows, sorted by Title, and ready to print.



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14. For the song list sorted by Artist, repeat the steps 12 - 13, sorting the list by the Column C.

6. Super CD+G

This section describe how to encode a Super CD+G disc, make a Super CD+G disc, and print the song list of a Super CD+G disc.

6.1 How to encode a Super CD+G disc

1. Insert the Super CD+G disc into the DVD RW disc drive. In Windows, open the Super CD+G disc and you will find the following folders inside.



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2. Right click on the CAVS_MCG folder. Select Copy. Go to C:\ drive and paste. When pasting is done, rename the CAVS_MCG folder in the C:\ drive. In this example, we rename it as SCDG01.



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3. Next copy the folder SCDG01 from C:\ drive into the USB flash drive. When done, the USB flash drive has the folder Karaoke Songs from the Section 4 and the SCDG01 folder from the Super CD+G disc. The USB drive is now ready for use with the CAVS 205G USB Karaoke players.



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6.2 How to make a Super CD+G disc

Follow the steps in the Section 2 or 3 to encode the songs into the folder C:\Karaoke Songs or C:\Karaoke Songs 2. We now describe how to make a Super CD+G disc from the folder C:\Karaoke Songs or C:\Karaoke Songs 2 with the encoded song files inside.

1. Start the ScdgEncoder program. This program is installed together with the MCG Manager and can be found among applications under the name CAVS.



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2. Click on the Source button and go to C:\Karaoke Songs or C:\Karaoke Songs 2. Select the file SCDG.CFG and press Open.



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3. A popup window will appear asking for the Target folder. Select the C:\ drive (the root directory). Press OK.



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4. Press the Encode button.



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5. When the Encoding finishes successfully, close the ScdgEncoder program.



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6. Next we look for the newly created CAVS_MCG folder inside the Target folder. In this example, the Target folder is the C:\ drive.



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7. Copy the folder CAVS_MCG and write it to a blank DVD-W or DVD-RW disc to make a Super CD+G disc. Note that the DVD-W or DVD-RW disc must be of a larger size than the CAVS_MCG folder.

6.3 How to print the song list of a Super CD+G disc

1. Insert the Super CD+G disc into the DVD disc drive and open the disc. You will find the following files and folders.



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2. Go inside the DickCdg folder and you will find LIST.TXT file.



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3. Copy the LIST.TXT file out to your PC/laptop. Print the LIST.TXT file following the steps in the Section 6 with one difference in the procedure which is instead of using the "|" symbol as the delimiter, use the "#" symbol.

7. Encoding songs of MP4 or AVI video files

This section describe how to encode MP4 or AVI video song files, how to make an external device with the video song files for playing in CAVS 205G USB karaoke machine, and how to print song lists of the video song files. Note that encoding video song files is different than encoding the MP3+G or ZIP files into MP3 + MCG files. The process is much simpler and yet because it is different, the video song files must be separated and encoded into a folder different than MP3 + MCG song files.

7.1 How to encode MP4 or AVI video song files

1. Start the MCG Manager program.
2. Press Source(3) and select the folder in which the MP4 or AVI files are stored.

   

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   Be sure to adjust the window panes of the MCG Manager program so that the Video button is visible on the left bottom.


3. Press Target(31) and select a folder (such as C:\Karaoke Video) to store the converted MP4 and AVI song files. If the folder has not been created, click on the folder that is above in the file heirarchy, click on Make New Folder, and input a new folder's name.

   

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   The Target folder may also have previously encoded video song files. Unlike the making of MP3 + MCG folder, there is no step of Save on the Target side to re-align the entire, both new and old, encoded song files sequentially. Once the video song files are encoded and shown in the Target window, the user can copy the folder with both new and old video song files onto a FAT32 formatted device and connect to CAVS 205G USB player to play.
   
   *For proper operation, each folder in the FAT32 device should have less than 500 encoded video song files.


4. For the video song files in a folder, there is no online database that we can use to find the title and artist information. Thus the FreeDB option in Settings cannot be used. The MCG Manager program provides instead the following two techniques to input the information. For a more detailed instruction, see "How to use MCG Manager".
   
   • Filenaming:
     The title and artist information is written in the filenames of the song files. Here we look for a consistant pattern of the filenames, such as "artist-title", "album-artist-title" or "album-track-artist-title" and pick off the title and artist information.
     • Mark the songs with a same pattern using click and shift-click.
     • Right click on the marked songs. Select FileNaming and the following popup window will appear.

     

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     • First select the delimiter that is used to separate the title and artist information. It is usually the dash "-" but at times it is the underscore "_" or the pipe sign "|".
       

       

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       Note that if the delimiter must be changed, it must be done before selecting the order of title and artist information.
     • Next put in the order of title and artist information from the filename. Here an order {artist}-{title} is selected for song filenames such as "Adele - Hello.mp4".

       

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     • When done, press OK. The title and arist fields of the selected songs will be filled in.

     

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   • Loadtxt:
     In case where the video song filenames are generic, such as 00001, 00002, ... or track 01, track 02, ..., we can use a separate song list file in TXT format to fill in the title and artist fields, if such a file exits. For example, consider a folder with MP4 and AVI files with filenames 00001.mp4, 00002,mp4, etc.

     

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     • Press the Loadtxt button and a pop up window will appear to select a song list file.

       

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     • Select the song list file, which is Songlist.txt in the example below, and press Open. A confirmation message will appear indicating how many songs will be updated. Press Yes.

       

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     • The title and artist fields are filled in from the song list file.

       

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     • The song list has to be of following form:
       

       000001|LOVE ME TENDER|ELVIS PRESLEY
       000002|MY WAY|FRANK SINATRA
       ...
       or
       000001#LOVE ME TENDER#ELVIS PRESLEY
       000002#MY WAY#FRANK SINATRA
       ...

       Save the song list file as ASCII or UTF-8 text file.
   
   
   • Manual Typing:
     The fourth technique to fill in the title and artist information is to manually type them in. This is like the last resort and is available at all times for inputting as well as editing.
     • Double click any title or artist field.

       

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     • Type in the name and press Enter to save.

       

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5. With the title and artist information filled in, we can double check our work.
   • Click on Title field to sort the song files by Title.

     

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     If there are song files with missing titles which wll show up at the top, then we have made some mistakes in inputting the title. Go through the song files with missing titles to re-assign the titles using any of the four techniques.
   • Next click on Artist field to sort the song files by Artist.

     

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     If there are song files with missing artists which wll show up at the top, then we have made some mistakes in inputting the artist. Go through the song files with missing artists to re-assign the artist using any of the four techniques.


6. Place checkmarks on the songs you wish to encode.
   • Check all song files by clicking on the Checkbox(6).

     

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   • You can select any subset of the song files by click and shift-click to mark the song files, right-click on the marked song files, and select Check.

     

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7. Press AutoIndexing(17) for the Auto Indexing window.

   

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   Check the Select Index. If starting a new folder, select Auto: Start No. and insert 1. If adding to an existing folder, select Auto: Start No. and insert a starting number for the new song files. The starting number for the new song files does not have to be consecutive to the existing numbers. Note that the index numberts are only assigned to the checked song files.
8. Press Video(18) to start encoding.

   

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9. When done, the encoded video song files will appear as .avc on the Target window.

   

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   Note that Save(42) button on the Target side is disabled, unlike in the encoding of MP3+G or ZIP song files. In fact the Target folder can now be copied onto a FAT32 device or the individual encoded video song files can be copied into an existing folder with previously encoded video song files in the FAT32 device .

7.2 How to make an external device (flash drive, hard drive, or SD caed) for CAVS 205G USB Karaoke Machine

In the previous sections, the video songs were encoded into the folder C:\Karaoke Video in the Target window. Here the folder C:\Karaoke Video is copied onto a USB flash drive formatted as FAT32. The procedure is same for making external USB hard drive or SD card formatted FAT32.

1. From the Windows desktop, start the File Explorer and go to the folder C:\Karaoke Video. Right click on the folder and select Copy.



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2. Go to the USB flash drive (formatted FAT32) and paste the folder.



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3. The folder Karaoke Video is now copied onto the USB flash drive.

   

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   Connect the USB flash drive to the CAVS 205G USB karaoke machine. Press Mode and select F. Drive. Navigate to the folder Karaoke Video. Select a song to play.


4. If a folder with previously encoded video song files such as Karaoke Video already exists in the USB flash drive, we can simply add the newly encoded video song files into the folder. Copy the encoded video song files in the folder C:\Karaoke Video.



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5. Paste the encoded video song files into the folder Karaoke Video in the USB flash drive.

   

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   Connect the USB flash drive to the CAVS 205G USB karaoke machine. Press Mode and select F. Drive. Navigate to the folder Karaoke Video. Select a song to play.
   
   *For proper operation, each folder in the FAT32 device should have less than 500 encoded video song files.

7.3 How to print song list

This section shows how to make and print the song list for the folder Karaoke Video of the USB flash drive. The instruction is based on using the CAVS 205G USB karaoke player and Microsoft Excel program.

1. Start the CAVS 205G USB karaoke machine and insert the USB flash drive. Using the remote control, press Mode button and select F. Drive. Navigate to the folder Karaoke Video (a folder containing the encoded video song files).
2. Press MENU. A file SONGLIST000.TXT will be created inside the USB flash drive. This is the song list of the folder Karoake Video. Remove the USB flash drive from the CAVS 205G USB karaoke machine.
3. Connect the USB flash drive to a PC. Start the Excel program. Go to File > Open inside the Excel program and navigate to the USB flash drive.



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4. There will be no song list file SONGLIST000.TXT shown in the folder to select from. Click on the down arrow button with "All Excel Files (...", which is shown below with a red circle.



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5. In the popup window that appears, select "All Files".



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6. SONGLIST000.TXT will appear. Select the file and press Open.



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7. The Text Import Wizard window will popup. Select Delimited as shown in the red circle, and press Next.



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8. Place a checkmark on Others and input the dash sign "-" symbol. Press Next.

   

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9. The first column of the file SONGLIST.TXT will be marked in black color. Select Text as shown in the red circle. Press Finish.



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10. The SONGLIST000.TXT file will now show in three column of Index, Title, and Artist. From this point, you can edit the file as you wish (or as you can) and print.



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11. As an example, we will continue editing the song list in one particular way for printing. First for the Index column, press A to mark the column and press Center Alignment as shown in the red circles.

    

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12. Press B to mark the Title column. Right click on B and select Column Width. Input 45 and press OK. Press the Left Alignment button.



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13. Press C to mark the Artist column. Right click on C and select Column Width. Input 40 and press OK. Press the Left Alignment button.



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14. Next we sort the song list by Title. Press the red circle 1 to select all. Press the red circle 2 and select Custom Sort. In the Sort popup (the red circle 3) window, select Column B. Press OK.

    

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15. The resulting song list is as follows, sorted by Title, and ready to print.



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16. For the song list sorted by Artist, repeat the steps 12 - 13, sorting the list by the Column C.

8. How to convert an external devices for CAVS DVD-105G, 203G, or 305G players to play in CAVS 205G USB player

An external device such as a USB flash drive or USB hard drive made for the old CAVS DVD-105G, 203G, or 305G player can be easily converted to plasy in new CAVS 205G USB player.

8.1 Hardware change

The first to consider is that your external device is likely 10 - 20 years old. A new flash drive of today has a size of up to 256GB which is likely more than the size of your hard drive. And the new flash drive is easier to carry and consumes less than a tenth of the power needed for an old hard drive. Although your hard drive may have a power supply of its own, considering that a hard drive has a life span of 3 - 5 years, we recommend strongly to replace your hard drive to a new flash drive. And for the replacement, you need only to copy the content of the hard drive to a new flash drive and follow the instruction below. If you have any question regarding the replacement, contact us at techsupport@cavsusa.com.

If you are loading more than 50,000 songs in a single external device or many of songs of AVI or MP4 format which are of generally much larger size than MP3+G files, you can use an external hard drive of size up to 2TB. However, in consideration of currently available types and the power consumption, we recommend that you use a SSD external hard drive. The SSD hard drives can be readily found and are small to carry around. We tested up to 2TB SSD external hard drive to play in CAVS 205G USB player.

At the least, we like to move you away from using an old hard drive with its own power supply. Such hard drives are dinasors that would add difficulties with connectivity in your transition to the new CAVS 205G USB player. Simply copy over the content from your old hard drive to a new flash drive or SSD hard drive and follow the instruction below.

8.2 Software change

1. Connect your external device to a PC. In this example, the external device is USB Drive (E:) and the songs are stored in "Karaoke Songs" folder. Opening the folder in File Explorer, there are 800 song files and they appear as below.

   

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2. Start the MCG Manager program (v20023 or higher). Press Target(31) and select the folder in your external device containing the song files.

   

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3. The song files will appear as below. Click Save at the bottom right corner.

   

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4. The song files will begin to rebuild as shown below.

   

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5. When done, the following message will appear. Click OK.

   

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6. Close the MCG Manager program and take out the external device. Insert the external device to the CAVS 205G USB player.

   

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The external device is successfully converted for play in CAVS 205G USB player.

8.3 Trouble Shooting

Due to the fast evolving Windows OS, you may experience some trouble with the external device converted as above. A typical example is when the following screen shows up on the TV screen when the converted external device is inserted in the CAVS 205G player.

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Note that the total number songs at the top of the screen is shown as zero. Follow the steps below to further modify the external device.

1. Connect your external device nack to the PC and open it using File Explorer. In this example, the "Karaoke Songs" folder is shown.

   

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2. Make a new folder in the external device. In this example, "Karaoke Songs 2" is created.

   

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3. Move (Cut & Paste) all files and subfolders inside the original folder to the new folder. In this example, we move all files and subfolders in "Karaoke Songs" to "karoake Songs 2". Be sure to move, not copy, the content of the original forlder to the new as there may not be enought room left in the external device.

   

   

   

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4. Next delete the original folder. In this example, we delete the "Karaoke Songs" folder.

   

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5. Rename the new folder as the original folder. In this example, we rename the "Karaoke Songs 2" folder as "Karaoke Songs".

   

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6. Open the MCG Manager program. Press Target(31) and select the new folder in the external device. In this example, we select the new "Karaoke Songs" folder in the Target window. Click Save at the bottom right corner.

   

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7. The song files will begin to rebuild as shown below.

   

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8. When done, the following message will appear. Click OK.

   

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9. Close the MCG Manager program and take out the external device. Insert the external device to the CAVS 205G USB player.

   

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The external device is successfully modified to play in CAVS 205G USB player.

END