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A Look at the SongStation Karaoke Player – The Home Entertainment Machine Review

How would you like your next DVD player to include a full blown karaoke machine, also called a karaoke player, inside? And what if this machine also carried the largest collection in the world of karaoke songs inside it? Does this sound to you like the stuff dreams are made of?

I have some great news for you! Not only did someone dream this stuff up, but they made it happen in the newest model of the ever-popular SongStation Karaoke Machine!

The SongStation Karaoke Machine looks just like a silver slim-line DVD player. It hooks up to your entertainment system in five minutes. Once you have it plugged into your TV and pick up the handy remote control, you begin to realize it is oh-so-much-more! It’s a DVD player, karaoke player, and CD player all in one, making your entertainment system more entertaining than ever!

Let’s look at the karaoke player itself. The SongStation Karaoke Machine plays every kind of karaoke disk out there. So if you already have a collection of karaoke disks, you will still be able to use them with The SongStation. If you don’t have a collection of disks yet, don’t worry. You get a disk with your SongStation that contains 53,000 karaoke songs. Plus, it’s international. You get songs from countries around the world and in ten different languages.

Along with the songs, this karaoke player comes with a variety of great features. You can adjust the pitch, the key, and the tempo of your songs to better match your voice. You can play a song with the vocals to learn it, and then, with the click of a button, take the vocals off to sing karaoke style. The lyrics show up on your TV screen.

The SongStation Karaoke machine also comes with inputs for 2 microphones, so that you can enjoy duet karaoke. You can adjust the volume and the echo level on each microphone separately to better complement each singer’s voice.

Want to have a Karaoke Competition? With this karaoke player, you can preselect up to 99 songs for it to play, or you can use the already prefigured private compilation of 540 hit songs in nine categories. Your SongStation Karaoke Machine is programmed to score each performance on pitch control, correct tempo, consistency of tone and volume, and intonation.

You can also use this scoring feature to practice and improve your own karaoke singing! Amaze your friends with your performance! They will wonder what your secret is.

So, is this just a great karaoke player with a so-so DVD player and CD player? How do they stack up with the competition? You will be pleased to learn that these parts of The SongStation Karaoke machine are also full-featured and high quality! Your DVD player features Digital Dolby and Digital Theater sound for your listening enjoyment. Choose to listen to your audio in any of eight languages. For subtitles, you can choose from 32 different languages. You can zoom in on your favorite scenes, or watch them from several different angles. In addition, you can activate the Parental Lock function to keep your kids from watching inappropriate movies.

And last, but not least, it all comes with a 12 month warranty.

Wow! I was hard pressed to find a downside to mention in this review. The only possibility of a downside to The Songstation Karaoke machine is that the karaoke player does not have its own karaoke monitor. In other words, it is not a stand-alone player. You need to hook it up to a TV. But at this price and value, it is totally unbeatable!

A Brief History of Home Entertainment

The concept of home entertainment and indoor recreational activities changed when home electronics invaded our lives. One can say that access to numerous electronic products at home has revolutionized the idea of what constitutes a complete home entertainment. Nowadays, anyone can have immediate access to every kind of electronic entertainment via different media within the comforts of their homes. They can have their choice of entertainment which may range from the latest DVD players, radios to the wireless internet connection which offers them the convenience of mobility. Advancement in technology has gifted us with loads of home entertainment options ranging from radio, television, CD, DVD players, home theatre system, games consoles and so on.Music has always been one of the most preferred leisure activities. It found its way into our home through the long playing discs and the gramophone. Of course with the coming of radio a decade later made music a more widespread home entertainment. Before the advent of the CD or DVD player, the radio was the most popular home entertainment system available. Though there were some juke boxes available in the local pubs or salons where one could listen to a song of their choice at home there was only the radio. With radio, the choice of listening was however quite limited as people had to listen to the songs that the radio channels would play, even though some of the stations would at times play the selected numbers based on listeners’ requests. But there were no complaints as there wasn’t anything better for decades to come.Initially, when television had not yet become an everyday part of our lives, the visual entertainment strictly meant those theatres which had large screens to view a movie. Things changed dramatically with the invention of the television in the initial phase of the 1950s. The television was a complete wonder in the days when it was discovered. People did not have to restrict themselves anymore to music as their only entertainment at home. They could actually watch a full length movie in the comfort of their own home.Not only movies, this small wonder box started entertaining people with more and more new ideas, programs and techniques. Television has been considered as one of the pioneers in the history of home visual entertainment. Of course it provided more than just entertainment. With news and special documentaries, TV soon became the most important source of amusement. The long playing discs were also a part of home entertainment which was an early discovery. While radios, LPs and television made a permanent place in everyone’s home, the quality of sound in those times essentially required tremendous development.Good sound systems and speakers stared to develop in the mid 1970s. Various technologies were discovered to enhance the quality of sound. And with the music genres like rock, pop and discos coming into being, there was a specific and urgent requirement for good quality sound systems. Thus the electronic giants did not stop producing recorders and put more emphasis on amplifying and equalizing the sound to give it a new dimension.Good quality sound systems were specially designed and created for homes which produced outstanding music. Woofers and subwoofers along with various amplifiers equalizers and multi channel audio were being used to produce crisp stereophonic sounds.However, this concept took a back seat when CD and DVD players came into existence. During the end of the ’70s and early ’80s some of the electronic giants worked in collaboration to develop the world’s first Compact Disc system. Experts proved that this CD player was quite compact and lightweight with its unique durability. For music lovers it was truly a boon. At the same time this CD system opened a new window in the audio equipment industry.Compact discs were more durable than any other long playing discs or tapes. Thus the CDs removed all other music disc and tapes from the market and held prominent position. The 80s and early 90s saw a vast improvement in the technology of compact disc systems. It became very popular with people because of the crystal clear sound it produced and was affordable. These CDs not only stored music, it was versatile enough to store movies, data, pictures or even software.Along with CDs a much improved device which actually revolutionized and changed the entire system of home entertainment is the DVD or digital versatile discs. These discs are powerful and large enough to hold two movies in one. It stores data digitally and is more durable. The scratch proof technology of the DVD players also makes the DVDs last a long time. Both music and movie buffs felt delighted when the DVD player came into the market. Recent survey statistics reveal that the DVD player is the most successful product of home entertainment. It was introduced in the year 1997 and has reached great heights of success ever since.Nowadays, people can have the same effect of a movie theatre in their homes. With the latest DVD players, LCD screens and the sound systems with woofers, sub woofers and multi channel audio systems, anyone can have a fantastic home entertainment system with high quality sound and spectacular visual effects. The plasma and LCD screens are high resolution televisions which started to develop in the latter half of the 1990s and these sleek televisions enabled the viewers to experience digital sound and vision with fantastic picture quality and various advanced features.With the invention of DVDs and a major development in the visual media such as Plasma and Liquid Crystal Display or LCD in the late 90s gave home entertainment its latest technical dimension. With it, the meaning of home entertainment changed significantly with more and more people installing the home theatre systems with newest gadgets and technologies.