Question about microphone (not a problem question) for karaoke

I have the dv9000 and I'm wondering about the microphone and microphone jack. I know there were some issues with this machine and the microphone being loud enough, but that is not what I am writing about (although, I wonder, was there ever a fix issued for it, and if so, did it work?).

I know this machine features karaoke via HP quickplay, and I also use an online service for karaoke. I used it on my old desktop which basically had a microphone input on the Soundblaster, and when you spoke into the microphone, you heard yourself on the speakers as long as the input was not muted.

Now, for this machine, under Vista, I can't get a plugged-in microphone to do this. When I connect it into the jack and speak into it, the Vista volume meter in sound properties does show volume bar moving, but I can't hear anything on the external speakers.

I am just wondering what I need to do, to enable audio input such as the microphone, to be able to be outputted on external speakers realtime. Is it possible with this machine, or is it the OS that is preventing it? I can't really find a way to enable the microphone as a recording input, or unmute it so that I can hear myself on the speakers.

Please assist... I know there must be some people who would use this for this application out there (especially for those karaoke lovers).

Thanks.

 

Make sure the input is unmuted, and the volume is decent. This can be done in the Sound Settings of Control Panel.

 

same problem here

 

sir are u using windows vista? because when i was still using windows xp, i did not encounter this issue... they need to make new drivers for vista. im using conexant soundcard driver 3.38. the one anna from hp posted

 

The way Vista works, Gautam, there is not really a way to "unmute" the microphone. I have everything I can select to be unmuted, unmuted. Vista determine sound levels and muting on a per-window, per-application basis, unlike XP which allows you to select your volume levels based on hardware. It's a totally different way of conceptualizing how the soundcard interacts with the system. And I'm not sure I like it, because it prevents you from controlling the hardware as a whole.

My sense, is that with this soundcard, everything is software-driven, so I don't think there will be a way to unmute the microphone specifically. Instead, I think I need a software DSP program which takes the microphone's audio and samples it and outputs it through the Wave Out driver. This machine's sound card doesn't have the kind of "passthru" line-in or microphone set up that we're used to on the traditional soundblaster line of cards.

Anyone agree?

 

it's all in the software.. we need the windows xp type of software in vista so that we can control each devices.. i think this was intentionally done in vista to prevent feedback..