POD 5 Family KTV Recording System... A Customer's Review

[love_stinks]

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I was at Pod 5 last Sunday, January 21, 2007. I really need to record some songs that I have to personally sing for some important reasons.

Well, I was actually debating between going back to K1 where I experienced singing before or trying out the newer one, Pod 5. I read on the forums that Pod 5 is much better than K1, well, it turned out I was misled by wrong information.

I'm not here for some comparison, I just wanna let the public know the truth.

First, Pod 5's Remote Control. When me and my friend entered the KTV room, one staff told us over and over (as if once is not enough) never to press the stop button, we don't know why, probably they want you to finish the song even if you mistakenly entered the wrong song to lengthen the time. We just don't understand, the STOP button is there but the customers are not allowed to use it.. why put it there on the first place?

Second, Pod 5's Menu. Maybe I'm not really a good singer, but I don't like listening to the mocking laugh of Pod 5's scoring system, that's why I was looking for a way to turn the scoring system off. Well, it was not that hard, it was in the Menu after all! So I pressed "5" for Services and "8" for Scoring and presto! It was there on the screen.. Scoring Off and Scoring On. The problem is, we never know that when you turn off the scoring, it will also turn off the recording. Oh boy! I mean, I am by the way a Software Engineer in profession and it just doesn't makes sense to me.. what's the connection? turning off the scoring equals turning off the recording? And get this, another stupid staff, told us that they never experienced having their menus checked out by the customers before. What are you for real? If the menus are not there for the customers to check and use, why put it there? duh!

Third, Pod 5's Staff. Yup, they seem to have handsome staff, but nevertheless, it's not their faces that would satisfy a customer. I almost had a fit when another stupid staff asked me (I guess for the 7th time) if I pressed the STOP button that's why the recording stopped. Finally, out of anger I told him, "i said, i didn't, your instruction is very easy to follow, even a 6 year old kid can do that, so stop asking me that stupid question" oh boy!

Fourth, Pod 5's Recording System. As you already know by now, I was really disappointed by Pod 5's service, so after spending 1 and 1/2 hours in singing and recording (and re-recording, hahaha) 10 songs, I asked for my bill. Well, the only consolation I have (I thought) is that at least, this is all finished and the ten songs are all ready. How difficult is it to burn 10 songs to a blank CD? uh-uh, NEVER difficult! I was confident of their ability of their "High-tech" recording system so when i left i seem to melt away my anger. But all my disappointment came back when I listened to the songs! what a piece-of-s_ _ _ they have for a system! Imagine, out of 10 songs, I only retrieved 6! 4 songs were wasted and was not there, they were replaced by a duplicate and a no-voice sound of 2 songs. I had to write the songs again (just six of them) to another CD because I don't think it's a good idea to send the original one to where it's supposed to be sent. I have the original copy as a proof

Well, well, welll, another lousy day! Thanks Pod 5! I will not recommend this KTV to anybody. Never!

[d`monyita]

uhhhh paging ....

[tolstoi]

go to a professional recording studio instead

[bfg9000]

@love_stinks

Wow, you signed up to Istorya for this?

I wrote the karaoke system for both POD 5 and K-1. I think I'm qualified to answer some of your points.

First, Pod 5's Remote Control. When me and my friend entered the KTV room, one staff told us over and over (as if once is not enough) never to press the stop button, we don't know why, probably they want you to finish the song even if you mistakenly entered the wrong song to lengthen the time. We just don't understand, the STOP button is there but the customers are not allowed to use it.. why put it there on the first place?

The system will NOT save a song recording if it's cancelled, so you were told not to press STOP if you want the song included in your recordings. You CAN use the stop button if you want, just note that a song that isn't played to completion will not be included in the recorded songs list. I think the staff just didn't explain it well enough.

Second, Pod 5's Menu. Maybe I'm not really a good singer, but I don't like listening to the mocking laugh of Pod 5's scoring system, that's why I was looking for a way to turn the scoring system off. Well, it was not that hard, it was in the Menu after all! So I pressed "5" for Services and "8" for Scoring and presto! It was there on the screen.. Scoring Off and Scoring On. The problem is, we never know that when you turn off the scoring, it will also turn off the recording. Oh boy! I mean, I am by the way a Software Engineer in profession and it just doesn't makes sense to me.. what's the connection? turning off the scoring equals turning off the recording? And get this, another stupid staff, told us that they never experienced having their menus checked out by the customers before. What are you for real? If the menus are not there for the customers to check and use, why put it there? duh!

When you press SCORING ON/OFF in the menu, it cycles through 3 settings, not 2; SCORING ON, RECORDING ONLY, SCORING OFF (which also turns off recording). You obviously missed the RECORDING ONLY part.

And since you were wondering "what's the connection between scoring and recording", the scoring system relies on an analysis of the recorded data. I wrote Scoring/Recording as one integrated module.

As for what the staff told you, I can't answer why they told you that. All the options in the menu system are there for guests to use.

Third, Pod 5's Staff. Yup, they seem to have handsome staff, but nevertheless, it's not their faces that would satisfy a customer. I almost had a fit when another stupid staff asked me (I guess for the 7th time) if I pressed the STOP button that's why the recording stopped. Finally, out of anger I told him, "i said, i didn't, your instruction is very easy to follow, even a 6 year old kid can do that, so stop asking me that stupid question" oh boy!

No comment. Just note that what they're saying is true; if you cancel a song by pressing stop, the system won't save the recording for that song.

Fourth, Pod 5's Recording System. As you already know by now, I was really disappointed by Pod 5's service, so after spending 1 and 1/2 hours in singing and recording (and re-recording, hahaha) 10 songs, I asked for my bill. Well, the only consolation I have (I thought) is that at least, this is all finished and the ten songs are all ready. How difficult is it to burn 10 songs to a blank CD? uh-uh, NEVER difficult! I was confident of their ability of their "High-tech" recording system so when i left i seem to melt away my anger. But all my disappointment came back when I listened to the songs! what a piece-of-s_ _ _ they have for a system! Imagine, out of 10 songs, I only retrieved 6! 4 songs were wasted and was not there, they were replaced by a duplicate and a no-voice sound of 2 songs. I had to write the songs again (just six of them) to another CD because I don't think it's a good idea to send the original one to where it's supposed to be sent. I have the original copy as a proof

This I can't answer for sure, but it could have been operator error. The operator selects songs to burn to CD from a list of recordings made for each room session; he could have selected the wrong ones (since, as you mentioned, you "re-recorded" some songs). As for the no-voice sound of 2 songs; that's weird. The same scoring/recording system is in use in 3 other KTVs (out of a total of 15 KTVs using my karaoke software) aside from POD 5; all 3 other KTVs are here in Manila. I'll check with them if they've encountered the same issue; I haven't received any reports so far. In any case, rest assured that if I do find a problem, the software will be patched and the updates will be distributed to all my client KTVs running the same software version, including POD 5.

Well, well, welll, another lousy day! Thanks Pod 5! I will not recommend this KTV to anybody. Never!

Well, then go to my other client KTV in Cebu, K-1. Except they don't have scoring or cd-recording, yet (I'm still completing tests on whether their equipment, which is much older, can reliably handle the additional requirements of the newer software versions). Alternatively you can go to Mactan Shangri-La's E-Zone and rent the Red Room or the Green Room; they run my system too, including scoring and recording.

Anyway thank you for your feedback. I'm currently working on new karaoke/video-on-demand software so suggestions (and complaints!) for my older software are always welcome.

[trojanguy]

grabe ka sweto ninyo og karaoke configuration oi hehehhe

[vipvip68]

@ love_stinks

Your comments are very much appreciated. I just sent you a personal message regarding the matter. bfg9000 has covered most of the answers to your points with regards to the technical aspects of the recording system.

With regards to your bad customer service experience, On behalf of Pod 5, I would like to apologize for the incident and I assure you that this will not go on unnoticed.

[shaxyra]

nice man pod5... la lang ko kasweto anang recording kay soundtraxx man ko tigrecord pd gud haha... d matabang akong tingog sa pod5 or k1 siguro

[edgeowns]

New member or new account to prevent flaming? lol

Anyway, I have a good experience there.

[mango]

@love_stinks

"Wow, you signed up to Istorya for this? "

[d`monyita]

o yan ha.... nasagot na....