found a solution at the freebox forums thanks to hit big and heist:
Ok, after a bunch of trial and error with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12 I have finally got everything to work (the same as WMP 11 on XP) I downgraded WMP 12 to WMP 11 with the following downgrade script Windows7WMPDowngrader_1.1.exe
http://www.iamkizer.net/freeboxjukebox/files/skins/V4skins/Downloads/Windows7WMPDowngrader_1.1.exe Also I downloaded a newer version of Karaoke for DirectX which now allows videos for the karaoke screen background karaoke-3.0-beta3
http://www.iamkizer.net/freeboxjukebox/files/skins/V4skins/Downloads/karaoke-3.0-beta3.zip (Barry may want to include this updated karaoke zip in future versions of E-Touch.)
Here are the steps I took to downgrade from WMP 12 to WMP 11 on Windows 7:
1. Uninstall Karaoke for Direct X if you already have it installed (also go into Program Files and delete the folder if it is still there)
2. Do a regedit and seach the registry for .cdg and delete any entries it finds for .cdg
3. Run the Windows7WMPDowngrader_1.1.exe and let it do its install. After it's done reboot.
4. After rebooting install karaoke-3.0-beta3 and reboot again
5. After rebooting go into your Karaoke song folder and right click a .cdg file and choose Open With and then choose Windows Media Player and make sure the "Always use the selected program to open this type of file" box is checked
6. The .cdg should now open in WMP 11 and start playing (at least it did for me after doing this a few times)
Hope this helps some of you out
The only issue I am now having in E-Touch for any WMP 11 PC (XP and Windows 7) is that when first opening E-Touch if you choose a Karaoke song the ID3 Tag info does not show up when playing and when going into the Now Playing screen and hitting the lyrics box, it's jumps you back to the main album page. But if you hit the skip ahead arrow and play another Karaoke song, the ID3 Tag info shows up fine and you can go into the Now Playing screen and tap the lyrics box and it goes to full screen. I have recreated this on my Windows XP WMP 11 jukebox, and my Windows 7 WMP 11 PC with exactly the same issue. So it isn't specific to an operating system, just WMP 11. Maybe Barry could take a look at it and see if he can get the same thing happening with WMP 11 as I have. I know it worked the first time I tried it (after installing) but after the second try it starts occuring (only after first E-Touch boot up). Also, if Barry could get the Auto Full screen to work just on Karaoke/Video and not Audio that would be even better.
BTW, here's a screenshot using an image as a background for karaoke in E-Touch (go into the Karaoke for DirectX settings in the start menu and choose an image under the CD+G settings tab, I'm sure a video would even look cooler)