wildweaselmi 1 Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 I'm the perfect example of what not to do. I first purchase OTSDj for my windows machine to DJ, which worked pretty good but was very limited and not supported on the Mac. Went to the Mac and purchased MegaSeg, which is great for just playing playlists. I purchased kJams to take care of the Karaoke side of our business, which is excellent software. Then I wanted to scratch and Native Instruments Traktor Scratch seemed to be the correct choice. Now I want to add Video to my services and none of those services can mix/blend/crossfade video. So I am now looking at Video DJ, which seems like its the best logical choice. Promo Only Hot Video DVD's need to be converted to mp4 files and I tried MacTheRipper which crashed anytime I tried to select two chapters to merge (because thats how the DVD's come, one song but on two chapters). I ended up purchasing Cinematize for $60 which works great but its a very long process to extract each song but in the end it'll be worth it. Now, do I want to spend the $400 for Video DJ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildweaselmi 1 Posted May 26, 2009 Author Share Posted May 26, 2009 So I did purchase VideoDJ for the mac. My review so far is that it has a lot of potential but I believe it has far to go for us mac users. The software is designed for Windows users and some of the features are ported over for the mac. Something that I'm not liking is how the software builds its music database doesn't always work. Also you are unable to create a Karaoke song request list like you can on the windows version (which is never explained until after you purchase the software). I'll stick with the very powerful kJams for now. There are features I do like with VirtualDJ but it won't be my primary DJ software for now, probably just Music Videos is all I will use it for now (maybe if it can find the files) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildweaselmi 1 Posted October 1, 2009 Author Share Posted October 1, 2009 Serato's plugin (Video-SL) is the answer us Mac Video DJ's needed to find. Lots and Lots of video effects, smooth transitions, no lockups or crashes. It is the solution for those Video DJ's that are serious. Virtual DJ will probably be fine for someone just messing around but if you are a professional like myself and sell my services, we can't afford to be messing around with subpar software like Virtual DJ. Upgrade to what the professionals use which is the Video-SL plugin for Serato Scratch Live. The negatives.... 1.) You must have a RANE sound card (SL-1, SL-3, MP4 or the Rane Mixer the TTM 57SL) 2.) You must have the RANE equipment you chose the USB connection must be plugged into your Mac directly (no USB HUB allowed). 3.) The Denon DN-HC4500 with the DN-X900 fader does not control the midi function of the video fader between two videos so you have to control this feature through the software. Works fine for audio tracks, just not the video fader for some reason. Despite the few liveable negatives, this software kicks some serious butt. I have the built in sound card in the Denon DN-HC4500 as a backup in the event the RANE SL-1 ever craps out on me I have a backup. I won't be able to use Serato but I could limp through the night. The real backup would be to buy another SL-1 or SL-3 but seriously. We pay the big bucks for RANE hardware because it doesn't go bad. Built tough so it can take the beating we give it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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