Serato Software Feature Suggestions

What features would you like to see in Serato software?

Vob support for Video SL...

Holden Caulfield 4:01 PM - 22 November, 2009
Guys, I've searched these forums ad nauseum, and I keep seeing posts where it is said that Mpeg-2 support is coming soon. is this true?

I've just recently converted my entire collection (almost 7 years of PO, ETV and Screenplay) and one thing I noticed is that some videos look great, others suck.

Unless you Convert each video on an individual basis (which would take a year) there's no telling what it's going to look like.

the native VOB files are higher in quality no matter how you encode an MP4.. it's a lossy codec.. you can make it look decent, but why not just support Mpeg-2 and be done with it?

Virtual DJ supports it on the mac, and it works perfectly, so it's not a matter of compatibility.. Quicktime supports it with the additional plugin, heck, even open source stuff like VLC has Mpeg-2 framework in place.

is there any plan for supporting it anytime soon? I mean come on, it's the standard.

I'm loving the software, but It's really backwards that serato would require certain formats and stuff, then not offer a tool that converts the files...

Why has serato not developed an app that converts your video collection in bulk to serato friendly files that look really good? and how about a tagger program? Ugh I'm so frustrated...

I've been DJing with this 5 nights a week since I bought it, 4 weeks ago, and I'm comfy with it now, but there are still little quirks that make me scratch my head?

I'm sure many of them are where the programmers coded themselves into a corner, and it would require a major re-write to fix them, but other than that, it's been fun.
Holden Caulfield 5:56 PM - 17 July, 2010
Hi Guys, I noticed I never got a single response from this post a while back.. I noticed that in the new VSL description, you guys state that there is wider format support.. I cannot find any files that play that didn't already play... any word on VOB's?

Thx!
VJ Justin Allen 6:14 PM - 17 July, 2010
Currently there is no support for VOB (MPEG2) files. While I was initially a huge supporter of this format I believe now that there is actually no need for it. H.264 produces better looking images at a smaller filesize and that seems to be the standard now.

As to the tool for converting your files there are several free programs out there, handbrake for one as well as several higher-end professional encoders, like Squeeze.
DJSIN1980 3:54 PM - 21 December, 2011
I also have a ton of .vob files. It's well over 2TB worth of vids and converting doesn't seem logical or time efficient. Would certainly appreciate the availability of using this file type for video SL!! More and more clubs here in the midwest, the owners seem to think vids are the way to go. Help!!
Serato
Glenn M 2:13 AM - 27 December, 2011
I'll try and answer this, but it's been a while since I worked on this but I think the issue is this.

We endeavour to have feature parity between Mac and Win, but the Quicktime audio decoder has less features than Windows. We use Quicktime for a lot of the audio decoding. I think one of the formats that don't work is .vob.

What we tried to do is get DirectShow to decode the .vob audio, but it didn't have fast enough seeking, meaning if you did a needle drop, it took too long for the audio to play. We experimented for quite a while with this. It was quite gross. DirectShow just didn't handle .vob audio very well.

Yes, the above refers to audio, but remember, audio is decoded by SSL, and VSL just does the video.

Going by libav.org, Virtual DJ violates some open source licenses in order to play certain media types. We can't do that, obviously.

VJ Justin Allen, is right. I recommend using the Serato Handbreak preset to encode your video files to H.264. You'll save a lot of disk space, there will be faster seeking and decoding and the videos will still look great.
DJANGEL "EL FUERTE" 5:41 PM - 27 December, 2011
The problem with Serato Handbrake is that it doesn't do FOLDER (1000 .vob files in a folder) u have to that stupid que... it takes forever ! why can you make handbrake do whole folder a 1000 or 2000 at a time. Thanks
VJ Justin Allen 4:13 PM - 28 December, 2011
DJAngel

Take a look at this and let me know if it solves your request

lifehacker.com
DJANGEL "EL FUERTE" 6:15 PM - 28 December, 2011
Wow! Just what I been looking for Justin. Now! I have to figure this out... I imagine I leave handbrake alone with serato preset right? Thanks Justin.
VJ Justin Allen 8:35 PM - 28 December, 2011
No issues. I am not sure on the handbrake settings for you, but I would imagine you would leave it the same.