Hey Jason Lim,

First off make sure you have version 1.2 of Video-SL installed, you can download it from here : serato.com

Now just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly : when you load a video file on the left deck, you don't see any video in the preview window? But you see the waveform show up like normal? Now when you load a video to the right deck you can see the video, and when you push the fader back to the left you can now see the left video too? Is that correct?

Are you just using your mouse to move the video fader? Make sure both faders are up and the cross fader is in the middle. Now if you load a track to both decks can you see both of them in the preview window?

Let me know :)

Hi Logan,

I should be having the latest version as I just made an online purchase online less than 2 weeks ago.

Last weekend I tried connect to the Rane Sixty Eight mixer and the problem still remain.
When i load the video on either left or right deck, the video appear in the preview windows but not the output windows. The waveform is there and when i try to change the display setting to show the right deck video on the right side of the output window and the left deck on the left side of the output window (side by side display setting on output windows), it work. But it is ugly because either one side of the screen will always be blank.

The video fader is adjust using the left right arrow key on the keyboard. This settings can be check under the settings where I key in my product code.

I am getting frustrated and I still find Virtual DJ more user friendly in terms of video playback. I purchased SL3 and Video SL thinking i would give me better control using the CDJ as playback but for 2 gigs I done, it is not working.

Appreciate if you can reply promptly so I can get a solution fast.

See if it works when you set it up like this (just use the mouse/trackpad for now):

Video loaded to both decks.

In the Output settings, set arrangement to Normal (output).

At the onscreen controls, make sure both channel faders are fully up.

Set the transition in the middle to Default.

Make sure both effect slots on each deck are set to None.

Now play your videos, and if you drag the crossfader onscreen left and right you SHOULD see it going between both decks on the preview monitor and the output window.

Give that a try.

I can only do it this Saturday and let you know.

Thank you

You can test it with just the SL3 hooked up to your laptop, you know... You don't need the full setup...

I hooked up using my SL3 and it seem to playing fine. I guess the problem might be on the Rane Sixty Eight.

I was playing last night and beginning it was ok, then it refuse to play a file which was also mp4 format. I don't know why. I got so frustrated and took out my American audio control, run it on virtual DJ and never gave me any problem. I felt I have more problem using video SL and I really regret buying it. Technical support is also slow.

Sorry for the late reply. Which decks do you have selected as your 'Primary Decks' in the Scratch Live setup screen when you are connected with the 68? Make sure your primary decks are the decks you are loading the videos too, if they aren't then change them. You can tell what decks are the primary ones by the white box around them.


Do you mean that you couldn't load the file? Can you load it now in the offline player? If not please attach it to this thread and i'll take a look at it.

Cheers :)

I use my SL3 box and I was playing mp3 files earlier as the screen was used for a live soccer match. After the match finished I switch to Video SL and played a few tracks. And then suddenly one of the track just refuse to load no matter what I do. I remembered very clearly I used to play the same file previously and it work, but on that day it fail on me.

In my opinion it is unstable and not reliable. As mentioned again, tech support is poor and slow. How can i be get better support in a prompt manner?

Sorry we can't reply instantly Jason, but we have a lot of users with help threads and we have to reply to them all in order rather than giving more time to certain threads.

90% of the time with this sort of issue the problem is with the user's files rather than the software. If you could attach this file to the thread I will take a look at it for you.

Has it only ever happened with this one file? Can you reproduce it again or was it a one-off?

How have you encoded your video files? It sounds like you would greatly benefit from re-encoding them with the Scratch Live Video-SL preset. It's not hard to do, you just need to download a small program and load the preset, then add your videos to the que and click start. This video will explain what to do if you are interested > serato.com

I do not know if I have the same problem because as of now I had stop using this product. I don't want to risk halfway through my gig and get problem. I download some of my video from YouTube using firefox, easy and fast. I have hundreds of videos and it is very tedious for me to do encoding on these files again, as far as I knew the extension is MP4 and it should work without much complications. As mentioned I uses virtual dj and it has not gave me any problem at all, why can't video SL be like this? My mp4 file size is quite big so can I use attach file to send it to you?

The fact that Virtual DJ will play any old crap that you've ripped off YouTube sums up just how discerning they except their customers to be.

Except? Well at least it serve my purpose and I get no issues. I only download HD from YouTube and quality is good as well as audio. I wouldn't say is crap unless it is SD which I won't even be bother. And doesn't matter where you download or ripped it from, the fact from us layman is that the extension of the file is MP4. Just like my audio files are in mp3 and I do not need to bother more technical concern on how to encode it and it play well on my traktor, SL3 and VDJ. See my point?

Indeed, to a 'layman' one mp4 files looks much the same as another.

But to anyone who has any idea what they are talking about, they absolutely are not.

If you are a serious video DJ, it is better to try and go beyond being a layman, and actually learn a little about codecs, and keyframes, and interlacing, and pulldown, and aspect ratios.

You CAN play 128kps BitTorrented mp3s, too. But you don't if you actually care about quality.

Learning on quality is not an issues and it should be an individual preference, the more homework you do the more you are better equipped with the knowledge and hence providing te best for the crowd.

However my point is the "tools" I am using now is giving me problem. One moment I can play the file, another moment I cannot play the same file. Understanding my point?

The problem is, if you didn't encode your files yourself, you'll never know whether they are encoded in a suitable way for VSL.

It's quite possible that a file will play ok under the right conditions, but anything can change between gigs or even during a gig: Your computer could be getting hot, so the processor might wind down its power. You could be mixing two tracks together which don't have enough keyframes, so your CPU is working super hard. Mix either track with a suitably encoded track, you'll get away with it, both together, maybe not.

That is why knowing the ins and outs of your files is so important. If you don't know that information, you are always taking a chance.

Why should we be doing most of the hard work to suit the software/hardware whereby the products should be designed to suit the users habits? Is like when I am working on a PC and my windows hanged every time because I live in a hot and humid country and in the end I was told my environment does not suit such products. VDJ have an indicator on CPU usage and when I see my CPU is fully loaded, I will load a lower resolution track on my next incoming song.

I do not deny the fact that both users and product manufacturer must play their part to ensure a perfect result and I do agree your point on ensuring our source are good for the output. Is like using a composite source on a full HD display and we should not be pointing the fault on the display because our source is of a lower resolution. But since the display is able to show what I want, I should not be complaining, but if the display is not capable of showing any display despite having a composite input, then there is a question mark here.
I am aware of what you mean by codec, interlace scan, progressive scan, pulldown (film to video) and aspect ratio as I am in the AV industry and also CTS certified. But MP4 being H.264 compression, the majority of the above contribute mostly on quality and very minimum issues on compatibility and when compatibility issues surface, manufacturers usually will settle it. Imagine I have thousands of files which I had no problem using and when I decided to change to VSL, do they expect the user to encode their thousands over file to suit the products?
Another problem I am also facing in my country is that there are very limited DJ i knew here uses video mixing. I am getting poor support from the reseller/distributor here. Some even do not know VSL existed.

Yes.

If your music collection is in Flac or WMV you must convert it to a different format to use with SL. Or even iTunes.

If your sound files are mp3, you must convert them to use in Final Cut Pro.

If your video files are mpeg2, you must convert them to use in Final Cut Pro.

Different programs, especially professional tools, often require very specific things in both file format and file specification.

Isn't mp4 an industrial standard? If such why no requirement is stated in the user manual or printed on the product spec?

Hey Jason,

Can you please make sure you have the latest version of Perian installed : perian.org This will help decode the videos, it's important you have this installed.

Also, I recommend updating to version 2.3.3 of Scratch Live which you can download here > serato.com

After you have installed both of these, if it still happens I'd like you to attach one of the mp4 files that this occurs with. Don't worry about file size.

Cheers :)

I uploaded the file as request. I do not think is anything wrong file as I had upgraded to 2.3.3 and tested this same file again. It worked so far. I had never done anything to my video file and it still as it is.

your playing youtube HD video's that are not encoded for serato.

Yeah they might play sometimes & sometimes not.

Learn how to encode them right.

HD is 1280x720 for 720p & 1920x1080p that's YouTube download setting's

Serato is 640x480 or 640x360 is the standard

Hey Jason,

That's great to hear it's working better with 2.3.3. Also make sure you installed Perian if you haven't already. And if you run into further problems again I would recommend converting a few files with the Serato Handbrake Preset to see if that helps.

I'll close this thread now. If the problem comes back feel free to re-open it :)