FINALLY! Serato is teasing us with a demo of their highly anticipated Video Scratch plugin. Even on my MacBook 1.83 Ghz with 2GB ram it runs fairly smooth. I'm working on ripping my HUGE collection of Promo Only DVD's and I'm glad I waited for them to share file types before doing so. For those of you who haven't tried it out, they (Serato) released a Handbrake preset that plugs in all the settings for you... which is a huge help. It's interesting to note that ripping one song takes me anywhere from 20 - 30 minutes, so it's nice to have an office with two computers. I've dedicated an older computer with a new 1TB hard drive solely for ripping videos - so I can continue to do more productive work like read the forums and spam Facebook while I rip videos.

Anyway, on to my plan for videos. In the club I've never been a fan of video, hell - I hate TV's in the club... people need an escape from everyday shit, and I want to believe that coming to the club where I reside is part of that escape... however my owners are renovating and putting in about 30 plasmas, so theres no escaping the TVs.

My battle plan is to ambient visuals with a separate video/light jock for most of the night, including dance floor video cameras and what not. As far as Serato Video Scratch, once a night for about twenty minutes to a half hour I'm gonna spin a "special" video set with some normal music videos and some video remixes as a special attraction (Think 2nd Nature or Roonie G). I'll probably do it at 11PM, right before the dance floor really picks up. I think it'll be a nice attraction and it won't exhaust me or annoy me with having to spin videos all night. I also think this will help avoid the video zombies that would just stare at the screen instead of dancing.

I'm also going to market the video show towards mobiles, with the exception being if they're willing to pay for it, I'll spin videos all night for them.

What's your plan?

I should also note that I've ordered a MacBook Pro for when I start doing video shows.

somebody^^^^^^^^has lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. lol.

You gotta spend it to make it. If you're a pro and know your sales techniques then you should have no problem recouping your expenses xINFINITY. I love spinning, and I respect the art, but I also respect the fact that I've gotta eat, make house payments and be able to afford nice things! Treat your DJ events like a business and you'll get more respect and more $$$.

ive been using projection screens and plasmas for a while now with my mobile parties... some people dont want to hear about the extra $, but the high end bar mitzvah and sweet 16 clients that are already spending 3-5000 or more on the djs might want to spend an extra 1000 or so to get the video. up till now, i am ashamed to say, i have been playing my promo onlys on portable dvd players! no mixing at all, which is why i always hated doing it. thats why im pumped for this video-sl (even though i cant get anything other than white screens to show up as of now!). once i get it working and get all my promo onlys on a hard drive, it will be way easier to vj mobile parties. i plan on plugging the video out into a switcher, and also connecting it to a memory card reader for zap photos (live slideshow), and a video guy if they hired one. i have a friend that also mixed together all the good promo only ambient videos so when i do play mp3s, ill have some video to run behind it without worrying about it getting repetitive... once i get the macbook pro ill start doing the video editing and tryin to put together sets like the big guys, but like you said... over 20 min or so is rough!

I too am going to pick up a MacBook Pro with the intention of dedicating it to Video Scratch. Up until now I have been running Serato on my PowerBook & a pair of Technics 1200s for audio, and a Pioneer DVJ1000 and a Toshiba Laptop with Arkaos for video.

I have been stocking a lot of abstract clips from royalty-free VJ related sites. I scratch with a live band, so I'm not looking for the Promo-Only full videos that most seem to be going for.

I'll probably run it much like I do now, with an external VGA switch to allow me to go between Serato Video Scratch, the DVJ1000 (via a scaler), and Arkaos.

I'll be projecting to our standard setup most likely - two 8' screens w/ 3500 lumens projectors...

www.facebook.com

I just want the video SL to be available with the origional sound card as well.
Will that ever be possible?

I don't like the serato mixer.
I prefer my own because of the sound fx

I've have spining DVD's on Pioneer X-1 for 2 1/2 year now 2 days a week. So I will keep doing that, but moving on to SSL-Video since I'm a "vinyl guy" and I can do more fun stff on Serato than on Pioneer X-1.

I tested playing video on VirtualDJ a while ago but it felt so "plastic", and was not for me.

Im a PC guy but will order a MacBook Pro tomorrow just for running SSL-video on, so I have the spec needed.

Here is a short "promo" on me that I did for a special gig on the 25/12 (it's filmed at the club where I'm recident here in Sweden. www.youtube.com view

DJ Ken aka DJ Grandpa

very nice^^^^(no homo)

Nice promo. Very well put together.

Damn that is a nice setup. Where in Sweden? (I still have a lot of family living there)

Nathan H> it's in Umeå north of Sweden. We have 3 dancefloor (up to 1500 people) two of the floor is video, if I remember correct we have 35 of 42" plasma, 40 of 19" LCD and 4 projector sceens. Each DJ booth have 3 x DVJ-X1, DJM-800 (i ofen bring my 57 that sounds better than 800), Edirol V4, 1x CDJ1000, 12" monitors, Crown iTech amps, JBL linearray and more. I'm spoiled as a DVJ here :-)

This was installed 3 years ago and Pioneer sait at that time it was lagest "video rigg" in Europe, only LasVegas hade more...

With Serato Video I plan to buy a house, send my kid to college, enjoy life like it should be. Thanks Serato fam for your continued hard work to make the freshest s*#% around.

I don't doubt it! Someday I'd like to see a setup like that.

My grandparents were originally from Skellefteå which I think is pretty close to Umeå, although I have never been as most of my relatives now live near Göteborg...

Yore welcome to vistit any time Natan. Ye it's close, Skellefteå is 150km north of Umeå, about 1 1/2 hour drive.

Nice to know that...might trade my djm 800 for a 57!!

is that a trade or an upgrade?

trade!!

Yes trade, TTM57 sounds much better than DJM-800, is a phater sound with a better punch not so "digital" as 800. I was suprised that 57 sounded so much better than 800.

Cool! Didn't know about that! I must visit that club next time I'm up north!

*swedish* Det där stället måste jag besöka nästa gång jag är uppe i norr. Vad heter stället? Spelar du fortfarande där ibland? *swedish*

*Swe* X3M heter det www.x3m.se, jag spelar där varje helg. hojta till om du är på väg hit. *Swe*

Where is the Handbrake info that Lil Vito was referring to (recommended by Serato)? Thanks. -g

scratchlive.net

Read the article, halfway through is the Handbrake settings plugin.

Awesome. Thanks. -g

Just notised that our "paparatsi" got my dj booth on camera last friday... www.x3m.se

I can do some more oic if you like to see more.