I got pretty excited about it at first. I love my 12" PowerBook and was hoping the MBP would come in a smaller package than my 15". The new hard drive options look cool, but the video card is too slow for video...so, not gonna happen.

so 2 extra hours of battery and a little bit of extra processor speed makes this thing a pro?

It'll run video just like the normal macbooks do, you might just not have all the effects

the alum macbooks / the new 13"MBP will run VSL no restrictions.

that would be great. I'll volunteer for field testing...just need a 13"MBP loaner. ^_^

sounds sketch... i wouldn't run a video show on anything less than a beefy 512 meg dedicated graphics card... most definitely not on the new 13" integrated card

I have run video on my two year old MBP with the 128meg ATI card with all effects available and zero problems.

arrrrrgh was just about to buy a 13inch MB this week :(

the other differences I noticed is that the new 13inch MBP has got the firewire port & SD card slot added compared to the 13inch MB unibody and the top spec one has 4Gb memory rather than 2Gb.

not sure what to do now...

looks like the screen is updated too ..

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is a significant upgrade at a lower price than the original aluminum MacBook it replaces. With the same sleek and durable design popular with consumers, students and professionals, all 13-inch MacBook Pro models now include a seven hour built-in battery, an SD card slot, a FireWire 800 port, an illuminated keyboard and an improved LED-backlit display with 60 percent greater color gamut.

www.macrumors.com

yeah im torn i currently have the white macbook and want to upgrade so I can start using VSL with all its effects. If the new 13inch video card isnt beefy enough then ill hold off and save for the 15inch.

look at the 15" 2.53. for $1800 it's worth it. more than enough for vsl.

other thing I noticed is the 13inch only has one jack that does audio in & out where as the 15inch has seperate jacks for audio in & out.

was this the case in the old unibody 13inch macbooks?

i am not so convinced about the new mbps.
the not removable battery is no advantage for me.
the lack of express card slot, replacerd with a simple sd card reader is lame
the 13 inch version now is called pro and has firewire which is good. but it on the downside - missing the second audio port. not sure but i think the old unibody 13 " "mac book" (not pro) had two jacks.
the new one would not be usable well for software like arkaos.
i have an older one, 1st gen unibody 15". it is pretty much like the new one besides a little less power (2.4 instead of 2.53 ghz) but has an express card slot. i can buy an sd card reader for that for 20 $ anywhere. but i can do much

additionally. check the updated mac book (white one)
it now has pretty much the same specs as the 13'" pro, now with nvidia graphics. they did not mention it in the news but it changed.
it is cheaper than the 13" unibody, of course. i think specs are good for full vsl support. maybe the cheapest alternative for VSL right now
i personally would go to a store and buy a unibody 15" mbp with 2.8 ghz from the previous gen. they will be cheaper now too. and they should support 8gb ram too. hardware has not changed that much.
i prefer express card over sd cad slot cause i like to use eSATA and stuff like that.

Thanks for everyones input

no probs ....

think I'm going to pick up the 13inch Macbook pro (this week hopefully)... the only reservation I have is the single audio in/out jack but if it becomes an issue I have a USB sound card I can use.

the vid card should be fine for VSL as the guy I DJ with uses the old black macbook with intel graphics and its fine apart from the melt transition which stresses it a bit too much.. and the Nvidia 9400 card is meant to be 5x better than the intel card.

picked up my 13inch macbook pro today..... not even fired up SSL yet and its already justified its price tag....

surfing with no virus scanners just feels odd ?????????

Let us know how it handles VSL then.

boamatic...def. let us know how it handles VSL...i'm in the market for a new laptop... was either thinkin of gettin the new 13" or a refurb 15"

Same here.



Apple should get a bitch slap for removing the Express-Card slot and replacing it with a SD card slot. This just shows that they are more and more getting into the consumer market and do not care about the pro market.

I can't use an express card to connect

- an external drive with eSata
- UMTS/Cell card

This really sucks.

This has shaken my decision up a little. Was very close to buying a 15" MBP (generation just gone) until this suddent update. Would be very interested to find out if the new 13" MBP can handle VSL properly, or is just an MB with a few extra ports?

my pc was on the fritz so i picked up the new mbp 13" the other day. this is my 1st mac and im in love. dont think i can go back to pc. i was waiting for a 13 inch macbook pro and it came just when i had the money. like it was meant to be. lol

so yall say this can run video sl wit no problem? i may have to get that. anybody want to lend me there video sl for testing purposes. lol (joking mods please dont ban me)

sweet dude. I seem to recall a demo mode that would allow you to test the 13" with VSL
Please do and report back.

thanks . downloading the demo now. im running the 2.26 processor with 4 gigs ram and 160 gig hard drive and sl1. ill reprt back in a few hours how its working

Dope Fantom hope everything runs smoothly so I can pick one up also.

my VSL testing is going good with the new 13inch mac book pro... not ran it for long periods yet.

I've got the 2.53Ghz model with 4Gb of ram 250Gb drive ... hopefully will get more testing done in the next few days.

runs so much better than my 2.2Ghz sony viao which had a 3Gb mem and a nvidia 8600 (which is a better card than in the macbook pro) and windows XP.

I'll get back to you with more info once I've done more testing..

boabmatic....good to hear.... if you can...test out some of the effects in VSL...see if that bogs down the system.....

Thanks!!!!

also...the internal recording function will show glitches and drop outs when the system is being over taxed. scratching both decks, running both effects on both vids and a crossfade effect, while recording could be a good test, I think.

video sl has internal recording function? i have to test that . ok with my limited 2 hour test not outputing to a external monitor it seems to work well on my 13 inch macbook pro. when i put the video quality on best the wave forms glitch a little but the video output still runs smooth when doing effects. on high quality with effects it runs smooth.

I have a question for the guys that are testing VSL with the new 13" MBP's. Are all of you running vsl without outputting to an external display? I'm very curious to find out how it performs when connected to projectors, montiors, and large lcds.

The reason I ask is because I have a pc running VSL. It has an integrated video card, but VSL works great on my pc. I don't get all of the effects, but I am able to mix with no problems at all. However, when connected to a projector, the videos become very choppy. The audio from the videos work great, but the video on the screen looks like I'm running a bunch of still images in a slide show.

I've known for over a year that I would be going mac for my music, but would like to have the option of video as well. The MBP with the 9600 card looks great, but I don't want to break the bank if I'm not going to gig with video.

my testing has been done with a connection to a projector via the mini display to vga connector.

(I need to pick up one of those s-video converters though due to the no s-video out.)

not had much time to test this week as I've got a gig out in estonia at the weekend so got some of my gear packed up.

i just ordered one of the these 13" macbook pros. I'll test it and post a video for you all. What is it that you would like to see?

Also, why is everyone up on s video's balls? Just go VGA, really it's all the same. Well I can see if you're in a club and that's all they have but I'm mobile. I've done video gigs with dvi to vga on the old macbook pros and it looks fine.

I just would like to see the overall performance on serato video on the 13 inch. Effects included. I am thinking about purchasing either a 13 or 15 inch macbook pro within a year or 2.

I wanna see how well it runs video and if it can easily handel all the effects (channel and x-fader) (actually, I don't need to SEE it.. I just wanna know if it will run everything smoothly.

cool will do. Lets just hope I get it in tomorrow. . .lol

waiting for my 13"macbook pro...i should get it by tuesday at the latest (in the mail)

Just got my new 13" Macbook pro in! = ) I'm post the test video soon. . .

my lady just got me the same 13" MBP that boabmatic got , for fathers day.

im curious to hear your VSL results.

It's great! Perfect man. . . I tested for a few hours running all efx and recording it was fine. I tested on my 3500 lumen professional projector via vga. My homie has the 128mb video card (old macbook pro). . .2.2 processor and this runs better. The only thing I see wrong is I can't add the bpms if it's in video, I had to click hardware then put the bpms and go back to video. ????

hey mark... this sounds promising!!... i have the same old mbp with 128mb video...

I'm uploading a video now just to show everyone. it's 12 mins. I did it live so don't lol <--haha. Turn the vol down cause I recorded live via camera so the sound isn't great. I don't have time to edit and make a perfect video now sry. Link coming in a few mins. thanks

Sry it took so long. Youtube's wak haha I recorded on lowest setting.

Part one Watchwww.youtube.com

Part two Watchwww.youtube.com

Thanks Mark! ... Seeing is believing

Cool. . . I just need to clean my drive and start working on some sets.

Thanks Mark!...this def. helped..

What can you put the video quality slider to? Can it go to the highest notch and not be jumpy. Is the video card enough?

I just bought the 17" big dog but also interested in this one as with the student discount and the iPod promo it would be like getting the higher end 13" for $1,100 plus tax... (if you sell the iPod touch for $200).

Awesome! Thanks for posting, that helped make my decision of which mac I'll be purchasing. Will be getting the 13 inch.

I don't know let me check and I'll get back to you.

I was going to get the 2.53 with 4gb but from what I know it's not a big enough diff in performance for the price, maybe like 10 secs faster for most task. 4gb should help a lot with other programs once snow comes out. I got my money saved up already for the next macbook pro that comes out ; ) This one is my personal. I need one for my business.

I turned all the settings to all or maxed out and worked fine. Video Quality was moved to high. I didn't try best. I think it looks fine at medium.

Yeah if the video quality is not high as possible I wouldn't even be interested.

at the medium setting, you're not even running a composite cable worthy resolution... VSL should be on the high setting to be even considered in my opinion

I would like to think I know what I'm doing. . . lol I feel I have a good understanding of how all this works. You guys can do what you'd like but there's other things you can do to get a good pic. I'm not telling tricks here tho sry haha

I did try best today with all the settings to max. The quality didn't get better and if you run all efxs it starts to get a little slow. I wouldn't run it at best sry. Quality gets worse at higher settings btw. = ) It's like running a 28kbps song over a 200,000 dollar sound system. You just don't do it.

I'll set everything back to my setting cause I'm happy with how it ran and looked b4 I set it all to max.

Anything else I can do for you? Just let me know. Thanks

I believe that the quality setting limits what leaves the system. So you could be running uncompressed HD video and if your setting is on medium then your image will be downgraded.

I am concerned that you see no difference in your video output between settings. That either means that there is an issue with your initial video compression, or an issue with your delivery chain.

There should be a visible difference between the settings.

The quality setting also limites specifically the resolution of the effects pipeline. Nathan posted a few explanations - dig for them.

@marknonsense1 - that was a cool demo. thanks for posting it.

Thanks!




My videos look just like the DVD if not better. I've never seen a DJ do video and have a better look pic then mine. So I'm good. . . I would speak my understanding of it but I don't have time right now (going to the movies in 10) But real quick an mp4 on a sd T.V. will look better then an mp4 on a Top line 5k LCD. Higher resolution can make your pic look worse. If we were playing HD the I could see people caring about this but they're mp4s (remember?)



Nik39, post a link? Thanks

what?

What? lol Sry man I have an instinct cell phone ( not so friendly ) Also not the most articulate person. Anyways, it doesn't matter. Doesn't work so great at best.

Oh, my bad. I thought you were a working DJ, not a bedroom DJ. No problem then with sending your videos out to your bedroom TV.

Most of, if not all of, the DJ's who work in clubs and mobile shows need to be able to send our images out to large projector screens and HD screens in the clubs. In this case it matters what setting you use and how you encode.And the fact that we have to step on them to even get them to those devices also hurts the quality even more.

I understand where you are coming from now.

Lol @ Thought you were a working dj. Yeah you're right, you know us bedroom DJs (with only top of the line gear, a BUSINESS and the drive to work on making this their only income) OH, never mind. I don't care! I can RESPECT YOUR 20 YEARS IN THE BUSINESS! Thanks for your input.

lol Whatever man I was just trying to help you out. Head on out to your "club" with your machine that outputs crappy looking video.

I don't do "clubs" . . . I own and work for myself. I may buy a club tho. I don't know yet.

I own everything I need to do video*

I don't do "clubs" . . . I own and work for myself. I may buy a club tho. I don't know yet.

Thanks Mark!!!

No, search ;) But my response was meant for VJ Austin Allen and his comment about the quality setting limiting the output.

So you were agreeing with what I said then?

Read my response.

Once again Nik you seek to cause strife where there is no need to.

Is there anything unclear? Then ASK SPECIFICALLY.

you wrote:


I replied:


So which part of my response do you either not understand or is unclear to you?

Someone asked me to see if I can use Screenflow while running vsl. I downloaded it and can't seem to get it. Any help?

My projector comes up I can hit record but see no file?

okay... so me- the skeptic, just bought the new 13 inch macbook pro... 2.3Ghz and 4 gigs of ram. this is the one with the integrate 256 shared graphics memory. I bought it for personal use and backup dj purposes and thought it would be an audio-only backup..

runs video flawlessly. two very beefy 300meg mp4 video files on either side and handles it well. gets a little warm but thats what fan control is for anyways. no complaints!

So... I was ready to get the 13", but started looking at the refurbs. Found a 15" MBP 2.5ghz, 320 gb hd, 4gb ram, 9600m gt 512 video for 1449.00. I didn't order it right away, and it was gone within an hour.

Went to the apple store to see if they had any "end of life" mbp's in stock. I ended up getting a 2.4ghz, 250 gb hd, 2gb ram, 256mb 9600m gt video card for 1499.00. That was with the education discount, plus I was able to get the free ipod touch with it. The same model I just bought is in the refurb list online for 1349.00, but I didn't mind paying more in store and getting the ipod. Plus I don't have worry about one of my neighbors stealing it from off my doorstep while I'm at work.

werd, the refurbs and older gens are going for good deals right now but the 13incher is just so cute

Here's a video of us testing the 2.0 white macbook with the 9400m.

www.scratchlive.net

ok...after reading these posts and watchin the vid...I went out and bought the same macbook pro. 13" with 2.26ghz, 2GB RAM...etc

I ran VSL NO PROBLEM!... I also use Mix Emergency and it had NO problem with any of the effects and such...

I also used a Grandtec PC to Video converter to output to a few TV's and LCD's...and there was no latency... I had the VSL performance setting set to HIGH, screen refresh @ 60hz, buffer set at 5ms, and the video buffer set to the right as far as it can go...

with all that...I DJ'ed for 5hrs straight with no problems or crashes...

the only thing i did notice was the half second delay when viewing "ALL AUDIO" or "ALL VIDEO" in my crates mainly that I have 1TB worth of videos and about 600GB of Audio........I imagine if I had 4GB of memory that would remedy that small hiccup..

all in all I was pretty much impressed with my experience...

I previously owned an early MBP 15" 2.2GHZ, 128mb Vid dedicated, 4GB RAM, 500gb HDD....

and I can say it ran as smooth, maybe even better than my old machine...

How are your videos encoded? What framerate, ect...

I wouldn't go 4gb of ram, unless you're going to put snow on it. I don't get the delay? I do however have some problems running @ high but only if I put all efx ON. I don't care for high anyways tho.

most of my vids are:

Dimensions: 640x480 or 720 x 480
Format: .mp4
Codecs: H.264
Framerate: 29.97
~Bit Rate: 2000 - 3000
~Size: 75-125mb


also it doesn't hurt to have 4gb of memory....

Very nice report on this machine working then!

shy your vids thats 640x480 play clear on a big tv or projector screen? ive downloaded a few from frannchise record pool that are the same specs and file sizes and i have the same mac as you same specs ( only with 4 gigs of ram) and even on the highest settings it looks slightly blurry on just a 37 inch tv ( using the mini display to vga adapter to vga in on tv. )

Cool I think im going to splurge

Now that everyone has had a few months with the 13inch, what is your vote now. Do you still like it?

I started with the 13 inch and took it back after 10 days for the 15 inch. Couldn't handle that small screen while djing.

I went ahead and bought it. I agree with the small screen (using 2.0 and multiple screen views helps) other than that it runs great. I dj at 2 different clubs thursday friday and saturday. I have used it for 1 month now, i run serato, videos sl, ttm57, camtwist and safari, I stream my video mix live on line (www.ustream.com search for djroulette) it handles all of this well I am running High quality, if I use big effects the waveforms slightly lag but I'm ok with that for now. If you can get used to small screen its awesome. I bought this because I heard in late2010 early 2011. apple uses a quad core processor in macbook pro so I will spend big money then!!!!

I just got video-sl and it runs like shit on my HP it's just a few yrs old. So I'm going to get a mbp I'm thinking of the one below. My question is will it run VSL smooth?

www.bestbuy.com!--Apple+--%3E/9755419.p?id=1218167391491&skuId=9755419

Sorry had to shorten the link. It's the cheapest one so I was thinking of getting one that cost more so i may get the 320 gig hard drive. I just want the best performance for VSL.

ink.ms

store.apple.com

i have this one i use as backup, i would never use it as my main to do video, i did once just to check it out, it worked fine
store.apple.com

if you keep checking the refurbs apple puts the 2.4 gz macbook pro with the 9400+9600 video card for $1299, it will run video good

refurbished? If I'm paying top dollar I want it new. Also I don't like the fact the macbook pro's only has 2 usb ports. I really need 3 I use an ext drive, the usb for sl 1, and I'm getting a midi usb controller cause I don't have the 57 but the djm-700 for midi.

I guess I can just have all my music on the laptop which I really don't wanna do. Main reason why I like HP they always have 3 usb ports. I've always been a pc user but serato was mainly built for mac's and every dj i talk to tells me mac is the way to go. Esp when it comes to running VSL.

i have two refurbs they run flawless, the warranty is the same as a brand new one,as far as only 2 usb's thats why you have firewire, usb for sl1 usb for midi & firewire for hard drive

but hey you say your paying top $ buy the 17inch MBP baller......lol, it has three usb's & one firewire

if you want to run video with no issues, do your self a favor, GET A MAC!!!!

three usb's player store.apple.com

don't be scared of the refurb, as i said mines are flawless, i use one to dj at least 20 hours a week had it more than a year now

my boy got one it messed up on him he took it in saturday got it back monday, logic board went out, he got a new one free, refurbs have a lemon law, if it goes in 3 time they give you a brand new one

wow. wasn't aware of firewire. or even refurb lemon law. Mac is a good company. I'm not a baller at all I was actually gonna apply for a best buy card and just get a macbook pro. That's my best option.

you could apply for a apple card, to get a refurb if you want.....

if you go best buy, be aware there are some issues right now with the new I5, I7 processor & ScratchLIVE

Yeah none of the one's im looking at had the I5 or I7.

Is this the 13" macbook pro?
what version of serato/vsl are you using?
what are your spec's on the macbook?

I use to be able to do camtwist, safari, serato, vsl, all from my computer and streaming live. with 2.0 and the new vsl.. it doesnt allow this.. i think though it may be something to do with flash plugin.. seems to be messing up alot...

Video sl 1.2, scratchlive 2.0. I keep up to date with serato. Yes the 13 inch. I have actually lowered the quality to medium because at the club I dj I run through a piece of shit Radio Shack Scan Converter, to convert the signal to rgb component.
What is not allowed? and how does it mess up?

Sorry left this out of my last post. The specs I have are 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1067 MHz DDr3

i got the same mac...but i have a effects restriction... the transition effects are enabled...any clue to why this would be..
serato 2.0
vsl - 1.2

Not sure of why you would have effect restriction, that would be a question to ask forum for help. starting a new discussion would be your best option. Where are you seeing effects restriction? Under the settings?

what are your output resolutions?

One of my fav things it the backlit keyboard. You can always see whats going on with your mix.

agreed, i have the 15" mbp i7 and am just loving it. It performs video sl smoothly.

I

I just updated to the 15inch as well. However, I stuck with the i5. Could use more RAM tho, but its good enough for a laptop I guess.