VirtualDJ - VJ Video Encoding

PRO InfinityMember since 2006

Greeting all from Central California, aka Fresno,

I'm in the process of converting my Music Video Library from VHS Hi-Fi tape to a format usable with the VJD Pro 4.1r2. I enjoy VDJ and mixing live the audio and video programs at shows that I do, and the VDJ is a vast improvement, "and more fun to use" over PCDJ-Red, PCDJ-FX, PCDJ Scratch and Stanton's Final Scratch. Which all I own and have used over the last 4-5 years...

I've streamed audio from 120-250g USB2.0 External Hard drives I've built and plugged into a 7 port USB2.0 hub on my laptop with no problems. What about Streaming Video the same way?

I used the Rip DVD function of VDJ on my small DVD music video library, and it filled a 250gig HD.

My experiments at video capture for my use of 720x480 29.97 frames per second result in files taking upwards of 60-100megs per minute of video capture. Ouch!

BTW: I've got close to 500hrs of Music Videos on VHS Hi-FI tape, with some tapes close to 20 years old, to go thru and convert. Just converting the best cuts to Hard Drive and/or burn onto DVD+R, could take upwards of several TerraBytes of storage, so files size could be an issue.

I'm not going Hi-Def video....again I'm converting VHS Hi-Fi tapes for use with VDJ...

I'd like to know.
What formats do you experienced VDJ users use. MP4, VOB, Divx, Mov, etc...
Which format gives the best results for the picture/storage size equation.
What codac's are available and/or supported with VDJ? and
Can I buy and add other video codacs to VJD?

Also, I'd like to know. What formats do you experienced VDJ users use for stereo audio only? WMA, MP3@96k-128k-192k or higher, AIF, Wave, etc

I'm doing real time video capture from a VHS-HiFi VCR via an ATI All-in-Wonder X800XL AGPx8 video card on a WinXP P4-3Ghz 1 gig ram machine w 2x250g 7200rpm hard drives I built up a couple of years ago.

Currently Western Digital 500g 7200rpm Sada drives are going for about $160. usd locally.
Blank DVD's are 4 for a dollar, about $25 usd per 100 on a spindle for name brands, 4.7g of space each Dual layer DVD's are almost a dollar each. 8.5g of space each.

My laptop Emachine M5312 AMD M2400+, 512m ram, 80g 5400rpm HD, Maya 44usb w/DAC2 controller, likes VDJ and the VDJ control vinyl with Technics 1200MkII's and Numark Needles for scratching/mixing/turntablism tricks with audio, but attempts at Music Video playback chokes the system, freezes the picture, etc. Not ready for Public Performances with video and the laptop, yet...

Would 1 gig or more of ram solve my laptop ills? I've already bought and installed a faster hard drive@5400rpm, and done a clean WinXP SP2 and VDJ install and still get the same results. choppy video, dropped audio, etc .... the system doesn't instill confidence in me for video... I've also got 7200rpm external USB2.0 drive cases as well.

btw: I'd have to dissemble the Laptop to get to the 2nd memory slot under the keyboard and replace the 256m chip with a 512m or 1 gig chip.
I've also got a Compaq P4 2.8Ghz 512m ram 60g HD laptop I could move the VDJ to if necessary for video use...the same dissemble trick to upgrade the ram chips would have to be done to get it loaded with 1 gig or more of ram.

Or would a Tower PC be a better way to go...
I've built a Tower PC with the following Specs for my Studio, with possible Mobile DJ/VJ Use too

1 Intel 805d dual core CPU @ 2.66Ghz added Zalman S9500 CPU cooler
1 Asus P5NSLI Motherboard
1 Allied 500w Power Supply with 2 fans
2 1 gig sticks OCZ DDR2 800 ram - 2 gigs total, room for 2 more sticks if needed
2 Gforce 7600 GT KO 256m video Cards SLI mode 1 monitor, SLI off up to 4 monitors supported
1 M-Audio Delta 1010 PCI audio card with breakout box, 8 audio ins x 8 audio outs
1 DVD+R/Rw Eide 8x dual layer unit.
3 7200 rpm Eide HD's 250g,250g, 250g = 750gigs
3 7200 rpm Sata drives 160g, 250g, 500g = 910gigs room for 1 more sata drive
1600Gigs, or 1.6 Tb of total storage, so far
1 Antec Big-tower Case w 4 fans, a 550lb cap Furniture Dolly to move this beast...

1 BenQ 15in LCD 1024x768 for dj console use or
2 - KDS 19in CRT's at home in the studio...about 65lbs each and kinda fragle being CRT's

2- BenQ 2200 lumen video projecters, 2 15ft. video screens for performance.

and

1 APC XS900 UPS for protection of the computer

I strongly believe All Mobile/Club DJs & VJs should plug their PC's, tower or laptop in a UPS.

I look forwards to reading your suggestions, solutions.

Robert Caraway-Owner
DJTunes of California

P.S. I'm single system mobile owner/operator with 28 yrs of DJ'ing and over 150k miles traveled thru California, and 19 years of VJing. Toting a tower or rack cased PC would not be a big problem, 'cuz for gigs I tow a trailer with my V6 powered Chevy Astro Van. My current gig trailer is by Pace American, it's a 19ft long x 8 ft wide x 7 ft tall 3 door 4 wheel 2 axle Full Box Utility Trailer rated for up to 6000lbs of load/gear. With my sound, lights and video gear inside...I'm not pushing the weight limits of the trailer or the van.....yet! However, getting only 8mpg towing the trailer and with gas at over $3.00usd per gallon, a 27 gallon fillup of gas hurts the old budget and profit margins...Business wasn't so bad when gas was $1.25-$1.50 a gallon, and I charged 25 cents a mile round trip out of town, but thats old prices from the old days.

Hi there!

1. What formats do you experienced VDJ users use. MP4, VOB, Divx, Mov, etc...

VOB are prefered, but since it takes lots of space I've personally tried the mpeg-2 format with great success... Would recommend you to experiment using different bitrates, resolution etc. to find a acceptable quality. Other DJ's might add some to this question, more specific settings for encoding.

2. Which format gives the best results for the picture/storage size equation.

Don't really know.. mpeg-2 works great with VDJ.

3 What codac's are available and/or supported with VDJ? and
Can I buy and add other video codacs to VJD?

Download a codec pack from www.free-codecs.com (Codec Pack All in 1 works, and K-Lite Codec Pack should work fine aswell.)

4. Also, I'd like to know. What formats do you experienced VDJ users use for stereo audio only? WMA, MP3@96k-128k-192k or higher, AIF, Wave, etc

MP3 @ 192kbps CBR / 44.1kHz at MINIMUM (Personal choice - acceptable quality with acceptable hard drive space used).

Opps.. found another question!

5. My laptop Emachine M5312 AMD M2400+, 512m ram, 80g 5400rpm HD, Maya 44usb w/DAC2 controller, likes VDJ and the VDJ control vinyl with Technics 1200MkII's and Numark Needles for scratching/mixing/turntablism tricks with audio, but attempts at Music Video playback chokes the system, freezes the picture, etc. Not ready for Public Performances with video and the laptop, yet...

Would 1 gig or more of ram solve my laptop ills?

You didn't mention what graphics adaptor that fits your laptop, but it looks like it holds something like a 32MB or 64MB graphics, (partly shared graphics RAM from internal RAM). And that is simply not enough for video mixing in Virtual DJ, the RAM won't solve that problem - only making the audio playback and scratching using TCV's work smoother.
Solution: buy a laptop with >1GB RAM (2GB preferred, a better processor (Dual core for instance) and a graphics card holding 256MB of DEDICATED video RAM or more (GDDR2, or GDDR3 is better). ATI X1600 is my tip.

Good luck!

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