jivin' jim
There has been a great deal of discussion on the laptop pcdj & the updated version now available.In the past I have used expensive laptops but I must say none have been as reliable as my pcdj that is why I am in the process of purchasing the updated version.Is it expensive? My response to this is an emphatic no.I have used my current model for nearly five years & have not encountered one single problem.It is far more robust than anything else on the market and just to give you an idea of how well it works, I was working a gig in Malta with a fellow D.J. who mocked the idea of paying so much for a computor withj a spec lower than his & costing nearly a thousand pounds more.The temp @ the time was around 38C. After about 1hr. his laptop crashed, overheating, whereas my pcdj was on for a full six hours an encountered no problems whatsoever.At this moment in time I have over 120,000 tunes on board so there is no problem with capacity.Also the audio outlets on the pcdj are far superior to any found on a conventional laptop.I have had numerous accidents with my pcdj on one occassion it dropped over six feet onto a concrete base was it farewell to my gear not at all just a slight dent to the case.I ask you how many normal laptops could sustain that type of treatment.Initially the unit may appear expensive but I have been offered £1200 for my old unit, how many laptops after 5yrs. have such a high re-saleable value?The unit is a workhorse it is the diesel engine of laptops. Don't hesitate buy the new version you will not be sorry.
Inviato Thu 13 May 10 @ 6:27 am
djstaffy
nearly bought an older version on monday night for €950.3 years old but guy who owned it couldnt tell me whether i could upgrade ram or hd so let it go.ive seen a guy use this machine and swears he never ever had a crash ect.i would have used my pioneer djm 5000/denon hd2500 as controller.
i did ask about one of theese a couple of years ago but obviously no one here had one.have to say i am impressed with theese machines but this day with so little work and cheaper prices i just cant afford it
i did ask about one of theese a couple of years ago but obviously no one here had one.have to say i am impressed with theese machines but this day with so little work and cheaper prices i just cant afford it
Inviato Thu 13 May 10 @ 8:14 am
SBDJ
You've obviously just had bad luck with laptops Jim; all the ones I have used have coped just fine. No professional uses the laptops audio outputs; I generally use the built-in soundcard in my mixer.
A couple of 00VJ users have been having issues already which is unfortunate.
I've had a few conversations about this machine with PCDJ employees including tehSpanna above and decided against buying it for several reasons:
Lack of eSATA. USB/Firewire drives are all well and good, but eSATA is far better.
1280x1024 resolution on a non-widescreen screen. I'm used to a widescreen 17" 1920x1200 and couldn't go back to a 4:3 screen.
They seemed adamant that no-one would realistically need more than 2Gb RAM and 2GHz CPU, and whilst they were able to offer upgrades I would already expect a machine of that cost to have higher specifications. They do matter and they have to remember that people don't always just run one program.
No on-site warranty. Dare I say it; I had an issue with one of my Dells a few weeks ago when the SATA cable from the double HDD caddy went bad and my second drive couldn't be seen. I rang Dell, they sent an engineer out the next working day (from Unisys) who actually replaced the motherboard and cable to ensure it was all working again. At no point was I without my machine.
PCDJ may well have a quick turnaround but say I have an issue on Saturday night, I speak to tech support and post the machine off Monday morning. PCDJ get it Tuesday, fix it Tuesday and post it back Tuesday and I get it Wednesday then I've only got a day of testing before gig on Thursday and thats assuming an instant fix and that the couriers are on time.
I applaud them for making such a machine and have said so before, but for me it just wasn't quite enough for me to part with that amount of money.
A couple of 00VJ users have been having issues already which is unfortunate.
I've had a few conversations about this machine with PCDJ employees including tehSpanna above and decided against buying it for several reasons:
Lack of eSATA. USB/Firewire drives are all well and good, but eSATA is far better.
1280x1024 resolution on a non-widescreen screen. I'm used to a widescreen 17" 1920x1200 and couldn't go back to a 4:3 screen.
They seemed adamant that no-one would realistically need more than 2Gb RAM and 2GHz CPU, and whilst they were able to offer upgrades I would already expect a machine of that cost to have higher specifications. They do matter and they have to remember that people don't always just run one program.
No on-site warranty. Dare I say it; I had an issue with one of my Dells a few weeks ago when the SATA cable from the double HDD caddy went bad and my second drive couldn't be seen. I rang Dell, they sent an engineer out the next working day (from Unisys) who actually replaced the motherboard and cable to ensure it was all working again. At no point was I without my machine.
PCDJ may well have a quick turnaround but say I have an issue on Saturday night, I speak to tech support and post the machine off Monday morning. PCDJ get it Tuesday, fix it Tuesday and post it back Tuesday and I get it Wednesday then I've only got a day of testing before gig on Thursday and thats assuming an instant fix and that the couriers are on time.
I applaud them for making such a machine and have said so before, but for me it just wasn't quite enough for me to part with that amount of money.
Inviato Thu 13 May 10 @ 8:23 am
GARYOKE
I have to agree with some of the posts on here about the 00dj. It was horrendous. I sent mine back so many times. Each time it was returned it came back with more problems and outside of an agreed time forcing me to cancel a few gigs.
The turnaround for this machine was 2 months instead of the agreed 1 month. Computer technology claim to check the oodj before dispatch but mine came dead with no power. It also had a disconnected sound card, loose screen brackets, scratched screen. The shards of metal floating around inside it were a nice touch. This was just the start!!!
To be honest most of the things I had a problem with look to have been improved or rectified in the 00vj.
Would I buy one? No. The staff treat you like you are stupid, lie to you and make it extremely difficult for you to get a refund. I had to get my solicitor involved but it still dragged out over about 6 months. Whoever is in charge of assembly needs to go on some sort of course.
Expect to be let down!!
The turnaround for this machine was 2 months instead of the agreed 1 month. Computer technology claim to check the oodj before dispatch but mine came dead with no power. It also had a disconnected sound card, loose screen brackets, scratched screen. The shards of metal floating around inside it were a nice touch. This was just the start!!!
To be honest most of the things I had a problem with look to have been improved or rectified in the 00vj.
Would I buy one? No. The staff treat you like you are stupid, lie to you and make it extremely difficult for you to get a refund. I had to get my solicitor involved but it still dragged out over about 6 months. Whoever is in charge of assembly needs to go on some sort of course.
Expect to be let down!!
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 6:56 am
kradcliffe
This is a niche product with a very low spec for the money.
It even makes apple's Macook Pro laptops seem reasonably priced!
Keith
It even makes apple's Macook Pro laptops seem reasonably priced!
Keith
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 7:22 am
karaokekev
i did look at the oovk at bpm this year and i was not impressed for the money they require i use my nearly 3yr old dell inspiron 17 currenty i have 2 750gb hard drives fitted and it is flawless never had a crash with vdj since upping it to win 7 again i could not warrent 3k on a machine when the one i have orginally cost £750 (with 4 gig of ram) i have of course done 2 hard drive upgrades since but still a lot cheaper than the oovj
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 7:57 am
GARYOKE
It's not just the price. I have learned to be more careful who I buy from. Don't forget these are the guys who brought you the PCDJVJ software which was Virtual dj's engine with a new skin. I was one of the mugs that shelled out £160 for this. A few months later I was told there would be no more updates.
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 8:33 am
SBDJ
I actually got to use one of these the other day as a forum member brought it up to mine to get it up and running.
I only had an afternoon with it but here is my summary:
* Well built, sturdy and looks like a solid professional product. It's quite heavy too.
* Plenty of IO (with the obvious exception of eSATA). Having a delta onboard is dead handy.
* Touchscreen may be handy in event of a controller failure.
* Hate the keyboard. Really had trouble with it - I felt like I was having to push the key through the case with some keys - shift for example was a nightmare. I ended up copy+paste rather than trying to get a colon out of it!
* Didn't like the mouse. Never been a fan of those style of mice.
* Screen. I didn't use the touchscreen on it at all, but I'm too used to widescreen displays now. 1280x1024 just doesn't cut it IMHO.
Battery backup is one thing a laptop does have a big advantage with. I still feel the specs are too low for the price however personally.
I only had an afternoon with it but here is my summary:
* Well built, sturdy and looks like a solid professional product. It's quite heavy too.
* Plenty of IO (with the obvious exception of eSATA). Having a delta onboard is dead handy.
* Touchscreen may be handy in event of a controller failure.
* Hate the keyboard. Really had trouble with it - I felt like I was having to push the key through the case with some keys - shift for example was a nightmare. I ended up copy+paste rather than trying to get a colon out of it!
* Didn't like the mouse. Never been a fan of those style of mice.
* Screen. I didn't use the touchscreen on it at all, but I'm too used to widescreen displays now. 1280x1024 just doesn't cut it IMHO.
Battery backup is one thing a laptop does have a big advantage with. I still feel the specs are too low for the price however personally.
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 10:25 am
djrobkalmar
For that kind of dough comparable to what's available, not a snowball's chance in hell you can convince me to even try one, let alone buy one.
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 4:42 pm
djjameslake
GARYOKE wrote :
It's not just the price. I have learned to be more careful who I buy from. Don't forget these are the guys who brought you the PCDJVJ software which was Virtual dj's engine with a new skin. I was one of the mugs that shelled out £160 for this. A few months later I was told there would be no more updates.
Yep so was I, I wouldnt buy another product from them even if it had a 99% discount
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 6:21 pm
Simon Bailey
I came across these a while ago and also had a peek at bpm, but as as a IT pro I couldn't believe that they had the audacity to try and palm these things off.
In my mind it smacks of someone trying to cash in - I wouldn't entertain owning one.
Oh and please don't come back with special OS's and all that nonsense, I run a netbook with a custom version of XP and the option of direct shelling to vdj - not rocket science!
In my mind it smacks of someone trying to cash in - I wouldn't entertain owning one.
Oh and please don't come back with special OS's and all that nonsense, I run a netbook with a custom version of XP and the option of direct shelling to vdj - not rocket science!
Inviato Fri 05 Nov 10 @ 8:07 pm
winyard
Last week I received my new 00VJ after trading in my 00DJ mk2.
I've used it at a few gigs so far and am happy with it. The keyboard is a pain at first but I'm getting used to it now and it's far less of an issue.
I've had 2 00DJs previously and had no problems with them. I changed from the mk1 to the mk2 simply to upgrade to better specs/features. I can't remember when I got my 1st 00DJ but it must be at least 4 or 5 years ago and in that time the machines took a couple of knocks that would have done some serious damage to most laptops but my unit carried on as if nothing had happened. I've also worked in a couple of club situations that were extremely hot and sweaty but again that wasn't an issue at all.
So as far as the products I've had from them, they are excellent plus the punters LOVE them and have received countless hugely positive comments from guests and venue staff/management.
Their customer service though is absolutely awful and I've had numerous problems over the years with the initial date informed as to when a unit was gonna be ready and the actual date is always quite different. And have also encountered other issues in dealing with the company which they should never have allowed to happen so I can understand why they have such a bad rep and I told them this when I went to their office in Hull last week. They have however very recently had a big shake up and sacked the MD (on more than 1 occasion he had told me blatant lies) and they've said they are gonna make a big push to improve their PR & customer service so I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt over the next few months; early signs are positive though.
But the over-riding factor why I've still purchased their products despite all the hassle I've had with them is because the actual products have been first class and given me no problems whatsoever. I do realise I could have got a laptop with better specs for a lower price but there's more to it than that for me, I'm hardly a computer expert and i want an easy life and not have to keep connecting external drives at every gig plus the potential problems that could present i also have NEVER encountered negative "laptop DJ" comments that other DJs mention. Additionally i work at a lot of quite prestigious venues and aesthetics are quite important to some of the clients I work for, IMO the 00VJ gives a more professional image than a conventional laptop look which most people use for business. Also most laptops would not have such a high resale value after years of use.
I've used it at a few gigs so far and am happy with it. The keyboard is a pain at first but I'm getting used to it now and it's far less of an issue.
I've had 2 00DJs previously and had no problems with them. I changed from the mk1 to the mk2 simply to upgrade to better specs/features. I can't remember when I got my 1st 00DJ but it must be at least 4 or 5 years ago and in that time the machines took a couple of knocks that would have done some serious damage to most laptops but my unit carried on as if nothing had happened. I've also worked in a couple of club situations that were extremely hot and sweaty but again that wasn't an issue at all.
So as far as the products I've had from them, they are excellent plus the punters LOVE them and have received countless hugely positive comments from guests and venue staff/management.
Their customer service though is absolutely awful and I've had numerous problems over the years with the initial date informed as to when a unit was gonna be ready and the actual date is always quite different. And have also encountered other issues in dealing with the company which they should never have allowed to happen so I can understand why they have such a bad rep and I told them this when I went to their office in Hull last week. They have however very recently had a big shake up and sacked the MD (on more than 1 occasion he had told me blatant lies) and they've said they are gonna make a big push to improve their PR & customer service so I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt over the next few months; early signs are positive though.
But the over-riding factor why I've still purchased their products despite all the hassle I've had with them is because the actual products have been first class and given me no problems whatsoever. I do realise I could have got a laptop with better specs for a lower price but there's more to it than that for me, I'm hardly a computer expert and i want an easy life and not have to keep connecting external drives at every gig plus the potential problems that could present i also have NEVER encountered negative "laptop DJ" comments that other DJs mention. Additionally i work at a lot of quite prestigious venues and aesthetics are quite important to some of the clients I work for, IMO the 00VJ gives a more professional image than a conventional laptop look which most people use for business. Also most laptops would not have such a high resale value after years of use.
Inviato Sat 06 Nov 10 @ 9:20 am
SBDJ
Glad it's working OK for you mate :) Hopefully that keyboard just needed breaking in; the shift key was doing my head in ;)
Inviato Sat 06 Nov 10 @ 1:46 pm
tayla
actually I heard the md walked... he wasn't pushed.
Inviato Sat 06 Nov 10 @ 2:45 pm