VJ noob having issues with Serato Video when balancing high quality visuals vs. FPS lag. Need Advice to figure out next step.
So I'll give a TL:DR for the main questions I'm asking since I've troubleshot my way up to this point myself, but the bullet points below go into detail in the steps I've taken to try solving this, as I'm lost in what my next step should be. I'm also new to the more technical side of VJing although I've been editing in Premiere + Final Cut for 11+ years and have produced DJ/VJ pre-recorded shows, but not much experience with live VJing and the respective softwares.
TLDR: - Unable to find an export setting via H.264 Codec that doesn't make Serato Video lag and that maintains the quality of the visual I produced. Serato Video's recommended performance settings make significantly less crisp and any FPS over 25 & bitrate over 2500 kbps makes the live video playback tick at like 4-18~ FPS.
- My PC specs are pretty damn good and the rig is just under a year old with everything driver updated AFAIK. So I would be genuinely surprised if it was related to my PC strength.
- My main question: Is this an issue exclusively related to Serato Video? Or is this an issue related to my export settings or Sequence settings via Premiere?
- Planning on Producing a live DJ/VJ set using Serato DJ Pro + Video extension w/ visuals being displayed via decent quality projector
- Running into FPS and/or lag issue with Serato Video. I have a PC w/ great specs, having no apparent performance issues via Task Manager. Also went thru Serato Video Support's recommended Performance settings as well but didn't need to change much.
- Couldn't barely play the video in Serato set to the worst quality output since the bitrate/datarate/60FPS were way too high. I then used Handbrake to compress video down to H.264 Codec, 2500 KBPS + 25 FPS which (according to Serato Support) are the recommended encoding settings.
- Video then performed with no FPS drops but the compressed quality looks absolutely awful
- Played around with exporting the actual recommended performance settings for Serato Video (H.264, 2500kbps, 25fps) via Premiere. The video's quality actually in the right ballpark but probably drops about 5-10% of frames which is way closer than any other 2500+kbps video I've exported. FPS also makes the timing cues on some of the visuals slightly sluggish.
- Played around with 3000 kbps, 2700 kbps, 30 fps, CBVBR1+2 passes. Nothing has really worked as good as the 2500 kbps, 25 fps export.
- Now the video's sequence settings were setup for 1920x1080, 60 fps. I do have a max render video that looks absolutely perfect but I would understand if Serato Video couldn't handle that.
- My questions lie more in the range of:
- Are my sequence settings affecting the exported outcome and performance?
- Are my export settings wrong? Is there something glaringly obvious I'm missing regarding the combo of sequence & export settings that are causing the Serato playback issue?
- Is this a Serato Video issue? I would be surprised if they released a product for $99 that can't reliably playback high quality videos on a good rig, seems weird to me idk. I've seen other posts via Serato Support forums and YT complaining of similar issues.
- If I'm not able to find the right balance of stable FPS playback and video quality via Serato Video, is there another software that allows live DJ/VJing within one program? Preferably if it's free?
- I can't afford Resolume or TouchDesiigner and I don't think I'll be able to learn those softwares on time for my show date (October 10th).
- Virtual DJ 2021 update caused some massive performance issues while DJing w/ no visuals (granted that was my laptop, haven't tried my PC yet) so Idk if that's something that's fixed yet. Was fairly unimpressed w/ the video playback options on it but I'm fairly well-versed with that software in general. I dunno if I'd have the same performance issues there as well.
Regardless if you guys can provide any leads or answers, I appreciate any help I could get. I didn't really see many posts regarding this topic on this subreddit so maybe there's another sub that could be more of service. But thanks for your time.
submitted by
0fficial_Mon0 to
vjing
[Press Release] DJ-ing unshackled – full conversion between Rekordbox and Denon Prime in both directions
Leiden, The Netherlands April 5th, 2020
Due to the Corona virus outbreak, a lot of DJs are stuck at home, with no public gigs on the calendar. On the brighter side, this gives everyone the much needed time to finally test that new DJ software or gear they were considering for a while.
The biggest problem with new DJ software and gear is the compatibility (or rather lack of) with your existing workflow. No worries! When it comes to Denon Prime, ATGR has the most comprehensive conversion tool with the Denon Conversion Utility (DeCU). Among its many features are the conversion of a (static) beatgrid with exact original bpm, all the cues and loops, automatic multi level database backups and much more.
With the release of version 4.0, DeCU does all of that with a fresh new interface and unparalleled ease of use. The complete DeCU suite contains DeCU 4.0, iTunes/Rekordbox Collection Backup Tool (CBT) 2.0 and Denon eXtractor Tool (DeXT) 2.0.
With the release of DeXT 2.0, this tool has evolved in a full feature sync-back from Denon Prime to Rekordbox. Now you can prepare tracks with cues, loops and optionally the beatgrid on any Denon Prime gear and convert these tracks back to the original Rekordbox collection. Imagine what this means for set preparations with the summer upcoming, the battery powered stand alone Denon Prime Go on the horizon and hopefully the worldwide Corona lockdowns lifted soon.
DeXT’s scope is limited to tracks stored on a Denon Prime performance drive. This can be an external drive, a usb pen drive or the internal drive of a Prime unit. DeXT is meant as a "sync back" tool and not for collection ripping. The converted DJ metadata is sync’d back to the original tracks, not to the tracks stored on the Prime performance drive. This avoids duplicate entries in your collection.
Tracks that will be converted by DeXT need to be part of either:
- History playlists. Each time a drive is used with Prime gear, a new history playlist is created. If a track has been played for at least 20 seconds continuously then it will be added to the History playlist automatically.
- Prepare playlists, very easy to add tracks to by swiping a track left on the gear’s display.
- Playlists.
Among the many extra features DeXT offers, we want to mention the ability to reset a track’s played state and the optional clearing of the History and Prepare lists after conversion.
An
important note:Anywhere I mention Rekordbox or Rekordbox.xml this can be replaced with Serato, Traktor and other DJ software with the addition of the DJ Conversion Utility in the workflow. If Rekordbox is not part of the artist's workflow then it's not required. DJCU can use Rekordbox.xml compliant files as a source or create them independent of Rekordbox.
More information as well as an interactive advisory tool can be found at the ATGR www home page:
Home | We've got your back! The update to DeCU 4.0 suite is free for all licensed DeCU users. The various tools will inform about the update and provide the download link during startup. All ATGR apps are for MacOS only. There are no plans for any Windows version.
Full-res diagrams with all the required steps for every possible workflow to create a Denon Prime performance drive can be downloaded here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i71qmzm1u753ibg/Diagrams%20how-to%20convert%20from%20DJ%20software%20to%20a%20Denon%20Prime%20performance%20drive.zip?dl=1 More information about the various apps and where to buy can be found here:
DJ Conversion Utility v.4.03 MacOS only!: Conversion from various DJ software.
Facebook page:
DJ Conversion Utility - DJCU - Home Buy it for €19.50 here:
DJ Conversion Utility for MacOS Denon Conversion Utility v.4.0 MacOS only!: Conversion from Rekordbox and iTunes to Denon Prime.DeCU comes bundled with CBT and DeXT.
Facebook page:
Denon Conversion Utility - Decu - Home Buy it for €34.95 here:
Denon Conversion Utility (DeCU) from various workflows Recommended video tutorials: Full demonstration From Rekordbox to Denon Prime performance drive and back to Rekordbox Complete tutorials From Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor and Virtual DJ to a Denon Prime performance drive From iTunes/Music.app to a Denon Performance Drive From a Denon Prime performance drive to Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, djay Pro 2 and iTunes Related tutorials XML files for DJs in under 6 minutes The importance of file paths to maintain playlist integrity and keep cues, loops and grids/analysis data
I'm doing an
Ask Me Anything collection management and conversion for DJ's Meet me at this link:
https://youtu.be/GxsKTewXAwk Tuesday, April 7th at 7:00 PM CET (=Amsterdam Time)
Leave any questions you may have in the comment section prior to the stream and I'll be happy to answer them
https://preview.redd.it/92nr7i6ub0r41.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a93df246cdbb64148fb5e0c6c2e39b54c3267f3 https://preview.redd.it/k99rml6ub0r41.png?width=1711&format=png&auto=webp&s=50c7abbc4f7acf8e26d197f05f9585c398a3bfec https://preview.redd.it/kydf8i6ub0r41.png?width=919&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e4d225762e3e985ef711b4f0fb170562d71b93f https://preview.redd.it/wiwlek6ub0r41.png?width=3107&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcac5fb5bea9b9eeb54278ca6422464ea30d46f6 https://preview.redd.it/whgj8j6ub0r41.png?width=3351&format=png&auto=webp&s=0670505b0cccdf71f78808cf5dd63565aad372d6 submitted by
MixMasterG to
DJs
