Desktop vs. Laptop

[xxyzz]

How many of you are using a laptop vs. a desktop for you shows?

[marklwood]

I know they can be a pain to lug around, but a laptop has so few options when it come to maintenance and upgrades. I have the luxury of not having to cart mine around, but I would still go for a shuttle if I was that concerned about size and weight.

[ddouglass]

I use a Shuttle type (small square with a handle) case but built it myself. I do have a Dell XP laptop that we use for backup. The laptop just doesn't have the power of the shuttle though, especially with the built-in onboard video card.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

I use a Shuttle type (small square with a handle) case but built it myself. I do have a Dell XP laptop that we use for backup. The laptop just doesn't have the power of the shuttle though, especially with the built-in onboard video card.

Same here. Although I have been using the ,aptop from time to time with no ill effects except for a very rare hoster freeze-up, which is usually associated with Virtual DJ up and running at the same time and playing videos in between songs.

I have an acer mini backup laptop as well that is even less power than the Dell XP laptop, but runs okay too. Probably very lucky here.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by bryant

Same here. Although I have been using the ,aptop from time to time with no ill effects except for a very rare hoster freeze-up, which is usually associated with Virtual DJ up and running at the same time and playing videos in between songs.

I have an acer mini backup laptop as well that is even less power than the Dell XP laptop, but runs okay too. Probably very lucky here.

Get VDJ 6 pro. It seems to have fixed the crashing of Hoster

[bryant]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Get VDJ 6 pro. It seems to have fixed the crashing of Hoster

Thx, just got it yesterday and started playing with it last night.

What the crash was Stefan; was when I would play a video with VDJ, then forget to "De-activate" VDJ's video.
VDJ would seem to take some kind of priority over the second "extended" monitor, and if I went to a song in the playlist then Hoster would crash.

The other problem was when I used "SBDJ's" slideshow plugin (dosn't make pictures "FAT" like VDJ's slideshow does), even when I WOULD deacivate the video following it's use, Hoster would still crash, but randomly, as if VDJ still had some kind of priority over the second monitor even after deactivating.

Is this the kind of crashing you are referring to as well?

I did read that one of VDJ6.0's improvements was better video control with 15% less memory requirement, and some patches to fix some of the video freezes on certain Nvidea video cards, of which I have one of.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by marklwood

I know they can be a pain to lug around, but a laptop has so few options when it come to maintenance and upgrades. I have the luxury of not having to cart mine around, but I would still go for a shuttle if I was that concerned about size and weight.

A shuttle is the way to go. My wife uses it all the time at her shows and has had not one problem, even when running VDJ at the same time and playing all kinds of videos and visual effects as well.

[dspins]

Laptops tend to have crappy sound cards. Desktop wins. Soundblaster audigy series card makes your music sound amazing. EAW speakers help too.

[Lonman]

I prefer a desktop only because it's more readily upgradable. I use a M-Audio pro audio sound card with balanced 1/4" connetors (although have a great USB audio interface for my laptop now that also uses 1/4" balanced jacks as well), video cards can be swapped out easily, memory, etc. Laptops are a little more inconvenient in upgrading and servicing on site - aside from just simply having a complete 2nd laptop for backup, a HECK of a lot more convenient as far as setup though!

[computex13]

Don't do many shows anymore, but my laptop has always worked like a charm. If something every happened to it, I would go rack mount.