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Topic: Mini PC advice Atom CPU Netbook EEPC to run VDJ?

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Gang -

Need advice mainly from developer class.

What is the smallest netbook/notebook that VDJ will run comfortably? By that I mean decent simple basic playback & automixing and not pegging the CPU > 50%.

No video or fancy effects will be used.

Reason is I currently have a lappy for ceremony/happy hour/dinner usage in my ceremony rig. I need room for a small portable CD player and having a full size lappy is a bit overkill.

Yes, I know they use flash memory. That's ok as I will be using an ext HD.

The PC is used to record the output of the 24 ch mixer in real time.

So, are the Atom CPUs beefy enough for basic VDJ?

Any other help would be welcome.

Thanks!
 
Posted Mon 04 May 09 @ 8:54 am
If you look slightly further down the forum I have a thread about using VDJ on the Samsung NC20. It has a Via Nano which is a slightly faster CPU than the Atom, but I guess it's not too significant.

In a nutshell VDJ will run (have used it for three 5 hour gigs with no problems) although the CPU does go to 100% whilst loading tracks. Other option is to disable load but then it uses more CPU generally to decode tracks as they're playing.

I find if using the internal single channel sound card the CPU is about 40-50% whilst playing, and using Asio on the DN-HC4500 it runs at 60-70% which is still OK.

It's a cracking netbook, small, lightweight and supports 1280x800 as well as having a 160gb HDD.

Video is a definite no-no though!

I guess the Atom will be quite similar, from what I remember the Nano is about 10% faster.

Keith
 
Any updates on running VDJ with a netbook and atom?
 
It will work, the problem was the skins were not sized for the smaller displays. There is a downloadable skin here for reg'ed users. However I just downloaded v5.2.2 of VDJ and I will loose the advance features in 5 days (I will make hay!) and will revert back to standard config, but I noticed the smalller Netbook resolution skin is included in the newest update.

As long as you have one of the latest netbooks you should be more than okay just use the Netbook skin and you're read to rock da party!
 
One thing to consider is video memory just because it does take a certain amount to run the graphics. If you wont be minimizing VDJ much you will probably be good to go. But if you have to search through your drives manually and minimize VDJ and maximize you'll probably get some stutter. Not good for the gig. That is the case with my desktop at home and its integrated video.
 

staleyaic wrote :
One thing to consider is video memory just because it does take a certain amount to run the graphics. If you wont be minimizing VDJ much you will probably be good to go. But if you have to search through your drives manually and minimize VDJ and maximize you'll probably get some stutter. Not good for the gig. That is the case with my desktop at home and its integrated video.



You could not be more wrong about that...
video performance as in minimise/max, searching folders is quite quick on my netbook.

mine has a 800mhz cpu and intel 845 graphics. running XP

ive tryed vista and win7 and both make vdj run like a tortoise!!


ive also played a few .vob files to the vga out and they played flawlessly.

BUT...

as there is only 1gb ram, there is the issue if maxing this out too quickly which does affect video playback performance.
if you need a system for backup, then a netbook is a good idea.

great for mp3, ok for video, great with XP, could be better with 2gb ram

so check before you buy that there is a trapdoor on the underside for the ram chips (for upgrading).



:)
 
Actually you need a fair amount of GPU horsepower for any modern computing. Having said that, since I really have no interest in mixing video yet and if your primary purpose for using VDJ is to mix music any standard Netbook/Nettop will work as the interface is fairly simple and doesn't require anything more than DX9 or even 8 I believe the graphics aren't that "advanced".

The skins just didn't work, it was made for larger screens and higher resolutions.

Think of VDJ as a glorified Media Player that you can control with external interfaces and that's all it REALLY is...
 
If you look slightly further down the forum I have a thread about using VDJ on the Samsung NC20. It has a Via Nano which is a slightly faster CPU than the Atom, but I guess it's not too significant.

In a nutshell VDJ will run (have used it for three 5 hour gigs with no problems) although the CPU does go to 100% whilst loading tracks. Other option is to disable load but then it uses more CPU generally to decode tracks as they're playing.

I find if using the internal single channel sound card the CPU is about 40-50% whilst playing, and using Asio on the DN-HC4500 it runs at 60-70% which is still OK.

It's a cracking netbook, small, lightweight and supports 1280x800 as well as having a 160gb HDD.

Video is a definite no-no though!

I guess the Atom will be quite similar, from what I remember the Nano is about 10% faster.

Keith

Interesting, the latest Atom's are dual core and some of the Asus and MSI books have ATI or Nvidia ION chipsets which should speed up loading of tracks, I assume your talking about the actual loading of the wave form which I can see spiking the CPU. I just compare this to my older HP 15.4 laptop (AMD XP Mobile) and I can have all kinds of stuff running in the background, but my latency goes up while using VDJ and my Console RMX, so I turn off the internet/Wifi.

I am considering a net book for VDJ use only since its really too small to do much else with it.
 

If you want to WORK without hassles, then you need a Intel Core 2 duo or an AMD Athlon X2, 2GHz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, and X4500 video card (Intel) or 9400GT (Nvidia) (or any better than that).

Atom was made for internet surfing and office suit, not to performance on any multimedia things. Sure it may work, but I don't recommend it. It could work ok with audio only, but it's like having and old Celeron laptop... so I don't think it worth it.

I prefer also an old laptop for backup than an atom one (unless the laptop were really old), with $70 you can afford another options.

If you already have a netbook, do the best you can to afford a laptop as soon as you can, or suffer the lack of performance running VirtualDJ on those ones. (as no video, no effects, no bpm analysis on songs while playing, etc)

Peace,
 
What hassles?? There's already a netbook supported skin, that was the major problem if you call side scrolling a major problem...

You are from the camp that Netbooks can only do so much, if you want to "Really Do Some Work" you buy a traditional laptop and its higher price point to go along with it.

Some people just like doing the "impossible" which Netbooks provide a "techonological" challenge in running some programs/media.
 
Hi,

I used Asus EEE 901,

originally with 4+8 GB SSD disk, 16GB class 6 SDHC card and external MSI 32GB usb stick.
Worked very well, but HQ master tempo was out of CPU limits.
I noticed that enabling hyperthreading in BIOS made it run smoother.
Only annoyance was load time of songs was like 10 seconds and more.

Later on I replaced internal 8GB ssd disk with 32GB SSD one for 130$ and got rid of the usb stick sticking out of lappy :-)

Also u should use resolution 1024x600 and not let the graphic card stuff 1024x768 onto small display (emulated resolution) - that eats cpu.

Later on I was asked to play on salsa courses and I needed HQ master tempo to slow down the tracks, thus I bought macbook white and sold the EEE 901.

Cusiosity: I played 2 days in a row in a small club. When I finished the first night I only took my notebook with me, all cables etc was left there.
Next day I started at 10PM and was around the middle of last song that evening (2:50 AM), only few people stayed there and then I got black screen and silence.


- The first time in my life I forgot to attach the power plug to laptop (it was actually on the table just touching the laptop so it appeared lin the dark like it's ok). whole night on batteries was fine :-)
 
Another note on the graphics:

Ive used other laptops with the Intel 945 chipset, and although it uses 'shared' memory, it does do video both on the desktop and on the VGA out very well.

My only gripe about using a netbook, and it applies to any PC it that having 1gb or system RAM is a bit low for VirtualDJ.


Im looking to upgrade my netbook with 2gb ram, and my gig machine needs more ram, too.
 

Atom processor design has it's limitations, even Intel recommend as the lowest processor of the family, for entry to world computing, not to do what we do in VDJ.

And yes, tech costs, and performance too. What is the price for a DJM-800? o you could do the same with a C3USB??? or CDJ-1000 MK3 are the same as Numark Arc 3. The same is for computers... Mac goes well??? it's a $2400 laptop... You can get the best on windows with a $2400 laptop as well (maybe even more performance than mac in the same price)

When you try to do effects, samples, scratch, video, midi, timecodes, scanning songs or any combination of those while playing in any deck with an Atom based PC, you will notice problems. SO Why you want to be limited by this kind of equipment?.

Of Course if you play with a Netbook and you think you are doing fine, then good for you. For me is better to get an equipment that let you work good with audio+effects+samples+scanning a song with no noises, pauses or freeze. That would be my minimum recommendation for audio. For video is the same as audio + video & video effects. So with that in mind, Netbooks are out of minimum recommendation for me.
 
The original question had a view to using a netbook as a backup/fallback to a main PC/Laptop at a gig.

I wouldnt use a netbook as a replacement for a PC/laptop.
but it would be handy to set it up as replacement to a portable cd/dvd player...
but i should also point out that there are 'rackmount' SD Card players coming out, and cost less than a netbook...

This is around the entry level...
http://www.guitartrader.com/CORTEX-HDC-500-1U-Digital-Music-Controller-WUSB

with the more expensive units able to play mp3s AND be able to be used as a VDJ controller..
http://www.guitartrader.com/Denon-DN-HD2500-USB-Pro-Media-Player-Controller
 


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