Video Scratching Goes Mainstream

Boomzilla writes "Pioneer has released a digital audio and video turntable (the DVJ-X1), which allows you to manipulate and playback synchronized digital audio and video. You can manipulate DVD visuals in the same way as you would music i.e. real-time digital video scratches, loops and instant cues. The video and audio streams will stay in sync, even when they're being reversed and pitched. I guess this is the logical, commercialized version of that which has been done before. It's being shown at CES, and there are several pictures on the official Pioneer site."

Buffering?

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

How big of a buffer does this thing have? If this thing uses DVDs for a turntable, then it must mean it has over 5GB of RAM to get around the lag of spinning the disk to find the part of the video.

Unless, of course, it only goes over the span of a few seconds, but since video/audio streams take up a ton of data, then it must have something like 512MB of ram built in to do it.

That, plus they have to find a way to capture the results of the delta frames, or else they're going to have artifacts.

Pretty amazing stuff.

This wil not be as couls as it sounds

[Anonymous Coward]

Although I would love it to be cool video remix is just not that cool looking. People have been doing this for a long time with various systems and I have seen quite a few of them. I used to work for MTV back when they had a techno show (AMP) and they tried to mix video but it just didn't work. There was no way to match rythm and even if you could it just didn't look particularly intereting. It seemded like it would be cool and you wantedted it to be but it ended up have only slightly more novelty than Microsoft's clippy. I have also seen a few groups that tried it with more advance equipment in more recent years and it mad for a nice compliment to a music DJ but these guys used a bunch of short weird and distorted clips mixed with CG. It was cool but no one person could have done it. I am also not so sure scratching would go too well either. Mostly because one of the things about scratching is that music scratching is done by going back and forth over a sound thus creating a NEW rythm and tone. However, picturing someone going back and forth over video clips just conjures silly images that I would imagine could even be a little dizzying to watch. So while they might of solved some techinical hurdles I think the artistic side has a long way to come.

what's next?

[iammaxus]

In the early days (the really early ones), manipulating text easily was a challenge for computers. Then images and sound were the next hurdle. Compression schemes were not standard and memory limitations limited the kind of things that could be done and prevented realtime editing. I have long been wondering when video will reach the stage that sound and image are in now. I didnt think it was any time soon, but apparently DVDs/mpeg2 allow some semblance of this realtime, free-form editing possible for the other medias. Now what really interests me is, what is next for computers to conquer (and yes i know video is hardly conquered yet)? 3d video? (and i dont mean stereo, i mean 3d recordings of entire rooms or people ie scifi "holo" displays) or is there something even more amazing that i cant think of...

Re:Other than porn video money-shots...

[afidel]

Actually I've found that doing porn really tends to not go over so well with most crowds. Instead I use a lot of kung-fu, anime, war shots, and old black and white films. Nuclear weapons test footage also works well. I add to that custom 3D renders and live effects, and get a show that most people like. I tend to do this while I am mixing live and let Geiss's Milkdrop run when I'm taking a break =)

Re:yum

[bugbread]

Except most DJs are probably pretty busy with their decks, and wouldn't have much time for a third video deck. What I can see, however, are DJs who want to try their hand at VJing using this as a smooth gateway (like Final Scratch is used as the gateway between Vinyl DJs and PCDJs).

Re:Max Headroom

[SharpNose]

Actually, the first "video scratch" effect I recall seeing was in the video for Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" and also one for a subsequent tune which I think was named "Hardrock." I saw a lot of Max Headroom (not the TV series that had Matt Frewer as a reporter for a TV network in a dystopian "20 minutes into the" future) but the oddball chat show that (IIRC) ran on Showtime (I still have some of that stuff on VHS) and the time-domain video effects there were pretty much entirely freeze-frame or just plain cut in nature, i.e., freeze then alternate the freeze with the live or just throw in odd cuts.

By the way, I loved this:

Rutger Hauer: "I wonder...about your soul."
Max: "I haven't got any feet; how can I have a sole?"

Guess you had to be there.

Comes with MS Pinky, a vinyl system for OSX

[_am99_]

I bought MS Pinky to use with my MOTU 828mkII firewire audio interface instead of Final Scratch. The software was $100 with the vinyl, and I didn't have to waste money on the Scratch Amp thing that is only good for Final Scratch. It is great! 10ms Latency on a G3 iBook, and much better quality than Final Scratch.

Oh yeah, it came with a program that does video scratching as well.

Check it out! If you already have a 4 input-channel soundcard, you only need to spend $100!

As a "pro" DJ myself, I have to ask:

[Tokerat]

Why?

Honestly, I don't think there is a great enough market for this sort of thing. I always imagined a live performing artist with gear sending MIDI->DMX (DMX is a digital light control system) to sync the lights in a club/venue to the music, but it seems to me that taking DVDs (even custom ones) and scratching them wouldn't be all that cool, as least not cool enough that someone is gonna buy this. It feels like a gimmick is all.

Can anyone point me to a video of someone actually doing something like mixing video clips like this? Besides that VDJ software that Coldcut tried to market back in the day...