Gadgets :: iCE Breaker's Matrix

American DJ VMS4

Posted by Timothy on Feb 24, 2011 in Gadgets, Random Babble

I was so excited about the American Audio (American DJ) VMS4 that I pre-ordered it. I waited almost 4mo to get the thing since their release date kept getting pushed back. I should’ve known this was a bad sign. I understand problems come up. But announcing a release date and then having to re-announce a new release date 3-4 times is a major PR issue. It also says something about the product– Which I soon found out.

Out of the box the VMS4 looks great. It’s got a lot of knobs (which I LOVE knobs!!) It’s got “The weight of quality” (it’s heavy) and a bunch of blinky LED light buttons. Unfortunately, looks aren’t everything.

Trying to get it to work with VirtualDJ 6 took almost 2 days. The cue buttons weren’t working properly. The cross-fader wasn’t changing decks. The list of problems goes on and on. Probably a month or so later, American DJ releases a firmware fix to address these issues with Virtual DJ. A side note: American DJ promo’d the VMS4 on Traktor. All their videos showed these (so called) DJ’s using Traktor. But when it came time to ship, they send it out with Virtual DJ— Now that’s all fine and dandy for me because that’s what I’m familiar with. But the problem comes when they didn’t have significant testing with VDJ! Which I believe is where all the issues come from.

So anyhow, it’s now it’s 6mo later and I STILL haven’t used the VMS4 in a live set. I just can’t trust it. Even after I’ve sat here and configured all the MIDI Mappings to my liking and working around some of the cue/PFL issues. The cross-fader doesn’t fade. It’s more like an on/off switch. I’ve considered investing in an Innofader, but that’s $150 just to see if it’ll fix my problems.

I’m pretty unhappy with their support for this thing. I’ve just sent and email to customer support to see what can be done. We’ll see how things go form here since their forums are completely worthless.

Here’s a quick demo of some cue/headphone issues I’m having.

Boxee + Boxee Box = BleedingMedia Video App!

Posted by Timothy on Nov 27, 2010 in Gadgets, Programming

I’ve only had my Boxee Box for a week or so and I’m already interested in how to make apps and see whatever else this thing can do. I have a good friend who runs a video site based around the UFC and MMA. We’ve always sort of tinkered with different support apps and ideas on how to promote each others pet-projects. I figured, HEY! Boxee App would be perfect! So I got to work. Using the PC version of Boxee as my development platform, I started investigating how to make this thing ‘Go’! It’s unfortunate the PC version is a few versions behind the times, but it seems all the same. After some tinkering, I have a beta version of the BleedingMedia.com Boxee App!!

BleedingMedia.com Boxee App

SlingCatcher, Roku, Boxee + Box.

Posted by Timothy on Nov 27, 2010 in Gadgets

So I’ve been tinkering around with ‘set-top boxes’ for approx. a year or better. Purchased a SlingCatcher on an impulse buy while wondering around Best Buy *Shudder*. It works. It just doesn’t work well. It locks up, crashes, doesn’t always play videos correctly and doesn’t seek very well at all. But it got me through the year. I recently picked up a Roku from woot.com at 50% off since it’s a refurb (Again, a minor impulse buy). The Roku was neat because it has so-called ‘apps’. Most are just browser wrappers for garbage content– But the NetFlix ‘integration’ was superb! I was able to edit to my ‘Streaming On-Demand’ Queue which from what I hear, not a lot of NetFlix apps allow you to do. Then along game the Roku update! They cleaned up the UI a little bit. Things seem a little snappier AND they introduced Hulu Plus! Armed with Hulu + NetFlix what more can you ask for? The only drawback to the Roku HD was it couldn’t access a file-share. So I couldn’t play any of my own content I’ve already had. This caused a bit of a problem— Having to flip between HDMI-1 to HDMI-2 and having 3 remotes :-\ I could only deal with this for so long. I was really getting frustrated having to select a new source each time I change my mind on what I wanted to watch. So I waited. and waited.. and waited for the Boxee Box! The Boxee Box also has ‘Apps’ and it also allows you to mount file-shares. Unfortunately there’s no Netflix, nor Hulu on Boxee. So I’m still stuck with having to flip between sources, but there’s at least some other content with Boxee unlike the SlingCatcher.