looking for a (free) software real-time video mixer

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:01 pm

Hey all,
okay, I've been searching for the last week for a freeware program that would do what I thought was a simple thing - crossfade from one playing video to another playing video (and audio too). There are dozens of them out there for audio only (like for dj's and such), but damned if I haven't been able to find one that does this for videos.

why am I looking for it? well, for the last 2 years, I'ved DJ'ed a dance at my local convention, Kawaii Kon. This year, I wanted to do something different and try an AMV dance, so I wanted to put a playlist up of vids, play one, cue up another while the first is playing, and when the first video nears its end, crossfade video / audio to the next video...

I've tried many of them out there but they are usually geared more for flash files, pictures files, or are just a bit too cumbersome to do on the fly at the dance. My other option is to just do it all before hand and produce an AMV dance dvd that I can just plop into the dvd player there and just stand around to do nothing, but that leaves me very inflexible to make changes to the lineup.

So, anyone out there know of one or use one? and since I'm working on a very limited budget (basically $0), freeware options are best! If anyone knows of a software equivilent of a dual deck dj setup for video, please let me know!

Thanks in advance

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:18 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VJ_Software

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:21 pm

yup, tried most of those

none seem suitable, simple enough, or free enough to work for what I'm looking for

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:44 pm

vjcentral.com is a very good resource.

If you have, ahem, "ways and means", I used Motion Dive Tokyo (for the Mac) to VJ the AAC '06 dance as well as a couple Quartz-based freeware apps, and people seemed to like it.

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:12 pm

hey Dokool - thanks for the heads up - dl'ed a few and will give a try. I don't suppose you've used something even simpler do do this? I mean like 'stoopid simple'?

or if anyone else has a resource for this type of thing...

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:09 am

808-buma wrote:yup, tried most of those :) none seem suitable, simple enough, or free enough to work for what I'm looking for

What's wrong with FreeJ, aside from potential, solvable platform issues?

Dante · Post by **Dante** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:07 pm

this may sound stupid...
but if you had 2 projectors/systems....
I'm sure there's some creative way of doing it.

just a thought.

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:09 pm

trythil - okay, I need to add 'Windows' program because I'm so far not leaning to do the linux thing with the kon komp. I have enough trouble with windows and keeping everything hunky dory with that...

lizardante - well, if I had 2 projectors, I would need two vid ouputs (dual head vid card, or 2 vid cards, which I am looking into) and 2 sound output devices (2 sound cards which I could do, but don't want to) that would need some sort of external crossfade device and such - which is what I'm trying to avoid...

I mean, I really didn't think it would be this difficult to find something like this, but I guess there is a limited market out there for this sort of application (well, even moreso with people who have no budget to do it with, too).

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:47 pm

motion drive seemed rather simple to learn. I'd give it a shot before giving up. Without any real effort to learn, it's not going to matter what you use.

Org Profile · Post by **808-buma** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:41 pm

BasharOfTheAges wrote:motion drive seemed rather simple to learn. I'd give it a shot before giving up. Without any real effort to learn, it's not going to matter what you use.

Motion Dive doesn't meet my $0 budget, nor do I have the "ways and means" that dokool has to get it

I'm willing to learn to use software (hell, I learned how to make amvs so I know I can do the technical stuff) but I just need something that 'fits the bill' so to speak