Look like it's time to get a new laptop.

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Blu-Rays & DvDs are two different things. Blu-Ray has a much higher resolution than DVD. From your statements on TVs you don’t really need to worry about Blu-Ray as from your own words you can not see the differences in resolution to make it much while.
But really all of this should have been thought thru before you headed to the store, so you have a plan of action to get exactly what you need and avoid multiple trips. Some sales persons are there to just sell you what they have not necessarily exactly what you need. And how they make their real money? By selling Service plans and extended warranties.
 
Blu-Rays & DvDs are two different things. Blu-Ray has a much higher resolution than DVD. From your statements on TVs you don’t really need to worry about Blu-Ray as from your own words you can not see the differences in resolution to make it much while.
But really all of this should have been thought thru before you headed to the store, so you have a plan of action to get exactly what you need and avoid multiple trips. Some sales persons are there to just sell you what they have not necessarily exactly what you need. And how they make their real money? By selling Service plans and extended warranties.
OK .. in 14 years of being on this board, have you EVER seen Mix think about a plan? :)
 
The keyboard won't light up if it's not a lighted keyboard. If you have it, hold the "Fn" button to the left of the space bar and simultaneously press the Space Bar. Each time you press those 2 buttons, it will cycle through the keyboard illumination levels (off, dim, bright) .. again, only if you have it (Lenovo laptops usually have a little logo on the left end of the Space Bar if you do).

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Also, if you don't have a CD/DVD slot, then .. surprise .. you can't play one .. that should have been looked at BEFORE you purchased.
This is the biggest miss I did when purchasing my Thinkpad in 2014. I thought they all had backlit keyboards. My model doesn't but it did come with a fingerprint reader I didn't know about until it arrived. So there's that. Seriously though after going backlit on the desktop I could never go back. It's like using two screens. I've tried going back to one so many times but just cannot do it for my primary workspace.

@MIXMASTERMACHOM : As others have mentioned optical drives have pretty much gone the way of the Dodo. I replaced my optical drive with a caddy for additional onboard storage. You can still get a decent USB drive for ~$30 though. I have one. I used it once to burn a CD for a friend with no Aux in their car. Other than that it stays in my drawer.
 
I did a Facebook live show yesterday and no buffering. That's what I wanted to see happen. No issues using the new laptop. So I told the ex I would give it to her because the one she has, she can't remember the password and she would have to pay to get it resolved. So I just said she can have my old one. My partner wanted me to give it to him to use for parts. I decided no way. He's not wearing panties. He's wearing briefs like me. LOL.
 
I did a Facebook live show yesterday and no buffering. That's what I wanted to see happen. No issues using the new laptop. So I told the ex I would give it to her because the one she has, she can't remember the password and she would have to pay to get it resolved. So I just said she can have my old one. My partner wanted me to give it to him to use for parts. I decided no way. He's not wearing panties. He's wearing briefs like me. LOL.

Is this the energy level a client would get from you at a gig? I thought that you figured out a way to get direct audio into your streams so that your audience wouldn't hear all of your room and background noise. And just a word of advice, it's kind of distracting to have the camera pointing at a crooked lamp and your face. Why not make the focal point your controller, and at least that way your viewers will see the action of you mixing and your hand movements?

The blending was on point.

View: https://www.facebook.com/adrian.bacon2/videos/2993790387364015/
 
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So I've always stored my main music library on the internal storage of my MacBook. Just because. It is now full. So I'm considering buying external drive and transferring all the files to it and just plugging it in when ready to play at a gig. I know I'm probably gonna want an SSD drive for its ruggedness and dependability. Recommendations? Do they make some that need a power supply like my past external HDD?
 
So I've always stored my main music library on the internal storage of my MacBook. Just because. It is now full. So I'm considering buying external drive and transferring all the files to it and just plugging it in when ready to play at a gig. I know I'm probably gonna want an SSD drive for its ruggedness and dependability. Recommendations? Do they make some that need a power supply like my past external HDD?
I use external MyBook drives. I've never used an internal for media storage. I also agree that you don't need an SSD.
 
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You don't think there is a need for a more sturdy and stable platform such as the SSD? I just figured it could access the files quicker and would be more reliable without the moving parts.
Depends on the software .. most build an index file, so searches are generally fine. SSD benefits are on OS drives and unindexed drives.
 
I have 2 portable HD's I use. One for backup. I had 3 but one stopped working. I like that they are small and easy to carry. I used to use the full size ones but found the portable ones will work just fine without using up a lot of space.
 
You don't think there is a need for a more sturdy and stable platform such as the SSD? I just figured it could access the files quicker and would be more reliable without the moving parts.
I agree with Steve... an SSD is not needed for a music drive. I like the Seagate FireCuda hybrid drive, but a standard hard drive will work fine.

I have always used internal hard drives for my DJ computers, but I always had two hard drives in my computers... one for the OS and software, and a larger capacity drive for data (music). That way, upgrading was a matter of popping out the data drive and replacing it with a new one. Then I copy everything to the new drive from my server, or from a portable drive I do backups with.

My biggest problem is having too many computers with a copy of my music library, and keeping them all in sync... takes too much time, all the computers must be powered on, and it isn’t any fun. A portable hard drive does solve that problem, so perhaps it’s the smarter choice.

Recently I tried something new, which I intend to use in my next mobile system. I have dual computers in both of my mobile systems. In my large system, I have two Nano computers... one serves as a backup computer, but also runs lights and video if necessary. The thing I wanted to do was SHARE a music library between the two computers, but you can’t really do that with a Portable USB Drive plugged into one of the two computers. You CAN map the drive from one computer to another, but in the event of a computer crash, you’d have to physically switch the portable drive to the working backup, then remap it as a local drive, which would take a few minutes. I want to share the drive live. There are a couple of options. You could use a router with a built-in USB drive, but my experience with that method is that they tend be SLOW and to lose connectivity, which is NOT good if you’re playing music from it. I carry such a router, but I only set it up if I need to have Internet connectivity. You could use a USB switch, that allows you to toggle a USB device between two computers with the push of a button. I have such a switch and it works well, but still only one computer can access the data at a time. The option I chose is to use a third Nano computer as a NAS. I use FreeNas, which is a derivative of FreeBSD. It’s like having a portable drive, but it’s connected to the network, so you can connect as many computers to it at the same time as you’d like. I have a third backup computer (a laptop) that I just plug into another port on the Ethernet switch inside my rack, and it can use the same NAS. The NAS, however, becomes a new single point of failure, just like a portable hard drive, so you’d have to carry a spare. However, you could keep the spare connected to the switch, and only turn it on if the main NAS crashed.

My NAS has an m.2 drive where the OS is loaded, and a 2.5” 3TB FireCuda drive as the data drive. It’s FAST... seems faster than a 7200RPM 3.5” Hard drive, but I’ve never done any actual benchmarking to verify that. Cost of a NAS is gonna be related to the computer you get. You don’t need one with a lot of horsepower though, so a brand new Nano PC could be had for around $150, and they are fanless, so not a lot of mechanical parts to break. Add the cost of a good hard drive ($100 for 2TB) and you’ve got a nice NAS. The software is free.

Not sure if any of this is germane, but perhaps it’s food for thought.😊
 
I use 2 2TB portable HD's. One for backup and be done. I don't store any music eternally on any computer. I just had one copied from the main one and that's it.
 
I agree with Steve... an SSD is not needed for a music drive. I like the Seagate FireCuda hybrid drive, but a standard hard drive will work fine.

I have always used internal hard drives for my DJ computers, but I always had two hard drives in my computers... one for the OS and software, and a larger capacity drive for data (music). That way, upgrading was a matter of popping out the data drive and replacing it with a new one. Then I copy everything to the new drive from my server, or from a portable drive I do backups with.

My biggest problem is having too many computers with a copy of my music library, and keeping them all in sync... takes too much time, all the computers must be powered on, and it isn’t any fun. A portable hard drive does solve that problem, so perhaps it’s the smarter choice.

Recently I tried something new, which I intend to use in my next mobile system. I have dual computers in both of my mobile systems. In my large system, I have two Nano computers... one serves as a backup computer, but also runs lights and video if necessary. The thing I wanted to do was SHARE a music library between the two computers, but you can’t really do that with a Portable USB Drive plugged into one of the two computers. You CAN map the drive from one computer to another, but in the event of a computer crash, you’d have to physically switch the portable drive to the working backup, then remap it as a local drive, which would take a few minutes. I want to share the drive live. There are a couple of options. You could use a router with a built-in USB drive, but my experience with that method is that they tend be SLOW and to lose connectivity, which is NOT good if you’re playing music from it. I carry such a router, but I only set it up if I need to have Internet connectivity. You could use a USB switch, that allows you to toggle a USB device between two computers with the push of a button. I have such a switch and it works well, but still only one computer can access the data at a time. The option I chose is to use a third Nano computer as a NAS. I use FreeNas, which is a derivative of FreeBSD. It’s like having a portable drive, but it’s connected to the network, so you can connect as many computers to it at the same time as you’d like. I have a third backup computer (a laptop) that I just plug into another port on the Ethernet switch inside my rack, and it can use the same NAS. The NAS, however, becomes a new single point of failure, just like a portable hard drive, so you’d have to carry a spare. However, you could keep the spare connected to the switch, and only turn it on if the main NAS crashed.

My NAS has an m.2 drive where the OS is loaded, and a 2.5” 3TB FireCuda drive as the data drive. It’s FAST... seems faster than a 7200RPM 3.5” Hard drive, but I’ve never done any actual benchmarking to verify that. Cost of a NAS is gonna be related to the computer you get. You don’t need one with a lot of horsepower though, so a brand new Nano PC could be had for around $150, and they are fanless, so not a lot of mechanical parts to break. Add the cost of a good hard drive ($100 for 2TB) and you’ve got a nice NAS. The software is free.

Not sure if any of this is germane, but perhaps it’s food for thought.😊
Can always go with just a NAS multi-drive bay .. most allow additional USB or eSATA drive hookup. I use a QNAP, but they make small ones .. including portable "clouds" like these ..

 
Can always go with just a NAS multi-drive bay .. most allow additional USB or eSATA drive hookup. I use a QNAP, but they make small ones .. including portable "clouds" like these ..

I had a NAS like that at one time. It overheated and destroyed the controller board. It was also pretty SLOW... not nearly as fast as a portable USB drive. I think it was a Netgear NAS. Not sure what they used for software as all that is hidden on those consumer NAS products. My little Nano computer NAS is smaller and does NOT overheat. It’s about the same size as a WD MyBook, and it’s VERY fast. Of course it’s limited by the speed of the network card in the NAS computer, the switch, and the computer accessing it.
 
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Can always go with just a NAS multi-drive bay .. most allow additional USB or eSATA drive hookup. I use a QNAP, but they make small ones .. including portable "clouds" like these ..

So I went out and bought a WD 2tb my passport external HDD. My internal storage on my mac was getting full so I thought I would move everything to it. I backed up my library to 2 other externals, b/c the saying goes, 2 is one, and one is non. So the external that I put my library on that I plan on using is not showing up when plugged in. Inside disc utility, I try first aid, and I try to mount it, but neither work. Under the external section, it shows up, but says not mounted.
This is what I'm afraid of happening right before a gig.. How can I fix this and how can I be assured this doesn't happen at an event? What am I doing wrong?
 
So I went out and bought a WD 2tb my passport external HDD. My internal storage on my mac was getting full so I thought I would move everything to it. I backed up my library to 2 other externals, b/c the saying goes, 2 is one, and one is non. So the external that I put my library on that I plan on using is not showing up when plugged in. Inside disc utility, I try first aid, and I try to mount it, but neither work. Under the external section, it shows up, but says not mounted.
This is what I'm afraid of happening right before a gig.. How can I fix this and how can I be assured this doesn't happen at an event? What am I doing wrong?

I use WD drives (mainly MyBook drives) constantly on multiple platforms (mainly Mac and Windows). What is the format (do you know?)? I know some WD drives use security - do you need to unlock it? Does it work on other machines (Windows or Mac)?

If you unplugged the drive without ejecting it, it's possible that this is going on:
This happens because OSX "forces" a disk check/repair in the background before mounting the drive (since it was ejected improperly), so it will simply appear to not be mounting until that completes. Apple does not like it when you unplug things without ejecting them first.

Perhaps try this:
From disk utility, click on the eject button on the top of the dialog box. It may not eject, but if you click on unmount and mount, it may mount the volume.

Might also want to check here:
 
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I use WD drives (mainly MyBook drives) constantly on multiple platforms (mainly Mac and Windows). What is the format (do you know?)? I know some WD drives use security - do you need to unlock it? Does it work on other machines (Windows or Mac)?

If you unplugged the drive without ejecting it, it's possible that this is going on:
This happens because OSX "forces" a disk check/repair in the background before mounting the drive (since it was ejected improperly), so it will simply appear to not be mounting until that completes. Apple does not like it when you unplug things without ejecting them first.

Perhaps try this:
From disk utility, click on the eject button on the top of the dialog box. It may not eject, but if you click on unmount and mount, it may mount the volume.

Might also want to check here:
It finally showed up. It's format is ExFAT. I am just scared to death for this to happen just before a gig.
 
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