getting started with something simple

[AcuraKidd]

Hey guys,

So I'd like to ask you guys for some tips and advice. Before I start I'd first like to mention that I have 0% experience in DJ'ing.

My friend bought a house that's not too big, and we decided to throw a party. We wanna transform the living room into a small lounge with dance floor.

What we wanna do is throw parties with some nice music and light effects. So far I have a 26 inch HDTV and a small windows xp laptop..

What I'd like to do is get a decent speaker system, like the Logitech x-540 5.1 and hook that up with my laptop.

I also wanna get some light effects going but have no idea how that's gonna work together with the music

As you can see I have absolutely no experience with this. I'm probably gonna end up using iTunes and make a playlist with some nice tracks and set it to cross fade.

I'm on a budget of $300, what do you guys recommend I get and how do I set it up, etc...

[DJ Highline]

First how big is this room and second how many people are you expecting at these parties?

To be honest, You are probably gonna need more money. $300 will get you either 1 OK (not good or great) speaker or 1 or 2 OK lighting effects.

[AcuraKidd]

The living room is about 600 square feet. We will have no more than about 6-8 ppl.

[DJ Highline]

Well for that few people I would say put your money into a nice home theatre system to go along with your TV because you will be using that more than big party speakers. Save up like another $200 and get something like this (http://www.zzounds.com/item--ADJREVO4) or this (http://www.zzounds.com/item--CHVKINTAX) you can even get something as cheap as this (http://www.zzounds.com/item--ADJVERTIGO). All of those lights are sound activated meaning they react to the bass from you stereo...plug them in and they make pretty lights.

[AcuraKidd]

Home theater in a box sounds good but how would it all connect to my laptop or TV?

My laptop has VGA connection and the TV also has it.

[DJ Highline]

The VGA connector is only for a video signal, it doesn't carry audio. So if you want show something thats on your laptop on your TV, you would use the VGA connections. For audio, the easiest thing to do would be to by a home theatre system that has an 1/8" (headphone sized) aux input on them. These are fairly common these days and shouldn't be hard to find a decent home theatre system with one on it. Then simply buy an 1/8"M -> 1/8"M cable (I've even seen them in Walmart). Plug the cable into the headphone out on your laptop and into the aux in on your theatre system and you're good to go...

[AcuraKidd]

Thanks for all the advice and tips.

I've had a few changes however. I'm gonna use a friends laptop which has HDMI out, and also will be using a Samsung Home Theater system, like this (http://www.samsung.com/us/video/home-theater/HT-D6500W/ZA-specs)

Now, I'm a bit confused on how its all going to work out. From my understanding, I connect the HDMI Out from my laptop to the HDMI IN on the home theater system, and then the HDMI Out from the home theater system to the HDMI IN on the TV. Does that sound correct?

That way I'll be able to play music from the laptop, sound will come out from home theater system, and if I want any video playing, it'll come out on TV, does that sound right?

[ampnation]

If the laptop has HDMI out and you're playing music videos, you're fine. If you're playing audio + video files for the video portion only with two separate programs, it's more complicated. You would need to check to see if you can disable the HDMI audio (probable) and run separate audio out. Then it comes down to if your receiver has the ability to take audio and video from different sources simultaneously (doubtful, esp. in the lower priced options). One way around the limitation with receivers would be to run HDMI direct to the TV and mute the TV and run audio out to the receiver.

Someone else mentioned using a 1/8" to 1/8" cable from the headphone jack to the receiver. I say you'll be much happier with an audio interface. A Numark DJIO is about $50 and you'll use USB to connect to it, then use an RCA stereo cable to connect to the receiver.

Also, download Virtual DJ Home (http://www.virtualdj.com/products/homefree.html) and you can use your laptop directly to control it. If you get more into this, you can buy a controller or mixer and decks and control a lot of the software's functions directly from that hardware.

Virtual DJ Home supports music videos and karaoke but not in full screen. I'm not familiar with the particulars of how or if one can use separate video and audio sources in VDJ, but I'm pretty sure it's possible.

EDIT: Yes, your description sounds right, but in order for it to work that way you need to be playing music videos that are one file played by one software AFAIK. In iTunes, I have a few music videos and this would be how to play those. You could also use VDJ as described above.

Good Luck.