Setting up Video and Audio on MacBook with Parallels

[Taralocke]

Hi There!

I run Ots on my MacBook Pro on boot camp flawlessly and absolutely love it. However, I only have my hard drive partitioned just for OTS because that is the only program I use. I would love to set it up on Parallels so I have access to my other DJ Mac DJ program if needed as well Email and other programs while running OTS. Here is my issue:

When I have it on Parallels I can not get the audio to work. I have a Rane MP4 I believe is what it is called and when I hook up the USB it does not see it there. In bootcamp it does, but OTS does not see it in Parallels. Also I can not figure out how to get it to recognize my video for playing music videos. So I can see the videos on my screen but all it shows is the mac side on the projector screen.

Again I have everything perfect on the bootcamp side of things, but would be thrilled if I can keep it on my mac side and have access to all of my mac programs while DJ'ing. Please let me know if anyone has done this successfully and how to troubleshoot my problem.

[Darryl]

Sorry - I don't have a Mac to try it on.

[Lane]

bootcamp has a completely different 'hardware layer' for drivers etc. when compared to parallels.  Unless someone has the same Rane product as you, I'm not certain we'll be able to help with this. I personally recommend you try the user forums for parallels.

Another product you may wish to test is crossover for mac. A couple/three years back, I had it working with OtsAV, although there were some display issues. Audio worked fine. I recall some portions of the program interface were transparent or something. But that was a couple of years back. It may be sorted by now.  Crossover is a little different, where instead of having windows inside mac os, you run OtsAV directly in Mac, and it basically has all the windows api's calls all translated to work on mac os. (if you're familiar with wine, it's basically that solution but improved.)

[mixfm]

I had it working perfectly fine under VMware on my Mac.  The only niggly thing is that there's a noticeable lag in the audio pipeline.  But that's not something your listeners will really come to notice.

Would you consider switching from Parallels to VMware Fusion?

In fact, right now VMware are offering Parallels users licences for only $10!  See http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

And even if you don't commit the $10 you can always download their free product trial.

[Lane]

$10 is a pretty darn good deal. I'd skip a trip to mcdonalds for that one. (well, I'd skip that trip for a lot of other reasons too I guess. )

[Taralocke]

Thanks for all of the responses. I'm still doing the free 15 day trial on Parallels I have like 10 days left and I tried using it Friday and Saturday night with no luck and just switched back to bootcamp. So I tried researching it more today and didn't have much luck. Someone asked a question back in 2006 on the parallels forum but a lot has changed since then. I figured coming to this forum would be easier since I'm pretty sure most do not know what OTS is over there. My problem was that OTS would not recognize the audio USB but bootcamp and mac would. So I figured there is something I am not activating or something along those lines. A great idea none the less just doesn't seem like its going to work, and it looks like OTS isn't going to be making a mac version anytime soon which I think is a shame. I'm going to keep playing with it and hope that I can figure it out, if not I still have my bootcamp to use. I'll also check out the trial of VM as well. I was told Parallels is better though. Will keep working on it and if anyone else has tried it with success please let me know how you set it up. Thanks!

[Lane]

In this case, i think 'better' is probably defined by actually working.   good luck!

[DICEDJ]

Hi have been trialling VM fusion with Ots on a hope machine and so far have been pleasantly surprised.

One I got the latency settings sorted it has been running for a couple of hours a day for last two weeks.

So far so good.

Using standard mac soundcard and home speakers. Will try external soundcard (HD2500 - USB) in couple of weeks and see what happens then.

Andy

[Taralocke]

I just spent the last two hours with an online chat person from parallels and still no luck. Oh this is so frustrating! It would so totally rock to be able to run OTS and have access to all of my mac programs as well. GRRRRRRR Why don't they just make a mac version? Mac is going to take over the world! Ok i'm over it.

[Jumpin' Jeff]

They've been going to do that for how many years now? (Apple that is.)

[Lane]

Taralocke, try crossover for mac. It lets you run windows programs on your mac without running windows. Worth a shot. They have a trial if I recall correctly.

I don't think apple wants to take over the world. Just lots of your money.