(Duh) Whats a vision mixer?

[phluxm]

I'm running visuals through a laptop to a projector. Being a PC man, I've never used a vision mixer before. If I want a live video feed, can I just plug my DV camera and laptop into a vision mixer and mix between the Laptop out put and the live cam? I'm assuming a video mixer works just like a DJ's audio mixer. Am i stupid :rolleyes:

[sleepytom]

yep - sort of
you can plug any video signals into a vision mixer so if your laptop has video out you can plug it in and go - if your computer only has vga then you'll need a scanconverter

see http://www.vjcentral.com/show/62

[phluxm]

Scan convertors send screen content to video outputs right..? How would it work with the live cam?

[infopocalypse]

Video mixers tend ot have i/o in s-vid and composite. Your DV cam most often has composite/s-video out.

James