A mixer question and a laptop question

[rhythmicimaging]

2 Questions

1 - I'm looking for a mixer, at the moment not looking hard enough, so could someone tell me which video mixers i should be looking at if i want to have my computer output feeding in one channel and a video camera feeding into a second channel so i can fade/switch between them?

2- Also as i use a midi keyboard is ther a laptop that comes with a midi port? i haven't come across one as yet or is it possible to buy a sound card/adaptor.

Apologies if i'm repeating questions that someone else has asked.

[LEVLHED]

OK, I'll take a stab...
1) the only mixer I know of that has a proper VGA input is the Roland V5, which isn't that great. To get you computer video into a mixer, you have to get it S-Video/Composite(RCA) first. THis is done w/ either a scan converter (look around there's info on the boards) or using a video card that has a SVid/Composite output. Once you get that, you can use just about any mixer out there to switch btwn it and a camera. In my opinion, you should seriously look for a used Videonics MX1 on Ebay.

2) I've never seen a laptop w/ a midiport built in. You could get a USB-to-midi device such as a Roland/EdiRol UM-1 or UM-1S.


please look for reviews/info of scan converters here and on vjcentral as well as the review of the MX1 @ vjc for more info on that.

[rhythmicimaging]

Cheers