The whole idea of the Denon Prime series is that they’re STANDALONE DJ systems…for those of us who don’t want to be tied to a computer when DJing.
If you still want to connect the hardware to a computer, you may as well just use a controller.
FYI you can stream requested tracks straight off the internet wirelessly from the Prime players. It’s built in, so there’s no “big advantage” to using a computer.
Also, if you want to type on a physical keyboard, plug it into the Prime unit. Pioneer can’t do that.
Yes I know that’s the idea, I typically have a USB plugged in as wel in case my computer crashes. For the controller argument: those are typically half the quality of any decent standalone unit.
I know, but if I have it on my computer I can directly add it to my main collection without having to think about it later on. Also downloading it beforehand is prefferable in locations with a bad internet connection.
I know but I’m already bringing my laptop, if possible not another keyboard extra would be nice. And I agree with you that this is indeed a nice feature!
Yeah but that you don’t have the USB backup option like I descriped, I want to continue my set if my laptop crashes.
I’m not complaining, but requesting, it’s a feature that can probably be added to all the Denon hardware out there with a USB-b port via a software update. Besides: if Denon adds this feature, no one forces you to use it, but I would like it myself.
Also, I found a video that explains it a bit better (and in English) than the one in the openings post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phhMH19GPtk . Please note that I’d rather connect using the USB-b port than ethernet tough and that this is more future-proof anyways.
It never actualy crashed, but a drunk guy with a request did press the off button once, but I’m rather safe than sorry, same reason you probably want airbags in your car and wear safety belts. But I won’t continue this discussion as this is going offtopic.
The whole idea of Prime was to continue the ‘legacy’ of Denon DJ, literally in InMusic’s own words, and their prior players and the industry standard both had this feature to do track offloading from a laptop.
Some of them didn’t even seem to know the ‘legacy’ Denon DJ products had it, let alone that the market leader has always had this on their networkable players.
It bordered on not even knowing what the feature was.
No - not all “their prior players” had it, because some (i.e. HS5500) were standalone. The range that followed ditched the LCD display and went back to VFDs or somesuch, the equivalent of something found on a hifi CD player…so the hookup to Engine was REQUIRED due to the limited displays on the players.
As for the “industry standard” typically people request it simply because Pioneer have it, rather that it being necessary.
My understanding was that Pioneer introduced it as a workaround for some other limitation (as has also been the case for other Pioneer “features”). There’s a post here about it somewhere…
Their prior immediate networkable players had it. The 5500s, which I have, don’t even use standard network cables but rather use a crossover cable and a goofy link system that was doomed never to get wide acceptance.
As for why Pioneer has it, who likes it, and why it’s still around… it’s ludicrous to not have the feature when you’ve already got network capability using standard connections like cat-5. Any basic market research should have included this in the list of desirables, and yet there’s been more of ‘what’s that, why’d you need it, and can we just let your laptop drive show up on the players so you can use the Rockchips & onscreen touchscreen to search for it?’
I’ve used track off-loading Pro Link from a laptop many times on Pioneers. It’s great and has saved my booty more times than I can count when I needed a massive variety of music and the ability to find stuff with a physical keyboard and powerful search quickly.
That laptop, by the way, can remain connected the entire night, and no other DJs that get on those players can source tracks from it without having access to the laptop itself. You lock the laptop, and your collection is off-limits. It’s a beautiful capability.