Ots Labs OtsAV

OtsAV Release Notes

VERY IMPORTANT: 1.85 is available for OtsAV DJ, OtsAV Radio & OtsAV TV licensed users (or former Pro-licensed users). OtsDJ Silver/Boombox licensed users download 1.15 or upgrade license here.

OtsAV DJ, OtsAV Radio & OtsAV TV licensed users --- It is very important you read the specific version release notes below in FULL before installing the download.

OtsAV DJ / OtsAV Radio / OtsAV TV Version 1.85.074 (very latest)

1.85.073 released on 30 Nov 2009, 1.85.074 released on 2 Dec 2009.

This update is free to all OtsAV DJ, OtsAV Radio and OtsAV TV licensed users (including former Pro-licensed users).

Ots Labs has updated and re-worked the entire code-base of OtsAV and associated projects as well as much of their development systems and processes since the last release. Consequently, this update is not intended to be particularly major from a new feature perspective, however it does deliver several capabilities, fixes and enhancements—in addition to better facilitating the implementation and completion of numerous planned developments.

New OtsAV 1.85.073 release includes:

Branding: Ability to customize video watermark with user-supplied images on a per-resolution basis and other customizations. Promote your DJ business, event, stream or channel.
Branding: Ability to customize video titling with user-supplied images on a per-resolution basis and other customizations. Promote your DJ business, event, stream or channel.
Branding: All products, logos, animations, banners, icons, etc updated to reflect new Ots Labs logo and full support for Vista/Windows 7 large icons.
PCM storage: Ots Media files can now be created or imported using uncompressed PCM as the basis of storage in order to obtain lossless results. Great for archive/master versions of your Ots files or for people who require/prefer a true lossless audio path throughout. Ots Studio, Ots Player and OtsAV support this new stream type. Even non-standard sample rates can be used/stored. Batch re-encoding is planned to be supported later.
Karaoke: Ability to disable IntelliFade/ACI mixing with karaoke items for intros and/or outros.
Streaming Meta Data: Album information is now (optionally) sent to ShoutCast plugin in the standard format and special detection is employed to intelligently decide whether (genuine) album information is available or not.
Category Cloning function: Playlist function to copy assigned categories from identically-named items in order to help save time for users maintaining similar collections of items (ie. video vs audio-only versions).
OIL Playlist File Format: OIL files have been enhanced to better handle items containing video. Eg. items based on the same audio data chunk and with an identical title and artist, but differing only in whether they contain a video data chunk or not will now be correctly and independently distinguished during loading of an OIL file.
MIDI Controllers / OHML support: Latest OHML files bundled, including support of serveral new hardware controllers.
Ots Studio: Export native. Non-MP3 based items (eg. Layer 2, and also now, of course, PCM) can be exported back to their native format.
Ots Studio: Export CD+G. Accompanying CD+G item data can be exported during any export operation so it can be used or edited in other programs.
Ots Studio: Export file name format can now be freely specified using a user-supplied string and a range of field options.
Windows 7-aware.
Resolved Issue: Possibility of crash when last-used audio card not present at startup (eg. hardware controller's sound card when controller is subsequently unplugged).
Resolved Issue: OFL file processing buffer overflow with specially-crafted OFL file.
Resolved Issue: Possibility of lockup at application close down when MIDI hardware controller in use on Vista platform.
Resolved Issue: Possibility of audio buffer corruption when new item loaded into deck and immediately played.
Resolved Issue: "Export As CSV file" function could produce an error message if any items in export selection were unable to be accessed.
Ots Player: Now handles non-44100 Hz items correctly.
Ots Studio: Exporting non-44100 Hz items now works correctly.
Miscellaneous: General performance enhancements and internal improvements.

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OtsAV DJ / OtsAV Radio / OtsAV TV Version 1.85.064

Released on 12 May 2008.

This is a major upgrade, free to all OtsAV DJ, OtsAV Radio and OtsAV TV licensed users (including former Pro-licensed users).

New OtsAV 1.85.064 release delivers:

MIDI Hardware Control supporting all MIDI-compatible hardware via flexible and user-editable OHML (Ots Hardware Mapping Language), including 2-way MIDI control for LEDs and supported screens.(NOTE: This feature applies to license-holders of OtsAV DJ Pro/Classic, OtsAV Radio Broadcaster, OtsAV TV Broadcaster).
Native MIDI support (OHML) includes:
- Denon DN-HC4500
- Denon DN-HC4500 + DN-X500/900 Mixer
- Denon DN-HD2500
- Behringer BCD2000
- Behringer BCD3000
- PCDJ DAC-3 (this controller only supports 1-way MIDI so LEDs and screens do not function)
- Hercules DJ Console MK-1 (this controller only supports 1-way MIDI so LEDs do not function)
- All other MIDI-compatible controllers can be fully 2-way mapped by advanced users with OHML mapping language and .OHM files can be shared online.
- Ots Labs will be officially mapping more controllers as they are received by manufacturers and will be posting on this page here.
Old School mode. Route Deck A through to your External Mixer Channel 1, and Deck B to Channel 2, for hands-on mixing, while still benefiting from the Ots Labs Dynamics Processor, Automated Beat Mixing and Automated Fade Mixing as desired.
ASIO cue/secondary channel support.
World-first Zorphing (scratching with tempo).(NOTE: This feature applies to license-holders of OtsAV DJ Pro/Classic, OtsAV Radio Broadcaster, OtsAV TV Broadcaster)
New low-pass filtered high quality scratching.
Support for additional information sent via Shoutcast streams for copyright compliance (Album Title and Item Copyright).
Miscellaneous fixes.

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OtsAV DJ / OtsAV Radio / OtsAV TV Version 1.85.001

Released on 12 January 2008.

OtsAV has been split into three separate product lines - OtsAV DJ, OtsAV Radio & OtsAV TV. OtsDJ Pro original customers now have an OtsAV DJ Pro-Classic+ license, and OtsAV Pro customers have an OtsAV DJ Pro-Classic license, with original entitlements at time of purchase (as will be noted in the My Licenses section at OtsZone.com here) and are highly recommended to upgrade FREE to this version.

Enhancements, Improvements and Other

NOTE: Speaker/display/audience-based licensing restrictions abolished in favor of simple feature-based licensing. As such, all 1.85 products can broadcast to an unlimited audience through any medium.
NOTE: New OtsAV DJ Silver audio-only product available, as well as new OtsAV Radio and OtsAV TV product ranges.
New Enhanced Definition mode. Output video in even higher resolution quality for use on high-end dual core CPUs or above.
New export to CSV option with additional field data. Highlight items in any list area, including Media Library, and RIGHT-CLICK -> EXPORT -> AS CSV. Information can be useful for music licensing authorities or other purposes.
New ABM enable/disable toolbar button.
New CSV logging output option for recording date/time items play along with many other additional fields. Especially useful for broadcast reporting to music licensing authorities. (Available in OtsAV Radio and OtsAV TV products only).
New High Definition 720p mode. Output video in 720p quality for use on quad-core CPUs or high-end dual cores. (Available in OtsAV TV Broadcaster only).
Other miscellaneous minor fixes.

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OtsAV Version 1.77.001

Released on 9 September 2007.

OtsDJ has been renamed to OtsAV (click for details). This is the first release of OtsAV. OtsDJ Pro customers now have an OtsAV license (as will be noted in the My Licenses section at OtsZone.com) and should upgrade to this version.

Enhancements and Improvements

Full Vista (32 bit) support. OtsAV will install and run correctly under Windows Vista.
New look for launch of OtsAV. Some graphical elements have been slightly changed, and a new colour scheme for lists, Nebulous, has been added.
New profile selector concept for OtsAV. This setting allows OtsAV to better target the end-user with appropriate default settings and is helpful due to the distinctly differing market segments that the product is popular within.
Items containing beat info chunks that have a pre-match point range region of 0 samples will now beat mix as intended. The previous work-around of including at least 1 sample in this region in order to prevent the tempo from changing early is no longer required.
Exceptionally long tickers will no longer cause the video subsystem to switch off. If your ticker text is too long (note: this limit is NOT simply a specific number of characters) the ticker will not display, but the video subsystem will continue to operate as normal.
Deck seek/progress bar click behaviour reverted back to pre-1.75 style. (Item in deck is actually seeked on release of mouse button rather than upon initial click.)
Fixed compatibility with some non-compliant layer-2 audio streams that could cause strange behaviour when encountered. (Note: these streams are very rare and therefore most people would not have witnessed this problem.)
Ots Studio: A product license is no longer required to access full functionality. Also updated to correctly handle the non-compliant layer-2 streams referred to in the above point.
Ots Player: Updated to handle Ots v4.0 files and play layer-2 and 32 & 48 kHz sample rate audio streams.
Other miscellaneous minor fixes.

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OtsDJ Version 1.75.008

Released on 15 November 2006 (latest version with important improvements).

Note: Originally 1.75.001 released 31 Oct 2006 (we delivered by the concrete date we set).

This new MAJOR release introduces Automated Beat Mixing (Ots Labs BeatMorph Technology^TM), High-quality Time-scaling (Ots Labs ClearScale Technology^TM), a host of other features, as well as compatibility with two major new modules - the OtsDJ Video Module (Ots Labs TrueSmooth Technology^TM) and the OtsDJ Karaoke CD+G Module.

New features and benefits:

Automated beat mixing you can rely on and trust with quality, accurate, professional results. (Ots Labs BeatMorph Technology^TM)
Songs can be randomized and still achieve phrase-mixed automated beat mixing at an appropriate mix-length.
Slider range options (+/- 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 & 100%). Time-scale right down to stationary and up to double-speed!
High-quality Time-scaling produces clean mixes and allows mixes with large differences in BPM. (Ots Labs ClearScale Technology^TM)
BPM stored in Ots file at 4 and a half decimal places for a high level of accuracy (e.g. 130.89209).
Ots Studio auto BPM and beat detection with a high success rate and highly accurate BPM to 4 decimal places - detected and stored separately for intro and outro for best accuracy.
Ots Studio Batch Processor to detect BPM of all your Ots files.
Beat Info Chunk Handler provides full user control of setting a highly accurate:
- BPM per intro/outro (with Auto Detection or by hand with tool)
- Match-point per intro/outro.
- Maximum range pre and post the match-point.
- Non-percussive intensity (NPI) values for pre and post match-point.
- With the universal BeatMorph^TM system, this information only has to be set once and it will mix into any other beat-tracked song professionally and smoothly. OtsDJ will automatically beat mix the songs over the maximum length possible while maintaining appropriate volume levels throughout the transition, changing the primary focus at the "magical" match-point, and will keep the songs in sync using time-scaling, and change the tempo leading up to the match-point if in "restore mode". Unlike other systems which require manual adjustments for every single song mix combination, and therefore are only good for assisting, the BeatMorph^TM system is a set-song-once universal system which when set correctly will work automatically and effectively with virtually unlimited song combinations.
Run a fully automated 24/7 beat mix radio station, TV broadcast (with Video Module) or webcast and even beatmix into "beaty" station IDs! No other TV / radio automation software in the world offers this much power. (24/7 operation requires Scheduling & Logging Module).
Optional waveform display with multiple view types (8 combinations).
Optional click-seekable mix overview progress bar.
BPM columns in all list areas and both BPM native & adjusted displayed in deck.
Intelligent volume management during auto beat mixes.
Mix lengths are not simply a fixed, set duration. They are in fact dynamic per song combination.
Maintain or restore tempo beat mixing modes.
Match A-B BPM control for manual beat mixing.
ASIO driver support for high-end audio cards (main channel only).
Enhanced OtsDJ appearance.
Ots file format import support for common sample rates (resampled to either 32kHz, 44.1kHz or 48kHz).
MPEG1 Layer 2 file support (aka MP2) for import into Ots file format.
OtsDJ now supports Ots files with 32kHz and 48kHz audio sample rates in addition to the standard 44.1kHz. Audio is resampled to 44.1kHz on the fly.
Ots Studio transcoding of WMA, OGG, and any other files supported by your system (DirectShow filter) into a MP3-based Ots file.
Ots Studio batch import - replaces OTS MP3 Convertor.
Compatibility with separately licensed OtsDJ Video Module [No longer available for purchase as it comes built-in to certain OtsAV products]:
- Ots Labs TrueSmooth Technology^TM produces a high-quality, smooth, full-motion video output with many groundbreaking qualities, dramatically surpassing other PC software, and providing a truly professional choice for professional DJs, TV broadcasters/narrowcasters, background music providers, and AV enthusiasts.
- Full 50 or 60 field/frame rate - see ALL motion in your source media. This makes a huge difference to other software and is part of what makes it so smooth, comparable to mainstream TV and for some sources even smoother!
- Native support for 59.94Hz (NTSC) and 50Hz (PAL) - your output will be correct, locked and smooth.
- Stable, locked video output capability with most standard video cards (ATI or NVIDIA) - no dropped frames, jitter or jerky video (no longer put up with these unprofessional problems which occur in other software). Make sure you have up-to-date drivers for your video card and OtsDJ should run in the optimum "Sync Lock: A" mode.
- True per-pixel motion-adapative deinterlacing, and weave deinterlacing on NTSC/PAL progressive sources, for best image resolution.
- Smooth frame-interpolation when video is; speed-adjusted, NTSC/PAL progressive source (i.e. has only 30/25 original motion updates), or a non-native source framerate (e.g. playing NTSC source video on a PAL output). The result is you always get a truly-smooth full 50/60 motion updates!
- 3-2 pulldown content reversed to original 24 frames and interpolated for super-smooth results. NTSC movie source will play even smoother than most DVD players.
- Dead-steady truly-smooth scrolling ticker - updated 50/60 times a second, as commonly seen in mainstream TV broadcasts. Displays text and Ots Ticker Symbols, including mic, musical note, happy smiley, sad smiley, cheeky smiley, shocked smiley, wink smiley, loveheart, birthday cake, etc.
- Professional "Video TV show" style animated titling.
- Correct aspect ratios always displayed - no disproportionate stretching or shrinking.
- Native Widescreen 16:9 and 4:3 support, and 16:9 within 4:3 mode for mixed-display setups. Presentation is always correct aspect ratio and makes full use of your display type.
- Optional embellishments to fill black-bar areas - fills screen while maintaining correct source video aspect ratio.
- 20 truly smooth video mix transitions.
- Slideshow mode - supports even high megapixel JPEGs without a hickup. This mode dissolves between multiple JPEGs when; audio-only content is played, play is stopped, or video output is disabled for video media.
- Integrated AV sync calibration to get audio and video display in perfect sync for a specific display setup.
- Integrated Test Pattern and Graticules for precise calibration and color correction of your videocard or display.
- NTSC Color-safe - OtsDJ internally-generated graphical elements are within specification (video card settings should be checked to ensure they are within specification also.)
- Compliant with broadcast industry overscan specification.
- Optional professional Ots AV^TM symbol watermark - provides a professional touch as familiar on mainstream TV.
- Optional onscreen digital clock.
- Optimised Definition and SD (Standard Definition) output resolution modes. SD mode provides a DVD-equivalent quality presentation.
- Time-scale video to any speed right down to stationary and up to double-speed!
- Professional Ots file format supports Transport Streams, MPEG1 (ISO11172), MPEG2 (ISO13818) and unencrypted VOB (DVD) video formats. Once any of these are imported into an Ots file, the professional format will allow instant play and seeking of video media in a deck, including backwards play, time-scaling from 0% to 200% (stationary to double-speed), pitch-shifting and scratching (even including all at once, which allows things like key-changing).
- Professional Ots file format allows setting and overriding of many areas including aspect ratio and zoom, titling disable flag, titling presentation point, embellishment disable flag, framerate, deinterlacing mode, first/last frame trim point and AV sync.
- Store an entire DVD in an Ots Album file at original VOB quality! Simply extract tracks/chapters with appropriate software and import into a single Ots file in Ots Studio. Conveniently auto-detected will be; true aspect ratio (even when black-bars are embedded in source), IntelliFade^TM audio mix information, optimum deinterlace mode, and 3-2/2-2 pulldown.
- See system requirements here.
Compatibility with separately licensed OtsDJ Karaoke CD+G Module [No longer available for purchase as it comes built-in to certain OtsAV products]:
- Ots Labs TrueSmooth Technology^TM produces a high-quality, smooth, full-motion video output. This enables Karaoke DJs (KJs) to use the smooth ticker option for next singer or general announcements while CD+G based Ots files play. The ticker will continue to work through breaks and when normal audio is playing, during which a JPEG image or two alternating JPEGs can be displayed. If a Video Module license is also owned, video karaoke content can be played too as well as general video clips, and unlimited slideshow JPEGs.
- Time-scale CD+G to any speed right down to stationary and up to double-speed.
- Change the key of a track, with a combination of the pitch slider and time-scale slider.
- Full freedom of CD+G playback - alter pitch (+/- 100%), time-scale (+/- 100%), play backwards (+/- 100%), scratch, or a combination of all.
- Instant seeking to any part of the CD+G track.
- Mix CD+G tracks with IntelliFade^TM mixing or even auto beat mix if desired.
- 20 truly smooth video mix transitions for when you mix between CD+G tracks.
- CD+G material will display at correct aspect ratio even on a widescreen 16:9 display and the additional areas will extend the natural background color.
- Dead-steady truly-smooth scrolling ticker - updated 50/60 times a second, as commonly seen in mainstream TV broadcasts. Display announcements for upcoming singers, next singer, invitations for people to come up, comments on current or past performances, and any general information. Displays text and Ots Ticker Symbols, including mic, musical note, happy smiley, sad smiley, cheeky smiley, shocked smiley, wink smiley, loveheart, birthday cake, etc.
- Optional onscreen digital clock.
- Optional professional Ots AV^TM symbol watermark - provides a professional touch as familiar on mainstream TV.
- Rip CD+G content into the professional Ots file format in Ots Studio with CD-ROM drives which support this functionality.
- Import MP3+G content into the professional Ots file format with Ots Studio.
- See system requirements here.

Known Issues:

Scratching and adjusting the pitch/direction sliders is somewhat degraded in this version in terms of audio quality - that is, it is a bit coarser than it used to be (this is NOT the case for the tempo/time-scale slider which is perfectly fine and highly recommended for all types of use). Pitch is still fine at any given setting, it's only while you are literally moving the slider, it will sound a bit coarser. This will be restored in a maintenance release. All other aspects of audio quality are fine, and if anything, improved -- especially time-scaling :)
Hercules DJ Controller support has been dropped in this version. A future version will provide a flexible mapping layer that allows the use of a variety of controllers.

Notices:

Windows 2000 / XP support (9x/ME operating systems no longer supported)
Time-column doesn't show time for automated beat mixes - it works for IntelliFade^TM mixing only in this version.
S&L module doesn't support creating a perfect hour for beat mixes - it works for IntelliFade^TM mixing only in this version.
Be sure to download latest drivers for your audio and video cards.
Check system requirements here.
For some downloadable example Ots files with Beat Info chunks and video see this page.

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OtsDJ Version 1.15.004

Released on 20 February 2006.

This is an all-inclusive maintenance release which provides even greater stability and robustness. All Boombox, Silver and Pro license-holders are able to upgrade to this release.

Note: If you're updating directly to this version from version 1.00.165 or older, it is vital you read the release notes below for each version inbetween, which contain important instructions.

Enhancements and Overall Stability Improvements

Enhanced Short-Item Support. Prevents the decks prematurely ejecting a song or stopping play altogether due to both decks items ending at the same time. Previously, this sometimes occurred with a short song/item of usually 3 seconds or less in length.
Extended display mode now supports above 1024 x 768.
Improved playlist randomization (shuffled playlists and S&L-generated playlists now have a theoretically better quality "randomness").
Enhanced internal architecture for even greater stability.

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