Hello dear Pioneer and forum users,
I am a professional dj in Greece and i play my gigs in weddings and special occasions. I' ve got my R1 since February 2015. I have tried 1.10, 1.11 and now 1.12 firmware and i use R1 only as a midi controller with a Macbook Pro 13.3 mid 2012 and Virtual dj version 8.1 (with a pro infinity license).
I thought R1 would be the perfect portable solution for me as i have 2 backup options (USB stick with organized playlists through Rekordbox or CD' s) in case that anything happens to laptop.
I experience the problem since my first use. The R1 freezes during gig (not any button responds with Virtual dj) and the only way to become functional again is to unplug the usb cable and plug again. Or keep playing all night using the mouse and keyboard controls!
I experience the freeze-ups really randomly. All this time i am trying to understand in which moments the connection freezes but no answers. It really happens randomly!! It may happen twice or more in a gig or maybe never in the whole night. I hope you understand that this is a nightmare!
Maybe one more information is that once the R1 was frozen an i had time for experiments, i tried to connect through remote box from iPhone 5s but it was frozen too!
I tried a different usb cable, tried connecting to both two usb 3.0 ports of my laptop (but i think they are coming from the same internal hub) and also tried several versions of Virtual Dj 8. No effect. I still experience freeze-ups! Oh, i also turned Wi-Fi off, as i thought it maybe has effect on my problem.
Finally i decided to contact Pioneer' s affiliated-support company in Greece (Interesys S.A) and then was the moment i really freaked out and i feel the need to share this with you:
Obviously that guy had no idea even about which Pioneer product i was talking about, no idea on dj equipment, and after our 20 minutes discussion the answer was: "Ok, since it doesn't happen any time, when it freezes-up you can keep playing all night using the mouse and keyboard...".!!!
OH MY GOD!!!
Really? I spent 900$ for this machine and the official Pioneer service in Greece told me to spend the gig night without using it at all???
I read several posts from other users mentioning their own problems and i am really disappointed from R1 and Pioneer. And i further concern because i see that no one has any answer to these problems. Pioneer staff just ask question about under what conditions the problems occur but i never saw any answers! Just posts left unanswered for months...
Dear Pioneer staff, i hope to get an answer from you soon. Is there any way to get a new R1 if its faulty, or maybe to replace my R1 with an other product (maybe aero) or get a refund? Is there any way to fix mine? Maybe an upcoming firmware update that fixes these issues?
Thank you at all.
P.S. i could not capture the moment in video yet, but i will if it's necessary. But i have found a video in youtube from an other guy with exactly the same problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5li2wUD3sA