DaVinci Resolve, how good?

[Wayne Morellini]

Hi,

Been feeling better, and been contemplating downloading the free edition of DaVinci Resolve and learning it. Ran into an aquatance today doing small jobs in the music scene, so told him about it and offered to help him out if he had any bigger jobs come along, sort of practice thing.

Anyway, being a technologist, I'm used to piddly little editors. DaVinci will be one of the first descent editors I've used. However I hear disparaging comments sometimes. Is DaVinci a good career/workflow choice for all the things it does (grading, editing, processing etc). How good is it at these things?


Thanks


Wayne.

 

[Bobby Farokhzad]

It is and has been for many years the gold standard for grading and color correction. As an editor it's getting better and better with every release. There are other options out there but I don't think you can go wrong learning it.

 

[M.Halsell]

From a value standpoint, its it has a lot going for it. Updates are frequent, BM has done a fantastic job buying a useful piece of software making it better. For the general population, it certainly can get the job done with very little issue. Good GPU support is is a biggie, obviously. Solid support for alot of camera formats including long GOP formats. Media management is on par, excellent meta data integration, conform tools are strong. Roundtripping to FCP, Avid and Autodesk is a cinch (to Premiers, can be tricky). Lots and lots of contextual options

For diehard, mission critical editing, whats missing is a good audio editor, some missing keyboard commands for the power user, the project setting are locked making it difficult to have different projects settings in the same timeline, effects are bit basic (nothing too sexy without third party support), editor assistant can't add bins and media in the collaborative workflow which is critical on huge projects.

But all in all, nothing jump outs as being wrong, some feature employ a different workflow paradigm compared to it competitors.

 

[jussi rovanpera]

You need a fairly fast computer to run it, other editing solutions are more responsive with slower machines.

 

[Phil Holland]

You need a fairly fast computer to run it, other editing solutions are more responsive with slower machines.

This. And.

The reality is Final Cut X, Avid, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Resolve are all rather similar in terms of general workflow. Each has it's unique strengths and weaknesses. Some people have rather strong opinions going one way or another due to their experiences, which is fine.

There's been a motivated effort to tie editing into more post minded work like color and finishing. Resolve does that pretty well at the moment, though you need a good box to push it. Adobe Premiere Pro is what I use as my NLE and now has the Lumetri Color Panels to allow for a similar concept.

For me it just depends on the job for what I use. Mostly an Adobe workflow and use Resolve when needed here at the hut.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Thanks guys, that's a pretty good summary. I see it has Mac and Linux, that's good. Are they planning on improving finishing and effects to a good standard? Will it support other cidecs like cineform, cineform raw?

You need a fairly fast computer to run it, other editing solutions are more responsive with slower machines.

That is something. This shouldn't be. I saw mention of an issue with h264 footage? I plan on getting something good, as you can see in my Z2 thread, but how much slower is it? Have they tied the vidro decode section of the gpu to their h264 pipeline? Such video decode section might be rate limited and likely have other timing constrictions relates to consumer playback.

Thanks again for the help.everybody.

 

[Antony Newman]

If Davinchi can get the GUI experience as intuitive as the toolset is comprehensive - they will broaden the appeal to newcomers (of which I am one).

As the free version does virtually everything most people need - It will proliferate.

I may have had issues with stability - but am confident that this is the horse that will carry my needs for the foreseeable future.

AJ

 

[jake blackstone]

It is and has been for many years the gold standard for grading and color correction.

If you're in for a middle of the road with ever-changing yearly interface redesigns and over the top marketing, resulting in a Resolve billboard on Sunset (!), with "over-promise and under-deliver" philosophy with endless bugs and workarounds, that stay un-resolved for years and a "good enough" kinda vibe (what do you expect for free?), then yes, it's the gold standard:sarcasm:
Otherwise, no, Resolve is not really at the top of the grading software.

 

[Michael Dalton]

If Davinchi can get the GUI experience as intuitive as the toolset is comprehensive - they will broaden the appeal to newcomers (of which I am one).

As the free version does virtually everything most people need - It will proliferate.

I may have had issues with stability - but am confident that this is the horse that will carry my needs for the foreseeable future.

AJ

Stability is the biggest issue right now, releases are off and on. There is still green line rendering issues, and forget using H264 clips, it will crash the renders. BM blames apple for the corrupt frames in rendering, but in reality to have a rock steady product you can't run it at 100%

I hope they keep the tool set where it is and continue to develop the editing side of things. We have premiere and Final Cut X for intermediate. It's nice to have some pro tools with power behind it. There are growing online resources for people to learn it.

 

[Manfred Lopez]

The most annoying thing about Resolve is the rendering issue. In order to get clean renders we have to shut down the program and restart it just before rendering. This seems to mostly work. But even then you sometimes have to re-render individual clips, of course again shutting down and re-starting the program beforehand.

 

[Akin A]

Resolve is very good and is getting better. It just doesn't have as many built in effects for video and audio. If developers created more OpenFX plugins for it, that would change.

I use it as my main NLE. I used to use Premiere.
The 3D Keyer feature is great for chroma keying. I like it way better than Premiere's Ultra Key and After Effects' Keylight.

I edited this whole project in Resolve 12, including VFX:

Original thread:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?137426-Mr-Robot-HACKED-Unauthorized-Episode

 

[Marc Wielage]

...endless bugs and workarounds, that stay un-resolved for years...

Hey! A pun!

 

[Dermot Shane]

I Resolve is not really at the top of the grading software.

+1

and not a very good editor,
and a completly unworkable finishing system

but it can get be a better finsihing system if/when fusion link shows up or fusions tools get intergrated

 

[M.Halsell]

The Windows build seems to be more stable. The AMD/Apple/OpenCL driver conundrum is really plaguing the performance of the new mac hardware, with seemingly no fix in site. Jake's comment has merit, but in fairness Jake is probably in gradeland most of his day, the better tools obviously are priced many times higher that the base cost of Resolve. Resolve currently offers the widest set of correction tools in the category. Its utility is undeniable, on-set DIT, editorial, post. Triple platform, and it will be a huge volley if one day, the Windows build has native ProRes access.

Adobe is not doing the right thing with Speedgrade, with its inherit uncorrected flaws. Final Cut requires MacHardware (I like being able to upgrade PC hardware every few months which is not the luxury with Mac hardware) but to it's benefit FCX runs well across all the Apple lineup, Thunderbolt is convenient. I've gotten nothing bad to say about AVID, (like their codecs), rock solid toolset but their current scope/focus is limited to just NLE. Love Autodesk products, which simply means i'm old school and way past my prime.

We all are being asked to do more with less, while maintaining a reasonable facsimile of quality. Just seems, that the Resolve 'Leatherman' approach is pretty well conceived for todays market. Blackmagic seems to be the most attentive developer in the space right now, so hopefully the shortcomings will corrected in the near future.

Hinting at the Gold–Silver–Bronze command structure:

Gold=Strategic
Silver=Tactical
Bronze=Operational

I vote Resolve as 'silver'.

 

[AndreeMarkefors]

The most annoying thing about Resolve is the rendering issue. In order to get clean renders we have to shut down the program and restart it just before rendering. This seems to mostly work. But even then you sometimes have to re-render individual clips, of course again shutting down and re-starting the program beforehand.

What are you referring to?

This sounds to me like the person who updates their iPhone and when their battery drains they think:

1) Apple sucks
2) The new update sucks

When it's in fact an old app from a hack "developer" that was poorly written, that has not been maintained, that is bringing the whole system down. When you're one of few people who has a certain issue, it's a sign that the problem might be with your own hardware/software setup.

I certainly don't have to restart Resolve to render.

Blackmagic basically offers 95% of the software for free, and it's a version that is good for a LOT of people. On Mac, you can buy the FULL version for $500. There's very little room for complaining here people.

 

[Mark Pedersen]

If you're in for a middle of the road with ever-changing yearly interface redesigns and over the top marketing, resulting in a Resolve billboard on Sunset (!), with "over-promise and under-deliver" philosophy with endless bugs and workarounds, that stay un-resolved for years and a "good enough" kinda vibe (what do you expect for free?), then yes, it's the gold standard:sarcasm:
Otherwise, no, Resolve is not really at the top of the grading software.

Huh??

M

 

[jake blackstone]

What are you referring to?
This sounds to me like the person who updates their iPhone and when their battery drains they think:
1) Apple sucks
2) The new update sucks
I certainly don't have to restart Resolve to render.

Do you mean "user error", like these reports?
https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=41516
Blackmagic forum is full of Trashcan users, who's unable to render error free.

On Mac, you can buy the FULL version for $500. There's very little room for complaining here people.

That $500 version is not a wise investment. Thanks to certain technical reasons, the $500 version is a bit of a cut down:

no CUDA support, OpenCL only
no over-the-phone, email only
no MC Color or Blackmagic panels support
no third party plugin support
Mac only, not possible to use Resolve on Windows, like you can now with a dongle.
And, oh yeah, just try to sell it...

All in all, you're better off buying the dongle'd version, which you can easily find for much less, than $500 Mac only version.

 

[jake blackstone]

Huh??

M

What?

 

[jake blackstone]

Resolve currently offers the widest set of correction tools in the category.

I hate to be a stickler for details, but this statement is not even remotely correct.

It will be a huge volley if one day, the Windows build has native ProRes access.

Unfortunately, it's up to Apple and unless Apple stops making Mac hardware, this will never happen.

 

[AndreeMarkefors]

Blackmagic forum is full of them.

I asked Manfred to specify his problem, but you seem to have many examples too. Could you give me a short description what I have to do to make Resolve mess up the rendering? I'll test it and get back. I'd like to learn more and I have no stake in this. I also have zero prestige issues, so the turnaround time should be quick from my side.

That $500 version is not a wise investment. Thanks to certain technical reasons, the $500 version is a bit of a cut down:

no CUDA support, OpenCL only
no over-the-phone, email only
no MC Color or Blackmagic panels support
no third party plugin support
Mac only, not possible to use Resolve on Windows, like you can now with a dongle.

Well, the price reduction has to come from somewhere—it's not like Blackmagic just sells it half price to Mac users because they're so much nicer.

No CUDA: this should be a good thing. At one point CUDA was the end all/be all and users were locked to Nvidia. I haven't seen any 2016 test but for every month that passes OpenCL will be equal to CUDA in performance. It's probably already there for all practical purposes in Resolve. It's a huge win for users, especially on the Mac side to have OpenCL given the same attention as CUDA.

Phone support, panels…: Non issue or me personally.

No 3rd party plugins: What do you mean? At least OFX-plugins are supported. Film convert, NeatVideo and so on are all good...

Mac only: yes, obviously. But this also means you can run it on 5 computers simultaneously with its full functionality. No dongle swapping/management.