Trying to use DaVinci Resolve Lite 9 with my 15" Macbook Pro, 10.6.8...

[James_Mills]

So I'm trying to use Davinci 9 with my MacBook Pro and I keep getting the same error: "Your GPU memory is full; try reducing the timeline resolution or the number of correctors". I'm getting this even when I just start the program before even opening any projects. When it does make it through the start up, all the files are insanely slow and the error continually comes up every now and then.

I've done some google research on it and seen others have luck making the screen smaller via the Terminal application, but I tried this and still go the same error message. Do you think I'm getting this message because my graphics card isn't fast enough? I'm not familiar with the lingo for all this stuff so I wasn't able to see if my card even fit the qualifications...

I also read somewhere else that 10.6.8 isn't even compatible with DaVinci (though I keep reading about people who use it error free on theirs...), so I've considered updating my system to 10.7 or better but would rather not if it's not gonna make a difference because my graphic card is the actual problem...

I've also searched for DaVinci 8 to see if that will work better but haven't been able to find it. At this point I'm pretty discouraged and frustrated about this... I don't have a budget to purchase any color correction services right now because I broke the bank for my entire Scarlet package. I guess I could jut run with my stock color correction system in Avid 5, but that's a damn shame when having so much room for expansion on our red data.

What do you guys suggest I do? Any suggestions for other free color grading programs that might work better for me? Or does anyone know how I can still use DaVinci succesfully?

 

[Shane Daly DP]

I can't get Resolve 9 to load on my Retina MBP 10.8.2.. Won't even open the apt, says I need a GUDA driver..

 

[Peter Chamberlain]

Have a look guys at our config guide. I have rMBP 15" with 16GB ram and can grade r3d and other formats. And OS X 10.8 is recommended as is the latest resolve v9.0.4. Check ur power setting is to not energy saver.
Peter

 

[Shane Daly DP]

Peter

Thanks for your help, unfortunately no improvement. All energy savings settings are off, MBP is as purchased and with Red Rocket via Magma chassis. Looking at buying a Quadra 6000 but it should work without - correct?

Shane
shanedaly.info

 

[James_Mills]

Have a look guys at our config guide. I have rMBP 15" with 16GB ram and can grade r3d and other formats. And OS X 10.8 is recommended as is the latest resolve v9.0.4. Check ur power setting is to not energy saver.
Peter

Is there a certain box I need to uncheck in terms of the "power saver" mode? I found the "energy saver" mode under my settings but it's just options for having the screen dim before shutting down and screen saver times and stuff like that. Where exactly can I make sure my computer isn't on power saver mode, and what boxes do I need to uncheck? I hadn't thought of this, thanks.

Also, does anyone know where I can find DaVinci 8 instead? I have searched but no luck...

 

[jake blackstone]

Also, does anyone know where I can find DaVinci 8 instead? I have searched but no luck...

For some reason, which escapes me, they hide it under "archived drivers"
And as Peter already pointed out, if you use any kind of power saving, your MAcBookPro will not use nVidia GPU, which is necessary for operating Resolve.

 

[James_Mills]

Cool, thanks, Jake. Do you have any idea off the top of your head whether or not DaVinci 8 will operate more smoothly with my computer?

And lastly, my friend told me that it's actually better to just color correct with RedCine because it uses the original RED color data whereas DaVinci doesn't... is this true? Is there a way that I could have a system where I transcode to DNxHD, import in Avid, edit, then send the sequence to RedCine to color correct from the native files there? And then back to Avid to export?

I figured out the round trip to Davinci and back, would love to know how to do it with Avid and RedCine as well... I think I'll start a thread about this as well, lol

 

[jake blackstone]

Cool, thanks, Jake. Do you have any idea off the top of your head whether or not DaVinci 8 will operate more smoothly with my computer?

And lastly, my friend told me that it's actually better to just color correct with RedCine because it uses the original RED color data whereas DaVinci doesn't... is this true? Is there a way that I could have a system where I transcode to DNxHD, import in Avid, edit, then send the sequence to RedCine to color correct from the native files there? And then back to Avid to export?

I figured out the round trip to Davinci and back, would love to know how to do it with Avid and RedCine as well... I think I'll start a thread about this as well, lol

No, both versions perform pretty much equally well or not well in you case
"It's actually better to just color correct with RedCine because it uses the original RED color data whereas DaVinci doesn't... is this true?"
No, It's a totally untrue.
Yes, you can do this rountrip between RCX and Avid, but why? Why do people insist on using limited and awkward RCX, when with no investment they can have true world class color grading software, like Resolve.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason for RCX to even exist anymore. It's time is passed and Resolve Lite is a great replacement. Red should redirect the time and money they spend on developing RCX to something more pressing, like better color science or building a LUT generator, so we wouldn't need endless discussion about where to get the proper LUT for RFL.

 

[James_Mills]

No, both versions perform pretty much equally well or not well in you case
"It's actually better to just color correct with RedCine because it uses the original RED color data whereas DaVinci doesn't... is this true?"
No, It's a totally untrue.
Yes, you can do this rountrip between RCX and Avid, but why? Why do people insist on using limited and awkward RCX, when with no investment they can have true world class color grading software, like Resolve.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason for RCX to even exist anymore. It's time is passed and Resolve Lite is a great replacement. Red should redirect the time and money they spend on developing RCX to something more pressing, like better color science or building a LUT generator, so we wouldn't need endless discussion about where to get the proper LUT for RFL.

I'd love to use DaVinci then, but if it can't work on my MacBook pro (and I don't have the budget to upgrade at this point, as well as the fact that I'd prefer hiring colorists most of the time), I'm not really left with many other options...

 

[paul schefz]

if you are running 10.6 and your mbp is 2?3? years old, i am not sure you will be able to work, even IF you get davinci to load/run....on a maxed out 2011imac (which is about 2-3 times faster, has more cores and a much better gpu) davinci barely works....ok, but not great...
also: you have a serious bottleneck in terms of storage and scratch discs....fw800, usb2, even the internal 3g sata will be a problem for anything 4 or 5K.....

 

[James_Mills]

you have a serious bottleneck in terms of storage and scratch discs....fw800, usb2, even the internal 3g sata will be a problem for anything 4 or 5K.....

Can you explain what you mean by this? Please excuse my ignorance on these matters, a lot of this is new to me...

 

[paul schefz]

Can you explain what you mean by this? Please excuse my ignorance on these matters, a lot of this is new to me...

try and run 4 or 5k footage on your mbp in redcine...just playing back you will have problems...are you able to do 1/16th? 1/8th?
there is so much data in a 4K file, your storage needs to be able to handle it....i am not talking about being able to copy 128gb over usb 2, which works, but you can't play 4k over usb2....
fw800 is at least twice as fast as usb2 but still not fast enough....your internal bus is fast enough if you are using newer ssds...but with that you are obviously limited in size....

 

[James_Mills]

I can playback the 4k footage seamlessly at 1/8th, it gets slower at 1/4th (which works smooth with 3k). I think I'm ok with this computer if I can just figure out a coloring solution that's free...

 

[Peter Chamberlain]

hi Shane, I'm sure it's a setup issue you have. Don't buy the 6000 yet, we have not qualified any Thunderbolt GPU connections.

First , downloaded the new Resolve 9.0.4 Lite, or full if u have a dongle, and install. In the Mac system preferences select the CUDA icon and if you don't have the CUDA version 5.0.37 installed do that. In the energy settings turn off the automatic graphics switching which is used to save energy, but stops Resolve from using the CUDA GPU.

Peter

 

[Paul Provost]

Should we all be using 5.0.37?

 

[Shane Daly DP]

Thanks very much Peter. I'm running CUDA 5.0.37 but resolve lite 9 won't open. When I launch it warns that the CUDA driver is not installed. Although it's visible in system preferences. Stumped here, doesn't make sense..

Shane
shanedaly.info

 

[jake blackstone]

Thanks very much Peter. I'm running CUDA 5.0.37 but resolve lite 9 won't open. When I launch it warns that the CUDA driver is not installed. Although it's visible in system preferences. Stumped here, doesn't make sense..

Shane
shanedaly.info

Without any hardware information it's impossible to help. Call tech support. It's free.

 

[James_Mills]

The great news is I finally got Davinci to work. I'm ecstatic, as you can imagine. Here was the list of things I had to do in order for it to run smoothly, maybe they'll help Shane:

1. Download and upgrade to CUDA 5.0.37 (I had 5.0.306 before)

2. Make sure all my energy saver guys were completely off

3. Open the "Terminal" app on my computer and copy and paste the following:

defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.85

This shrinks your Davinci app when you open it now (make sure it's closed when you do this) to 85% making it use less GUP. It works even better at .75 but that's a little too small imo.

Once you're done editing and using Davinci, just copy and paste the following in terminal to return back to normal:

defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1

Just some final worries of mine. I figured out how to get my Avid sequence in and out of DaVinci flawlessly, but there's two questions I still have:

1. What is the best transcoding resolutions in general for each shipment between RedCine then to Avid and then to Davinci and back to Avid? I don't want to waste harddrive space obviously... what I just did was transcode to DNxHD 115 8 bit from RedCine into Avid, edit, send to Davinci, grade, and then send back to Avid at 115 8bit again and then export from Avid as same as source (gave me 1.77 gb file for 2 minute mostly 3kres video). Would I be better off just exporting from Davinci to save space if I can (though I know it doesn't read my ime ramps when I use speed bursts effect)? Is there a section where I could save space to make the file smaller?

and lastly... 2. How can I change the timeline resolution on Davinci when working off an AAF project? I notice when I grade on Davinci regularly I can control the output resolution under the "Camera Raw" tab, but when cutting a linked AAF file during my roundtrip process it only has the one option "Camera Metadata" or something and won't let me change it. If I was able to downsize the playback just a tad I think I could sue Davinci on my MBP at 100percent size rather than having to shrink it to 85...

Thanks so much for all your help guys, I'm super super stoked that I can start using Davinci finally...

 

[Peter Chamberlain]

James, time for you now to read the Resolve user manual. There are 100s of tips there that you will need.
Peter

 

[Shane Daly DP]

Thanks James, unfortunately it didn't work for me. Really stumped!!

Shane
shanedaly.info