ProVideo Coalition.com: AE Portal by Rich Young

Back to the AE Portal »

(Page 1 of 1 pages for this article )

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Filed under: GentryMedia Sister Sites •ProVideo Coalition •

DaVinci Resolve Lite: two first-looks

Rich Young | 07/27

Patrick Inhofer and Steve Oakley on the free Mac app

Blackmagic Design has posted DaVinci Resolve Lite, a free version of BlackMagic’s $995 DaVinci Resolve for Mac (download). Both Steve Oakley and Patrick Inhofer share their first looks on this free Mac app.

Inhofer offers Resolve training through his Tao of Color website, which might be needed because the UI of Resolve doesn’t follow UI conventions of Mac or Windows. Alexis Van Hurkman also has free DaVinci Resolve training on his website; check out his intro to Resolve below from a recent SuperMeet. Note also that XML interchange with Premiere is problematic at the moment because the programs use different subsets of the FCP spec.

Here are some details from NAB and the Blackmagic press release:

“DaVinci Resolve Lite includes all the same high quality processing of the full DaVinci Resolve, however limits projects to SD and HD resolutions, only two color correction nodes, a single processing GPU and a single RED Rocket card. Stereoscopic 3D features, noise reduction, power mastering, remote grading and sharing projects with an external database server are features only offered in the full DaVinci Resolve so are not included in this free DaVinci Resolve Lite edition. Customers who want to eliminate these restrictions can simply purchase the full DaVinci Resolve Software for only US $995.

Even with the restrictions of the free DaVinci Resolve Lite, image quality is never limited, and customers will see the incredible image processing quality of DaVinci Resolve. In addition, DaVinci Resolve Lite can still accept high resolution source footage in 2K and 4K from the latest digital cameras from RED and ARRI, so customers get a fantastic digital camera utility.

DaVinci Resolve Lite still includes high quality optical resizing, curve grading, XML import and export, 32 bit float processing, YRGB image processing, multi layer timelines, stabilization, window tracking, primary and secondary color correction, real time processing, capture and playback with deck control, compatibility with third party control panels and many more.”

<p>

(Page 1 of 1 pages for this article )

Back to AE Portal »

You must be registered to comment. This is an effort to reduce spam. Please REGISTER HERE.

Slow week so I had time to give it a try. Very cool for a lite version, but crashed several times when I loaded an XML exported project from FCP7 (HDV 1080 60i). Even having saved the project, I couldn’t restore it after reopening the application. Prior to the crash I was able to see that all of the media clips were there. Also I couldn’t find were DaVinci stores the project files. The save window is not the standard for OSX.

Posted by leeberger on 07/28 at 02:02 AM

Yeah, the UI could be less obscure.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/28 at 08:10 AM

And they do have specific requirements for Mac hardware.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/28 at 08:18 AM

Yeah, they list specific CUDA enabled graphics cards for realtime, high rez playback. I have a GeForce 8800 card, but it’s not one of the models they recommend. I did spend time skimming the manual to get started.

Posted by leeberger on 07/28 at 08:45 AM

Rich,

Thanks for the Tao shout-out!

Lee - you can get realtime without CUDA.

The only CUDA-specific feature in Resolve or Resolve Lite are the new denoise tools. Otherwise OpenCL can handle everything else.

I have a another post that lays out all the approved configs - which I pulled from the Configuration Guide… but listed in an easier-to-read format.

Lots of things contribute to Real-Time performance. But if your MacBookPro or iMac doesn’t meet one of the configs listed - Resolve Lite will be very buggy indeed.

HTH.

- patrick

Posted by Patrick Inhofer on 07/29 at 06:39 PM

Mac hardware is much more expensive. if any reduction in cost is very beneficial.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/30 at 04:23 AM

if there is any plan to reduction in price of mac hardware , its a great news for customers.
[url=“http://www.thertastore.com/RTA_Kitchen_Cabinets_Ready_to_Assemble_s/223.htm”]RTA Cabinets
[/url]

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/30 at 04:25 AM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below: