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New Apple iPad Pro M2 will run an upcoming version of DaVinci Resolve. I have questions.

Scott Simmons

UPDATE 10/20/22: Blackmagic has released a bit more info about Resolve for iPad including, read the press release below:

Blackmagic Design today announced DaVinci Resolve for iPad, so creators can extend video workflows in new ways and new places. Optimized for MultiTouch technology and Apple Pencil, DaVinci Resolve for iPad features support for cut and color pages providing access to DaVinci’s award winning image technology, color finishing tools and latest HDR workflows. And Blackmagic Cloud support allows creators to collaborate with multiple users around the world. DaVinci Resolve for iPad will be available in Q4 2022 from the Apple App Store as a free download, with an upgrade to DaVinci Resolve Studio for iPad also available as an in-app purchase.

With optimized performance for Apple Silicon, DaVinci Resolve delivers 4x faster Ultra HD ProRes render performance on the new iPad Pro with M2. HDR is also supported for customers using an 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M1 chip. Creators can send a clean feed grading monitor output to an Apple Studio Display, Pro Display XDR or an AirPlay compatible display. This lets customers use the external display to quickly create grades on set or color correct clips in post production directly from their iPad.

The new DaVinci Resolve for iPad will open and create standard DaVinci Resolve project files which are compatible with the desktop version of DaVinci Resolve 18. Supported file formats include H.264, H.265, Apple ProRes and Blackmagic RAW, with clips able to be imported from the iPad Pro internal storage and Photos library, or externally connected iCloud and USB-C media disks.

DaVinci Resolve for iPad will be available in Q4 2022 from the Apple App Store as a free download, with an upgrade to DaVinci Resolve Studio for iPad also available as an in-app purchase.

And we also have these bullet points from Blackmagic:

DaVinci Resolve for iPad Features

 

Today Apple announced new iPads, including a new iPad Pro with an M2 chip, ProRes encoding and a bit of a surprise in the introduction film: DaVinci Resolve for iPad. While the iPad hardware, including the Liquid Renita XDR display with mini-LEDs, ProRes encode/decode and better support for Apple Pencil, are all cool hardware stuff, it’s the software that has been a bit lacking when it comes to making the iPad Pro really shine.

While LumaFusion is a fantastic editing tool for iOS the introduction of DaVinci Resolve for iPad feels a bit like some next-level stuff. Resolve a powerhouse video production tool from ingest to delivery, so having such an established post-production tool dedicated to the iPad is something we haven’t seen before.

First off, go watch the new iPad introduction video and at about 4:28 we get a look at the new iPad Pro.

See what I mean about Resolve taking center stage?

There will, of course, be hyperbole around this …

It is a big deal as more powerful software means better use of the hardware. But I am going to reserve judgment until I get to play with Resolve for iPad. Let’s dissect the images a bit.

Resolve for iPad. Image courtesy of Apple.

 

Resolve users will quickly notice only two pages at the bottom. The Cut page and the Color page. At least in this version, we won’t be getting everything that Resolve has to offer, but that isn’t shocking, given that this is going to be Resolve for the iPad. What will be interesting is to see exactly how much of a duplicate the Resolve for iPad Cut page is of the desktop version.

Looking at the Cut Page above, almost all of the buttons on the desktop version of Resolve seem to be in the iPad version. From all the different editing options when making a cut, right down to the Sync bin. I’m guessing even the silly and somewhere useless things like the Boring Detector and Smooth Cut will be there too! While most of the edit operations we see in the video are drag and drop, it’s nice to know there will be buttons for editing as well.

As a comparison, here’s the Cut page from the desktop:

Resolve Cut page on the desktop

I think seeing this introduction today answers one of the lingering questions from the Cut Page’s introduction back in Resolve 16: Why have the Cut Page at all?

It seemed redundant to have a Cut page when there was already an Edit page but considering the Speed Editor’s tight integration that made the Cut page make a bit more sense. But now I wonder which came first, the idea of the Cut page on its own or Resolve on iPad? Perhaps Resolve on iPad with the Cut page front and center was the plan all along.

But it’s not only the Cut page.

The Resolve on iPad Color page looks pretty full-featured as well. While there’s some interesting new icons on the Color page in the image above, we’ll have to give it a play to see exactly how the Blackmagic engineers were able to adapt such a full-featured color tool to an iPad touch interface. Needless to say, that Apple Pencil will be a nice addition.

Burning questions about Resolve for iPad

In the spirit of my Burning questions about the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard article from 2019 here’s Buring questions about DaVinci Resolve for iPad but without any answers (now with some answers:

And here’s another question answered …. Nodes will be supported!

Many years ago Avid tried to make an iPad NLE. I wrote an in-depth piece about what I would have liked to see from that tool. Back in those days I thought it would be great if there was an easy way to send only part of your desktop edit, say talking head interviews, to an iPad so you could sit on your couch and string out interviews. That could be tiny, quarter-screen, low resolution files, to cut with and then send the edit data back to the desktop to continue your work. I still think that could be a great way to work and make a companion iPad NLE a real complement to your desktop system. I doubt we’ll get that with Resolve for iPad but I can dream. In our social video focused world I think that kind of thing isn’t in the developer’s mind anymore.

Those are a few of my questions about Resolve for iPad. The video says it “will be available later this year” but the new iPad Pro is available starting on October 26 starting at $799.

The new M2 iPad Pro will come in two sizes.

 

The last burning question is this … what does this introduction of Resolve for iPad mean for Apple’s non-linear editing tool Final Cut Pro?

Hard to say. I would have expected that if there ever was going to be an iPad version of FCP then this would have been the time to introduce it. Others are wondering the same thing.

I don’t think for an instant that Final Cut Pro is going to be “phased out.” It’s still a very capable tool with a lot of features that other NLEs don’t have. Why it has taken so long for a big FCP update is anyone’s guess but one guess I’ve heard is that we’re waiting on MacOS Ventura and possibly the new Mac Pro with Apple Silicon. I’d rather Apple work on a big, new FCP update for that than an iPad version. But maybe we will get both with great interoperability between the two.

In the meantime, I’ll keep the rumor mill fresh with FCP rumors!

I’m excited about Resolve for iPad. The more tools we have the better. In the spirit of that, I thought I’d have some fun with it!

 

 

Twitter is still good for fun.

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