Blackmagic announces updates to their Video Assist and to DaVinci Resolve. Some of the updates include h265 encoding and DNxHD recoding.

Blackmagic announces updates to their Video Assist and DaVinci Resolve. Earlier in the week they also announced an update to their ATEM Switcher. That’s three firmware updates in one week. Blackmagic is on a roll. 

UPDATING THE VIDEO ASSIST

The Blackmagic Video Assist Recorder/Monitor gets a second, the first was in early November, firmware update. One of the most important updates on the Video Assist is the addition of Avid’s DNxHD recording as an option. In the past, the Video Assist’s only recording option was to ProRes flavors. For customers who work on Avid systems this will be a nice addition. 

The rest of the firmware additions are much more geared toward user experience and making sure the Video Assist is a pleasurable piece of gear to use on a day-in/day-out situation. From HDMI trigger start/stop, which was sorely needed, to SD card record time remaining. These additions to the firmware were, I’m betting, often requested. 

For a shooter like me, it’s very nice to see Blackmagic responding to customers requests quickly and getting the software changes we’re requesting out and into our hands.  

WHAT’S NEW IN THE BLACKMAGIC VIDEO ASSIST 1.2

• Adds DNxHD codec
• Adds extended Zebra range
• Adds SD card record time remaining on status overlays
• Adds clip playback information panel
• Adds HDMI record trigger

UPDATING DAVINCI RESOLVE 12.3

DaVinci Resolve 12 gets an update as well. It seems to me Blackmagic has taken the time to continued to expand the ultilities needed in DaVinci Resolve to stay current with emerging camera technology. Additionally, Blackmagic is continuing to improve DaVinci Resolve as an edit system. Let’s be honest, making DaVinci Resolve into a full feature editor is genius, but it will take some time to get absolutely everything just right for a lot of editors.  

WHAT’S NEW IN DAVINCI RESOLVE 12.3

• Decode support for HEVC/H.265 QuickTime video in DaVinci Resolve Studio on Windows
• Added Media Storage context menu option to directly add storage locations without opening Preferences on Mac and Windows
• Ability to add Media Storage locations without restarting Resolve on Mac and Windows
• Added support for reading Reel Names in OpenEXR media
• Added decode support for Sony MPEG2 video files
• Added support for ARRI RAW sharpness when using the ARRI Full Res Debayer
• Added support for smaller font sizes on burn-ins
• Added support for keyboard shortcut for loop on the Edit Page
• Improved HEVC/H.265 decode performance on Mac in DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Improved H.264 decode performance on Windows
• Improved Varicam, MPEG4, AVC and AVC-Intra MXF decode performance on Mac and Windows
• Improved compressed OpenEXR decode performance
• Added support for RED SDK v6.1
• General performance and stability improvements

Does Blackmagic releasing a bunch of firmware updates mean we’ll start seeing more cameras shipping? Who the hell knows, but in the past their newest camera typically shipped a month or two out from NAB. We are about two months away from NAB 2016. Is this a coinicedence? I don’t know. I only know, like many of you, I am getting impatient to try the new 4.6K URSA and 4.6K URSA Mini as well as the new Micro Cinema Camera. 

To find out more about Blackmagic’s Video Assist go here.

To find out more about Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve go here.