SInce Davinci now costs nothing, is it worth anything?

I appreciated the fact that I could download Resolve lite and get a feel for it, pay with basic grades, and make sure my JL Cooper Spectrum worked with it. But within a week or two I bought it, being a Color user now in need of a professional platform.

But aside from the tool, industry perception is important.

In the world of high end audio equipment people definitely think that more expensive products perform better, since they usually do. There are several examples of products that raised prices and suddenly found the market was taking them more seriously.

In the short term, will BMD sell more video cards? Probably so, but how is this a sustainable model for Davinci as a brand and it's customer base?

Will color grading houses will begin to look for other platforms, simply because Resolve is now free, and the perception of it being a serious professional tool is gone?

Even iMovie costs something!

Is anyone else now rethinking their choice of grading platform?

A real davinci resolve suite is not free.
A client who walks into a nice facility with nice furniture, goes into a nice grading suite, with nice monitoring, scopes, nice panels etc, is not going to give a rats ass what software is running if he gets the results he wants from the operator.
And the above description is many tens of thousands of dollars.

http://www.postandbeam.tv
grade and finish @ post + beam
http://www.facebook.com/pages/post-beam/137967176232067

I think mac book makes you no where near colorist.
It is slow and slow. Resolve kicks with big panel and multi gpu machines with shared database.
My first tests were on imac. It was long way from realtime :)

And yes experience is essential. Bullet friends will not be fast geniuses any time soon.

I agree that client will buy service and results, not sexiness.

Around here everybody are editing on laptops. But some will not do it by them selves.
I can build a house but do i want to do it ? The same goes with service.
Some will do it by them selfs some will not.

--

Margus

http://iconstudios.eu

I have to agree with alot of what is said here. I do think that Blackmagic is not handling their new "toy" (DaVinci) very well. Of course I love the new features that they are adding, but I am also very frustrated with the lack of support that is offered. And rather than spend the development time working on a Windows version, why not make the software even better? I am having all sorts of workflow problems when I bring Avid AAF sequences in and the support team can't seem to help. How about support for more panels, support for more effects to transfer with the XML/AAF workflow, or address a bunch of the great product suggestions we have given here on the COW? Rather, they spend time on a Windows version and ways to make the Free version better.

I have received some helpful support from some of the Blackmagic support team. But I have also experienced some very poor support, especially for what at least used to be considered the best color grading system around. I have talked to some of the Blackmagic support team and they did not have an answer or solution to my problem. They just said they didn't know much about that aspect to the software. That is just very frustrating. We have some tight deadlines and high pressure sessions and to run into big workflow problems with no help from Blackmagic is real tough to explain to my clients.

I mean the help here on the COW is great... but it doesn't make up for proper manufacture support. I have dealt with Assimalate and they are just amazing with their support!

I just don't see how Blackmagic can continue to improve the software and support it's users when it has created a situation where they will get little revenue from the DaVinci line. I know that I could have gotten away with the free DaVinci software for all the movies and shows that I have graded. I mean $995 was already a GREAT price for such a great color grading system. Blackmagic had everyone beat in the area of price. Like everyone has said, the software was already the cheapest thing in my grading room, and now it is FREE!

And we all agree that talent is more important than how much the software costs (or doesn't cost) but it just makes it even harder for the independent shop to compete. The client can now setup a Resolve bay for Free (especially if they own some of the peripherals on their FCP or Avid system) and just bring in an operator (or just have the assistant) to color grade the show. Now there is a client that I just lost because they could save some money on their budget (everyone seems to be slashing their budgets) by setting up a Free Resolve system in-house.

I do think that a Free version that is almost fully featured really does make the DaVinci color system just less valuable. And I don't see how that is a good thing for the industry or Blackmagic.

-Peter

I'm still driveing a DS mainly.. in the last month i've graded two MOW's, three national commerical packages, done a trim pass to get a 709 feature into LOG, and am gradeing a feature in P3 for scope this week (and next)

My clients don't care what i drive, they care that i care, they care that i do good work, they care i listen to them...

I need to see a reasonable ROI, moving Resolve to w7 is a key for me, i use Mac's personaly, but all my working tools are on HP systems...

The value of Resolve is what it brings to me, and what it takes away... DS may be a better tool in my hands anyway, esp once it's got the surface attached.. as Pat knows i've been using node based gradeing for a decade now.. and that set me apart from the crowd back then.

The cost is minimal for me once it's ported, a BMD I/O card and an extra Q4000 card.. i'll spend the 1K for sure... just to find out

The value of it? that is in my hands & my eyes..

d

I think the unannounced reality is that the cracked version of 7.1 has been out there for quite some time now. So many of the users for whom the Lite version appealed were already on top of that. As even the cracked version requires a Blackmagic card, they probably figured it was only a matter of time before someone created a dongle emulator. The reality in that instance is that the only people who would be buying are more serious pros with cubix expanders, networking, distributed processing, etc. This short circuits the need and desire of the hacking community to even go there. So really nothing changes for them and it opens up the markets even more to their cards. The goal is a BM card in every home!

What of course they continue to neglect saying is that their Extreme 3D card is really only a recommended config and that even their less expensive cards do the basic i/o job.

I think the reality today is that software must come down and it must be in the service of some kind of hardware because the consumer market will never have the same needs as the pros and if you are smart you find a way to market to both.

However, even more than ever the necessity of having a real grading monitor, an actual physical grading interface, the horsepower to do 4K in real time and the ability to switch between multiple color platforms based on the job before you is what will really determine a colorist's value in the marketplace.

Will Lustre and Baselite be the new gold standard? Undoubtedly, but as someone mentioned before the kind of environment the work is graded in will show the degree of commitment the colorist has to this profession or not.

I'd like to meet those assistant editors and ask them to sync, grade, and transcode 7 hours of dailies and have them transferred by 10AM. Thanks.

Well, my basic needs are only HD 1080p video - I put 1000.00 on a software that's now for free, just 3 months after I spend my hard earned money. Living and learning .

Yes I bought all the other stuff, like cards, pro monitor and Wave panel, did courses, and bought books. But I still fell like I lost 1k...

Hey BMD, what about at least a discount on my next BMD product?

Fabio Cormack
Davinci 8 - Tangent Wave - Decklink HD Extreme 3D+
Final Cut Suite
Adobe CS5.5 Suite
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

[Robert Houllahan] "All of the other grading apps (Films Master, Baselight, etc.) are also software. I wouldn't buy a Scratch system over Resolve because it's not as good (IMO) and does not have it's own panels. Watch what happens with Adobe I bet CS6 has a grading app included."

Adobe CS6 will have a new grading application included. It is what was known as Iridas Speedgrade.

I think BM has read correctly the writing that was on the wall. The importance of grading has now dawned on the common man, because EVERYONE is shooting video these days. Any new Adobe grading app WILL become the defacto standard, if only because there will be so many pirated copies out there. Resolve will always be a more complex application and the only way to get people to use it, is for them to try it - for free. But as we all we know there are some pretty heavy duty hardware requirements to really use it properly. Better to sell a card to every home than an app to a select few, because everyone will get it for free one day anyhow.

The real market for this app anyhow as a pro tool remains the 2K or more environment, 3D, multiple GPU's, distributed processing, networked, etc. Paying 995 USD for that still makes sense, because it is a drop in the bucket for them anyhow, and any new employee will now be self trained in Resolve BEFORE they arrive.

Yes, I think this really makes sense in terms of where the market has been going. It just seems impossible to control the destiny of software once it arrives at a certain level of distribution.

I didn't know about Lightworks. Fascinating - good idea.

Actually you can get good realtime performance with the free version. I have done a few RED shows and my current show I am working with Avid DNxHD media. Both were realtime with multiple nodes (sometimes up to 5 or 6) of primary and secondary correction.

I guess if you are doing 4k, 3D, or using native H.264 media (why would you do that) you might need to add more GPU's. So yeah.. the free version should take care of all your needs.

-Peter

Is This app available for wintel systems?

Richard

just imagine all the free resolve users there will be if they make it on windows. every avid editor will now think they are a colorist as well . oh wait they already do! even less pie for the rest of us....

Last Time I checked Avid was also available for Mac....

:-)

Patrick Morgan
Media Product Specialist
http://www.imagesystems.tv

Yeah, I think they should just close the book and make it a free Premiere plugin....no wait...Adobe already has one :)

A slice of color...

DaVinci 8.1.1 OSX 10.7.2
MacPro 5.1 2x2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB
GTX 470 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+

ICA Instructor
http://www.icolorist.com/Sascha.html