DaVinci Resolve 15

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
September 16, 2018
3 replies
2175 views

Is anybody else working with Resolve 15 for a professional level NLE and Color Grading (which now also includes Fusion AND Fairlight) as a replacement for Pr, Ae, Au, and the now defunct Sg, i.e., the "Creative Cloud" monthly subscription? There is a free version of the above which limits mostly collaboration in team environments, and the full studio version is a perpetual license (one time charge) of $299. Black Magic has purposely avoided the 'subscription model' that Adobe has gone all in on. I refuse to rent my SW, so Adobe has left me (at least) no choice but to look for alternatives to replace my perpetual CS6 Master Collection.

Hard core Adobe fanboys need not respond to this post. I'm looking for honest feedback from working professionals (if there are any who frequent this forum). I come here because Adobe isn't mentioned very often on professional film post forums (except for the occasional Ae comment). Oh, and Blackmagic just introduced a newly designed and engineered RAW format which looks pretty sweet. Again, free to all existing and new HW owners. No need to upgrade to CC 2018.12.43.55.1.32.5.4.3 to get access to a new RAW capability. Sigh.

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H

Hateinlife

Participant

I replaced Premiere with Resolve for the exact same reason as you.

It works great. Used the free version for 6mo then just bought it today...Biggest issue is learning the Fusion graphics "nodes" instead of layers like after Effects and Motion use. Once you get it, it's great.

Issues:

*Will crash from time to time. I've always just restarted the program and continued on. Unless you find a bug, I never have.

*Not the greatest at creating a timecode dub as of version 15.

*Not the greatest at exporting a still frame of video as some sort of file type, png. jpg and such.

*Not a lot of plugins made for it as of the date of this post.

*Can't really make you own window layouts. There's a few options but not like Premiere's where you can put any window pretty much anywhere you like. Premiere rocks at that.

Great Things:

*Very similar to Premiere/Avid for editing. If you use either or ever have, you'll pick it up fast (other than Fusion).

*Nothing like FCPX, more like Premiere which I've only bought because I couldn't pay for Adobe SW anymore.

*Everything in one app. FCPX and Premiere are just editing apps. You also have Motion and After Effects which are separate apps., needing to be opened and things are forced to link in weird ways. With Resolve you basically get the editor like Premiere, Fusion like After Effects, Color sweetening at it's best, A great audio editing app and more but it's all the same app. You don't open another one you just click the tab.

*Best thing of all... IT'S FRIGGIN FREE!! You can look at it like this. You Can do pretty much anything you need to with Resolve and it's free. Buying the studio version to get 3D and collaboration features costs 6 months of Adobe rental then free for life.

Bottom line is, does it do what you need for free or even $300?

tclark513

Known Participant

The best part is they never charge you for an upgrade! So far, a one time buy in! ($299.00) That's it!

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GrizzlyAKAuthor

Known Participant

Yeah, ikr? Plus, it seems Adobe is now focusing more on serving the mass consumer market by getting as many subscribers as possible, the mistake Apple made with Final Cut when it lost nearly all of its market share to Premiere (which was fortunate for Adobe). The proof of this refocusing, to me, is the scrapping of a previously 5-digit-per-seat color grading package (Speedgrade) in lieu of a much watered-down version bolted onto Premiere (a boon for YouTubers), an endless supply of upgrades (better known as bug fixes, which also points to a general lack of sufficient SW testing before release), and focusing too much on bells and whistles instead of making SW that is rock-solid and which can be successfully used in a $100 million dollar film post production suite. One only has to spend a little time on Adobe's user forum to see the seemingly endless pain and suffering of their users. Now they are forcing users to upgrade HW and OSs to continue to get updates on their 'rented' SW. Avid and DaVinci have the advantage of making money on their HW that supplements their SW (not required for the consumer, but which studios rely on heavily), whereas Adobe offers none. I've been an Adobe fan since the 90's, and have owned many versions of their software suites over the years, using it both professionally and at home. The change in direction with CC, especially since there is no other option for those who choose not to pay monthly for a steady stream of buggy SW releases, is depressing.

M

Media Editor

Inspiring

I have experimented with Davinci Resolve 14 and 15. Creating an H.264 video in Resolve takes two and a half times longer than it does in Premiere 2018. The file size is almost three times larger than Premiere. I have been using Premiere since 1991. Over the years I have tried other editing programs. I prefer Premiere. Go to the Black Magic Website and check out their Forums. Resolve has a lot of bugs. Their latest update made some users unable to launch Resolve 15.