Resolve for PC - When? [Archive]

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Christoffer Glans

11-18-2011, 11:25 AM

There is a shift happening, Avid and Adobe conquers more land from Apple each day and DNxHD is beginning to be the replacement codec for Prores in both cameras and post production.
But some are still pro Apple in their software, why?

I don't know how BlackMagic is dealing with this, but for most, with FCPX out of the way, they seek other NLE's and workflows. Avid has with version 6.0 become sort of a king among NLE's and Adobe is beginning to become a very good option for grading/compositing/VFX/online. Those combined it's a killer. I have both and I cannot find reason in buying an expensive Mac Pro when I can buy and build my own super computer PC for almost half the price of a Mac. Not to forget that Apple seem to view Mac Pro as dead and might be killing it off before or after next update.

So what does this mean? Well, if you are to work with heavy post production, having a very powerful PC with Adobe Production Suite and Avid Media Composer 6.0, dedicated to post production, stripped of all unnecessaries Windows have, it's just too good a station to be ignored.

But still no sign of Resolve full or lite coming to PC.
Why?

Adobe might integrate SpeedGrade into Adobe Premiere and if this is something BlackMagic fears as a competitor then why don't they release Resolve for PC?
Many who use Adobe's systems might have started out with that because they didn't have a mac, but a PC and didn't own FCP or color, so there might be more Adobe systems out there on PCs then on Macs.

These people will stop asking for Resolve for PC when SpeedGrade is avalible within Premiere or with dynamic link to Premiere. I'm one of them, but I like resolve and that is why I'm trying to make a point here.

There is no loss of any kind to BlackMagic if they release resolve on PCs. Their hardware works on PCs and that is where they get the most revenue.
Both Macs and PCs also have mostly the same hardware within; graphics card, processor, RAM etc. Mac doesn't even ship with an Nvidia card, so the CUDA acceleration is just there with PCs.

So why? Why is it so quiet about a PC version? There's a lot of shifts being made in the industry right now, away from Apple. BlackMagic doesn't have to abandon Apple when flowing down the workflow river, but I guarantuee they might just enjoy having a bigger boat.

So please, if anyone from BlackMagic is reading, at least look into the option, we are not few who want a PC version.

Jeff Kilgroe

11-18-2011, 11:31 AM

Resolve for Windows will be here sooner than you might think.... ;)

jake blackstone

11-18-2011, 12:02 PM

Speedgrade is not a panacea, that many think it is or it will be. It's better, than current built in tools for grading in CS5.5, but in it's present form, a stand lone Speedgrade is not that impressive. Unless Adobe introduces some dramatic improvements, BM has nothing to worry.
A proper support for common interchange standards, such as EDL, XML and AAF is much more important, than all this dynamic link business.
Resolve works diligently on making an easy roundtrip for a number of NLEs a reality, making it a truly NLE agnostic. Hence, please note a free license for MXF creation...
And finally, BM is known for a bulletproof stable software. Designing such software takes time. Rest assured, they are working on it...

Maz Mawlawi

11-18-2011, 01:21 PM

I am so glad there is a shift back to PC...We can finally use the latest powerful hardware to improve our software performance. Plus it's nice to have software on both platforms thus not "imposing" anyone into choosing a specefic OS. :)

Dwaine Maggart

11-18-2011, 03:14 PM

We demoed Resolve for Windows at this years IBC. And this week at Interbee. We've announced in several places it will be available in the first quarter of 2012. No sign?

Dermot

11-19-2011, 06:28 AM

Are we close enough to release to give us a hardware spec list?

Is it safe to assume it's much the same as the Linux specs?

jake blackstone

11-19-2011, 09:21 AM

It is too early for that list.
But, I think, you're correct in your assumption.

Maxi Claudio

11-19-2011, 09:38 AM

Wont be here until next year. Can't wait!

Christoffer Glans

11-20-2011, 10:20 AM

We demoed Resolve for Windows at this years IBC. And this week at Interbee. We've announced in several places it will be available in the first quarter of 2012. No sign?

Ok I missed that obviously, but with a censored word: F****N* awesome :)

I recon that there will e a lot of CUDA present in the windows version? Bought the 580 card which has at this time the most Cuda cores so I think I will be pretty safe. Only thing is to get the bandwidth for the material, but with DNxHD 444, my Avid MC 6.0 and Adobe production suite together with Resolve for windows I will have a very powerful one man post facility. :)

Douglas Learner

11-20-2011, 10:29 AM

Q1 2012, according to Blackmagic Design's web site: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/?heroNum=5

Christoffer Glans

11-20-2011, 10:44 AM

Will it be just the 999 USD version or will the Lite version also be avalible on windows? Also, does Resolve only work with BlackMagic cards? I currently own an MXO2 mini and I recon it doesn't work with Resolve, just wondering since the new Avid works with BlackMagic cards and Adobe also works with it, I might switch from Matrox when I get Resolve.

jake blackstone

11-20-2011, 11:44 AM

I'm sure you can answer your own question, if you understand, that BM gives Resolve away for free, in order to sell their own hardware...

Subhadip Sen

11-20-2011, 12:16 PM

Ok I missed that obviously, but with a censored word: F****N* awesome :)

I recon that there will e a lot of CUDA present in the windows version? Bought the 580 card which has at this time the most Cuda cores so I think I will be pretty safe. Only thing is to get the bandwidth for the material, but with DNxHD 444, my Avid MC 6.0 and Adobe production suite together with Resolve for windows I will have a very powerful one man post facility. :)

I remember news about a demo Resolve for Windows system at IBC running 40+ nodes at HD real-time without breaking a sweat on 4x GTX 580 GPUs. So yes, the Windows version will surely be heavily GPU accelerated.

Christoffer Glans

11-20-2011, 03:52 PM

How does it handle 1x 580 GPU? It's 3GB memory doesn't count for much in this?

Dermot

11-20-2011, 04:24 PM

It is too early for that list.
But, I think, you're correct in your assumption.
I missed this earler i - Thnx

d

Matt Gottshalk

11-20-2011, 04:41 PM

Good can't wait.

Timo Teravainen

11-27-2011, 05:49 AM

Good can't wait.

Me neither. About GPU - Isn't GTX 590 theoretically the same as 2x GTX 580? Just wondering which card to buy. Sure, it's better to wait until the recommendations from Blackmagic appear.. but just wondering.

DJ Meyer

11-27-2011, 08:49 AM

Me neither. About GPU - Isn't GTX 590 theoretically the same as 2x GTX 580? Just wondering which card to buy. Sure, it's better to wait until the recommendations from Blackmagic appear.. but just wondering.

590 is kind of between dual 570's and dual 580s. It has 2 GPUs with 512 CUDA each, similar to a dual 580 setup, but they are clocked lower, similar to 570s. Note though that 1 590 appears to the system as 2 separate GPUs, so if you are using the free resolve it may only use half of the card's capability (if i recall free resolve is limited to 1 gpu).

Peter Chamberlain

11-27-2011, 10:27 PM

Correct, Resolve Lite is limited to 1 GPU. Note also that the 590 might have more cores but not double the internal RAM (there is a 3GB 580 card). GTX580 is performing very well in our R&D tests and the Resolve for Windows config guide when released will define a number of GPU/config options.
Peter

Marc Wielage

11-27-2011, 10:56 PM

Peter Chamberlain

11-27-2011, 11:30 PM

Linux is alive and well and I don't foresee a change in that any time soon. Windows will however perform extremely well for anyone doing HD/2K, 24/25/30 fps work which is currently the majority of grading work.
Peter

Peter Moretti

11-28-2011, 01:25 AM

Peter,

If I don't need SDI or deck control, will an Intensity Pro card work just as well as a Declink card w/ MC 6 and Resolve? I'd be using it inside a PC w/ a Quadro 2000.

Thanks much.

Peter Chamberlain

11-28-2011, 08:09 PM

I expect it could but you would need try yourself or seek advise from others who have tested as we only use and QA with the DeckLink HD Extreme 3D+.

Nikhil Kamkolkar

11-28-2011, 08:26 PM

Peter, will there eventually be a Windows version of Resolve that does everything the Linux version does? Is the ultimate goal to move away from Linux and towards Windows, or will Blackmagic continue to support both for the forseeable future?

I'm giving up on the Mac world given the inevitable demise of Mac Pro and moving (back) to Windows. Hopefully, BM will indeed make a commitment to Windows because I certainly have no desire to invest time/energy/money into an entirely new platform like Linux having been burned by the Mac world once already.

Neil W. Smith

11-28-2011, 09:48 PM

I'm giving up on the Mac world given the inevitable demise of Mac Pro and moving (back) to Windows. Hopefully, BM will indeed make a commitment to Windows because I certainly have no desire to invest time/energy/money into an entirely new platform like Linux having been burned by the Mac world once already.
Nikhil,

Blackmagic Design has already made a serious commitment to Windows ... Resolve 8.2 running on a Windows Intel machine will answer all your wildest desires!

We've been an Apple MacPro post-house for the last six years ... on Wednesday we got a brand new Intel system with a few Quadro 6000 cards .... interesting to compare a Sony F3 stereo 3D feature running on a high end MacPro system against a Wintel box running the same project ... night and day ... chalk and cheese ... any other metaphor you want to choose.

Listen carefully to what Peter is saying ... BMD has a game plan for making professional grading much more exciting and affordable ... Apple have a different plan - see FCP X on a Mac Mini with Thunderbolt.

All will be revealed in the fullness of time ... in the meantime, hang loose ... Moore's Law will eventually triumph and make everything good for all of us.

As an ex-msft guy, I'm betting on Mr. Moore ... as a certain billg used to say ... it's like drinking from a fire-hose.

Adapt ... survive ... thrive!

Neil

Jon Thomasberg

11-29-2011, 03:34 AM

Perhaps I am the odd man out on this topic. I think that development on Linux platform for more apps would make a TON of sense from a pure stability, purpose-built sense.

I, like many others here, have a ton of Apple hardware, but recently I am beginning to concur with others the idea that Apple is interested in diverging from the Pro market and is more interested in selling a billion iDevices that cannot handle the current Pro workload. I am still hopeful for a dual octocore MacPro with support for 64GB ram, at least 7 PCI slots w/ >= 40 lanes, support for SLI and more CUDA cards, and a dual dual-Thunderbolt controller in their 2012 refresh (hey, I can dream, right).

And whilst Windows 7 x64 is an order of magnitude better in many ways than Vista, it is still Windows and it suffers from many of the same flaws it has for years.

Linux can be purpose built and compiled to contain none of the bloat and inefficiencies that Win7 tends to be compiled with, not the least of which is the NTFS filesystem and its wonderful fragmentation, due to its inherent poor indexing and optimization methods. Over the last decade, many hosting providers and datacenter servers run Linux of some flavor or another. But the app development for the workstation and desktop user still lags due to the ubiquity of Windows, and to a lesser extent OS X.

But to get back on the thread topic, I personally would love to see a lite version for Linux, or at least a non-cluster Linux version that was not in the 5-figures.

Just a thought.

Rohit Gupta

11-29-2011, 03:52 AM

But to get back on the thread topic, I personally would love to see a lite version for Linux, or at least a non-cluster Linux version that was not in the 5-figures.

Just a thought.

We offer the Linux configurations starting from 1 GPU, 2 GPU and 4 GPU. All of these are a single server configuration, with the 4 GPU using a Cubix PCI-E expansion.

ERIC PECK

11-30-2011, 01:07 AM

M Most

11-30-2011, 09:15 AM

As for the Linux version, the problem is the lack of software from other vendors, like Adobe, yet a standalone workstation running Red Hat is pretty solid, problem is, it becomes a purpose driven computer just for running apps like Resolve and nothing more, and these days buying a computer that can only run "one app" doesn't seem that reasonable either.

I would say that's it's incredibly reasonable and highly recommended to set up a machine as an appliance, optimized for running a particular application, and immune to the inconsistencies, driver conflicts, and other hardware and software issues that you often get when you try to set up a machine to do everything. If you're running real time programs like Resolve, you want all the performance you can get and minimal aggravation. Computers are pretty cheap these days, and in the case of Resolve, the software is even cheaper. In a professional environment, there's no reason other than physical convenience to run multiple complex programs on one machine, although I will confess that I have Resolve and Media Composer on the same machine at home... ;-D..

Besides, in the Linux world, it's pretty easy to set up networks and access multiple CPU's from one terminal.

Neil W. Smith

11-30-2011, 10:36 AM

We are reasonably happy with our Mac version of resolve. Still, given the recent attitude from Apple to neglect the Pro community, odds are we would need to move to a PC version in the future.

Still, I would like to toy with the idea of a Linux version rather than a Windows version. Windows just doesn't cut it when it comes to a certain level, unless you are talking about special windows flavors like Server 2008.

As for the Linux version, the problem is the lack of software from other vendors, like Adobe, yet a standalone workstation running Red Hat is pretty solid, problem is, it becomes a purpose driven computer just for running apps like Resolve and nothing more, and these days buying a computer that can only run "one app" doesn't seem that reasonable either.

Hopefully Apple will not defraud and release a new Mac Pro, and hopefully the PC version of Resolve will run on Server 2008.

And if none of that happens, well, we will keep working our Mac Pro until we have the cash to replace it with a Linux version, hopefully with the nice Resolve Panel instead of the Tangent Wave.

Eric,

I wouldn't write off the Window's version of Resolve until you've tested it out ... like you, we are "reasonably happy" with the Mac version of Resolve (we have three Mac Resolve systems and have graded a ton of features and TV shows this year on Resolve 8) ... but with the Mac Pro rumored to be approaching EOL we're looking at alternative platforms ... the price/performance curve of a new Wintel system running Win Resolve is pretty astonishing!

I haven't touched a PC in over six years and getting used to Win 7 is a bit of a challenge :-( ... but running Win Resolve is really worth the learning curve ... suggest you give it a test drive before you make any investment decisions ... Linux is a great OS but the problem is always getting the latest device drivers as well as the apps.

You might be more than "reasonably happy" with Win Resolve ;-)

Neil

M.Halsell

12-09-2011, 12:04 AM

DaVinci Resolve Lite 8.2 Beta 1 for Windows available now.

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail/?os=win&sid=3948&pid=11735&leg=false

Patrick O'Sullivan

12-09-2011, 01:55 AM

Amazing. This just took things to a whole new level.

4 x 580gtxs = nirvana

Mennovandijk

12-09-2011, 02:25 AM

you got 4x 580 in one system..? sick.
running 1x 580 gtx here on win7 and it plays fine at half res so far

the only thing a message for decklink card drivers pops up sometimes, while I don't have a decklink installed.

I do have a question; Someone know how to copy a grade over from one clip to another? //nevermind found it by middle mouse clicking...

Subhadip Sen

12-09-2011, 02:42 AM

Amazing. This just took things to a whole new level.

4 x 580gtxs = nirvana

Judging by the performance I am getting off a single GPU, I am guessing Quadro 600 for GUI + 2 x GTX 580 should suffice for most usage scenarios, unless you intend on working with many nodes. For HD, even a single GPU seems overkill! I gave up at about 10 nodes, and it was still real-time. R3D is bottlenecked by the CPU debayer process.

I have several minor niggles thus far, which I will try to list out later. I think most of these will be personal issues not applicable to most users. The interface doesn't seem to use much of Windows. There are no "windows" (except dockable scopes), there's no VFW support, no seamless drag and drop etc. The missing VFW is a deal-breaker for my workflow, unfortunately. I was hoping with this version of Resolve would support native XDCAM-EX - that is still missing (Rewrapping to QT is not very appealing on Windows). Most of all, I was hoping for full fledged OpenCL acceleration for AMD GPUs.

Petri Teittinen

12-11-2011, 02:39 PM

How can I tell if Resolve Lite is using the GPU or the RED Rocket?

Christoffer Glans

12-11-2011, 05:00 PM

Awesome! I have downloaded, will test it tomorrow evening Swedish time.
I think my system is well over the recommended specs for the Lite version, it doesn't have 4K so I don't need 4xGTX580. When it does or when I recieve such jobs I will upgrade both my system and the paid version of resolve.

What's the cheepest grading hardware out there? Artist color? Do I have to have the decklink? Can't I use some other BlackMagic hardware?