DaVinci Resolve 7 for Mac now shipping

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Here's what we ended up doing to get the Red Rocket SDI's and the Black Magic HDMI's out.

LOL. Oh, man... Um, there is a better way for the Rocket SDI, actually a couple. As for the BlackMagic HDMI ports, there really isn't -- gotta run them out either through an optical bay slot or modify a side panel. If you have more than one Mac pro of the same vintage, spare a side panel. That way if you need to take the system in for service, you can at least bring it with a clean side panel and not void your AppleCare.

For the Rocket, the easiest way is to just nip off the large BNC ends of the included cables and run them out through any of the tiny holes on the rear of the case and then re-crimp on new BNC ends made for 23AWG mini-COAX. I've done that on a couple systems for people. On my primary Mac Pro, I just ran the BNC ends out through the slot cover on my ATTO SAS card. It has a small round hole in it for some reason and big enough I can pass the mini-BINC connectors through one at a time.

Do you have any grounding /short issues on those HDMI plugs? It seems like you might the way they're mounted in that side panel...

[Evin Grant]

WOW Apple really needs to release a six slot tower, like yesterday!

So you can't use the Nvidia to drive the GUI monitor at all right? But you can use the Red Rocket to view out the grading image over SDI provided you're working exclusively with R3Ds correct?

[jake blackstone]

But you can use the Red Rocket to view out the grading image over SDI provided you're working exclusively with R3Ds correct?

So far, only Storm is capable of that. Not Resolve.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Yep. Resolve only uses the Rocket for debayer operations. Which does speed everything up a lot. But the only applications using SDI out from the Rocket right now are Redcine-X, Scratch and Storm (if you're lucky enough to have an alpha release). I believe Storm is the only one that is actually showing effects beyond standard LUTs/looks via the Rocket monitor output.

It seems a PCIe expander is in order to really get the most out of Resolve. I'm undecided on the Expander, I think I'm going to get Resolve up and running on an '09 Mac Pro for now using a GTX285, GT120, software RAID-0, Rocket card and a BMD Extreme 3D card. At this point, to spend a whole lot more on the Expander and other hardware may just be too much for me with Epic and SSD modules and other things I need to purchase.

Intel has pushed Sandy Bridge to an OEM release of March, or so it seems, that means first systems on the market toward the end of April 2011. If Apple lags, I think we can expect a new Mac Pro by the end of June, but possibly in April or May. The new platform will support more PCIe lanes, so hopefully that will translate into more slots and a new case design. But if Apple screws us, then I may just buy the expander and flesh out the '09 Mac Pro and probably pick up a 2011 Mac Pro for my new general workstation. I don't know though...

After my two Epics are here and working, and budget permitting, I'm going to build a screening / coloring room with projector. I may just bite the bullet and go for the Linux flavor of Resolve if I can include it within my budget for the new room. A lot depends on what I do for a projector. So far, my projector budget is hovering around $30K, but I'd like to cut that in half and still have a top of the line 2K like the Barco. Don't know if that's possible. The ProjectionDesign units look nice, but I don't know anyone using them that can really comment on them. They sure looked awesome at NAB though and the pricing isn't too bad.

...I think expecting a color-accurate quad-HD or 4K projector, that is also affordable, isn't realistic for another year or three.

[Seth Larney]

Yep. Resolve only uses the Rocket for debayer operations. Which does speed everything up a lot. But the only applications using SDI out from the Rocket right now are Redcine-X, Scratch and Storm (if you're lucky enough to have an alpha release).

Hey Jeff,

Scratch uses Rocket for debayer but outputs signal through the Quadro SDI board.. which is good because otherwise you'd have separate outputs for mixed media projects..
Cheers,
Seth

[Gunleik Groven]

SDI out of the Rocket has been on the public development table, but isn't yet available. and there's no timetable as to when it will be released.

[Evin Grant]

This is really close but it's just not quite there yet. I'll probably wait till Resolve can run with one GPU card and use the Rocket for output, either that or a bigger Mac Pro chassi. Everything else is hammering a square peg in a round hole for me, after all I really don't make any money in DI I just really like to have it for my personal projects.

[Sanjin Jukic]

This is really close but it's just not quite there yet. I'll probably wait till Resolve can run with one GPU card and use the Rocket for output, either that or a bigger Mac Pro chassi. Everything else is hammering a square peg in a round hole for me, after all I really don't make any money in DI I just really like to have it for my personal projects.

Go MacBook Pro.

[Olivier Madar]

Go MacBook Pro.

I am thinking of that possibility too. So i CAN ait for the next Apple génération and nvidia good car
Did someone try it ?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Hey Jeff,

Scratch uses Rocket for debayer but outputs signal through the Quadro SDI board.. which is good because otherwise you'd have separate outputs for mixed media projects..
Cheers,
Seth

Yep, I knew that about the Quadro SDI board. For some reason, I thought it also used the Rocket SDI if you were exclusively using RED media? Oh well, guess not. :)

Anyone running Resolve on a Macbook Pro? I know it works on the MBP models that have the dual nVidia GPUs, but I was wondering if anyone could comment on performance. Just wondering if it could be useable with a small eSATA RAID and a good monitor via DisplayPort / HDMI.

I don't see this being a very usable solution for any real project (I doubt I would have the patience to work on that set-up if under a deadline). But it may be a workable solution to get the software up and running and play with it while I wait for other hardware offerings to materialize. I don't anticipate actually needing Resolve for a paid project until early next year, after I get my Epic cameras... And even then, I have a couple of internal / personal projects to produce first...

Sanjin? You just mentioned using Macbook Pro... Will you be doing this?