DaVinci Lite 8.1.1 Evaluation

After testing these days the new DaVinci Lite 8.1.1 I have to say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised. Here are some notes from the tests.

The first thing is that, although the program is obviously designed to be used with a controller (either DaVinci itself or an external one like Avid Artist or Tangent Wave), I must say that it is quite optimized for use with a simple mouse. The spheres and curves (added in the primaries from version 8 onwards) are as easy to use with the mouse as with the controller.

As for secondaries, masks and other options, they are perfectly usable without controller (of course slower than with it).

On the other hand, regarding conforming I have tested with XML from FCP7 and with AAF from MC 5.5 and it works without problems both going and returning to the editor (remember that version 8 of Resolve gave a lot of problems with the AAFs). Nowadays you can conform (and reconform) without problems (of course, the effects of Resolve editors are not understood so you have to prepare a timeline for it), and indeed Resolve understands the DNXHD in MXF from Avid. Although it still does not read the ProRes in MXF that Avid MC 6 is able to do nor the new 444 10b flavor of the DNXHD (but at the rate that BM is going, in a week the Lite 8.1.2 version will be released with a free controller).

As for the performance of the program (which some people doubt because it is limited to a GPU) I will tell you that it gives perfect play at HD 1080p on my laptop (yes, I tell you that it is a laptop of more than 4000 bucks) These would be the most concrete data of the tests:

Computer :

MacBook Pro 17″ Intel Core i7 with 4 cores, 8GB Ram Ati 6750 1 GB GPU 512 GB SSD disk

Storage of the stocking:

GRaid of 1TB (Raid 0) by Esata via expresscard (which in theory does not give the transfer rate tested by the blackmagic speed test) I have not tested it with the stocking on the solid state drive which goes at almost twice the speed but I imagine I can do even more correction.

Material:

Timeline to DNXHD 185 10b, 1080p (original from Alexa to Pro Res 444) I haven’t tested with 1:1 footage but for many jobs it’s not even necessary.

CC in the software:

Lut in track and primary, secondary and mask in each plane.

And not only does it give perfect play (90% of the time, let’s not exaggerate either) but it also renders almost in real time (yes, against the solid state disk).

Oh, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, the software is free… 🙂

And you already know that if you want to learn how to use it (and see also the paid version) we organize a short course