DaVinci Resolve 8.1.1 free and with Avid DNXHD

Okay, it’s true, Balck Magic wants to stay ALONE in the saturated color correction market, but it wasn’t necessary to make it so clear…anyway.

New version Resolve 8.1.1. Both the paid and free Lite versions now include Avid DNXHD codecs as standard (in fact BM also announced today that its Hyperdeck Studio field recorder will also include these codecs at no cost) and if that wasn’t enough, the lite version of DaVinci no longer has the 2-node limitation…yes, yes, that’s right.

Ok, let’s examine the territory, what differentiates now the paid version from the free one? Lite only supports one GPU (very limited realtime play), ok, DaVinci generates realtime viewing proxies if computer performance is not sufficient. Plus, the lite only supports ONE Red Rocket, wow, I was thinking of buying three…Resolve Lite can only EXPORT up to HD, which means yes it is capable of ingesting up to 4K with Red, Arri and everything else, just that on output we will have to downgrade to 1080. Again, if we want to export to make 100 copies of exhibition we will have to pay the 800€? of the paid version, yikes…Oh, and it doesn’t include the noise reducer (although if I’m honest I haven’t opened the 8.11. program yet, so maybe I’ll get a surprise).

In short, for 0€ we have a piece of color correction software that conforms from edl, aaf and xml and EXPORTS (NOT like Apple Color) to tape or file for play-out in any software. I’m just afraid that being BM a hardware company it will happen like with Apple and tomorrow they will discontinue it after having standardized it, I insist that we have already seen it with Color and FCP7.

But let’s enjoy the moment and this piece of software. I tell you that I’m now working with it for a series (with the big DaVinci controller) and the program is awesome!!! yes, it’s not so, so simple… Also of course the program is complex (as it has many options, as it should be) in terms of everything that surrounds the correction itself: conforming, calibration, color management, luts, etc (we know that a colorist is not just a man who touches the balls 🙂

We will take advantage of this fantastic opportunity that BM gives us and we will use Resolve Lite 8.1.1 in our course taught by Jorge Molina on December 10 and 11.

You can download DaVinci Resolve Lite free of charge here