Davinci Resolve 14

At NAB this year Blackmagic Design showed their new version of DaVinci Resolve. Skipping 13 and moving straight on to 14.

Performance 

Resolve gets a new playback engine that is up to 10 times faster than previous versions. Grant showed a 4-up multicam playing four streams of H.264 video at once with no problems. He said it works as smoothly on a notebook. Playback is now instant with J K L editing and live trimming to the current frame of the clip that is playing back.

Audio

Fairlight’s as been fully integrated into Resolve for movie and TV audio post-production. Grant took a jab at Avid’s ProTools by saying that Fairlight’s tools are designed specifically for post. Like Final Cut Pro X, you can edit audio at sub-frame resolution - down to the sample level.

Other improvements include tools to make it easier for non-colourists to grade footage. One tool can analyse footage to detect faces and then make changes to those faces using controls based on modifying on human features - such as changing the eyes, nose or mouth.

Editing

  • Bins can have their own windows, footage can be dragged from the Finder into them, and clips dragged between bins
  • Smart bins list clips based on metadata
  • Source monitor can also show audio waveforms while watching video
  • Dynamic trimming with JKL keys
  • Trim multiple clips at once
  • Save commonly used transition settings to the effects library
  • Marker names and comments can be overlaid in viewers
  • Named marker ranges from a source clip can be edited from bins to the timeline

The price now matches Final Cut Pro X: $299 down from $999. Since Blackmagic released their first version of Resolve, they haven't charged for upgrades. 

The open Beta is available for Mac and PC today from Blackmagic. Although it is called a Beta, Fairlight was only bought by Blackmagic 6 months ago, so the audio parts are more at the Alpha development stage.

Kody with a K