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DNx License musings
I am confused.
Why does a license to create Avid DNx HD mxf files cost the end user $500 from Blackmagic for their Resolve, $55 for the Lightworks system and is FREE in Redcine X and Redcine X Pro?
When a similar question was asked of an Avid manager before about DNx licensing, it was said that part of the issue was license fees needing to be charged (I may be misquoting that). Ok, fair enough. Big difference between Blackmagic and Editshare (owners of Lightworks)!!! I do not see a difference in funcionality. But free for Red users???
Like I said – I am confused.
Jef
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2 Replies
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DNxHD licensing for Resolve is for the MXF AVID world, and does not support DNxHD Quicktime, which is a very different thing. DNxHD Quicktime is more or less free for other applications that support a Quicktime workflow, you can use it in FCP, but the MXF wrapper is not widely supported for exchange in collaborative efforts.
Almost impossible to open in Final Cut operations.
jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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All three of my examples are for a license to write Avid DNX – MXF. (At least that is how I read the Lightworks material).
Yes, MXF is different than Quicktime. Writing DNX Quicktimes has been free for as long as I can remember. But MXF is the preferred codec if you are an Avid user – it is the native media. Without it round tripping between Avid and Resolve is cumbersome at best.
And since I wrote this musing, the situation has gotten even more interesting.
AJA has announced that they will be providing a FREE update to their KiPro Mini to enable writing of DNX (MXF is implied) as well.
It seems as if someone inside Avid finally figured out that making it easy / cheap for people to create media that feeds their software just might make more revenue than charging a high license fee ever would.
So maybe Blackmagic can renegotiate it’s deal …
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