Resolve Linux – required spec

[Alexander Higgins]

Honestly, it doesn’t matter, I have called, its sold as a turnkey only from autorized re-sellers. At the time of my inquiry, there was no possible way of a person building their own station. This might have changed, but if I where to guess, I would say it hadn’t.

Honestly, the 90k baselight is a great deal. The 90k Nucoda Fuse. And even doing a 20k DaVinci isn’t bad, still, even after Apple has left us out to dry with a most disappointing upgrade.

I know how you feel though. Apple has not fulfilled any hopes or dreams I might have had for 2010.

I still think SMOKE and DaVinci if the XML translate properly, will be, without a doubt, for HD, as good as you can get. If not better.

[Jack Jones]

You can negotiate Nucoda HD for around £75k. Fuse is around £40k.

Baselight is still around the £85k mark UK.

Fuse is a great starting set, followed by the HD in my opinion. Not a huge Baselight fan after having used a CPU Baselight Four. I’m sure it’s better than I remember though.

I think XML might be a little while coming. Baselight’s Avid workflow is great though.

Jack Jones
Freelance Colourist

[Jamie Allan]

Hi Rory,

If you’d like a quote for the qualified system feel free to drop me a mail or call on +44115 9165597

Unfortunately the system specification is unable for release

Cheers

Jamie

Jamie Allan
Post Production Consultant
DaVinci Specialist (Linux/Mac)
Jamie@Jigsaw24.com

Jigsaw Systems Ltd. – IT & Broadcast specialists for the UK
https://www.jigsaw24.com
https://www.jigsawbroadcast.com

[Christopher Tay]

You can get a full turnkey Resolve Linux 4GPU with storage and Co-Processor for about £90K. The 4GPU will give you significantly more realtime performance at 2K resolution. SD and HD will be even more. And with the Co-Processor, you can grade with RED r3d at half res premium (2K fully debayered) in realtime. No background caching.

-chrispy

[Rory Hinds]

I guess is just a wait and see what BM announce as it seems strange to advertise the Linux version for $19k but you have to purchase a turnkey solution…. doesn’t seem right at all

What’s the big deal anyways as its just a off-the-shelf PC built to spec to run a piece of software… no voodoo… only black magic 🙂

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com

[Joshua Helling]

…it seems strange to advertise the Linux version for $19k but you have to purchase a turnkey solution…. doesn’t seem right at all

Not at all. It was one of our big issues with the industry. Before you could talk to someone on Monday and get a quote for 100K and the two days latter billy down the street would get the quote for 90K. By publishing the price of BMD product, you know what you are paying. The only thing is that we only sell that part to our selected integrators.

Putting it in a turnkey is the only way to ensure that the build quality is kept up. Everything about that system has to be setup properly. And that’s what the integrators do. They also offer training, and service agreements and installation services. Basically everything you’ll need to get up and running and stay running.

What’s the big deal anyways as its just a off-the-shelf PC built to spec to run a piece of software… no voodoo… only black magic 🙂

And here…you are mostly right. But also wrong. Some of those parts cannot even be sourced by the general public. So it’s not so easy as you might think to build an off the shelf PC. And if you bought one (say a HP) chances are it would have a host of other issues, like not supporting enough slots or having enough power for the additional graphics cards.

The build is specific. The software is tested with that build. This is part of the reason we can do it on Mac because there is almost no hardware variation. But you start throwing different power supplies, memory and cases with different thermal dynamics and the situation gets more…..complex.

Sincerely,

Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.

[Joseph Owens]

[Joshua Helling] “This is part of the reason we can do it on Mac because there is almost no hardware variation. But you start throwing different power supplies, memory and cases with different thermal dynamics and the situation gets more…..complex.”

No disagreement here, but a couple of things:
a.) This forum has been full of speculation about workarounds and third-party peripherals for months.
b.) This has been the bulk of the furball with Apple COLOR for years.

“No hardware variation” was the line of reasoning that Silicon Color took with Final Touch, and if you played by the rules, it all worked as well as could be expected given Apple insularity with FCP integration. But then it became an *APPLE* product and its consumers expected it to run on anything with one-button ease. Apple flung it out with the FCS2 suite with no real guidelines. The result: chaos. Why doesn’t it work with this? Why doesn’t it work with that? Why do I have to do it this way? Why doesn’t it work? Mostly because the Rube Goldberg systems continue to be so far under-spec that most of us are surprised that COLOR boots at all, but the expectation remains for full-real-time everything, no waiting, specialized hardware or skills necessary.

I really do hope that this will not be the DaVinci experience, and customers appreciate that this is not an Apple product and all that that infers.

jPo

You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?

[Rory Hinds]

Hey Joshua

Sorry I don’t buy that.

Its pretty easy to build a PC to a very high spec these days, all it takes is knowing what you are doing, like everything.

If you don’t know what you’re doing then sure go get someone to build it and test it for you.

There are many Mac’s out there with many different graphics cards, hard drives etc so its strange that BM would open up the Mac version and not allow people the same on the Linux.

What when people have learnt on the Mac version then want to grow into the Linus version, they then have to pay someone to build a machine for them… seem a bit crazy in this day and age where you’ve made to pay for a service you don’t actually need.

Resolve has its requirements, wether its Linux or Mac. By publishing those requirements people can then source and build their own system, which would save money as they can reuse equipment they already have and the don’t have to pay for someone to do it for them.

What none public items would the Linux version need?

There are a lot of educated people out there that don’t need a reseller to do things for them. Some know a lot more than resellers and it does seem that its an unnecessary middle man when you know what you’re doing.

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com

[Joshua Helling]

Sure, it’s easy enough to build your own system. But building it right is another matter. There are many macs out there with different graphics cards too. But you’ll notice that we are being very specific on which of those you need to use as well.

The fact is that it is relatively easy to build up a Mac to work, because all the parts are the same and there is so little variation. Assembling a you are more likely to get it right than you are to get it wrong.

And I am not disagreeing with the fact that it might be easy for an experienced integrator to build that rig (even if some parts will be hard to get a hold of). But ultimately this is how we have chosen to sell the Linux version.

And please don’t make the mistake of thinking the guys selling these Linux versions are simple resellers. They are not. They do much more as i’ve stated before. They are very closely connected to the industry and will provide services (such as assembly, integration, and installation) that BMD is not going to be providing.

The way we are selling the Linux version of Resolve is not meant to be an insult, it’s just the way we’ve decided to do it after thinking of the pro’s and cons.

Sincerely,

Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.

[Rory Hinds]

Hey Joshua

Thanks for you feed back, I hope I didn’t come across rude.

I get you stand point but as an end user and someone who can build a the same system for a fraction of the cost a reseller would sell one to me, I find it a hard pill to swallow.

Sure Resellers can build, install and train but what about the large amount of people out there that don’t need that service and don’t want to pay for it.

I can see the need for large company who don’t know any better and just want the system up and running but for the independent who knows a thing or two about building a system “right” its a waste of much needed money that needs to be spent else where.

But restricting the Linux version to resellers selling a turnkey system you’re forcing us to purchase a service we don’t need.

After all its just a spec’ed out PC with hard drives and some software running.
Its not rocket science and well to me at least, the days of magic box in the corner that you didn’t understand are over. Standard off the shelf computing has surpassed the Silicon Graphics days and in todays market people need to save money and that means doing things ourselves.

So I’ve bought the Mac version for $1k. get working and then move up to buying the Resolve panel for $30k… my work increases and want more speed but instead of paying $19k for the software I know have to pay someone to build a PC for me and charge me for installing it.
Thats crazy
What about the fact that I live in a remote area, 3 hours from a large city that is not that large anyways… what happens then? I have to pay for the reseller to come out to me and install the machine.. but I can plug in a few cables and configure the software.

I don’t know to me this move is a step backward in what is a great step forward with the Mac version.
Cut out the middle man and have it as an option so if you need help you can call on a reseller.
I know you wanting to look after your resellers, but hey, why penalise your enduser in the process.

Rory Hinds
mine
http://www.minefilms.com