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What are the REAL requirements for Resolve on a Mac?
I would like to ask is what are the real requirements for Resolve on a Mac? By real I mean what it is really needed in order to color grade using Resolve. For example, is a Tangent type of board really required? Or you can do perfectly it fine with a mouse and the Tangent is just for speed? I have to say that I will not be working with a client over my shoulder. I use the mouse with Color and am Fine with it. Can I assume it will be the same with Resolve or does it really only work with a control board?
The thing is I currently use Color and this is really the only thing that is making me hang on with the FCP. FCP is outdated and unless Apple makes a super announcement soon, I’m really growing tired of FCP.
The only reason I still stick to FCP is Color. Otherwise I could for example use Premiere which already runs miles around of FCP in terms of functionality, specially in terms of formats it can work with. If I want to work with DPX in FCP I need Gluetools while Premiere does it with it’s hand tied on it’s back. You get the drift.
But I can’t afford 15-20K for a Resolve suite. But do I really need it if I’m only working by myself? So in terms of hardware, what are the real requirements for a Resolve suite besides the obvious like a calibrated reference monitor for example?Thanks.
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20 Replies
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You can certainly grade on the Resolve with mouse or tablet. If that’s what you’ve already been doing with Apple Color, then you won’t feel the need for the panel. You will definitely grade much faster with the panel and the Tangent Wave is the lowest cost panel that you can find in the market now.
Assuming you already have a Resolve qualified Mac Pro and some form of storage, you basically need a Quadro4000 GPU card, a Decklink card and the Resolve license. Those three items will cost you around US$2800. The Tangent Wave panel is about US$1500 so total is US$4300 and you have a pretty decent Resolve setup.
Or you can go to eBay and look for a GTX285 GPU card and you’ll save some $$$ as it is cheaper than the Quadro4000 and more powerful actually.
-chrispy
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When I first started setting up Resolve I switched from Color and started setting things up in an order, here’s kind of a necessary order:
Must haves:
– Mac Pro Tower (specs are really determined by how processor-intensive you expect your material to be)
– CUDA capable GPU (I think the cheapest are still the “flashed” GTX 285s on eBay – for me a single GTX285 has handled 90% of grades I do on narrative material – less on commercials or music videos)
– GUI card (if using a GTX285 I think you need a single height GT120)
– Decklink card
– Monitoring for SDI or HDMIWith that stuff, you should be able to get the program up and running, but won’t necessarily be able to read uncompressed, DPX, and RED material in realtime, and your grades might exceed what the GPU can do in real-time. So to ensure real-time playback, you may need some of these items:
– Internal drives, RAID card or card to interface with external RAID (consider adding a cheap eSATA connection)
– Additional GPUs (requiring a Cubix expander usually)
– Hardware scopes (will improve performance to not use the Resolve scopes)
– Red Rocket card (only if you use a lot of RED – you can avoid this one with a higher-end processor or by pre-rendering into DPX)After that, it’s just a matter of improving working speed with a control surface, perhaps peripherals like the Logitech G13, additional displays. I believe they’ve made every control accessible with mouse and keyboard now (especially if you assign keyboard shortcuts yourself) but I’m not 100% sure if I’m missing anything.
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com -
Maybe it’s just me but I would have some real trouble using Resolve without a panel because it lacks graphical representation of hue/sat wheels like Color. It’s much slower to have to adjust individual RGB sliders on the primaries.
Other than that though, everything else is easy with tablet/mouse.
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I would not want to ever work without a control surface, a mouse and a tablet just is not going to cut it IMO.
1. Tangent Wave.
2. A 8-Core or 12-Core mac pro, an internal raid (4x 2Tb drives) and a Cuda card (I would go GTX-285 to save $ and still have excellent performance) and a GT-120 GUI card. This system is pretty good performance wise.
3. A SDI card ( The basic decklink HD card works for monitoring to save $ but is only 4:2:2) for video I/O.
4. A “real” monitor that can be calibrated. I.E. a Dreamcolor with a HD-Link Pro Display Port to HDMI. Or a Flanders, or a Panasonic Plasma with a SDI to HDMI box.
5. Scopes I got a Ultrascope setup with a GTS-250 GPU it works and is responsive.
That would be my minimum requirements.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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[Robert Houllahan] “I would not want to ever work without a control surface, a mouse and a tablet just is not going to cut it IMO. “
For people who absolutely do not have the resources, anything that works, sort of, I guess, becomes the “REAL” requirements — and all that go-faster, more efficiently stuff is … what? just window dressing?
Amazing the number of operators who have no inkling that speed IS the issue. “I don’t have anyone hanging over my shoulder” is not an excuse for not being able to proceed directly to where you need to be.
The human visual system is not an absolute reference. Everyone, anyone, is subject to about 20-30 second adaptation — after that, there is no objectivity because the eye-brain has started to self-correct to the new lighting condition. That is just a hard-and-fast fact. I’m very aware that clients invariably remark that they “just got used to” the way their dailies looked, and they were fine with them. Just like being “fine” with a mouse — very, very few people ever want to see one again after they have had the opportunity to work with a control surface, just like no one ever, ever wants to go back to their “dailies” look.jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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You can use color without a panel,
You can’t actually grade in resolve without at color panel.
However, grading without a panel is like trying to edit while using a mouse and no keyboard. Sooooo slow.
Joseph Mastantuono
Online Editor – Colorist – Post Consultant
Brooklyn based finishing at reasonable prices
917.969.1583 -
I think the same actually.
I can totally grade in Scratch or Color without a panel due to the very handy and yeah, useful Color wheels.
But the tangent is soooo cheap, really, just get it, its well supported by DaVinci ( i think ) and you should be able to pay it of with three or four days of work.A slice of color…
DaVinci 7.1 OSX 10.6.6
Dual Xeon 2,4 RAM 24 GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE -
Here’s what I’m doing right now…
I already have an 8 core Mac Pro with 12gb of RAM. It’s my Avid DX machine. Attached to it is a 16tb Maxx Digital Array (Thanks Ron… you rock!)… so I have the machine and the storage and my 20 inch SOny HD CRT, as well as BM Ultrascope. I’m going to make it a dual boot system… Avid/Resolve.
I bought 2 x Quadro 4000 cards off ebay, new, for $1,500.
I’m about to order the Black Magic card and Resolve license…. another $2,100.
I’ll order a RED Rocket too as my clients shoot RED a fair bit… $4,000.
I will need the Cubix PCIe extender.. $3,000 (I think)
Tangent Wave… $1,500.
$12k (aud) all up but I already have a lot of the hardware to get started.
To be honest, I’m really looking forward to it… expanding my skill set and service range to my clients. Another arrow in the quiver, so to speak.
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I just set up my new 12 core yesterday, coming from the old 2008 Mac Pro I was using. What a breath of fresh air! Half-res good r3d debayers realtime – so no need for the Rocket yet.
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For those others who may be interested, the REAL requirements for Resolve on a Mac:
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/downloads/davinci/pdf/DaVinciResolveMacConfigGuide.pdf
I dunno, they built it, so maybe they know something…
jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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