[David Smith]

“Also is there any chance an installation of Resolve lite with affect FCP7”

I was told by one of the tech at Blackmagic that there was some conflict between the FCP and Resolve with the driver for the Decklink card and you can’t use Resolve without buying the Decklink card.

That is the issue I’m having right now.

[David Smith]

Do I set that LUT under the LUT tab in the config window? I looked in all the Input Lookup tables but did not see a LOG2LIN LUT…. or am I looking for a specific one?

Or do I need to install or create one?

[David Smith]

When I have my film scanned I can see on the waveform the range of data falls between 0-700 (more realistically 100-600). But 700 is the max for the scale (I think, I will check this week – I’m pretty sure it is though)

When I look at the scope of my Resolve the data is still in the same range – although I have a lot more head room to 1023.

I’m not sure why my data range is not converting to the wider numerical range in Resolve.

Is the 0-1023 a Resolve only thing?

[David Smith]

I am also very confused by the 1023 scale. I’m having film scanned to 10 bit RGB LOG DPX files. I believe 700 is my 100 percent white, but I can go way past it without clipping – but – past 700 the image looks too contrasty.

Also if 700 is my legal white limit – there is no easy to see limit line for 700. So I have to estimate mu top white.

I have also tried to find a way to change the scale to something else – but been unable to find any other setting.

I’m glad you asked this question. It is on my list of questions as a learn Resolve and color grading.

[David Smith]

I’m in the process of switching hardware from a “do it all” Mac Pro using Color to Resolve.

Just as a heads up – you may need to buy more hardware than you originally think you need since Resolve requires a more complex setup than Color.

Here are a list of things I had to buy after buying Resolve than I didn’t originally think I would need.

– A new user interface monitor ($250): Resolve requires at least a 1,920×1080. I had a 1680×1050 which cropped out quite a few buttons that need pushing.

– A new User Interface Graphics card ($150) (along with a Nvidia Quadro 4000) because my 4870 took up 2 spaces of external slots. There are 5 slots (and only 4 PCI slots) – so it depends how many you need. The GT 120 I bought to replace the 4870 only takes up 1 slot.

– A Decklink 3D extreme capture card for the external monitor ($1000). I had a Decklink Studio ($700) which seems to work although I only got it working today and is not supported by Blackmagic for Resolve. But so far so good.

– A HDLink Pro Display port adapter ($500)- Because I have a Display Port “in” only Grading Monitor. If you have an HDMI monitor you can use HDMI from the Decklink. But that will use up another slot.

– Tangent Wave Panel ($1,500) – Blackmagic did just add color wheels to the user interface a few days ago. But so far they are not as responsive as they are in Apple Color. They work but are a little “loose”. I have not bought the panel yet, but plan to do so in the future. You can work without it though.

– And you might want a 3rd monitor for the scopes. Resolve is not like Color. You can’t just click the grading monitor and jump from full screen to scopes. You can use them on your user interface monitor, but they are floating panels which you have to constantly push around.

If you need more than 4 PCI cards you will need a Cubix (I think that is what it’s called) to add more PCI slots. Sounds like your set up is simple like mine so you don’t need one. But if you do that’s at least $2,500.

So far I’m very impressed with Resolve. I’m just learning color grading. But Resolve does seem much better than Color. But as I said, just a heads up on all the stuff you need to use it.

[David Smith]

Thanks for the reply!

I’m kinda embarrassed about this one. I discovered I still had the display port connected to my GUI card and had not plugged it into the HDLink yet…… oops!!!!

[David Smith]

Those are some really nice photos to look at.

They have a “crispness” about them that reminds me a bit of “sharpening” you see from Photoshop. I’ve never liked sharpening very much but it might add to the look.

Also I notice a bit of vignetting from the older cameras in some of the blue skies. Alexis Hurkman’s website had an article on that effect.

I bought Aviator years ago, long before thinking about color. I’ll have to watch it tonight 🙂

I’ve been watching “Legend of the Seeker”. I’ve been noticing they do some interesting things with color. At least by episode 30, which was when I started to notice it.

[David Smith]

With the 2 card set up discussed in this thread. DaVinci seems to automatically use the 2nd Graphics card.

Just curious… What about other applications? Like Maya, Photoshop, FCP, etc? Do they also automatically take advantage of power of the second card?

[David Smith]

Thanks again Sascha!

My final output will mainly be DVD. But I also want a master DPX folder that can be converted to other things – depending what the future brings. Home projection, Streaming video, etc.

I obviously have a lot to learn. I’m slowly learning the actual practice of grading, but it’s the settings, standards, SMPTE Recommendations, etc. that I’m finding difficult to learn.

Regarding Gustavo’s question; I’m confused in this area too. If I’m going to grade in LOG space… at what point does Log get converted to Linear? And what LUT should I be using? Say for DVD release?

[David Smith]

My jpg didn’t post… I’ll try again:

It said Image Uploaded! But it was not included in my reply….