[Joseph Owens]

[Peter Wollsey] “why didn’t you just use your cloned backup drive of your previous OS and revert to Leopard?”

Hahahahha….. my what?
Its to prepare for the 64 bit world. There were whispered promises of RED at the speed of thought…
SnoLeper worked for about two weeks and then started failing by increments. So I started fixing it by increments.
It is once again stable, so going back would be going back.

My MBPro laptop is on SnoLeper as well and functions flawlessly. Its quite maddening.

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

To reiterate.

Only the new slash-2 versions of the SR deck will be able to record 2048×1152, and they operate more as data recorders than videotape decks in that mode. So your first hurdle is the resolution — it will not be 2K unless you can come up with the latest tape deck.

You will only be able to record 1920×1080 with a 5500 deck and only in 4:2:2 unless the deck is optioned with the 5003 4:4:4 Dual Link processors. 4:4:4 is standard on the slash-2 versions.

DaVinci does dynamic color transitions, but does not do dissolves as you have come to expect them on an edit timeline. It functions similarly to the keyframe transition on a “baked” transition in the FCP/COLOR workflow.

I don’t anticipate daVinci to be able to handle speed changes the same way that COLOR now does.

daVinci is a more-or-less linear tape-to-tape workflow, but operates in a quasi-NLE model when pulling media from a server.

Your free services will be compromised in these two issues — your resolution will be limited by carrying the media on videotape, and your EFX will have to be dealt with separately.
That’s my read with the available data.

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

If you edited in 2K and you want to maintain that, you will want to find one of the new slash/2 SR-5800-series machines which are now capable of this dpx workflow. Good luck with that, they were just introduced two weeks ago at NAB, and the new proud owners, if they exist, may want to charge for their services.

Otherwise, it will be a Play-out from FCP in 1920×1080 (Kona3 supports Dual-Link) in either 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 — if you can find an SR deck with the Dual-Link I/O option, and that will be as near to uncompressed as it will be physically possible to achieve.

SR 5500 Dual Link owner,
jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

[Alejandro Flores] “what mac tower set up do you have”

Its a MacPro 3,1 2×2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon.

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

I have to say, that on sober third thought, I’m slowly losing interest.

Not the kind that you have to pay on a third mortgage to re-equip AGAIN… although that is almost certainly one more factor.

Its this. Re-educate, me please, if my apprehensions are unfounded.

The above kind of posts — although so detail-oriented as to be a bit silly, especially since we only know the barest of the system operations and requirements (which are going to become a moving target), do register the uncertainty of adopting a whole new strategy.
It would be nice if computers were designed to utilize their multi-core architecture to bring massive power to single tasks — but in fact they were designed to create compartmentalized virtual machines that were suitable for multi-task. That is to run multiple applications with minimal conflict. This doesn’t really help us in our quest for data throughput. Its great for the book keepers, though, as they can run both Excel (to show that the company is losing money hand over fist) and Word, to dash off memos to everyone to stop using up all the office supplies… dashing off memos.

Then there is the rarely-seen-in-practice mirage of 64-bit processing — which “Snow Leopard” is supposed to bring into common usage. Frankly, for me, Snow Leopard has been (by far) my biggest Apple mistake (of many).

Nearly all of my peripherals, and many applications, failed immediately when I upgraded, but by relentlessly hunting down Beta drivers and as software updates dribble out, I have been able to almost restore the system. All my ProApps still have bugs, though — system resources do not share well, applications suddenly shut down or freeze, codecs are not found, or worse, are mis-interpreted. Whole projects have come back from COLOR garbled or pure green, while the render preview showed an accurate depiction. I had to hand-upgrade SHAKE AGAIN, but this time file-by-file, because the 10-bit processing went south AGAIN. To list a few problems…

So now we’ve got the prospect of BlackMagic Resolve, and the first thing people ask is “do I have to have a controller panel”? Let me get back to this later.

No, the first crucial thing to ask is — we know that the full potential of the application is realized on a Linux proprietary build, hardware and software — but what version of Mac OS is the software going to be comfortable with? I really don’t think its Snow Leopard. Almost nothing actually needs it, but…
then there’s the issue of what operating system is going to come with new MacPros?
So if you’re trying to cram together a BM Resolve into a “recent” MacPro…. and most of the users on this site will be Final Cut editors, and people who have come to COLOR, and I would bet large sums if I wasn’t already a small business owner that most of “us” have exactly the diametrically opposite configurations on our current machines — ATI GPU’s and AJA Video I/O cards, to what is recommended or supported by the RESOLVE software.

So it will come to a choice — ditch COLOR (and to a certain extent the FCP Studio…) to build a dedicated Resolve? Kind of puts paid to the concept of making all this cost effective, especially within the parameters of the “democratized” desktop/laptop production world.

Don’t get me wrong — I would dearly love to have the toolset, and I have worked with the classic daVinci grading approach for far longer than the Apple offering. But this argument is an internal one, concerning features vs. benefits — and clients’ priorities fall squarely in the latter category.

What’s the tradeoff? Its all about workflow when it comes down to business model. Auteurs and service providers will have different priorities. “No-deadline” and strict delivery will have antagonistic demands. I recall the arguments a few years ago regarding the slow through-put that Apple COLOR offered — acceptable interface to making grade decisions, but the round trip… ye gods. If it worked. But after that was a ton of rendering and so on and so forth…. unacceptable for the “daVinci online” crowd, where the project needed to be turned around in hours, not days. I could name names.
And so now we have the same prospect of BM Resolve more or less occupying some kind of in-between territory?

I would like to be clear in my understanding of the workflow. As far as I gather, here is the contrast: Apple COLOR offers a fully non-linear, multi-layer environment, presenting a FinalCut-like timeline, does pretty much everything a grade application should, and then returns new media to a new Final Cut sequence (within the parent project) that is still (in some ways) editable, but can be pasted right back into cousin sequences, but it might take some time, and it doesn’t do any compositing.

Resolve, however, still operates in the exact same way that all daVinci correctors have — essentially a final, locked version tape-to-tape (imported digitized Quicktime), better if its a textless/graphics-free submaster, single-layer, CMX EDL. So it will still require more preparation and post-production. This is more flexible? I also doubt that it can randomly re-render elements in the timeline to take care of tweaks and revisions. Not the way I remember….

Then there is the time factor. Those who cannot tolerate a grade and output over a time-scale that Apple COLOR would represent naturally choose a “real-time” solution, and Resolve would appear to be ready to supply this requirement, and it would be the right choice for them.

But then, there are those who are asking if it “needs” a control panel? Perhaps these are people who have never used one…. or have never had a deadline. It has the feel of either ignorance, naivety, or just not clear on the concept.

Its fine to suggest that, sure, go ahead, do your color doodling on a laptop on the flight home from Vegas…. is this the right message? This is why the whole daVinci brand is being ported to the Mac? I’m honestly curious (to borrow a line from something I’m in the process of finishing…).

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

You don’t have an outboard scope?

jPo

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[Joseph Owens]

Well, can you blame ’em?
Its as if Ferrari for some unfathomed reason decided the motoring world needed a reasonably priced family sedan, but with an 800bhp engine, carbon fibre body and 7-speed sequential transmission.

Not that many people can actually keep something like that pointing the right way down the road, but a lot are going to try.

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

The only non-DaVinci panel currently supported is the Tangent Wave(USB).

Since there is only about 8 weeks left until the software is publicly offered, my guess is that that is going to be the way it is for the foreseeable future.

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

There you go… a well-integrated response. You’re better at calculus than you think.

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Joseph Owens]

[Jeremiah Belt] “There is very little info on the Black Magic site and DaVinci site front end.”

That much is correct. There may be a reason for that.
But correct me (as I’m sure you will)…
You’ve got an entire junkyard of hacked components ready to go… in an attempt to… I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, actually…. if I were trying to model the problem, I’d be thinking… maybe you’re trying to find free monthly parking in midtown Manhattan.

All to run the world’s most sophisticated color grading software on more-or-less obsolete or unqualified hardware. This is Apple COLOR thinking — if I duct-tape together a Matrox thingee with an outboard nVidia sumthin with a DVI computer monitor thingamajig that I “calibrated” to Photoshop standards, then I’m a world-class DI suite. AVATAR-II, here I come.

I’m sure this is what Blackmagic really wants, you know, to keep the DaVinci name synonymous with the highest quality grading solutions available in the world.

I’m kind of thinking that they should be selling the software with a dongle that checks out the config.
Otherwise, I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot, as Silicon Color found out — the application loses its value almost instantly.

jPo

This IS my blog!