[Luke Maslen]

Hi Christopher,

Yes, the HDMI in/out with DeckLink HD Extreme is supported with Resolve but unfortunately there are not enough slots in a Mac Pro to fit the HDMI bracket. There are a total of 4 slots in the Mac Pro. Two of these are filled with graphics cards, one with a DeckLink card and usually one with a HBA card connected to your disk storage. That leaves no space for the HDMI bracket and so you might need to use an SDI to HDMI converter to connect to your plasma display.

Some people posting in this forum have suggested leaving the side door off the Mac Pro or drilling holes in the Mac Pro to connect HDMI cables directly to the DeckLink card without having to use the HDMI bracket. I can’t recommend these ideas as they might cause electromagnetic interference or airflow problems aside from looking rather ugly! There would also be a risk of tugging the HDMI cables and damaging the DeckLink card.

Margus posted to this thread an interesting idea of routing the HDMI cables from the rear of the DeckLink card out through the spare optical bay in the Mac Pro. However I can’t see any way of doing that without drilling holes inside the Mac Pro and it is not an elegant solution. There would be a risk of tugging the HDMI cables and damaging the DeckLink card.

If you can use an internal software disk array in your Mac Pro, and don’t need a HBA card, then you will have space for the HDMI bracket for monitoring with your plasma display. The HDMI bracket will ensure that any stress on an HDMI cable would only lead to the HDMI cable pulling out of the bracket and no damage would occur to the DeckLink card.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Vladimir,

I expect the 1×6 core 3.3Ghz configuration will work but we simply did not test it. The last Mac config guide was released before we’d have much chance to test the mid-2010 models of Mac Pro. This new guide has added all of the new dual-processor models.

Our aim in certifying hardware is to let everyone know of hardware that will definitely provide realtime performance. As you may have read in this forum, some people have tried dual-processor 2008 models of Mac Pro. While the 2008 models appear to work with Resolve, their performance was slightly less than realtime in HD so we couldn’t recommend them. By contrast, the dual processor 2009 model Mac Pro’s do provide realtime performance in HD. We didn’t test the single-processor models as we felt that they would be marginal at best, for realtime performance, and the same applied to our testing of the mid-2010 models. Extra CPU’s are particularly important for processing compressed files in realtime, e.g. ProRes and H.264.

If you have a single-processor 2009 or 2010 model Mac Pro, chances are it will work with Resolve but we have not tested it and suspect the realtime HD performance will be marginal at best, particularly with compressed formats such as ProRes. If you don’t need realtime performance, then a single-processor Mac Pro might be perfectly adequate for your needs. However generally most people use Resolve for its realtime performance so that’s why we encourage the use of the dual processor Mac Pros.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Sascha,

The download link for the DaVinci Resolve for Mac Configuration Guide Update does not prompt for registration. It should just download the PDF without asking any questions.

Other files such as the Resolve software itself will provide two options: Download Now or Download and Register. If you choose the latter option, that will enable us to notify you when updates to Resolve are released.

So please have another go as it should just download fine.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Walter,

Speaking of slots, do you think a mid-2010 Mac Pro would allow you to do away with the need for your ethernet card? The latest Mac Pro model specifically lists support for jumbo frames and there is a jumbo frames option in the ethernet preferences inside the System Preferences on a mid-2010 Mac Pro. I think the support for jumbo frames was not present in the 2009 Mac Pro’s and has only appeared with the 2010 Mac Pro’s.

I’m hoping this might mean that you’ll be able to connect to your SAN using the built-in ethernet on the latest Mac Pro’s so you can have the realtime benefit of two graphics cards for Resolve.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Joseph,

[Joseph Mastantuono] ” but that the GeForce 120 isn’t a CUDA capable gfx card”

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 is a CUDA enabled graphics card and you can see it listed on the CUDA GPUs page on NVIDIA’s website.

[Joseph Mastantuono] “Can the ATI cards be used to run the GUI as long as there’s a secondary CUDA capable GPU?”

No unfortunately that won’t work. Resolve will detect the presence of a non-CUDA card and report that it cannot run. We’ve got nothing against ATI cards and would love to use them but CUDA is an NVIDIA technology so that’s why Resolve has to use specific NVIDIA CUDA cards.

[Joseph Mastantuono] “, Anyone out there know the performance hit difference between the GTX 285 & the FX 4800”

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 runs Resolve slightly faster than the Quadro FX 4800 but ironically the GTX 285 is much cheaper. Unfortunately the GTX 285 for Mac is no longer available but I do see a few listings on eBay. If purchasing from eBay, make sure you get a Mac version of the graphics card.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Jay,

I do understand what you mean and it’s best to wait until you’re ready to upgrade by which time I hope there will be more choice of hardware to use with Resolve. Resolve for Mac will still be here when you next upgrade your hardware 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Vladimir,

HDMI 1.4a is a small hardware update to the DeckLink HD Extreme card. The new card is not required for Resolve. Resolve 7.0.1 will continue to support DeckLink HD Extreme 3, DeckLink HD Extreme 3D and DeckLink HD Extreme 3D+.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Good point!

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi George,

The HDMI 1.4a capability is a hardware update to the card. The new packaging has a HDMI 1.4 sticker on the box to differentiate it from the previous card. However due to the lack of slots in the Mac Pro, most Resolve for Mac users will not install the HDMI bracket as all the slots will be filled with graphics cards, a HBA card to disk storage and a DeckLink card.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Daniel,

The new card is not required for Resolve. Resolve 7.0.1 will continue to support DeckLink HD Extreme 3, DeckLink HD Extreme 3D and DeckLink HD Extreme 3D+.

The earlier DeckLink HD Extreme 2 and the original DeckLink HD Extreme cards are not supported by Resolve as they do not contain the necessary hardware required by Resolve.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design