Blackmagic Design unveils DaVinci Resolve 17 with 300 new features, improvements

Blackmagic Design on Monday unveiled the next-generation version of DaVinci Resolve, which brings a slew of new features and improvements to the video editing platform.

DaVinci Resolve 17 introduces 100 new features and 200 improvements, including major updates to the Fairlight audio workstation and color grading toolset alongside broader user interface upgrades.

In the color editing feature set, Resolve 17 brings new HDR color correction tools; mesh- and grid-based color warpers; improved color management and color space aware tools; and magic mask automatic object isolation powered by DaVinci's neural engine.

The audio-focused upgrades include contextual keyboard- and mouse-sensitive tools; a new Fairlight Audio Core that can support 2,000 tracks and auto-load balancing; automatic detection for beats, words, and sound effects; and a new FlexBus architecture for audio routing abilities.

There are also significant changes to the general UI of the system, including a suite of new tools and abilities on the cut and edit pages. According to Blackmagic Design, there are "thousands" of small improvements in the new version.

DaVinci Resolve also supports growing files in media pool; frame-based metadata for BRAW, ARRI, RED, Sony and EXR; and new workflow integration and third party encoder APIs. In DaVinci Resolve 17, the free version also adds new multi-user collaboration tools that were previously only available in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

"This is a massive update and it has amazing new technology and features for colorists, audio engineers, editors and visual effects artists," Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty said.

The new DaVinci Resolve, which requires macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, is currently available to download in beta testing from the company's website.

6 Comments

jdw 1442 comments · 18 Years

About 4 years ago

I look forward to seeing a more comprehensive article that pits Resolve 17 against FCPX, giving special attention to performance. From what I understand, Resolve has surpassed FCPX in some areas when it comes to speed. Speed is key. A lot of folks rave about Adobe Premier's features, forgetting how dog slow it is on the Mac, and also forgetting that horrid subscription model. I'd like to see some Resolve and FCPX feature comparisons to see if Resolve takes the crown when it comes to ease of use. I've been a long time FCPX user and still love the software to this day, but I keep my eyes open as to what's trending or better, especially when updates to FCPX are slow in coming.

filmjeff 17 comments · 6 Years

About 4 years ago

jdw said:

I look forward to seeing a more comprehensive article that pits Resolve 17 against FCPX, giving special attention to performance. From what I understand, Resolve has surpassed FCPX in some areas when it comes to speed. Speed is key. A lot of folks rave about Adobe Premier's features, forgetting how dog slow it is on the Mac, and also forgetting that horrid subscription model. I'd like to see some Resolve and FCPX feature comparisons to see if Resolve takes the crown when it comes to ease of use. I've been a long time FCPX user and still love the software to this day, but I keep my eyes open as to what's trending or better, especially when updates to FCPX are slow in coming.

I'd like to play with it more as well, but what slows it down (like any other editor besides FCPX) is it being track based. That said I almost exclusively work in Avid because of my job, but would love to use almost anything else! Hah. (Besides Premiere for the reasons stated)

Resolve will forever be my Swiss-army knife of converting though. Hardly anything beats it for that purpose, and I love the proxy conversion, especially for h265. And did a quick test and plays well with the new FCPX proxy relinking.

Overall a nice update.

jdw 1442 comments · 18 Years

About 4 years ago

filmjeff said:

jdw said:

I look forward to seeing a more comprehensive article that pits Resolve 17 against FCPX, giving special attention to performance. From what I understand, Resolve has surpassed FCPX in some areas when it comes to speed. Speed is key. A lot of folks rave about Adobe Premier's features, forgetting how dog slow it is on the Mac, and also forgetting that horrid subscription model. I'd like to see some Resolve and FCPX feature comparisons to see if Resolve takes the crown when it comes to ease of use. I've been a long time FCPX user and still love the software to this day, but I keep my eyes open as to what's trending or better, especially when updates to FCPX are slow in coming.

Resolve will forever be my Swiss-army knife of converting though. Hardly anything beats it for that purpose, and I love the proxy conversion, especially for h265. And did a quick test and plays well with the new FCPX proxy relinking.

I shoot exclusively in 10-bit HLG on my Panasonic GH5, so the free version of Resolve won't work for me. I'd love to test the 10-bit capable version to see how fast it is when converting to Proxies, because that is exactly my workflow in FCPX. My mid-2015 15" MBP (top end model) is too slow to work with native media, which is why Proxies are a must. Proxy conversion of HLG Rec.2020 is tricky though. FCPX had a conversion bug for YEARS that only recently was fixed. Curious how well Resolve does it. (I use Rec.2020 HLG on a Rec.709 timeline and use the "Rec.2020" Camera LUT in FCPX to convert the HDR footage to the 0~100 IRE limits of Rec.709.)

filmjeff 17 comments · 6 Years

About 4 years ago

jdw said:

filmjeff said:

jdw said:

I look forward to seeing a more comprehensive article that pits Resolve 17 against FCPX, giving special attention to performance. From what I understand, Resolve has surpassed FCPX in some areas when it comes to speed. Speed is key. A lot of folks rave about Adobe Premier's features, forgetting how dog slow it is on the Mac, and also forgetting that horrid subscription model. I'd like to see some Resolve and FCPX feature comparisons to see if Resolve takes the crown when it comes to ease of use. I've been a long time FCPX user and still love the software to this day, but I keep my eyes open as to what's trending or better, especially when updates to FCPX are slow in coming.

Resolve will forever be my Swiss-army knife of converting though. Hardly anything beats it for that purpose, and I love the proxy conversion, especially for h265. And did a quick test and plays well with the new FCPX proxy relinking.

I shoot exclusively in 10-bit HLG on my Panasonic GH5, so the free version of Resolve won't work for me. I'd love to test the 10-bit capable version to see how fast it is when converting to Proxies, because that is exactly my workflow in FCPX. My mid-2015 15" MBP (top end model) is too slow to work with native media, which is why Proxies are a must. Proxy conversion of HLG Rec.2020 is tricky though. FCPX had a conversion bug for YEARS that only recently was fixed. Curious how well Resolve does it. (I use Rec.2020 HLG on a Rec.709 timeline and use the "Rec.2020" Camera LUT in FCPX to convert the HDR footage to the 0~100 IRE limits of Rec.709.)

You should be able to do a trial of the Studio version to see if it works for you. Hope it works out! (And love the camera btw. I have the GH4 and have always been a fan)

cloudy 3 comments · 4 Years

About 4 years ago

Resolve is killing Apple and Premiere in new user growth. Someone asked the other day in the Blender 3D group what video editing software they were using. It was 20 to 1 Davinci vs anything else. There strategy to give away most of the functionality for free in the regular edition and make it cross platform Mac/LInux/Windows makes it very easy for people to collaborate. And very Apple like they make money from hardware that well designed and premium priced. Final Cut X has some nice features and I enjoyed using it but no way do I want to go back to FCPX.