Blackmagic Forum

Hi,

I'm using Davinci Resolve free version now for a while, and I'm very satisfied with the product.
In a current project which I have to deliver at Christmas, I need to use the noise reduction feature. Since I did not have to use this function up until now, I was not aware that this is only available in the Studio version.
Now, I'd like to buy the Studiio version with activation code, but it seems that it is in backorder everywhere I search.
Can anyone advise me where to buy and get the activation code asap?

Thanks for your quick responces!

Best regards,
Erwin

All licenses are delivered via the post, whether activation or dongle. Getting one delivered before Christmas will be...challenging.

That said, here's where to buy:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... /howtobuy/

As you pointed out, it's backordered in a lot of places, plus you need quick delivery. If you could order and have it FedEx'd that might beat some of the Christmas backup, but you'd still have to be confident that it truly is in stock and the merchant will ship immediately.

I've heard of places that send you the code. Some may not be reputable, but one -- I can't remember which -- is mentioned by a prominent Resolve Youtuber. I think they open the package and type the codes into an email for you and I'm assuming after a while they destroy the card.

There are several YouTube videos online about how to do some amount of noise reduction in the free Resolve and most use the RemoveNoise node in Fusion. The first guy (who is really great for color grading tutorials) first does it with Studio's Color NR, and then does it with Fusion so you can see side-by-side. The second guy also uses RemoveNoise in Fusion, and adds an Unsharp Mask to try to restore a little perceived sharpness back:





Bottom line is that you're bluring stuff and then sharpening to try to tame things. It's more effective for chroma noise, since perceived sharpness is in the luma.

There's also a technique in Color where you convert the video to Lab color space, then split it, blur just the chroma (a and b) and then join it back up and convert back from Lab colorspace. That's basically what the RemoveNoise is doing too, and it takes 5+ Color nodes so it's more complex unless you're a Color guru. On the other hand, Color makes it easy to mask/qualify portions of the image to affect while Fusion is more complex in that case, so if you need to affect just a particular portion of the image Color could be easier.

Last, there are dedicated plugins that you could probably order online and download maybe in the $100 range. Neat Video is mentioned favorably in these forums. Plugins work in the free Resolve.

(Worst-case scenario, you could try (free) Handbrake's denoising. It can do spatial and temporal denoising -- which is what the Studio Color NR uses -- though it's not as sophisticated and obviously you're either running individual clips through it and bringing them back into Resolve or you're going to use it on the entire video output from Resolve which is going to probably not work so well, since each clip/scene probably needs a different level/kind of NR, if it needs it at all. It has two denoisers and the NLMeans option is newer and better.)

Good luck!

Jim Simon wrote:All licenses are delivered via the post, whether activation or dongle./

Not sure that's right, e.g.:
https://annexpro.com/blackmagicdesign/

There was a promo from BM if you buy the Speed Editor then the Studioversion is for for free.

Dirk PEL

John Nolan wrote:Not sure that's right

Some retailers will do something they shouldn't and open your package.

I'm not a fan of that option. One bad employee and things can get difficult for you.

I have the impression that vendors listed as "online resellers" are authorized to sell codes directly. Do you have information to the contrary?

Sure they're authorized to 'sell' the code. But it comes in a sealed package. There's no 'authorization' for retailers to open customers' sealed packages.

Okay.

So, I'm wondering why Blackmagic distinguishes between "Authorized Online Resellers" and "Authorized Resellers" on the vendor list. Both sell from websites.

Hmm...I'm wondering if this varies by country. It seems Canadian vendors offer email codes.

John Nolan wrote:Okay.

So, I'm wondering why Blackmagic distinguishes between "Authorized Online Resellers" and "Authorized Resellers" on the vendor list. Both sell from websites..

I think the distinction may be because of tax laws. Grant said something in one of his videos about doing the free Speed Editor offer from brick-n-mortar resellers because of tax issues. It may be that "free bonus stuff" is treated very differently tax-wise and it's totally distinct from online or not. But it's also my impression that the send-the-code-online places are in fact opening a box and copying the codes for you. If that's true, you're depending on those cards being secured and disposed of appropriately, or you could end up with a dispute where someone else is using your license and they can prove it's theirs because they have the original card.

I can see two potential distinctions: an "Authorized Reseller" may not be authorized to sell this particular product online -- for tax or other reasons -- even though they have an online presence. On the flip side, an "Authorized Online Reseller" may not have a sales presence in any particular jurisdiction and hence may be considered to be selling in every jurisdiction it ever ships to. In the US there was (is?) a big debate about which state(s) get to charge their sales tax on an online purchase, and I think it used to be considered that an online sale from B&H took place at their New York store and they shipped it elsewhere for your convenience. OR something like that.

Okay, thanks for all that Wayne.

Seems so retro to sell numbers on cards—almost like having to fax in your order!

wfolta wrote:

John Nolan wrote:Okay.

So, I'm wondering why Blackmagic distinguishes between "Authorized Online Resellers" and "Authorized Resellers" on the vendor list. Both sell from websites..

I think the distinction may be because of tax laws. Grant said something in one of his videos about doing the free Speed Editor offer from brick-n-mortar resellers because of tax issues. It may be that "free bonus stuff" is treated very differently tax-wise and it's totally distinct from online or not. But it's also my impression that the send-the-code-online places are in fact opening a box and copying the codes for you. If that's true, you're depending on those cards being secured and disposed of appropriately, or you could end up with a dispute where someone else is using your license and they can prove it's theirs because they have the original card.

I can see two potential distinctions: an "Authorized Reseller" may not be authorized to sell this particular product online -- for tax or other reasons -- even though they have an online presence. On the flip side, an "Authorized Online Reseller" may not have a sales presence in any particular jurisdiction and hence may be considered to be selling in every jurisdiction it ever ships to. In the US there was (is?) a big debate about which state(s) get to charge their sales tax on an online purchase, and I think it used to be considered that an online sale from B&H took place at their New York store and they shipped it elsewhere for your convenience. OR something like that.

In some parts of the world there are different rules for on-line selling and buying from a physical shop. Of course this is blurred where bricks and mortar retail stores also have a web shop.....

As noted some distributors simply have a small warehouse where boxes come in one side, the delivery address label changed and they go out the other side of the warehouse. Some like that ship internationally. Others actually have staff and support techs like a conventional value added reseller. They often get to do deals that the box-shifters don't
.