Blackmagic Forum

Hello,

I want to buy a new license of Davinci Resolve but my local reseller now is selling only the license in Activation Card presentation. I'm traying to find information about the direct differences between license in Dongle and Activation Card but I had no luck with that.

The Activation Card can be used multiple times? for example, what happen if I need to format my pc? Or use the license in my desktop machine one day and in my laptop other day?

Another important thing, the Activation Card Resolve 17 can be used to open Fusion 17 also? Like the dongle? Is really difficult to find more options to get access to the license in Latin America and I'm thinking to buy the new Speed Editor that came with this Activation Card also but I'm not sure because of those doubts.

Those are my main doubts about this type of license.

Hope you can help me with this information, thanks.

Well, a dealer in Germany is offering both key cards and dongle bundled with the Speed Editor, so it should be possible.

But if you take good care of it (which would be the case for a dongle too), the key is the better option:
– You can activate it on two machines.
– You can use use both Fusion Studio and Resolve Studio in version 17.
– If your machine crashes, it doesn't get lost. The third activation will simply cancel the first, wherever in cyberspace it is.

Interesting, so, if I format my pc I can always use this third activation like a license reset on my machines?

Another question, the Activation Card will work always with the original version of the card? I mean with Resolve / Fusion studio 17? Or the same code can be used for future versions also?

Thanks for your help.

Yes to the first question, even if some had difficulties resetting recently, maybe server hiccups.
Worked fine for me yesterday, when I reset an activation on a machine in our university, which is inaccessible to me due to lockdown.

You can use it even for older versions of Resolve, after all 17 is still in beta.
If it'll work for all future versions is not guaranteed, but until now BM has never charged for upgrades.

Just a small addition from my personal experience: If you have 2 computers activated with the same card and then use it to activate a third one - then the first TWO computers will be deactivated and you will need to re-activate the one that you intend to use with the remaining activation on this card. Not a big deal - usually a matter of 2 minutes, but I believe it's worth mentioning it.

Card owner here as well

You can activate 2 devices at any time, when you install on the 3rd one the first activation automatically gets deactivated.

You can also deactivate licenses manually. I find the Key variant much better. I can have Resolve on my main PC and on my M1 MacBookAir.

Thanks a lot for your help guys. I have one last doubt and just to confirm because Uli Plank already mentioned something about it. The Resolve Activation Card will work to open Fusion Studio / Stand Alone also?

I know that already Uli mentioned that it works but now I found this thread where you can see at the end they mentioned that the activation card don't work with Fusion Studio / Stand Alone:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=122981&p=675693&hilit=activation+card#p675693

... Resolve Activation Card = Resolve Studio 2 seats activated at any one time, No Fusion Studio access, No unlimited Fusion Render Node network "floating" license rendering, possibility your eBay reseller sold this camera bundled activation code to many people and your license will be "checked-out" and deactivate often on the internet. ...

What do you know about this? I prefer to confirm, thanks a lot.

Carlos Dordelly wrote:Thanks a lot for your help guys. I have one last doubt and just to confirm because Uli Plank already mentioned something about it. The Resolve Activation Card will work to open Fusion Studio / Stand Alone also?

I know that already Uli mentioned that it works but now I found this thread where you can see at the end they mentioned that the activation card don't work with Fusion Studio / Stand Alone:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=122981&p=675693&hilit=activation+card#p675693

... Resolve Activation Card = Resolve Studio 2 seats activated at any one time, No Fusion Studio access, No unlimited Fusion Render Node network "floating" license rendering, possibility your eBay reseller sold this camera bundled activation code to many people and your license will be "checked-out" and deactivate often on the internet. ...

What do you know about this? I prefer to confirm, thanks a lot.

Starting with Fusion Studio Beta 17 (or 17.1) it works - I've just used 17.1 Fusion Studio on my MacBook M1 activated with a card Also tested it on my wife's Windows machine - it's working fine as well, activated with the same card

Carlos Dordelly wrote:I'm traying to find information about the direct differences between license in Dongle and Activation Card but I had no luck with that.

The big thing about the activation card that I like is that I can back it up. If some sort of catastrophe or theft should befall me, I go out, buy a new computer, restore my backups (a copy of which I keep offsite), and my scanned copy of the activation card is right there for me to use.

Great, thanks again for your help guys, now everything is more clear now. I'll buy it, cheers!

Sean Nelson wrote:The big thing about the activation card that I like is that I can back it up. If some sort of catastrophe or theft should befall me, I go out, buy a new computer, restore my backups (a copy of which I keep offsite), and my scanned copy of the activation card is right there for me to use.

But you may get into a fight with a thief about who is faster when deactivating the each other…

Uli Plank wrote:

Sean Nelson wrote:The big thing about the activation card that I like is that I can back it up. If some sort of catastrophe or theft should befall me, I go out, buy a new computer, restore my backups (a copy of which I keep offsite), and my scanned copy of the activation card is right there for me to use.

But you may get into a fight with a thief about who is faster when deactivating the each other…

No worse than if the thief makes off with my dongle. I think I'll take my chances that the average thief isn't really out there trying to steal Resolve Studio licenses...