19 Or 20?

I would like to say a whopping great big hello to all of you from all of me. This is my first post on this Forum. I hope to learn a lot from all of you and maybe occasionally throw in my probably useless contribution to things. Let me then jump straight into things with a rather blunt question.

I downloaded the free version of Davinci Resolve 19 a few weeks ago. I tried it for a few days and like it so much that I then paid for the Studio version. I am sure that to anyone who uses it will appreciate just how steep the learning curve is.

I see that Version 20 Beta is now available for download. Given that it may have bugs in the system and that I am still learning as quickly as I am able would you stick with version 19 for the time being or jump straight into 20 and risk any potential bugs adding additional confusion to my sometimes extremely confused state of mind?

Thanks in advance for any and all opinions.

Kind regards,

Geoff

Better stay on 19 and do your learning there.
Update to 20 when a stable release comes out. Something like 20.1.x

Definitely stay at 19 during the learning phase and upgrade when BMD release a stable version of 20 as Robert said.

Thank you very much to both of you for the advice. Quite typically of my 'monkey see monkey want' attitude I did download V20. This was of course before you both published your advice. My first download did not want to accept that I was using the paid version and even though it was Studio 20 that I downloaded I could not use the Magic Mask facility. I tried again and had the same result. On my third download Magic Mask did work but on 3 lots of video I attempted to use it the Studio version crashed completely. I deleted it and have gone back to V19. I must say that I absolutely love it but will openly confess that I seem to be spending far too much time on it. The thing is though I think it's excellent and want to learn everything.

PS really nice to meet you both and thanks again for the advice.

If you need to do something important stay on 19

If you just want to learn the new features and don't care about any bugs upgrade

In my personal view, if you really are just learning or trying to get good at tools already there. Resolve 19 and Resolve 19 studio in particular is packed with so many features that you would probably still be learning by the time Resolve 21 comes out if you wanted to learn it all. So there is no real rush other than if you curious or impatient. You can use Resolve Studio 19 for everything, have probably more stable version to work with, and after Resolve 20 is officially released and a maybe 20.1 is out. Try upgrading than. It should be better overall expriance. If you are really curious, have no critical projects to work on and you just want to explore and play, than it really doesn't matter. Both have lot to offer and its juts a matter of preference at that point.

Resolve 19 and Resolve 19 studio in particular is packed with so many features that you would probably still be learning by the time Resolve 21 comes out.

goodness, i started with resolve 12 (2016), and i'm still learning - and am likely to be for the foreseeable future since i seem to forget as quickly as i learn

i often wonder if anyone has a REAL handle on the whole of resolve - from basic editing through to in depth fusion, via colour and fairlight. it really is an amazing piece of software.

Better stay on 19 and do your learning there.
Update to 20 when a stable release comes out. Something like 20.1.x

100% agree. V19 is stable.
V20 is V20.01 Public Beta. NOT V20 a Release but a Beta

If you are doing real work, wait for Release 20.1

i often wonder if anyone has a REAL handle on the whole of resolve - from basic editing through to in depth fusion, via colour and fairlight. it really is an amazing piece of software.

Probably not. I know a lot of things, but I find myself learning some new hidden gem feature or new ways of doing something or new technique, almost every single days. Its pretty crazy how many things there are to learn, but at least its never boring. Cheers!

I started in v8... and at the Blackmagic booth Joe show me something in the advance panel I was not aware of....

always learning.

Better stick with a stable 19.1.4, PLENTY to learn from.

Hello Geoff and welcome!

Personally, I decided to YOLO and install the 20 public beta this morning!

They've made SO many new improvements, I think it's better just to use their latest software. Like Voice Overs being much easier. A vertical layout on Edit page (if you are editing vertical video). Keyframe panel on Edit page. New Titles. Auto-generate ANIMATED captions.

So depends if those improvements sounds worth it to you.... some of these features I'm excited about are oriented a little more towards social media.

See here for full list of changes:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... e/whatsnew

...would you stick with version 19 for the time being or jump straight into 20...

IMHO, almost everything you learn about version 19 will be perfectly applicable when you upgrade to 20, and you'll be less distracted by the fancy bells and whistles of the new version. And I expect that the available training material for 19 is a lot more mature as well.

I got my start by following along with the training videos on the DaVinci Resolve Training page. You can download all of the files used in the videos and actually do the steps described in them, no better way to learn IMHO. And I'm sure that none of that is based on version 20 yet.

Time invested in learning the editor will be repaid many times over in improved productivity and creative options on all of your future projects.

would you stick with version 19 for the time being or jump straight into 20

Work with 19 on your edit system, play around with 20 on your personal system.

goodness, i started with resolve 12 (2016), and i'm still learning - and am likely to be for the foreseeable future since i seem to forget as quickly as i learn

i often wonder if anyone has a REAL handle on the whole of resolve - from basic editing through to in depth fusion, via colour and fairlight. it really is an amazing piece of software.

You remind me of myself
I started learning grading in Resolve maybe in version 10 but Resolve is a super huge software and I do not think it is even possible for a single person to know every single function in all pages, not even BMD

For me, by the time I learn so many functions, more and more functions are added in the next updates, and this means I will never stop learning, especially that I forget as quickly as I learn

Contrary to the popular opinion here: Go for v20, even it is still in Beta. WHY?
v20 is packed with AI features, so knowing them beforehand gives you a competitive advantage if you know how and when to use them.
My main profession if totally unrelated to video producing, but I see that people that do not how to use AI are slowly becoming obsolete.
Yeah - I know that a team of highly skilled professionals will deliver a better video in 5 months from now, but given the fact that AI can produce a similar job in hours... I'd bet on knowing how to use the latest AI tools in advance of the people that are currently learning v19 without the AI stuff...

Contrary to the popular opinion here: Go for v20, even it is still in Beta. WHY?
v20 is packed with AI features, so knowing them beforehand gives you a competitive advantage if you know how and when to use them.

Non of the AI features of v20 will give you competitive advantage if you haven't learned the basic features of Resolve and if you don't know your way around media handling, video editing, audio editing and all the other skills. Without experience you will lack the knowledge when AI will and does fail the task.

My main profession if totally unrelated to video producing, but I see that people that do not how to use AI are slowly becoming obsolete.
Yeah - I know that a team of highly skilled professionals will deliver a better video in 5 months from now, but given the fact that AI can produce a similar job in hours... I'd bet on knowing how to use the latest AI tools in advance of the people that are currently learning v19 without the AI stuff...

If you only know how to use the AI tools you are nothing more than a button pushing monkey getting replaced soon by a button pushing AI.

Contrary to the popular opinion here: Go for v20, even it is still in Beta. WHY?
v20 is packed with AI features, so knowing them beforehand gives you a competitive advantage if you know how and when to use them.

Non of the AI features of v20 will give you competitive advantage if you haven't learned the basic features of Resolve and if you don't know your way around media handling, video editing, audio editing and all the other skills. Without experience you will lack the knowledge when AI will and does fail the task.

My main profession if totally unrelated to video producing, but I see that people that do not how to use AI are slowly becoming obsolete.
Yeah - I know that a team of highly skilled professionals will deliver a better video in 5 months from now, but given the fact that AI can produce a similar job in hours... I'd bet on knowing how to use the latest AI tools in advance of the people that are currently learning v19 without the AI stuff...

If you only know how to use the AI tools you are nothing more than a button pushing monkey getting replaced soon by a button pushing AI.

Totaly agree with Robert and always remember, no pain no gain.

I've gotta tell you all the truth. I have been binge watching You Tube tutorials and am desperate to learn the Fusion page. There is an American lad called Casey Farris and I find his stuff mesmerising. Having said this all of the features on the other 6 pages of Resolve are mind numbingly good. I used to use Powerdirector 365 and frankly Resolve makes it look like a child with crayons efforts. There is just sooooooo much to learn with Resolve I sometimes feel like I will never fully understand it. I do absolutely love it though and even if I never fully understand everything it will do it probably doesn't matter all that much to me. I did load V20 but it crashed on me 3 times when using Magic Mask so I went back to V19.

WHOOPS, almost forgetting myself. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to reply.

Geoffrey, can you post the specifications of your machine in your signature? so we can see what you are dealing with. (like I'm doing)

Thanks!

The more guinea pigs using V20 and submitting bug reports, the better the release version will be for me when when I install it this winter.

So I recommend you use the latest beta.

Geoffrey, can you post the specifications of your machine in your signature? so we can see what you are dealing with. (like I'm doing)

Thanks!

Thanks? You really do not need to thank me. I guess that everybody here is trying to help me. In that spirit it really should be me thanking you so thank you.

I have an LG Gram laptop with an I7 1165G7 x64 processor. i have 16GB of RAM I suspect this point is where someone suggests that my device is not up to running Resolve. That may or may not be correct. The thing is though it ran Powerdirector 365 perfectly. Upon moving to Resolve 19 thus far I have had no real issues with crashing or freezing other than when I tried Magic Mask on Resolve V20. If ultimately I need more resource then I suppose I shall just have to get more resource. It is though, at least for me very much chicken and egg. When I bought my laptop I did not expect to find myself becoming so quickly addicted to video and photo editing. Here I am however foaming at the mush with boundless enthusiasm.

Does your machine have a standalone GPU? The memory is mainly an issue with Fusion. Magic Mask slowing down is your GPU most likely. Especially if you're only running on the IGPU.

Does your machine have a standalone GPU? The memory is mainly an issue with Fusion. Magic Mask slowing down is your GPU most likely. Especially if you're only running on the IGPU.

Intel Iris Xe is what I have

Intel Iris Xe is what I have

That will take a bit out of your 16GB of RAM.

So a more powerful computer is the way to go in the long run.

Intel Iris Xe is what I have

That will take a bit out of your 16GB of RAM.

So a more powerful computer is the way to go in the long run.

It's a really good laptop and pretty new. For what I originally bought it for i have had absolutely no negative issues. I did mention earlier about chicken and egg. I had no intentions of getting myself immersed into editing not very long ago. I bought a DJI drone, then another and then another and this lead me into trying to present my footage looking as good as I could get it. I started with Inshot which was OK on a phone. I then moved to Powerdirector on laptop on phone and these worked very well. I recently bought into Resolve and hola I present you with the chucky egg from chicken and egg. I will be changing laptops pretty soon. A lot sooner now that I have found just how addictive editing is proving to be. For now though my laptop is kinda holding its own, at least it is using Resolve 19. Resolve 20 though is calling me and I am very much monkey see monkey want.

I'm taking advantage of this thread to introduce myself and hope to be very active here, as I'm new to everything... both video editing and using DR. I currently have a rather modest computer to work fluently, but it's sufficient for this start. I'll soon have a somewhat more decent computer, and right now I'm learning from scratch, using tutorials, YouTube videos, and everything I can read or see on the internet, to learn the basics. Since I'm eager, I've downloaded the Beta version, although when I get the new computer, I'll download the latest stable version. While it's true that I'm still using the free version, I see that this application is absolutely brilliant, so it will be worth getting the Studio license, which I will purchase for the new computer.
Keep reading here, as I have a whole world to discover...

Alex

Sorry, Google traslate

I'm taking advantage of this thread to introduce myself...

Welcome to the forum!

...right now I'm learning from scratch, using tutorials, YouTube videos, and everything I can read or see on the internet

I highly recommend going through the training videos on the DaVinci Resolve Training page by downloading the sample files and actually performing the steps described in the videos. They'll take you methodically through all of the major features so that you'll have a well rounded understanding of the suite's capabilities, rather than just piecemeal snippets of what you think you need to know. I believe that it's time that will be well rewarded by fluency and awareness of your creative options.

Sean, I'm following your advice...

It's the first thing I'm doing: watching the training videos. They're very well-structured, and some of them are in my language, which is important since my English is quite poor.

Thank you!

Welcome to the forum.

this is a (somewhat random) collection of resources...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZFPZ2y3OAexts4J43aNcoIkJ2ewT6QjuYaqipSmR_l4/edit?usp=sharing

One option which I used was (assumming your sys Drive is large enough...1tb or greater) create another partition with OS WIN 10/Linux) run DRS 19.x.x on main partition of WIN 11 and install on second free version of DR 20 beta to experiment etc.