Blackmagic Forum

So I was checking out the license for Resolve Studio and was very surprised at how much it went up, especially the dongle. On B&H, the dongle cost $689USD and the software activation key cost $325. Is this due to the tariff imposition and why does the dongle cost more than twice the SAK? Or is this the new price based on Grant talking about upgrade cost on new Resolve Studio license? It used to be both dongle and key cost $295. I can deal with the $325 increase but the dongle, I don’t get why double the price? In fact, with the SAK, you can simultaneously activate and use 2 computers but with the dongle, only one computer is activated. That really sucks.

The dongle price reflects country of origin tariffs and taxes.

Ellory Yu wrote:So I was checking out the license for Resolve Studio and was very surprised at how much it went up, especially the dongle. On B&H, the dongle cost $689USD and the software activation key cost $325. Is this due to the tariff imposition and why does the dongle cost more than twice the SAK? Or is this the new price based on Grant talking about upgrade cost on new Resolve Studio license? It used to be both dongle and key cost $295. I can deal with the $325 increase but the dongle, I don’t get why double the price? In fact, with the SAK, you can simultaneously activate and use 2 computers but with the dongle, only one computer is activated. That really sucks.

Resolve Studio (software activation) is still $295 if you buy it directly from BMD:


Here is the link: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... nciresolve

Also the same price from Amazon: http://www.tinyurl.com/23ymolf9


The dongle version will always be more expensive becouse it cover the hardware cost of the dongle, but shouldn't cost more than 10% more. I don't see a point of getting the dongle version anyway.. the software activation is much cheaper and much more convenient in my opinion.

Yasser Saeed wrote:The dongle version will always be more expensive

It never was before. This price difference is new.

Jim Simon wrote:

Yasser Saeed wrote:The dongle version will always be more expensive

It never was before. This price difference is new.

Clearly BMD was covering the cost of the dongle but in reality a dongle version should costs more than a software-only version.

Not sure I agree there's a "should" here.

Activation Card and Dongle have been the same price since I started using Resolve at version 12.

I'm sure folks would love to see that policy return...someday.

Yasser Saeed wrote:

Jim Simon wrote:

Yasser Saeed wrote:The dongle version will always be more expensive

It never was before. This price difference is new.

Clearly BMD was covering the cost of the dongle but in reality a dongle version should costs more than a software-only version.

I have several dongles purchased throughout the years (from 2012 to 2024) it was always $295 regardless where I bought it, including from B&H where I saw the astronomical price increase. So the tariff and fees are over 100% then in the USA? Ouch!

Like Jim, my experience is the same. I also have several activation keys and it was $295 regardless where it was purchased - directly from BMD or one of their USA resellers.

I’d better be protective of my dongles then coz at those prices, it’s going to be a stretch to replace them. (

One thing I have learned the hard way is that if you have a dongle and the dongle fails or dies, without your original receipt, BMD won’t replace it with a working one, even if you offer them a replacement fee. Well, I had a couple of old dongles (2012-2014) that failed and I no longer have the receipt so it just went to the waste bin. So keep that in mind. No one keeps 10 year old receipts - at least nominee that I know of. So what I am getting at is there is really no support for the dongles.

Jim Simon wrote:Not sure I agree there's a "should" here.

Activation Card and Dongle have been the same price since I started using Resolve at version 12.

I'm sure folks would love to see that policy return...someday.

100% agree. The hardware cost is minimal to nothing (those usb stick in volume are about .15$ - I know I buy them in bulk coz we ship our software on 32Gb usb sticks). Also, the dongle won’t let you activate on 2 computers concurrently - just one, when compared to the activation keys. So you need to buy 2 dongles if you have 2 computers.

Peter Chamberlain wrote:The dongle price reflects country of origin tariffs and taxes.

Is China the country of origin then? It was my understanding that other countries are at a 10% tariff or none. Maybe it needs to be changed to another country of origin asap, just like the BM Camera as Kristian mentioned in a different post.

Jim Simon wrote:Not sure I agree there's a "should" here.

Activation Card and Dongle have been the same price since I started using Resolve at version 12.

I'm sure folks would love to see that policy return...someday.

I understand that BMD was selling the dongle at the same price as the activation key, and this is not my point .. what I am meant is that the actual cost of a hardware (the dongle) is naturally more than the cost of simply generating activation key .. thus it cost BMD more to offer the dongle for the same price as the activation key. Clearly BMD was not passing that extra cost to the end user for selling.

Ellory Yu wrote:

Jim Simon wrote:Not sure I agree there's a "should" here.

Activation Card and Dongle have been the same price since I started using Resolve at version 12.

I'm sure folks would love to see that policy return...someday.

100% agree. The hardware cost is minimal to nothing (those usb stick in volume are about .15$ - I know I buy them in bulk coz we ship our software on 32Gb usb sticks). Also, the dongle won’t let you activate on 2 computers concurrently - just one, when compared to the activation keys. So you need to buy 2 dongles if you have 2 computers.

USB flash storage is different than USB license dongle and it cost much more to manufacture USB license dongles for different reasons including that USB license dongles are produced in much much less quantity comparing to USB flash storage.

Why would anyone go with dongle instead of activation key? Activation keys are much better.

Activation keys require servers and software that they didn't need before introducing activation keys with DaVinci Resolve 14. That costs money as well.

roger.magnusson wrote:Activation keys require servers and software that they didn't need before introducing activation keys with DaVinci Resolve 14. That costs money as well.

Well, BMD already had servers before offering activation keys and I am sure they also developed the activation software in-house

Why most software companies are moving away from dongle licenses even though it is very secure against piracy? Cost is the main reason.

Well, creating services in-house isn't free either.

Dongles are good for high end post houses that have clients where the media isn't allowed to even go near a workstation that is connected to the internet.

How is the US government going to collect tariffs on electronic imports?

For physical imports they can hold the product until the tariff is paid but when all you're getting is a number that can be delivered via email -- how does the US government know this transaction has taken place at all?

I can't wait for the de minimis exemption to be phased out next month... US customs are going to be *so* backlogged with tiny packages and a great many of those will simply be abandoned because they're likely to be $5 items from Temu.

The warehousing and logistics for this are going to be a sight to behold!

roger.magnusson wrote:Well, creating services in-house isn't free either.

Dongles are good for high end post houses that have clients where the media isn't allowed to even go near a workstation that is connected to the internet.

I see .. now that make sense. But isn't the same thing if you physically disconnect the workstation from the internet after activating Resolve?

Yasser Saeed wrote:

roger.magnusson wrote:Well, creating services in-house isn't free either.

Dongles are good for high end post houses that have clients where the media isn't allowed to even go near a workstation that is connected to the internet.

I see .. now that make sense. But isn't the same thing if you physically disconnect the workstation from the internet after activating Resolve?

But that is a hassle because you’re going to have to do that every time you start Resolve. Also, dongles are just flash drive with a software that generates encrypted keys, similar to the software that generates the software activation key. That software is purchased to generate the dongle key on the flash drive. We have one of those in the software company I use to work for that developed document imaging solutions. It’s not that complicated or expensive and as I said the dongles are just regular USB flash drive - cheap because they’re even just usb 1.0 slow drives with probably 2gb of storage.


Anyway, besides that point which I really don’t want to debate the justification for the price difference, the dongle and activation keys were $295 just a month ago. BMD is selling the activation key for $295 but resellers in the USA (I.e. B&H) has it for $325. The dongle, that is extremely more, over 100% in price increase. It use to be just $295. Is BMD selling it for $295 still? I don’t see it in their website.

Is the dongle BM using a licensed technology like the iLok?

Check other authorized sellers. I found at least one US seller with the dongle for $295.

visualfeast wrote:Check other authorized sellers. I found at least one US seller with the dongle for $295.

Who? Please provide link. Thanks.

mpetech wrote:Is the dongle BM using a licensed technology like the iLok?

I don’t know if that is what they use but we have used the ILok product to create license fabs for our software back in the days.

Ellory Yu wrote:

Yasser Saeed wrote:

roger.magnusson wrote:Well, creating services in-house isn't free either.

Dongles are good for high end post houses that have clients where the media isn't allowed to even go near a workstation that is connected to the internet.

I see .. now that make sense. But isn't the same thing if you physically disconnect the workstation from the internet after activating Resolve?

But that is a hassle because you’re going to have to do that every time you start Resolve. Also, dongles are just flash drive with a software that generates encrypted keys, similar to the software that generates the software activation key. That software is purchased to generate the dongle key on the flash drive. We have one of those in the software company I use to work for that developed document imaging solutions. It’s not that complicated or expensive and as I said the dongles are just regular USB flash drive - cheap because they’re even just usb 1.0 slow drives with probably 2gb of storage.


Anyway, besides that point which I really don’t want to debate the justification for the price difference, the dongle and activation keys were $295 just a month ago. BMD is selling the activation key for $295 but resellers in the USA (I.e. B&H) has it for $325. The dongle, that is extremely more, over 100% in price increase. It use to be just $295. Is BMD selling it for $295 still? I don’t see it in their website.

But internet is not required to use Resolve Studio! It's only needed once when activating the Studio version for the first time, after that single process you can disconnect the internet and use Resolve Studio offline without any internet connection.

Also, to my understanding, dongles are not the same as flash drives as it should use special proprietary hardware not found in flash drives. That is why you can not convert a USB flash into dongle unless maybe if you physically modify the flash drive/firmware which is not feasible anyway.

Finally, yes BMD is still selling the Studio version for $295 and I provided a link for the OP above. Also Amazon is still selling it for the same price as BMD. Find link in my reply to the OP.

Yasser Saeed wrote:But internet is not required to use Resolve Studio! It's only needed once when activating the Studio version for the first time, after that single process you can disconnect the internet and use Resolve Studio offline without any internet connection.

Have you tested this? It’s my understanding that when Resolve starts it reaches out to some BMD license server to verify that your Studio is licensed and that you have not installed on more than 2 computers. I hope you’re right and someone prove me wrong because then your argument why a dongle is still needed makes total sense.

Yasser Saeed wrote:
Also, to my understanding, dongles are not the same as flash drives as it should use special proprietary hardware not found in flash drives. That is why you can not convert a USB flash into dongle unless maybe if you physically modify the flash drive/firmware which is not feasible anyway.

In the old days, dongles were different from flash drive because dongle’s microchip was a dedicated DRM with a small amount of EPROM to store encrypted license data. That became expensive to manufacture and as USB flash drives got reasonably cheap and license burner software became available, for example ILok, the flash usb with very small amounts of memory (2gb or less) were used. A license kernel that is burned and hidden in some sector of the partition that runs the license code along with some proprietary and encrypted license data is flashed into the drive. In that sense, the flash drive is not used as a storage device and is not readable as a storage partition. It becomes a dedicated hardware. The idea is really similar but not the same as when you create a Linux boot flash drive. Which of this type BMD uses IDK and I don’t care.

Ellory Yu wrote:Have you tested this? It’s my understanding that when Resolve starts it reaches out to some BMD license server to verify that your Studio is licensed and that you have not installed on more than 2 computers. I hope you’re right and someone prove me wrong because then your argument why a dongle is still needed makes total sense.

Yes I tested that many times in the past when I first purchased my Resolve Studio 15 license ... so I am sure that internet is only needed when first time activating the software, and also when activating the software on another machines, after that you can use Resolve Studio offline in both machines.

Ellory Yu wrote: In the old days, dongles were different from flash drive because dongle’s microchip was a dedicated DRM with a small amount of EPROM to store encrypted license data. That became expensive to manufacture and as USB flash drives got reasonably cheap and license burner software became available, for example ILok, the flash usb with very small amounts of memory (2gb or less) were used. A license kernel that is burned and hidden in some sector of the partition that runs the license code along with some proprietary and encrypted license data is flashed into the drive. In that sense, the flash drive is not used as a storage device and is not readable as a storage partition. It becomes a dedicated hardware. The idea is really similar but not the same as when you create a Linux boot flash drive. Which of this type BMD uses IDK and I don’t care.

Well if that is true, then duplicating a USB dongle should be possible without modifying the hardware of the USB flash, but I still doubt its that easy.

Ellory Yu wrote:Who? Please provide link. Thanks.

https://melrosemac.com/brands/blackmagicdesign


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