Blackmagic Forum

In the near future I want to shoot (for hobby/Youtube) and edit FHD and UHD movies.
I am thinking about the configuration below:

1) Camera: Sony AX53 Camcorder
2) Laptop: Asus VivoBook Pro N580VD 15.6 inch Core i7 Win10Home 16GB 1TB 512GB SSD
3) Davinci Resolve 14.x free edition

Will it be possible to edit movies in FHD and 4K format with Davinci Resolve 14 on the laptop?
At my current All-in-one PC i had problems with Davinci Resolve 14.x, so I stuck with version 12 on the Asus ET2300 with Geforce GT630M 2GB.

Some additional info about the laptop:

- i7-7700HQ processor 2,8GHz - 3,8GHz turbo
- 15.6" 3840 x 2160 screen
- 16 GB RAM DDR4 (SODIMM)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB (+ onboard Intel HD Graphics 630)
- Storage: 1,512TB (including Solid State Disk M.2 of 512GB and a 1TB 5200rpm disk)
- SD card slot
- 2x USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 (Type-C, G1, 5Gb/s), HDMI

(SKU = 90NB0FL2-M08370, N580VD-FJ285T)

Thank you for your reply.
Regards, Martijn

Anyone?

Hardware requirements for Resolve are described here: http://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/D ... _Guide.pdf

Thanks. In this document I can find this text below.

"PC Laptops
In the last year or two there have been an increasing number of systems with the new GPUs
that are suitable for use with DaVinci Resolve. So while performance varies greatly, most
modern AMD, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs that support OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 3.0 compute capability
will operate with Resolve.
When selecting a system for operational ease you should order a laptop with sufficient screen
resolution to clearly show the full UI, such as 1920x1080, and at least 16GB of system RAM.
512GB or more of SSD system disk is also recommended, as is a fast connection for your
media storage."

- The laptp has a NVIDIA GPU GTX1050 4GB, that has 640 CUDA cores, but I can not find anything about the Cuda version. Anyone?
- The SSD is sufficient. I can archive to the slower HDD
- The RAM is sufficien with its 16 GB RAM

Hi Martin.

You can't do the same thing on a Laptop as you can on a Desktop. For UHD 50/60Hz on a Desktop is at least 6 core 12 threads over clocked or 8 core 16 threads factory clocked CPU recommended together with a Graphics Card with at least 8 GB Video ram.

In the Hardware selection and Conrfiguration Guide ver 14:

http://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/D ... _Guide.pdf

At end of page 16 is Dell Precision M6800 and HP Book mension, but they are both two generation OLD.

On page 23 is the Top Current Dell Percision 7720 and HP ZBook 17 G4 described.

But I don't know if you can wait a few months. There is a lot of rumors of some Intel Mobile 6 Core 12 Threads CPU on the Internet.
I will suggest that you try to google: i9-8950HK, i7-8850H or i7-8750H.

If you can't wait will I suggest you look for a gamer laptop with a 8 GB GTX Graphics Card.

Regards Carsten.

Martijn_online wrote:1) Camera: Sony AX53 Camcorder

As far as I know, this camcorder records in XAVC-S, which I don't think Resolve can actually read; you will have to transcode the files (see https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4151251 for example). Maybe you've already been doing that, since you mentioned you were working with Resolve 12 previously, but just wanted to point it out.

Also, I guess much depends on what you mean by "editing" these short videos. If you're not going to do color grading or things like optical flow, you might be able to get away with a less powerful machine. For example, for the past 6 months I've been using Resolve 14 on a 2014 i5 Mac Mini, which doesn't come close to meeting Resolve's hardware configuration standards (even has integrated Intel graphics, no separate GPU), and I've yet to have a problem even when applying simple color grade adjustments and a couple of nodes. I don't think I could do more than a 5-minute video, or slow motion using optical flow, or multi-node grading, but for simple editing and basic color grading it's working fine.

Brad Hurley wrote:

Martijn_online wrote:1) Camera: Sony AX53 Camcorder

As far as I know, this camcorder records in XAVC-S, which I don't think Resolve can actually read; you will have to transcode the files (see https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4151251 for example). Maybe you've already been doing that, since you mentioned you were working with Resolve 12 previously, but just wanted to point it out.

Also, I guess much depends on what you mean by "editing" these short videos. If you're not going to do color grading or things like optical flow, you might be able to get away with a less powerful machine. For example, for the past 6 months I've been using Resolve 14 on a 2014 i5 Mac Mini, which doesn't come close to meeting Resolve's hardware configuration standards (even has integrated Intel graphics, no separate GPU), and I've yet to have a problem even when applying simple color grade adjustments and a couple of nodes. I don't think I could do more than a 5-minute video, or slow motion using optical flow, or multi-node grading, but for simple editing and basic color grading it's working fine.

Thx for the reply. I will make some simple movies, for example 10-15 for Youtube or 30 mins for a holiday movie. Just simple editing, add some sound, a title, etc.
I haven't used the AX53 before but did order it today I read it is a great camera. I did shoot with my iPhone before some short stuff at holidays. And years ago I had a miniDV camcorder. It is catching dust at the moment. I wanted to spend more time with making moving images, so I did invest in new hardware today.

Thanks for the link; I need the info probably to convert the formats.
I will let know what the results are.

Carsten Sellberg wrote:Hi Martin.

You can't do the same thing on a Laptop as you can on a Desktop. For UHD 50/60Hz on a Desktop is at least 6 core 12 threads over clocked or 8 core 16 threads factory clocked CPU recommended together with a Graphics Card with at least 8 GB Video ram.

In the Hardware selection and Conrfiguration Guide ver 14:

http://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/D ... _Guide.pdf

At end of page 16 is Dell Precision M6800 and HP Book mension, but they are both two generation OLD.

On page 23 is the Top Current Dell Percision 7720 and HP ZBook 17 G4 described.

But I don't know if you can wait a few months. There is a lot of rumors of some Intel Mobile 6 Core 12 Threads CPU on the Internet.
I will suggest that you try to google: i9-8950HK, i7-8850H or i7-8750H.

If you can't wait will I suggest you look for a gamer laptop with a 8 GB GTX Graphics Card.

Regards Carsten.

Thanks for the reply.

I wanted to invest not to "the max". I you want a ZBook, Dell XPS15, or top notch game laptop, you need to spend probably around EUR 2000-3000 or more. The amount will probably higher if you will buy a 6 core system (and a UHD screen) in the near future.

I will give an update later when I have some experience with simple editing on the
Asus VivoBook Pro N580VD-FJ285T. Today I had the opportunity to buy it for around 1440 euro.

Hi Martin.

When I look at your two last answers do I feel that I have to ask you some more questens.

Have you ever seen a video in 4K 25 fps?
It is not a video in 4K 50 fps, not at all.

The Specification for Sony AX53 say:
VIDEO RESOLUTION XAVC S 4K : 3840x2160/25p, 24p, XAVC S HD : 1920x1080/50p

From: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/hand ... ifications

I don't understand your choice for a Labtop. And I don't understand you choose a 4K Display on a 15.6" Screen?
Have you ever seen that or do you only order without actual seeing the things?
Here is a link to a test at Notebookcheck which I trust:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-Vivo ... 952.0.html

They write under verdict:

'We are still having trouble recommending the VivoBook at this point, because there are dropouts, extreme throttling on battery power and pulsating fan behavior'


In DaVinci Resolve is the CPU used for to run the app, disk I/O and compression and decompression of codecs.
Resolve does all its image processing in GPU.
The CPUs are used for decoding and encoding compressed files, and not image processing.

So there is two reason to recommend a graphics card with 6 GB or 8 GB vram. The other is that they has more CUDA Cores for the image processing.

Here is a CUDA Benchmark for your GTX 1050 and my two suggestens. As you se the GTX 1060 6 GB and GTX 1070 is much better to CUDA/Image processing performance .

GeForce GTX 1050: 79222

GeForce GTX 1060 6GB: 137601

GeForce GTX 1070: 181070

https://browser.geekbench.com/cuda-benchmarks

I am staying in Spain for the Easter. Here are two links to Amazon, Spain for a laptop with a GTX 1060 6 GB at similar price as your Asus.
And one with GTX 1070 cost only a little more:

EUR 1.499 MSI Titan GT73EVR 7RD-1027XES - Ordenador portátil de 17.3" FHD (Kabylake i7-7700HQ, RAM de 16 GB DDR4, SSD de 256 GB y 1 TB HDD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, sin sistema operativo)

https://www.amazon.es/MSI-Titan-GT73EVR ... B1070&th=1

EUR 1.715,60 MSI Titan GT73EVR 7RE-1026XES - Ordenador portátil de 17.3" FHD (Kabylake i7-7700HQ, RAM de 16 GB DDR4, SSD de 256 GB y 1 TB HDD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, sin sistema operativo) negro

https://www.amazon.es/MSI-Titan-GT73EVR ... s=msi+1070

It is just to show you prices. I will recommend you to actual go and see some Laptops yourself.

Regards Carsten.

Dear Carsten,

Thanks for the reply.

i choose a laptop because of the limited space in my small appartment. So i will probably not use it on battery while editing.
There are a lot of positive user reviews for the laptop at Dutch sites. This model has no TN panel, it has a IPS UHD touch screen.

I am familiar with the fact the Sony camera has a lower 4K framerate. But it is a consumer camera and you get the related value for money. It could be always better for a higher price.

Regards,
Martijn

Hi Martin.

You wrote in a previous post: 'I haven't used the AX53 before but did order it today I read it is a great camera.'

But its codec is not good for Resolve. My suggesten is to return it and find an another camera in the the same price range, but one with MP4 recording.

You Write: 'There are a lot of positive user reviews for the laptop at Dutch sites. This model has no TN panel, it has a IPS UHD touch screen.'

I love IPS screens. But is the positive user reviews for the laptop also covering programs like Resolve wish do all the Image Processing in the CUDA Cores?

Have you ever considered to swap your current All-in-one PC out with a Desktop with a Overclocked 8700K like this. It will even be cheaper:
$1350 8700K Video Editing BEAST! Premiere Pro & Davinci Resolve:



If not, will I recommend you to buy a Laptop with so many CUDA Cores you can afford. I don't mind if you buy a 15,6" one, as long as it have many CUDA Cores. How to search for many CUDA Cores?
Search for Labtops with GTX 1060 6GB, GTX 1070 or even GTX 1080.

Regards Carsten.

Brad Hurley wrote:As far as I know, this camcorder records in XAVC-S, which I don't think Resolve can actually read; you will have to transcode the files (see https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4151251 for example). Maybe you've already been doing that, since you mentioned you were working with Resolve 12 previously, but just wanted to point it out.
...

Carsten Sellberg wrote:Hi Martin.

You wrote in a previous post: 'I haven't used the AX53 before but did order it today I read it is a great camera.'

But its codec is not good for Resolve. My suggesten is to return it and find an another camera in the the same price range, but one with MP4 recording.
...

I'm sorry, but I don't understand where these posts are coming from?

I've edited XAVC-S extensively in Resolve from a Sony A6300 and it works as well (or badly) as other AVCHD formats.

And MP4 is wrapper, not a codec. So MP4 recording doesn't indicate what codec was used.

All that said, the Studio version of Resolve gives much better AVCHD performance than does the free version (at least when using Windows 10, an Intel CPU and NVidia GPU).

I hope that helps.

Last weeks I created a test video that takes about 10 minutes.

- Camera: Sony AX53
- The videos from the camera SD card where imported on the editing system with Sony software: PlayMemories Home
- Editing with Davinci Resolve 14 @ Asus VivoBook Pro N580VD laptop
- Music production with Ableton Live 10 @ Asus ET2300

Most of the scenes are shot in 4K/25 frames, except the high speed shots.
I need to get a bit more handy with the camcorder and editing, but it is a start.
No conversion of formats was needed.
There is a steady shot test at 5:34