One big issue with DaVinci Resolve on Linux, is the fact that it doesn't support h264, and you need to transcode all your files to a supported format, before using them.
2. This requires ~2x time and disk space, given that most end-user cameras record H.264/H.265
By the way, they chose to cripple it by making these codecs premium-only features on Linux only: https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/SupportNotes/DaVinci_... Their excuse for not having H.264 is an outright lie, because Cisco has already paid the royalties for all binary users of OpenH264 on any OS. Furthermore, even if you buy their premium version, the only option to encode to H.264/H.265 on Linux is NVENC, which is inferior to CPU encoders and requires you to own an Nvidia card.
Only the free version doesn't support h264. If you get the paid version, you get h264 support. My understanding is that this is not BM's fault, simply the way license agreements for that codec work.
Vivaldi browser also doesnt ship codecs. They simply use whatever is available in the system. Means they might be the only browser that crashes when trying to play video in Windows N. But even they are able to use ffmpeg codecs installed in Linux.
I venture a guess DaVinci Resolve not using already installed codecs is either one of the ways to generate sales, or result of strong arming by MPEG LA.
That's totally on them and is plainly wrong. They can simply use OpenH264 to load H.264 videos, but they choose not to.
Cisco paid for all H.264 royalties on any platform (under the condition that you use their binaries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenH264 And this was back in 2013.
Just as a warning, there are a myriad of issues on linux. I took the time to dissect an entire video some fellow did on the topic, because he framed it as being linux's fault and not his or Blackmagics. (him for lack of troubleshooting and blackmagics for some dev mistakes on the linux version)
Bottom line is be willing to play around with your DE/WM to get Resolve working well in linux. If you do that it can be a much nicer experience.
I just stick to shotcut myself, as a gpl-type person.
> I just stick to shotcut myself, as a gpl-type person.
There is just no comparison, feature-richness-wise. Shotcut is a toy compared to Resolve.
> there are a myriad of issues on linux
YMMV. I had installations that had 0 problems installing or running Resolve on Linux (with NVIDIA card, that's probably the most supported form of hardware for Resolve.)
I take that you've never actually tried using it on Linux. The free version is pretty much the worst free video editor on Linux.
Both the free and premium versions are heavily crippled with virtually all common encoders and decoders either restricted or totally unavailable.
It also doesn't even start unless you have an Nvidia card and use closed source proprietary drivers. Despite all the users (paid or unpaid) reporting the issues on Intel and AMD, they just ignore them. And even if they fix those issues, H.264/H.265 encoding (premium-only) is only possible with NVENC with no CPU encoding alternative.
Well, is it any better than Adobe's bs h264 encoder which is visibly worse at the same bitrate than any open source solution? What good does it do to include an encoder if it can only do bad quality? (Where does all that subscription money even going, Adobe? Adding more bugs and bad quality code?) We'll have to re-encode everything after the Adobe step anyway... (Also Adobe doesn't support Linux at all of course, so it's hard to compare there already...)
I mentioned two things: (1) the bigger issue, h264 decoder, Cisco already paid royalties for OpenH264 (when linked to their binary) so they simply have no real excuse for not having H264 decoding on Linux (2) lack of CPU encoder on Linux (it's not clear to me why you're bringing up Adobe since it has nothing to do with encoding on Linux), x264 is the gold standard for encoding H.264. NVENC isn't. The x264 binary can be shipped with proprietary products and they also offer a licensing option for linked usage. Similar comparison (NVENC vs x265) goes for H.265.
You are right, I guess they could make a better product. My point was that BM is still the company (maybe even the only one?) that gives most to Linux world, of all the big media software companies. A free version of an editor of the top tier that is Resolve, supported (!) on some version of Linux, is just unheard of.
My other point was to show that other comparable companies are also having issues with encoding output, that this aspect is not always taken seriously for some reason.
And yes, NVENC sucks and AFAIK it is impossible to configure it to produce the same resulting quality (per Mbps) of encoding than what is possible x264/x265, regardless of whether one wants to sacrifice encoding time or not.
That's not what the Baselight[1] people are saying. :)
One thing that hasn't been mentioned here yet is that Resolve is available for Linux. It is BY FAR the best free video editor for Linux.
[1] https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/products/baselight/overview_bl....