I think you are wrong. Your emotions are running too high! "punishment of people" , "real buggy monster" & "intentional significant flaws" are just silly statements.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev "Am I right about punishment of people who bough used keys on ebay not knowing about any future issues?" No. (pirated dongles)

"Am I right about buggy monstrosity?" No. Less buggy than previous versions. I use daily since version 8.

"Am I right about intentional significant flaws?" No. Free version has missing features. Same (or less) as other editing software. (Avid, Premiere etc.) If there were no free version you would not make this statement. You get what you pay for, after all this is Capitalism.

"I stay fully with my opinion and it is based on my experience and my principles."

Yet you chastise others for having opinions rather than facts. Maybe you should do a little more research on the company you like to criticise? My opinion is also based on my personal experience and principles.... so what?

Predicting the future is a fool's game.

I am with @caveport on this one. (except the last post - that's a little rough :) )

1) BM have repeatedly said on their Resolve forum that people should NOT buy EBAY dongles. I bought mine second hand from a local guy who had packaging and was clearly a legitimate second hand seller.

2) No more bugs than Vegas or Premier. They have introduced a lot of new features and it is a bit of an arms race right now.

3) I didn't experience any "crippling" of the free version. Just missing features that I was willing to pay for. Someone said h264 playback was better in the Studio version, but I didn't notice any difference.

4) Going to subscription model? Maybe. Hope not. Will drop it like a brick if it does.

Only comment I would make regarding subscription:

They have aggressive pricing in order to convert customers from other NLE's, particularly Adobe. They will be aware that a lot of those converts come because they dislike subscriptions, so this may work against any attempt to go to a full subscription model. I am sure MOST software companies want to be subscription based; but most do not have the extortion power to achieve it. That said, I think it would be more likely for BM to do this, than say, MAGIX.

A few years ago, there was a young man and a young lady who were excited to have found each other. They were both a bit immature and both had a lot of growing up to do, but got married anyway, with high hopes for the future.

As time went by the husband matured and was moderately successful in part due to his wife and could afford the basic necessities and could even splurge on a vintage lens, the kind that completed his life in a way that a his wife could not.

His wife turned out to be a great choice in a partner. She was interested in learning and growing and worked hard to meet and anticipate her husband’s needs.

As time went by, she matured, focused on self-improvement and became more and more attractive, with more and more to offer. Some would say she was now the hottest wife around.

Even though she could have, she didn’t leverage her husband based on her increasing attractiveness and status.

Her husband was really happy with his wife, but he had a nagging fear that she had some type of alternative motive and she would eventually take advantage of the growing power imbalance in the relationship.

He could not get this thought out of his mind, so he could not enjoy what he had right in front of him.

He eventually wound up accusing her of setting him up to be taken advantage of by her inceasing position of power.

She did not have put up with this, yet to have happened accusation and stopped considering him in her decisions. Eventually, she gave him an ultimatum: if you want to be with me, you’re gonna have to pay my rent every month.

He thought to himself: why didn’t I just enjoy my hot wife when she was being with me for free?

Maybe if I would have shown my appreciation, she would still be with me for free today?

...maybe not, but if she was secrectly planning on leveraging him, worrying wasn’t going to change her plans and this same worry stole the joy that he could have had everyday they were together until she had a change of heart.

I’m enjoying Resolve more than ever - thanks Blackmagic! I’m going to keep on enjoying it while the upgrades continue to be free. If I have to pay again as an upgrade or a subscription, if there is not something better, I will pay without complaint, if the price is fair, as it has been thus far, IMHO.

"ruthless corporation" is a little over the top. They are ALL "ruthless corporations" to you, so why select some for special criticism? Compared to others, BMD are quite reasonable in their business model. I have had MUCH worse experiences with SONY (and other companies) over the years so I don't agree with your viewpoint.

"I ask people to get knowledge instead of standing for their unfounded opinions." Exactly my point!

Let's look at facts.

Have they EVER charged for major updates since they reduced the cost of Resolve from $300 000 ?

Since what..version 9 ? If you owned the full version of resolve sine then you've NEVER paid to have the most up to date version. And look at the features that have been added while you've been getting those free updates.

I don't even use the new audio / VFX apps. I hate that the download is so much bigger now to install features I don't even use. But it still runs fine for me. Resolve has ALWAYS been a processor hungry app to run.

The free versions are limited only in minor ways. I can't recall what they are now, but it used to be the free version was the SAME as the full version except you couldn't use multiple GPUs, it wouldn't deliver higher than HD (but i think it's 4K now) and no NR ?

But functionally the SAME machine with no limitations. I know many high end post places doing work for paying customers using the free version of Resolve all the time !!

So they made a product that used to cost mid six figures into a product almost anyone can afford, made a free version that's nearly identical and limited in a few small ways, haven't yet charged for a SINGLE major update for 5 years if you're a registered owner, so that's 5 years worth of free updates ? They've made a free version that's fully useable that isn't event number crippled and isn't watermarked...

What exactly are we complaining about ? You heard a rumour they want to switch to a subscription model ?

JB

The generosity of the free version & upgrades only makes sense commercially as a strategy to convert users from other NLE's. Even a long trial version would not have been enough for Resolve as it is unusual and complex to learn.

There must be a point at which upgrades will be charged for, and free versions will be extremely limited or non-existent. That is expected in is OK.

The only question for me: will they offer a reasonable upgrade price, and will they avoid railroading users into a subscription model?

There is evidence that BM prefer to keep a low price/high value point (just look at their hardware) so I am hopeful.

I'm OK with Blackmagic changing their pricing policies on Resolve and here's why:

In order for Blackmagic to have a monopoly and charge whatever they want, they need to make superior products and drive out the competition with competitive pricing.

By the time they enviably go Darth Vader, shows their ruthless corporation pirate fight moves and exploit their customer base for massive profits, I will have had access to amazing tools I would not have otherwise had access to, at reasonable prices... and I assume I will be able to continue use the last version of these tools that I purchased outright, for as long as I want.

All in all, I'm way better off with a profitable Blackmagic than without. Who knows, they may decide to continue to charge fair prices even after they completely dominate the NLE market.

Got it!

You are saying that they don't have to have a superior product to "dump price" the competition out of the market. When the competition exits, we are left with a higher price for the product because of lack of competition.

So the fear would be that Apple stops improving and selling Final Cut Pro and the only competition left is Premier and Media Composer who are both subscription based, so Blackmagic could easily go to a subscription model without much pricing resistance.

It will be interesting to look back at this thread in a month, a year, or a decade to see how this really plays out.

If they disable the pirated dongles I think they're going to just be hitting a lot of people who were trying to do the right thing and now they will be punished for it. Makes me think of when FTDI went nuclear and pushed a patch killing all products using counterfeits of their RS232 adapter chips and ended up killing a lot of products from big name companies who had supply chain issues where counterfeit chips had gotten into the mix. If BMD does intend to kill those dongles I feel like they should reach out to try to gracefully move people onto legit dongles. Say, if you bought one prior to December offer a 50$ license dongle or something where people can go "This sucks but that's not THAT much more might as well do it". If someone bought a 200$ dongle a month ago so they could finally use Resolve Studio legally and then you nuke the dongle because it was counterfeit. That's pretty anti-consumer and I doubt most anyone buying those dongles considered that they might be counterfeit. If they actually wanted to circumvent the licensing they could just get a cracked version and not even mess around with the cost or hassle of the dongle.

@caveport

Do not mix stuff.

For around 1.5 years it had been dongles that worked with every version and did not have any software part.

Same time exist full cracks of Studio versions not requiring any dongles.

It is quite simple to understand that from people who did it knowingly it is medium and large firms who bough dongles, as it allow you to hide fact and simplify upgrade.