Of course it's a non-linear editor roughly on par with Avid, Final Cut, or Premiere. With all due respect, this person has no idea what they're talking about.
The Cut page (as opposed to the Edit page) is what's apparently to be included on iPad, but it's 100% as legit a NLE as any other. I wouldn't call After Effects a NLE per se, but the node-based corollary to AE in Resolve is called Fusion and doesn't appear to be (initially) included on iPad.
Moved this response as an edit to the main comment on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33277308 instead, but keeping this comment rather than deleting it, because the replies to it have value to the discussion.
(You edited your comment to oblivion, but because it was so embarassingly wrong, I don't blame you.)
My original response:
"close enough to a NLE"?? What the--
DaVinci Resolve has included a standalone non-linear editor since 2014. Today it has every major feature one would expect from a NLE-- with the noted exception of a lack of some codecs in the Linux version due to licensing issues, AAC being conspicuously one of them. So ffmpeg is often needed for transcoding media. I have a fair amount of familiarity with Avid, Final Cut Pro (7, not X), and to a lesser degree Adobe Premiere, and some experience with other NLEs from OpenShot to iMovie to Lightworks to Blender's NLE. Not only is DVR a feature-packed NLE- it ALSO includes a ProTools-like audio editing component called Fairlight, a node-based 2d/3d After Effects-like component (which integrates neatly with Blender) called Fusion, and a best-in-class color grading tool, for which Resolve is probably best known, which has roots going back to the DaVinci color correction systems of the 1980s.
DaVinci Resolve has not one NLE interface, but TWO-- the traditional Avid-like Edit page, and a new "Cut Page" (the one that appears in the iPad demo videos), which I think first showed up in DaVinci Resolve 17 (18 is current) and that is meant as a faster UI for doing a rough assembly that heavily integrates with the "Speed Editor" specialized hardware. For a while, there were deals where the Speed Editor came free with a ($300) Studio License. Now, I think it's $400 maybe (?) The paid Studio version includes extra features like more plugins (many of which use neural networks to, say, infer depth or separate objects from backgrounds), headless python scripting, 3d audio, 8k export, and pro stuff like that.
I'm presuming the iPad version will also work with the Speed Editor (it can connect via bluetooth or USB).
And since you mentioned it, the Fusion-style node system is considered superior by many pros to the older layers-based system used by After Effects, which is why it has been adopted by newer software from Unreal to Blender to nuke, etc. Also, you can drop effects "on" clips and layers-- this can be done in the Edit page as per tradition, and works as expected.
Since DaVinci Resolve is meant to run in CentOS, I've helped collaborate on a method for running it in a Linux container as well for anyone who might be interested:
The "Cut Page" has been a godsend for me. I'm going through about 1500 hours of footage right now and that editing mode is the only thing that has made my task even remotely possible for me to pull off.
I don't know if you ever played FPSes in the early days of Quake, Doom, etc. but remember how you used to just play with a keyboard and it was okay, but then you switched to mouselook and it was just a whole 'nother world?
Played FPSes in those early days, so familiar with that. Also use Resolve a lot and have the Speed Editor. But I never got used to the Cut page and just kept using the Edit pane with keyboard shortcuts. The hardware feels really nice but just didn’t surpass the keyboard for my use - I even watched some Cut videos to see what I was missing. I think the way I assemble videos is just too different to the norm?
> Since DaVinci Resolve is meant to run in CentOS, I've helped collaborate on a method for running it in a Linux container as well for anyone who might be interested:
Soooooooooo interested, but sadly it seems NVidia-only.
If Blackmagic would put some of their port-to-iOS muscle on a make-it-work-with-AMD team, it'd be useful to me. Alas, I have a knack for picking losers.
Only for lack of hardware to test it on. There is an open issue if you want to try your hand at getting it to work on non-NVidia, though it will run best on some kind of dedicated GPU due to the heavy graphics operations it does.
> in any normal NLE, you put your effects on your clips, or your layers. You don't do that in Resolve, because it's grading software
You can add effects onto clips in the Resolve NLE. If you just want to use Resolve as an NLE (ie. you don't want to colour-grade your work or do complex VFX in Fusion), you don't need to go near a node graph.
Perhaps there is some pedantry to be done about whether it is an NLE or has an NLE. No dispute that it used to be colour grading software and the NLE was bolted on later (like a decade ago).
