Blackmagic Design Avis 

Says its works best on linux but it will not install. Absolute junk im a photographer not a programmer. We all know time is $$$ and I have wasted a day trying to install this piece of crap absolute lies and crap. Also I am using Gemma 4 AI to help with install and you need to update your installer to 64 bit.

Overall excellent software but I have an issue:

I attempted to install Studio 21.1 on a new computer but I keep getting the message "cannot validate license". I've tried with 3 different keys acquired through purchase of different BM products, and can neither find a solution nor any good support.

Would be grateful if someone from BM can reach out and help. Thank you

I'm buying DaVinci Resolve Studio today, under protest, and I want other buyers to know exactly what Blackmagic put me through to hand them my money.

Their own store won't let you simply pay with a credit card. You're forced to create a PayPal account to finish checkout. I don't want a PayPal account, so I called support to ask for another way to pay. The rep was condescending from the first sentence. He treated me like the problem for not wanting to sign up for a third-party payment service, and he offered no help and no alternative. I hung up.

So I did his job for him and researched my options. There are three, and every one of them is bad:

1. Create the PayPal account Blackmagic is forcing on me.
2. Buy a digital key from an authorized reseller for $335 instead of $295, a $40 penalty just for wanting to pay with a card.
3. Order a physical activation card from B&H at the normal price, then wait days for it to arrive in the mail.

I'd have gladly gone with B&H, but I need the software today. I'm not paying a $40 ransom to avoid a signup. So I'm cornered into the one thing I didn't want: creating a PayPal account for a single purchase, then deleting it the minute I'm done.

That's not a checkout. That's a trap. Blackmagic built a system where every honest option either costs more, takes days, or forces you into a service you never agreed to use, and their support staff talks down to you for noticing.

The software may be excellent. That's exactly why they get away with this. They know people want it badly enough to swallow it. I did. I'm paying them anyway, and I resent every step it took to get here.

Blackmagic: accept credit cards directly, and teach your support team that a customer trying to give you $295 isn't the problem. Until that changes, I'll be telling every editor I know how to buy your software without ever touching your store.

The free version of Davinci Resolve is pretty incredible. The paid version is worth it for the AI audio tools alone. You can even get a one month license for $30 to do what you need to do if you're not ready to commit.

There's a steep learning curve, but I've used a lot of advanced editing programs and they all require some tutorials. I can't believe how much you get for FREE, and that the full paid license is less than $300 in 2026. No subscription.

Ein seltener Lichtblick im Wust des abscheulichen Urwalds von Diensten mit ausschließlich Abozahlungen oder sogar zusätzlich noch überteuerten KI-Credits. Die Funktionen von DaVinci Resolve übertreffen die meisten Konkurrenten um Längen, es wird immer besser und ausgefeilter, gibt ein Lifetime-Abo und viele teurere Zusatzartikel. Wenn ich eine Empfehlung geben darf, dann: liebes Blackmagic-Team, ändert bitte niemals etwas an diesem Bezahlmodell, es ist neben der Qualität der Software vermutlich der Hauptfaktor, weswegen so viele Menschen, mich eingeschlossen, auf eure Produkte schwören und ihnen bis das passiert auch nicht den Rücken kehren werden.

Terrible return policy for professional gear—beware!

In Spain ... if you buy Blackmagic Design hardware from a local dealer and the product does not meet your expectations, they DO NOT accept returns or exchanges. This is a terrible commercial policy.

I recently bought an UltraStudio 4K Mini (BM-BDLKULSDMINI4K) but it did not meet my expectations for my workflow. When I tried to return it, I was shocked to find out that Blackmagic Design refuses to accept returns or exchanges if you change your mind or if the product doesn’t fit your needs. For a dealer selling high-end, expensive Blackmagic Design hardware, having a zero-flexibility return policy is completely unacceptable, and they explained the policy comes directly from (and is imposed by) Blackmagic Design.

Digital professionals need to test gear in their environment. This Blackmagic Design policy deserves a VERY BAD service review.

Davinci Resolve is Garbage software. Everyone praises the control you have over all the functionality, yet no one talks about how crappy it works. I spent weeks sorting through audio issues that had essentially made the software unusable. Paid to take courses to train me how to use it. Several weeks invested just learning the software only to run into so many issues I thought I was going crazy. The audio is totally broken and after months of trouble shooting why I am unable to hear my audio during editing, I learned it's a Davinci problem that is known with no solution. Absolute garbage. When I called customer support I was told no refund after 15 days!?!?! It took me way more than 15 days to even learn how to use it wtf!! So now after spending $295.00 on a perpetual license I am SOL because I actually tried to learn how to use it before totally giving up. What a load of crap.

Support is always amazing - had Jack help me today and he was extremely helpful

We have been using Blackmagic Design products in our recording studios for many years and have generally been very satisfied with the quality and value of their equipment.

Unfortunately, our experience with their technical support has been extremely disappointing.

Four months ago, we reported a critical issue affecting a device from their IP 2110 product range. After investigating, Blackmagic support confirmed that they were able to reproduce the problem on their side, which clearly indicates that the issue is real and not related to our environment.

However, since then, nothing has progressed. We have received no meaningful updates, no workaround, no timeline for a fix, and no indication of whether the problem will ever be resolved. Communication has been very limited, and it seems impossible to obtain information from the product management team.

As a result, we are left with a brand-new device that cannot be used because of this bug. For professional customers who rely on their equipment for production environments, this level of support and issue management is simply unacceptable.

While we remain satisfied with many Blackmagic products, the lack of transparency, accountability, and responsiveness when dealing with confirmed bugs has seriously damaged our confidence in the company.

I purchased DaVinci Resolve Studio for its advertised AI audio tools, but the text-to-speech feature (Speech Generator) is deeply disappointing. The native voices only work properly in English; when using other languages, the AI applies an unusable English accent, forcing us to rely on third-party platforms. Furthermore, alternative options like AI Voice Training impose an unadvertised, strict 8 GB VRAM hardware lock that completely blocks me from using the feature. Had I known about these language and hardware limitations beforehand, I would not have purchased this software, as this was the main use I intended to give it.

If you want a piece of software that turns a three-second task—like making a simple image background transparent—into a forensic investigation through hidden nodes, obscure luminance keyers, and algorithms that choke on static pictures, DaVinci Resolve is the absolute champion. On paper, it can do everything; in practice, it makes the simplest operations feel nearly impossible.

The interface seems purposely designed to make you waste time hunting through non-intuitive menus for options that should be right at your fingertips. A deeply exhausting experience for basic graphic tasks.

This program is exactly what I expected it to be. After watching some videos to find the best solution, I found DaVinci. The free version is to download on their site (not the studio one) and the place is yours. Basic creations are simple with the 3 first windows (media, cut and edit). It took me 1 week to create my first one, the process is time/effort worthy. Moreover, it is easy to say that there is room for improvement. Indeed, the editing part (transitions and colors) is where I think real business is. I recommend using Shutter Encoder to adapt video frames and quality. For pure beginners, this is not the solution. It is to be used for people who have time to put in the work and who know basics of video editing.

Es gibt keine besseren Apps für die Videobearbeitung als DaVinci Resolve
alle anderen kommen da nicht einmal annähernd heran.

Die Software ist in jeder Hinsicht extrem flexibel: Du kannst das Color Grading und die eigentliche Videobearbeitung in einem einzigen Arbeitsgang erledigen, ohne auf mehrere Programme zurückgreifen zu müssen. Zwar erfordert die Eingewöhnung etwas Zeit und die Lernkurve kann durchaus steil sein, doch stellt dies absolut kein Problem dar 😀

I don't know how it is in the paid version, but the free version is designed in the style of "why make it simple when it can be complicated"... Another major problem: inability to turn off power-intensive features . In other words, even though you plan to create a simple video, all the advanced features of the program will be loaded - and on a slow PC it will then be practically impossible to create that simple video. It can't be that difficult to give the option to turn off advanced features.

Free alternative this , free alternative that , honestly bro , trying to record a simple voiceover for a video has been the most time consuming frustrating thing ever , you’d think it’d be a simple press record and talk but nooooo, gotta spending 7 hours in the f—-king settings to make a 10 mins video . Never had this problem with Adobe

This company has huge problems. I wouldn't waste my time trying to learn this software, as it is full of bugs which have cost me serious money from wasted time. They never respond in a timely manner. I am a paid license holder for v.20.3.2. I have tried to ask for the support I am owed, but they consistently avoid me, likely because they don't have answers for why there is so much that just doesn't deliver based on their representations. The program itself is a tangle of odd and illogical twists and turns. They issue upgrades so full of things that don't work, it would blow your mind. 35 Years with Mac computers as a professional artist and this tops the list as the worst software of my career. Stay away!

Davinci Resolve in 2026 is plagued by so many random bugs and such notoriously unintuitive UX that I hate it with passion and will be switching to good old Premiere Pro. Absolute state of this company. Currently audio stop playing back mid project, and there's nothing I can do about it (forget soloing, routing, patching - nothing works) that I need to restart my project. This company is a joke.

The poor rating is because Black Magic Design engineers don't seem to think it's important to provide a straight forward path to make this product work.

Once you figure out the very confusing website and are able to download the necessary driver, just installing the driver won't make the device be recognized by the computer. You have to go into the guts of the MacOS by way of "recovery mode" and turn off several security settings. If you know what you are doing (because you've gone through the process a dozen times before), it will require several restarts and navigating through the system security settings before it will work. Otherwise, it won't.

On top of all that, the latest version 15 of the driver does NOT work at all with M2 Mac OS Sequoia. After trying multiple drivers (making sure to uninstall each before installing the next!), I finally found that version 12 does work.

The product works fine once it is finally recognized by the computer.

The implementation and documentation of this product is pure shit and I would NOT recommend this to anyone unless you have no other option.

I would have been willing to buy a higher ticket model of Black Magic streaming box, but based on my very frustrating experience with the UltraStudio G3, I have no faith whatsoever in Black Magic and will not pursue future purchases.

Big thumbs down to the Black Magic engineers for selling such a poorly implemented product.

Charges an exorbitant of money for their editor but are too cheap to include the most common audio codec (AAC) on Linux. They don't even have a working Linux installer.