Clik here to view.
My Blackmagic Design video cameras are compatible with numerous editing software packages, but the company’s own DaVinci Resolve is a particularly compelling option. For one thing, there’s a close-knit synergy—or at least the natural potential for one—whenever the hardware and software come from the same company. DaVinci Resolve, for example, is able to access the camera’s gyroscope-generated metadata in order to implement post-capture stabilization of video footage; an admittedly inferior alternative to the in-body stabilization (IBIS) offered by competitors’ cameras, which operates during initial footage capture, but better than nothing.
The baseline DaVinci Resolve suite is also completely free, and robustly featured to boot. That said, Blackmagic’s cameras come bundled (at least from the factory…this is something often in-advance stripped out of used units offered for resale) with license keys for the paid DaVinci Resolve Studio variant, which offers some key enhancements for more advanced videography use cases. Each license key allows for two concurrent-use “seats”, and deactivating (at least temporarily) one installation associated with your key and account in order to activate another is straightforward…but it requires a “live” Internet connection to Blackmagic’s server farm, which may not be feasible if you’re “in the field” at the time.
Alternatively, therefore, the company also sells (through its various retail partners) USB activation dongles. Here’s an example, from Sweetwater’s site:Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
As you can see, they cost the same as a software license key: $295, which is a bit “salty”, both absolutely and relative to “free”. But last May, shortly after buying my two cameras (only one of which came with a key), I came across a claimed “used” one on eBay for just over $100. For the flexibility of two additional concurrent active “seats”, if no other reason, I took the plunge.
When the dongle arrived (from a Vietnam-based seller, it turns out, contrary to the upfront U.S.-sourced claim, and which in retrospect should have been my first warning sign), the packaging was admittedly a bit sketchy:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
But the dongle itself looked legit, at least at initial quick glance (as-usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes):
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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Clik here to view.
And it was recognized by both MacOS and Windows systems, along with (at least at the time, keep reading) correctly activating DaVinci Resolve Studio installs on both O/Ss:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
(keen-eyed readers will notice that I’ve gone ahead and added the Satechi hub to the Mac mini “stack” covered in one of last month’s blog posts, to give me easy front-panel access to various interface and expansion connectors)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
More recently, however, I decided to update my various DaVinci Resolve Studio “seats” to latest-version 18.6. Afterwards, my ability to continue activating them via the dongle abruptly ceased. Jumping on Google, I learned that I wasn’t alone in my dismay (not to mention its root cause):
Like some previous releases we also have blocked some dongle key ids that are counterfeit. If you purchased second hand or not from an authorized reseller you may have one of those.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Unsurprisingly, the original seller (whose eBay account is still active as I write these words; note, too, that the seeming same person(s) was/were also selling “used” dongles on Amazon at the same time I bought mine on eBay) hasn’t responded to my outreach. That said, I give eBay plenty of kudos; the rep to whom I reported the issue promptly issued me a future-purchase coupon for the full amount.
But I was still curious to see what else I could find out about this forgery. I’ll probably eventually do a proper teardown, so stay tuned for that, although note that I’m not going to also drop $300 on a legit one for comparison purposes (!!!). For now, I’ll share some screenshots of how the dongle self-identifies to both MacOS:
Clik here to view.
and Windows:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I’m pretty sure the first time I heard the adage “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” was as a child, and came from my parents. Decades later, the wisdom still applies. Caveat emptor, folks! Sound off with your thoughts in the comments.
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.
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