Resolve 21.2 adds touch for Apple's OLED MacBook Pro, faster renders on M5 Pro and Max, and Gen 6 LUTs. Which Macs get what, and which fixes are worth it.
Blackmagic released DaVinci Resolve 21.2 on 5 November 2026, free and Studio, for Mac, Windows, Linux and Windows ARM. It adds touch support for Apple's new MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR display, which ships on 6 November, plus "up to 5x faster rendering" on M5 Pro and M5 Max chips and support for Blackmagic's Generation 6 Color Science LUTs and film looks. The rest of the notes is 28 bug fixes and a handful of editing tweaks, and some of those fixes matter if you work with Sony XAVC, RED or H.265 files.
Touch needs the new screen, while the render speed-up, going by Blackmagic's wording, depends on the chip. If you own an M5 Pro or M5 Max Mac without touch, you're in the second column only.
| Mac | Touch in Resolve | "Up to 5x" rendering | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 14" PROLED XDR, M5 Pro | Yes | Yes | €3399 / £2899 / $2899 |
| MacBook Pro 16" PROLED XDR, M5 Pro | Yes | Yes | €3999 / £3399 / $3399 |
| MacBook Pro 14" PROLED XDR, M5 Max | Yes | Yes | €5299 / £4499 / $4499 |
| MacBook Pro 16" PROLED XDR, M5 Max | Yes | Yes | €5699 / £4799 / $4799 |
| Any other Mac with M5 Pro or M5 Max | No (no touch screen) | Yes, going by Blackmagic's notes | Already owned |
| MacBook Pro 14" with M6 | No (Liquid Retina XDR, no touch) | Not mentioned | €2349 / £1999 / $1999 |
| Windows, Linux, other Apple silicon | No | Not mentioned | n/a |
Blackmagic's short description says "up to 5x faster rendering for M5 Pro and M5 Max Apple silicon chips". Newsshooter's copy of the notes says "effects rendering", and YMCinema points out that Blackmagic's announcement gives no benchmark. Read it as: some effects, in some timelines, render a lot faster. We wouldn't expect 5x on a plain H.265 export, and no independent test exists yet. Blackmagic also doesn't say whether the gain differs between free and Studio.
The PROLED XDR models went on pre-order on 28 October and reach stores on 6 November, so outside of reviewers, nobody has used touch in Resolve yet.
The official release notes say only "Support for Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR touch screens". The detail comes from Blackmagic's announcement as YMCinema reports it:
| Where | What you can touch |
|---|---|
| Timeline | Scroll with a finger, drag effects and titles onto clips |
| Media pool | Drag media in |
| Viewers on Photo, Edit, Color, Media and Deliver | Pan and pinch to zoom |
| Whole app | Multi-touch on virtual sliders |
| Cut, Edit and Fairlight | Audio mixer faders |
| Color page | Color wheels and master wheels, color charts, Color Warper, annotations, Power Window overlays |
Moving a Power Window with your finger on the image makes sense. So does riding audio faders on a laptop with no mixer. Grading wheels by touch is another story: your hand sits on top of the picture you're judging, and a fingertip is less precise than a trackball or a mouse with a modifier key. We'd treat it as a location tool for quick fixes, and keep panels or the trackpad for the real grade.
Resolve has tried this before. Version 12.5.4 in December 2016 put primary sliders and color wheels on the Touch Bar of that year's MacBook Pro, and the Touch Bar didn't last. Apple's own press release now lists DaVinci Resolve among the third-party apps that will use touch, and says macOS turns touches into clicks in apps that haven't been updated.
Only if you shoot Blackmagic RAW. Blackmagic introduced Generation 6 Color Science in September with Blackmagic Camera 10.3 for the URSA Cine 12K LF, along with Blackmagic RAW 6.0 and Resolve 21.1, which could already decode BRAW as Gen 6. Gen 6 starts from DaVinci Wide Gamut instead of Blackmagic Film Wide Gamut, and it replaces the old "Standard" video spaces with a Rec 709 BT1886 transform. Newsshooter writes that you can also pick Gen 6 for existing clips, including PYXIS and Pocket Cinema Camera footage.
21.2 fills in the pieces around that: Gen 6 LUTs and film looks inside Resolve, and the ResolveFX False Color tool reading Gen 5 and Gen 6. If you light with false color on set and check exposure again in post, you now get the same tool on both generations. If you shoot Sony, Canon or DJI, you can skip this part.
Blackmagic lists the fixes without saying which cameras triggered them, so the right column is our reading of who's likely to hit each problem.
| Release note | Who it affects |
|---|---|
| Artifacts in Sony XAVC Long GOP MXF renders | Anyone delivering XAVC Long GOP MXF, common for broadcasters |
| Flashing "media offline" frames with some H.265 clips | H.265 shooters: mirrorless, drones, phones. Blackmagic doesn't name the cameras |
| Extracted audio files now retain source timecode | Dual-system sound and timecode sync |
| Wrong channel order for WAV files with iXML tracks | Multitrack field recorder files |
| Network drive audio issues for some MXF clips; slow loading from XDCAM drives | Shared storage and Sony XDCAM workflows |
| Network paths with accented characters on macOS 27 | Anyone with folders like "Matrimonio Città" or "Dreh München" on a NAS |
| ACES 2.0 artifacts on Windows and Linux | ACES pipelines, including DJI's D-Log 2 to ACES workflow |
| Crash decoding some multi-channel DNG files | CinemaDNG footage |
| File size estimates for spanned RED clips | RED media management |
| MainConcept H.265 CRF render crash | H.265 exports with the MainConcept encoder in CRF mode |
| HE-AAC decode issues for some clips on Windows | Windows editors with AAC audio from cameras or phones |
| Missing clips in some AAF imports; wrong audio timecode in AAF with interlaced media | Round trips with Avid or Premiere, broadcast interlaced material |
| Italics in imported TTML subtitles | Subtitle deliverables for streaming |
The timecode line is the one we'd underline for small crews. If you sync a wireless kit or a recorder by timecode, as in our guide to Sony timecode from a DJI Mic 3 or Rode Wireless PRO, audio you extract from a clip now carries the clip's timecode and lines up again later. ACES users on Windows or Linux, including anyone following the DJI workflow in our D-Log vs D-Log M vs D-Log 2 guide, should also update.
Editors get a few small changes too. Multicam clips now open as source clips in source timelines. A new menu action and shortcut restores the last active edit points. Converting an in/out range to a compound clip now replaces the clips in place. On the AI side, Blackmagic says the assistants got better at color and Fusion and can download the extras they need, without more detail.
| Your situation | Update? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You picked up a PROLED XDR MacBook Pro | Yes | Touch support only comes with 21.2 |
| M5 Pro or M5 Max Mac, effects-heavy timelines | Yes, after a test render | The 5x claim has no published test, so time one of your own exports before and after |
| You hit one of the bugs in the table | Yes | 21.2 fixes it |
| Blackmagic RAW shooter | Yes, between jobs | Gen 6 LUTs and False Color for Gen 6 |
| Mid-project, sharing projects with others | Wait | Agree on a version with your team first. Blackmagic's notes don't say anything about opening 21.2 projects in 21.1 |
| Everything works and none of the above applies | No rush | Nothing here changes a Sony, Canon or DJI grade on a non-touch machine |
Back up your project library before you install, as with any Resolve point release. Both versions are on Blackmagic's support page; the free download asks you to register. If you've been thinking about Studio, Blackmagic's 20% sale from our Resolve 21.1.2 article runs until 20 November.
| Good | Missing or unclear |
|---|---|
| Touch on timeline, viewers, mixer and Color page tools on day one of the new MacBook Pro | No list of gestures in the official notes |
| Faster renders on M5 Pro and M5 Max | No benchmark, no list of which effects |
| Source timecode kept on extracted audio, iXML channel order fixed | No camera models named for the H.265 offline-frame fix |
| Gen 6 LUTs and False Color for BRAW shooters | Nothing new for other camera color science |
| Free and Studio, four platforms, same day | Nothing said about project compatibility with 21.1 |
From version 21.2 (5 November 2026), Resolve supports touch on Apple's MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display. According to Blackmagic's announcement, you can scroll timelines, pinch to zoom in viewers, use the audio mixer and move color wheels and Power Windows by touch. The release notes don't mention touch screens on Windows.
Yes. Blackmagic released 21.2 for both the free DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Studio, on macOS, Windows, Linux and Windows ARM. Studio still needs a license.
Blackmagic claims up to 5x faster rendering on M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and Newsshooter's copy of the notes refers to effects rendering. It hasn't published test conditions. Other Apple silicon chips aren't mentioned.
Blackmagic's newest color processing for Blackmagic RAW, introduced in September 2026 with Blackmagic Camera 10.3 for the URSA Cine 12K LF. It uses DaVinci Wide Gamut as its starting point. Resolve 21.1 added Gen 6 decoding, and 21.2 adds Gen 6 LUTs, film looks and False Color support.
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