In the early days of NAB 2014, Blackmagic Design shared a few new products that made a major splash. However, even though some of these products generated some serious excitement, their biggest announcement by far was the fact that DaVinci Resolve, the legendary color correction software, was now also a fully fledged NLE with a host of new trimming and timeline tools. Although the official release date for the software is still several months out at this point, today Blackmagic released the public beta of version 11, which can now be downloaded from their website.

Here's a quick video overview of the new features in version 11:

Here's an overview of the new editing-specific features that were added to this release.

And here's what you can expect from the new version in terms of its color correction functionality.

I, for one, am absolutely floored by the new editing tools in Resolve 11. The new trimming modes seem to be as dynamic and intuitive as anything else on the market, and the timeline itself is definitely a major step up from version 10 in terms of the functionality that is expected of modern NLEs. Add to that the new transitions and transition parameters -- plus the fact that they're very simple to add in a variety of common durations -- and it seems clear that DaVinci Resolve might just take a swing at some of the major NLEs on the market today. However, it's still going to be interesting to see how Resolve compares to its competitors in terms of media management.

Beyond that, there are some tremendous new additions to the color correction side of this software as well. The advanced color match palate, which takes chrominance information from industry standard color charts, can create a neutral grade for any shot in a matter of seconds (which is a god-send for people like me with a little X-Rite Color Checker).

Ultimately, the fact that this piece of software is free (unless you need some of the higher-end features like temporal noise reduction) is absolutely mind-boggling. DaVinci Resolve is in a unique position to become the first "all-in-one" application to take the world by storm, even though it lacks the compositing features of something like Smoke (for now, that is).

If you're interested in participating in the public beta of Resolve 11, just follow this here link and meander down to the bottom left part of the site to find the download.

What do you guys think of the new features in Resolve 11? Is it in a position to take over part of the NLE market with this feature set, or does it need some more technological advancement before it's ready to take on the likes of Avid, Premiere, and FCPX? Let us know down in the comments!

Link: Support & Downloads -- Blackmagic Design