[Marc Wielage]

I would backup the Project Database, backup the system, and then just install the new version on top of the old. If you’re really concerned about it, you could Uninstall the old version and then do a clean install of the new version and then import the backed-up Project database.

[Marc Wielage]

[Ron Humer] “Have you been able to Transcode to smaller files and then have a project match up to it?”
I haven’t tried it. My general workflow is to transcode first, or not transcode at all. I haven’t tried Media Management and transcoding simultaneously.

[Marc Wielage]

I haven’t had that problem with speed changes, but there is an option buried in the Media Management window that specifically says “Relink to New Files,” which is extremely important.

It is true that not all the menu commands (particularly right-click commands) are customizable for keyboard shortcuts. I just live with it, because I don’t duplicate timelines that often.

I don’t know physically where Auto-Saved Projects go, but my workaround is just to manually export a DRP at the end of day (twice a day if it’s a client-supervised session), and I date each one of them as part of the file name. Over a one week period, I might generate 9 or 10 backup DRPs, each one dated. In theory, if the client said, “hey, can I see what we did on Tuesday,” I could import that session and check it. It’s extremely rare that that happens.

Generally, what I do in cases where sessions are constantly getting revised, I’ll just duplicate a timeline, give that a new date, and call that “v2” or “v3” or whatever, and then we could flip back and forth very quickly if necessary.

[Marc Wielage]

Try turning off Optimized Media completely and relink solely to the Proxies. When you’re done, select all the files in the Media Page and relink all of them to the original files, which I assume have identical file names but are in a different folder. I’ve seen this work very quickly and easily.

I’m not a fan of Optimized Media in general and prefer to use Transcoded media I actually control and place in a specific folder and on a specific drive.

[Marc Wielage]

Just spend the money and buy Resolve Studio. You can get a dongle for a few hundred dollars on eBay.

[Marc Wielage]

H.264 material is not ideal for post, period. Transcode it to a simpler format (like DNxHD for Windows or ProRes for Mac), and I bet it’ll play back a lot easier.

[Marc Wielage]

Walter Biscardi did a whole write-up of this here on Creative Cow:

https://library.creativecow.net/biscardi_walter/DaVinci-Resolve-12-5/1

[Marc Wielage]

Laptops are not ideal for Resolve. I agree with David that having mostly-full hard drives is problematic at best, and could be a potential disaster at worst.

[Marc Wielage]

There are some issues where you’re better off using the tools in an actual compositing program like Fusion or Nuke instead of Resolve. Resolve won’t get you all the way.

If you can’t do the VFX yourself, there are affordable people out there who will do the work for you. I never have a problem finding a guy and throwing him (or her) a few shots that I know they can do 276 times better than I can in Resolve.

Getting white backgrounds to look absolutely seamless and perfect can be tricky even under the best of circumstances, like on a very large stage that’s very evenly lit.

[Marc Wielage]

Sometimes it’s good to use the multi-user log-in, because there are cases where a file may be corrupted in such a way that it doesn’t work for the main user but will work for a guest. I mainly use it in cases where I have to share a DRP session with somebody else, and I just check the export in the Guest user account to make sure nothing is amiss.