[Marc Wielage]

[Peter Robertson] “I have a complex multicam project using original camera codecs.
I have all my media on SSD’s with enough free space and have a new iMac. The edit went ok but the delivery to H.264 Master stops after about 20 minutes of content.”
Cheap workaround: render to a mezzanine format like ProRes 422 or 422HQ, then take the completed 422 file and render that to H.264 in a separate session. See if that works.

Worst case: use a 3rd-party free app like Handbreak to convert the ProRes to H.264, or a paid app like Adobe Media Encoder.

I have been successful rendering out H.264 from Resolve 16, but it is slow and I generally have to drop the render speed. But I have not tried it with a super-long project like a 2-hour feature or something. Generally when I post client previews to Frame.io, I use ProRes LT and let the website do its own compression thing. If the client wants the original LT file, they can download that, too.

[Marc Wielage]

Read these:

Grading for Mixed Delivery: Cinema, Home, and Every Screen in Between
https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/14/grading-mixed-delivery/

and I think it covers the issues and the solutions very well. Understanding color management is also helpful:

Color Management for Video Editors
https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video-editing/colour-management-for-video-editors/

[Marc Wielage]

[Stanya Kahn] “My project is 2048 x 1240, 24fps, 2K.”
That is a very unusual format. Where do you plan on showing this? As far as I know, no theater, broadcast, cable, or streaming channel can handle this kind of resolution. You can force it to this resolution using the “Custom” settings. Video or Full depends on how you intend to monitor and deliver it; in general, I’d say keep it simple and stay in Video, DaVinci YRGB, Rec709.

When people do 2.00:1 aspect ratios, they generally just letterbox it in a 1.78 (or 1.85) frame, which is often done for HD and UHD television these days. There might be a handful of online services that can display true 2.00:1 as a self-contained video (without letterbox), but I don’t know of a lot of them. There was a time when I’d argue against the format, but a ton of contemporary TV series use it (like STRANGER THINGS, among others), so clearly it’s a creative trend people like. Vittorio Storaro finally got his wish: he’d been campaigning for this aspect ratio for at least 25 years.

I would avoid Broadcast Safe and worry about that on the final pass, and just keep an eye out for overshoots and gamut issues using the scopes provided. Soft Clips and Gamut Mapping can help with this, but I only use it on the shots that really need it. Time and experience will help you spot these problems before they happen.

[Marc Wielage]

Some of the OFX plug-ins do need extra power (CPU and GPU), just as the NR options in Studio need more power.

Other than that, you get more source file compatibility, a larger number of resolutions, and a bunch of other things. I can’t find a comparison chart for 16, but here’s one for 15:

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/SupportNotes/DaVinci_Resolve_15_Feature_Comparison.pdf

To me, it’s worth the money, and I think the purchase price is very modest.

[Marc Wielage]

[Ken Filewych] “Is there a way when syncing video to dual system sound to retain the source audio file name.”
I agree, they need a data field for Sound Reel (aka “Sound File”) and Sound Timecode. These are available in Avid and are part of a standard ALE workflow. Not sure if Premiere has this or not.

[Marc Wielage]

I would only do it with ColorTrace.

You could also just export the complete film with baked-in color, and then chop up the color-corrected version. I’ve seen this done before, particularly for TV. If a new shot gets dropped in, put it on an adjacent video track so that you can immediately spot it and make sure it matches with the shots before and after.

This happens far more often than you might think. I would use a comparatively low-loss format like DPX or ProRes 444 or DNxHR 444.

[Marc Wielage]

[Robert Withers] “What’s the deal to simply see the clip image in the source window?”
Not all source formats will work in all versions of Resolve or all operating systems. Is this Resolve Studio? Is this 15 or 16? Note that Studio supports more formats than 15, 16 added a few more than 15. So there’s some “it depends” here.

There are definitely some weird MP4/H.264 formats that are problematic for post in general, and present some difficulties for Resolve (and many other editing programs).

[Marc Wielage]

[Robert Withers] “Yes that’s the jog control I found in the manual. Tried extreme settings on Mac Display Prefs but it doesn’t appear on this little 13-inch screen.”
It’s very tough to use Resolve on a 13″ display. The only way I can work with Resolve on a 15″ MacBook Pro (which I don’t like to do, but will do it “under protest”) is to make sure the display is in 1920×1200 resolution, which is not the default. It’s still clunky, but it can work to a point for very simple projects.

I’m a much bigger fan of using a 27″ 2550×1440 GUI display (or even two of them), which to me is optimal for Resolve. Anything smaller is a strain for me. But for conforming and other very minimal kinds of situations, sure, it can work. When in doubt, check out BMD’s Config Specs.

[Marc Wielage]

[Sean Davison] “If I render them out as clips to the render folder will Resolve overwrite the old clips?”
They should. If you didn’t want this, you could just highlight the newly-graded clips and only render those at the end of the session and go to a new folder or the same folder. You can check to see what is replaced by the Creation Date.

[Marc Wielage]

A clip is not a grade — these are two different terms.

A clip is a physical piece of material, a file in a specific codec (DPX, R3D, ProRes, DNxHR, etc.). A grade is a specific color correction stored as a node or a series of nodes in a Resolve session.

Shared Nodes, Group Grades, Timeline Grades, and individual clip grades all have their specific uses, but there is no one “best way” to work. I know what works for me, but I strive for simplicity and reliability over everything else. I’m a little suspicious of Shared Nodes and I avoid them at the moment, but some people use them successfully and are fine with them. Some are fans of Local & Remote Grades, and that’s another feature I rarely use, but some do and there are positive points for it (all explained in the manual).

I’m a big fan of using Gallery Grades and Memory Stills to apply a specific look across many shots of a scene, then I dive in and trim each shot as needed so that everything matches uniformly. I don’t know if this answers your question, but this works for me.