Why am I struggling to get real-time
playback when editing in DaVinci Resolve? This is a very common question that keeps on
coming every single day and in this video we're going to tackle the issue and see how
to improve your editing experience. We will cover Codecs The difference between the Free and
Studio version of DaVinci Resolve Render Cache Timeline Resolution Proxies Timeline proxy mode Render in Place And the delivery page Let's get started! So, what could be the reason why your
timeline is playing back so poorly? Well, there's actually few reasons and some
of them are easier to solve than others. Let's start with codecs We could make an entire video about
codecs and how they are working but to make it short they are
compression technologies. Computer code that will manage a data
stream into a more manageable package either at a software or hardware level. What people might not know or fully understand is
that modern cameras are using a variety of codecs and they are not all designed equally. Consumer or Prosumer cameras often record with
highly efficient codecs using temporal compression. This makes them great at recording
a lot of data into a small package. The downside is that those very efficient codecs
are not designed with video editing in mind. They require intense computing to decode
and smooth playback or scrubbing might be very difficult to achieve without a massive
amount of power or a dedicated hardware decoder. Cine camera on the other hand are a little
less concerned about storage space and are built with much
more expensive components. They will favor high bitrate, Raw recording or the ability
to record in-camera Proxies that are editing friendly On the software side there's actually a lot of
confusion about the difference in performance between the Free and the Studio
version of DaVinci Resolve. Yes, the Free version will use your GPU for image
processing, even multiple GPUs if you're on mac. But only the Studio version offers hardware
acceleration to decode h264 and h265 media. On compatible hardware. To see if this option is activated Go to the DaVinci Resolve menu Select preferences and in decode options make
sure that this feature is checked. And while we are here,
switch to the User tab Select playback settings and set performance mode
to automatic or manual if you want to fine tune how DaVinci Resolve
optimize your experience. You can also activate those two options. Hide UI overlays and
Minimize interface updates if you need to optimize even
further playback performance We have here two instances of the same
video stored in different physical storage. 1 mechanical hard drive and 1 SSD And we also have the same clips playing
at 25fps or 50% of their original frame rate. This 4k 50fps clip was encoded in camera with what might be the least editing
friendly codec of the moment. H.265 with a 4:2:2 Chroma Subsampling
and 10bits color depth This is an awful lot of data to process and we are going to see how this is impacting
our ability to play it back in real time. Let's play those clips and see if
storage speed makes any difference. As you can see right away, the
playback performance is quite terrible and there is no real difference between the clip playing
from the mechanical drive and the one on the SSD. The CPU is maxing out while the GPU isn't even flexing. So, storage speed isn't the limiting factor in this case. How's that? Well... while modern GPUs like the RTX 2000
and 3000 series have a H.265 decoder built in they are not capable to decode 10 bits 4:2:2. We normally don't have this issue because
we record with a DNxHR codec on a Ninja V but if you do use H.265 as a recording codec no matter how powerful is your GPU you would have to brute force your way through
with a beefy CPU to achieve real-time playback. Now look at what's happening when we
play the same clips at half the frame rate. it's playing smoothly, even on the mechanical drive. Notice how you reach real-time playback
while the CPU is working half as much. One of the great benefits of shooting at low frame rates
is that beyond the cinematic feel or motion blur, there is a lot less frames to be processed. This is something very interesting and could even be a factor when you
decide next time how to shoot a sequence. But that of course is not a solution. So how do we achieve better performance at all times? First step is to understand
and master the Render Cache. Caching is the process of rendering your clips including any color grade or
effects into a more friendly format. You can control this by going to the Playback menu hover Render Cache and choose one of those options. Smart will the DaVinci Resolve automatically
choose which clip will be cached. while User will let you have full control over
which clip should be cached rendered and this can save both time and storage space. I am choosing User mode as this will be perfect
to test out different performance scenarios. Also I am deleting the Render Cache to
make sure that we are starting fresh In User mode to cache a clip you need to right click on it and choose Render Cache Color Output. Immediately, you notice a red bar above
your clip that will slowly change to blue as your cache is being rendered. Rendering is done in the background
when DaVinci Resolve is inactive. And we can see that both the CPU and
GPU are at work rendering the cache. Now that the clip is cached playback
should normally be smooth?! Well, I'm going to show you an issue that
might happen to you so you know how to fix it. We'll play the clip and notice that
the playback is as poor as ever and that the CPU is working as
if there was no cache at all. Okay Pay attention at what's happening
when I reactivate this button that when greyed out, bypasses
Color grades and Fusion effects. The clip is now playing smoothly and
the CPU isn't even breaking a sweat. This might sound weird... But this is because this feature not
only bypasses color grades and effects but the whole Render Cache as well. Yet another reason why you
shouldn't edit on this kind of codec. I'm switching to the Color page
to add my color grade and as you can see all the
nodes are manually disabled. To enable those nodes, I can just
select them and press [Ctrl] + [D]. Going back to the Edit page and right away the Render Cache is
being replaced to include the color grade. The CPU is still busy decoding but as image processing is handled by
the GPU, we can see it actively working. Let's play the clip again and now that the render cache is properly working look at how smooth is our playback
while the CPU is just chilling. The Render Cache is a great feature but as we're still working with the H.265 codec the smallest edit will drive your CPU usage through
the roof as your render cache is being recreated. A popular advice would be to reduce
your timeline resolution down to HD as even if your source media is 4K and
you want to export at the same resolution you do not need to edit on the 4K timeline. This will make the amount of data
to be rendered dramatically reduced but as we are still working with that dreaded H.265
it won't actually make much of a difference. Let's see why! Go to File Project Settings and here you can simply change your
timeline resolution down to HD and save. Did the playback of non-cached clips improve? Clearly not! Because the CPU still has to decode
the source clip the exact same way before the GPU can even
render it at a lower resolution. Okay, we got it... Editing with this kind of codec
is generally a very bad idea. So, what do we do now? Proxies are something that so
many creators are trying to avoid because it is requiring a
one-time extra processing. But trust me!
This is how you should treat your media. The good news is that DaVinci Resolve is
making dealing with proxies really simple. In the project settings, I reverted
my timeline resolution to 4K and we'll show you how to properly set your proxies. In Optimize Media and Render Cache you will find plenty of options to fine-tune the way
DaVinci Resolve is handling those different features. Proxy media resolution will to choose if
your media is transcoded at full resolution, Half Quarter And well... You get the idea. This alone can make editing super high
resolution footage feel like a breathe even on a lower spec computer. In proxy media format choice of transcoding codec
will depend on your platform. Windows and Linux users can use
different variety of DNx codec while Mac users also have access to Prores. The type you choose will impact the Bitrate Chroma Bit depth and size of your proxies. But I could go down to DNxHR SQ and
still retain a pretty good image quality. If you would like to learn
more about each of them, we added a link to an excellent article
by Frame.io in the description. Optimized medias are a bit of a legacy feature now that DaVinci Resolve is
capable to create proxies internally. The clips created are only
accessible within your project and can't be used to easily share
with others like you can with proxies. Blackmagic Design itself is recommending
using proxies over Optimized media. You can also change the Render Cache
format to speed up rendering time maximize performance and reduce
the size of your render cache. While you are in the Master settings
you can optimize your Working Folders. Those are used by DaVinci Resolve to store your proxies, the Render Cache and the Gallery stills. Setting them to separate fast drives will improve
DaVinci Resole performance dramatically. Saving and we can immediately notice that the
cache is being rendered with that lighter codec. and as much as color grading 10 and 12 bits
footage makes a massive difference you won't need it while editing. Now that everything is set, let's
see how to create those proxies. Right click on the clip and simply
choose Generate Proxy Media. This will transcode the entire source
video into an editing friendly format. Once completed, playback will be completely
smooth even though this clip isn't rendered in cache. and look at how the CPU usage is at a minimum. While editing, if you find yourself in situation
where you need a quick extra boost there's an incredible feature
called Timeline Proxy Mode that will render your timeline
at half or quarter resolution, without having to change
your project settings. You might be wondering why I
didn't show you this feature earlier when we were struggling to achieve a
smooth playback with the H.265 codec? Well... as with changing the timeline resolution Timeline Proxy Mode will still
require decoding the media first before being able to kick in. And that wouldn't help. The last feature is Render in Place and this will come really handy when you start
using noise reduction or heavy Fusion effects. Select your clip and choose a Render in Place. This will let you render a
proxy like version of your clip in the Format, Codec
and Type of your choice. And if you need to keep
some editing flexibility, you can even include x amount
of extra frames handles that will only impact the
size of the clips rendered. Click Render And the clip will be replaced in the
timeline by a flattened version of itself. All those features can be used separately
or combined to achieve smooth playback even when editing on a not so powerful system. and that's super useful when you
are editing your rush on the laptop right on the set on the go. You might be concerned that
using some of those features will affect negatively the quality of your export. But rest assured, rendering will be
done using the source media by default. But if you need to make a super-fast export you can choose to use your proxy
media or the render cache images to dramatically speed up rendering. If you enjoyed this video, please like, comment and share, to help us in our quest to empower our fellow creators. and we'll see you, in the next video! See ya!
