User Manual

Table Of Contents
Optimized Media for Raw Source Clips
In general, once you create optimized media, DaVinci Resolve keeps track of it and continues
using it regardless of whatever changes you make to your project, including changing the
Timeline resolution. However, any change to the camera raw settings of optimized clips will
automatically discard the optimized media, requiring you to re-generate optimized media
for them.
Customizing the Type of Optimized Media You Create
The Master Settings panel of the Project Settings has a set of controls that govern what kind of
media files are created when you create optimized media.
Options available for creating optimized media in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings
There are two settings affecting Optimized Media in the Optimized Media and Render
Cache section:
Resolution: Lets you choose whether to create optimized media at the same size
as your original media files (by choosing Original), or to reduce the bandwidth of
your optimized media further by reducing its resolution by a Half, Quarter, Eighth,
or Sixteenth. The “Choose automatically” option tries to balance visual quality with
efficiency by only reducing the resolution of media files that are larger than the
currently selected Timeline resolution, using whatever reduction ratio best matches the
Timeline resolution.
Optimized Media Format: Lets you choose the format and codec with which to
generate optimized media. Options include Uncompressed 10-bit, and Uncompressed
16-bit float for maximum quality. Other options include ProRes Proxy through 4444
XQ, and DNxHR LB through 444. All options will store image data in the optimized
and proprietary .dvcc image format. While smaller formats take less room on your
scratch disk, there are two good reasons to use higher-quality formats for creating
Optimized Media.
Preventing Clipping: Be aware that the format you choose will determine whether
out-of-bounds image data is preserved when the signal is optimized. If you find that
image data (typically super-white levels) are clipped after optimization, you should
switch to 16-bit float, ProRes 4444, or ProRes 4444 XQ; in particular, any of these
three codecs are appropriate optimized formats for HDR grading.
Preserving Alpha Channels: Also be aware that the format you choose will
determine whether Alpha Channels will be preserved, if they’re present in the clips
being Optimized. Currently, the Uncompressed 10-bit, Uncompressed 16-bit Float,
ProRes 4444, ProRes 4444 XQ, and DNxHR 444 formats preserve alpha channels.
Chapter – 6 Improving Performance, Proxies, andthe RenderCache 205