User Manual

Table Of Contents
Once tape ingest or output has finished, your video interface goes back to outputting using the
setting specified by the “Colorspace conversion uses” setting in the Master Settings panel of
the Project Settings (in the Video Monitoring section).
Output Data Level Settings in the Deliver Page
Finally, there’s one last set of data level settings, available in the Render Settings list, within the
Format group. It’s the “Set to video or data level” drop-down menu. It’s there to give you the
ability to convert the data level of your rendered output, if necessary.
All media is output using a single data level, depending on your selection. There are
three options:
Automatic: The output data level of all clips is set automatically based on the codec
you select to render to in the “Render to” drop-down menu.
Video: All clips are rendered as normally scaled for video (10-bit 64–940).
Full: All clips are rendered as full range (10-bit 4–1019).
For most projects, leaving this setting on “Automatic” will yield the appropriate results. However,
if you’re rendering media for use by another image processing application (such as a
compositing application) that is capable of handling “full range” data, then full range output is
preferable for media exchange as it provides the greatest data fidelity. For example, when
outputting media for VFX work as a DPX image sequence, or as a ProRes 4444 encoded
QuickTime file, choosing “Unscaled full range data” guarantees the maximum available image
quality. However, it is essential that the application you use to process this media is set to read
it as “full range” data, otherwise the images will not look correct.
So, What’s the “Proper” Data Range for Output?
Strictly speaking, there is no absolutely “proper” data range to use when outputting image data.
As long as the Levels setting of each clip in the Media Pool is set to reflect how each clip was
created, your primary consideration is which data range is compatible with the media format or
application you’re delivering to. If the media format you’re exporting to supports either normally
scaled or full range, and the application that media will be imported into supports either
normally scaled or full range, then it’s really your choice, as long as everyone involved with the
project understands how the data range of the media is meant to be interpreted once they
receive it.
Outputting to hardware is a bit trickier, in that you need to make sure that the external display or
VTR you’re outputting to is set up to receive a signal using the data range you’ve chosen. If the
device is limited to only one data range, then you need to be sure that you’re outputting to it
using that data range, or the levels of the image will appear to be incorrect, even though the
image data being processed by Resolve is actually fine.
DaVinci Resolve Color Management
How color is managed in DaVinci Resolve depends on the “Color Science” setting at the top of
the Color Management panel of the Project Settings. There are four options: DaVinci YRGB,
DaVinci YRGB Color Managed, DaVinci ACEScc, and DaVinci ACEScct. This section discusses
the second setting, DaVinci YRGB Color Managed. ACEScc and ACEScct is discussed in the
following section in this chapter.
Chapter – 7 Data Levels, Color Management, and ACES 221