User Manual

Super Scale options in the Video panel of the Clip Attributes
The Super Scale drop-down menu provides three options of 2x, 3x, and 4x, as well as
Sharpness and Noise Reduction options to tune the quality of the scaled result. Note that all of
the Super Scale parameters are in fixed increments; you cannot apply Super Scale in variable
amounts. Selecting one of these options enables DaVinci Resolve to use advanced algorithms
to improve the appearance of image detail when enlarging clips by a significant amount, such
as when editing SD archival media into a UHD timeline, or when you find it necessary to enlarge
a clip past its native resolution in order to create a closeup.
You may find that, depending on the source media you’re working with, setting Sharpness to
Medium yields a relatively subtle result that can be hard to notice, but setting Sharpness to high
should be immediately more preferable, while also sharpening grain and noise in the image to
an undesirable extent at the default settings. However, while raising Noise Reduction will
ameliorate this effect, it will also diminish the gains you obtained by raising Sharpness. In these
cases, it’s worth experimenting with keeping Sharpness at Low or Medium so that Super Scale
sharpens all aspects of a clip, but then using the Noise Reduction tools of the Color page (with
their additional ability to be fine-tuned) to diminish the unwanted noise.
TIP: Super Scale, while incredibly useful, is a processor-intensive operation, so be
aware that turning this on will likely prevent real-time playback. One way to get around
this is to create Optimized Media for clips in which you’ve enabled Super Scale, since
Optimized Media “bakes in” the Super Scale effect. Another way to work is to create a
string-out of all of the source media you’ll need to enlarge at high-quality, turn on
Super Scale for all of them, and then render that timeline as individual clips, while
turning on the “Render at source resolution” and “Filename uses > Source
Name” options.
Fusion Effects and Resolution
All image processing by the Fusion page takes place before effects that are applied by the
Edit page, with the sole exception of the Lens Correction effect. When it comes to sizing and
image resolution, whether or not the Fusion page affects resolution depends on how you use it.
Fusion Eects Inherit the Source Resolution of a Clip
When you open a clip on the Timeline in the Fusion page, the Fusion page is set to the full
source resolution of that clip, regardless of the Timeline resolution. This can be seen if you look
at the resolution that’s listed above the upper right-hand corner of the Viewer. This means that if
you don’t apply any operations that reduces the image resolution (described later), subsequent
sizing adjustments in other pages will refer to the same resolution as the source clip.
Chapter – 9 Image Sizing and Resolution Independence 265