Note: This information has been greatly expanded from my previous article on Windows video support.
Introduction
Like any application DaVinci Resolve has limitations, especially in the free version. Some authors claim that either Microsoft Windows or Resolve (free) don’t support 10-bit video. But this is false. The limitations are more particular than such blanket statements. Read on for solutions.
The first two issues affect only the free version of Resolve, so the best solution is to upgrade to Studio, since this provides numerous additional benefits. But there are other methods.
HEVC support in Windows
Microsoft Windows doesn’t provide native support for the HEVC codec. Applications such as Resolve Studio implement this support internally, but Resolve (free) does not. Neither do most other video applications.
The symptom is that clips will appear as “Media off-line” when loaded into Resolve. This is an incorrect error statement. The clips are very much present, demonstrated by the fact that the audio component plays correctly.
Thankfully the solution is simple. Go to the Microsoft store and purchase the “HEVC Video Extensions” for €0.99. Install this extension and reboot.
It's difficult to understand why this component is already included, but there you go!
Rendering to H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC)
Video exported from Resolve (free) might contain artefacts. Tonal and colour gradations that should be smooth will instead display visible banding. This is more likely if extensive colour grading has occurred.
If you are using a 10-bit intermediary file in your timeline, then everything will look fine while editing. But when rendering H.264 and H.265 codecs, Resolve (free) restricts you to 8-bit colour. The solution is to export to a different codec that does support 10-bit (e.g. ProRes or DNxHR) and then transcode to the format you require.
No ProRes RAW support
Due to corporate politics, Resolve does not support ProRes RAW. Nonetheless, this might be a requirement for your project, depending on your client and the camera used. The solution is to transcode ProRes RAW footage to a format such as CinemaDNG and use that in your timeline. This requires a third-party utility; these are all commercial closed-source products.
Two notes: First, Resolve does support all other ProRes formats, up to ProRes 444. So you can simply choose to record these instead. Second, Blackmagic cameras also do not support ProRes RAW. So there is no incompatibility when staying within their system. Indeed BRAW is the preferred format in most cases.
Transcoding applications
There are two excellent free and open source applications that function as interface wrappers around the command-line tool FFmpeg. Both Handbrake and Shutter Encoder run on Windows, macOS, or Linux and are free.
However, these do not convert RAW formats, since this requires licensing. For this task there are commercial solutions, such as Assimilate’s Play Pro Studio.
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