Any tips for DaVinchi Resolve

[keat63]

I installed DaVinci Resolve, but my PC doesn't seem to be able to handle it.
It's very laggy.

i5 6400@2.7ghz 8gb ram, windows 10 64bit

I tried a few tweaks I found online, but these made no difference.

Any other tips guys, or an alternative app.

 

[DroneToJoy]

You will have to upgrade quite a bit. I ended up with a new Mac Mini M1 chip and 4K screen before it worked fine. I think it requires a minimum of 16GB Ram to be ok.

An option I also have is PowerDirector 360, which is not bad but there are a lot of software editing options around.

At this stage though Im developing my Instagram and photography side and learning how to place, point, etc my drone (Mini 2), so my YouTube is seriously under-developed and only amateurish, but plan to focus on the in the second part of this year.

 

[slup]

Seems that your PC is below what's recommended ... it will not be impossible to use Davinci Resolve though, depends very much on what minimum resolution you can accept, going for 4K will slow down your system & you need to use proxy copies of your footage (optimized media).

Here you have the effects on different speced systems explained in an easy way --> Can My Laptop Run DaVinci Resolve? (Explained for Beginners)

If the time aspect isn't cruical for you, your system can be used, but you have to make breaks in your work to regenerate "optimized media" versions to have your editing work run smoothly once you do it.

Here some tips to get the workflow run smoother on a low speced computer:

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[erics64]

I colour grade for a living.
If you cant upgrade to anything beefier then conform your footage to a manageable format, edit, colour then switch footage to original and finish.

 

[JimWest]

I tried DaVinci Resolve, but my PC also couldn't handle it. I have started using Shotcut. It's free, seems to work OK, but my skill level is still very primitive.

 

[Squidinc]

Final Cut Pro ????

 

[Dale D]

I installed DaVinci Resolve, but my PC doesn't seem to be able to handle it.
It's very laggy.

i5 6400@2.7ghz 8gb ram, windows 10 64bit

I tried a few tweaks I found online, but these made no difference.

Any other tips guys, or an alternative app.

I am using an iMAC with the specs showing the screen capture. Even with 16GB memory, Intel Core i7, and 8GB graphics card I still have to edit in PROXY. I will probably buy the new 27 inch iMAC with M1 chip when it is released later this year.

 

[keat63]

As I don't use my PC for much more than email or web browsing these days, I can't justify upgrading, so I'll take a look at some of the alternatives offered instead.

 

[kshaw]

Computing power requirements for editing large files is very similar to requirements for a good flight simulator. You want a video card with lots of memory and SSD drives. If your computer still can't handle it, drop resolution on the video.

 

[Dale D]

As I don't use my PC for much more than email or web browsing these days, I can't justify upgrading, so I'll take a look at some of the alternatives offered instead.

In my own opinion, if you have a drone and purchased it for photography, you are depriving yourself of the greatest amount of fun, second only to flying the drone. The anticipation of processing images taken with the drone and videos taken with the drone is as much fun as planning an exotic vacation. Of course, it is time intensive and not for the working person, as a rule. I am retired and have plenty of time to devote to this hobby, which adds to my lifetime hobby of photography. Now, in addition to my regular images, I can prepare a video with drone video, drone images with a great new perspective view, and my other hobby of timelapse photography. One hobby leads to another and so I have been forced to learn video editing too. For all of these reasons, I would seriously consider acquiring a computer that has capabilities to grow with your photography in the future.

As an aside, I am anxiously awaiting Apple's new M1 chip in the desk top iMAC, a super fast machine that can handle graphics very well.

 

[passedpawn]

I built a new PC just for the purpose of video editing. The one I abandoned was an i7 with a decent graphics card that still didn't play 4k 60p smoothly. The new one has no issue.

 

[JamieB]

If you can, upgrade your RAM. You're really going to struggle getting anything close to good performance with 8gb, no matter what software you use. 16gb is workable, if you can swing 32gb (or more), that's even better. Go dual channel (or quad channel if you have the option) if at all possible.

If you aren't able to upgrade, proxies are going to be your best friend. Basically, you make a low-quality copy of your footage, use that to edit, and then replace the low-quality clips with the originals before you export. It adds a few steps to your workflow, but if it means you can actually edit your footage without having to wait for your computer to catch up, it's totally worth the time to set up. There are plenty of tutorials online on how to do this.

Resolve (and just about any other nle with its salt) also has a "proxy mode" where you can set your playback to a lower resolution. In Resolve it's under Playback>Timeline Proxy Mode. I'd set it to quarter res and leave it there. Not as good as proper proxies, but it's easy to set up and can be helpful in a pinch.

 

[Dawnvt]

Seems that your PC is below what's recommended ... it will not be impossible to use Davinci Resolve though, depends very much on what minimum resolution you can accept, going for 4K will slow down your system & you need to use proxy copies of your footage (optimized media).

Here you have the effects on different speced systems explained in an easy way --> Can My Laptop Run DaVinci Resolve? (Explained for Beginners)

If the time aspect isn't cruical for you, your system can be used, but you have to make breaks in your work to regenerate "optimized media" versions to have your editing work run smoothly once you do it.

Here some tips to get the workflow run smoother on a low speced computer:

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I use a 2015 Macbook Pro, i7 quad-core, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD on Catalina OS.
I am pretty new to it, but 4k seems easy for it. Best of luck

 

[Dale D]

I use a 2015 Macbook Pro, i7 quad-core, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD on Catalina OS.
I am pretty new to it, but 4k seems easy for it. Best of luck

I routinely use proxies in editing on my iMAC even though I could use more RAM. Here are two good You Tubes. Here are my specs.

 

[leadguide]

Seems that your PC is below what's recommended ... it will not be impossible to use Davinci Resolve though, depends very much on what minimum resolution you can accept, going for 4K will slow down your system & you need to use proxy copies of your footage (optimized media).

Here you have the effects on different speced systems explained in an easy way --> Can My Laptop Run DaVinci Resolve? (Explained for Beginners)

If the time aspect isn't cruical for you, your system can be used, but you have to make breaks in your work to regenerate "optimized media" versions to have your editing work run smoothly once you do it.

Here some tips to get the workflow run smoother on a low speced computer:

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I followed his advise. A game changer. From frustration to smooth playback. So nice.

 

[keat63]

I did notice that CPU utilisation was pretty high, in fact peaking at 90- 100% at times.
I'll maybe try again using proxy before I try something else.

Memory upgrade is an option, but PC upgrade, i'm not so sure.
I've not got any decent footage to warrant buying a new PC (yet)

 

[Roamer105]

If by any chance you do end upgrading, here are from my experience the key characteristics to look for:
1) RAM - I found that you should get at least 32Gb
2) DR uses the graphics extensively and relies on that. Over and above your PC processor capabilities, it is more important to look for a really good video card. I found NVIDIA to work really well especially if the card you choose has at least 6Gb of video memory. Finally, the disk storage may be another bottleneck but not as severe as the other two.

Not sure if you want to process 4K let alone 5.4K video. Here is what I found: My Workstation has a 14 cores I9 processor running at 4.4Ghz (all cores fixed). I have 64Gb of 3200 RAM and use an Nvidia Titan xp (12Gb of video memory). I am afraid to say that I can not successfully process 5.4K video (downconvert to 4K 10-bit HDR) with some noise reduction and grading without running into "out of Video Memory" issues. I stopped shooting in 5.4K as it does not really much to the result most certainly not enough to warrant all these other issues.

With that system I can process 4K at full resolution (no proxies) running at full speed unless noise reduction or some FX such as sharpening or whatever is applied). I can produce the final output in 10-bit HEVC (H265 at best quality using NVIDIA) at a speed of 60fps (over two times real-time for 24fps video). While doing this, the processor load never exceeds 30% not even with noise reduction and other FX applied.

So, bottom line: VIDEO CARD IS EVERYTHING, next enough system RAM. That's it!

 

[maggior]

I did notice that CPU utilisation was pretty high, in fact peaking at 90- 100% at times.
I'll maybe try again using proxy before I try something else.

Memory upgrade is an option, but PC upgrade, i'm not so sure.
I've not got any decent footage to warrant buying a new PC (yet)

Like you, I just got a new PC last year and I can't justify moving to a new one for editing video. I was about to give up until I found out about using optimized media...it made the whole thing so smooth!!

There are some things that still are a struggle when playing back my timeline, like if I'm using a fusion effect. I generally only use those during the intro section so I'll just render the intro which takes just a minute. From there I'll make any adjustments.

Optimizing the media allowed me to quickly scrub each file to see what clips I wanted. Before I start on the project, I generate the optimized files...it may take 30 minutes. I do that and come back.

Also, be sure to clear out the optimized media when you are done otherwise many gigabytes will be lost on your hard drive. This shows you how:

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[FlyingFilmmaker]

A computer with a good NVIDIA graphics card (6gb plus) a good processor (6 core) and 16GB ram should be able to edit drone footage just fine. I have a Razer Blade, 6 core i7, NVIDIA GTX 1060, and 16GB RAM and it edits 4K just fine. Can even handle RAW video files.