Colour profiles on M2P, can anyone clarify please?

[HomeyJay]

I was pretty certain before I bought the M2P that the DLog and HLG profiles would work with H264 but they seem to be only H265 compatible. Problem is that nothing I have seems to want to work with H265 without expensive upgrades (I’m looking at you Resolve).
Now all I can use is the Normal profile on H264.
Where the **** are all the other profiles DJI, for those of us who don’t have limitless funds? There were loads on my Phantom 4 Adv+ and my Mavic Pro..

 

[Dale Rodgers]

I was pretty certain before I bought the M2P that the DLog and HLG profiles would work with H264 but they seem to be only H265 compatible. Problem is that nothing I have seems to want to work with H265 without expensive upgrades (I’m looking at you Resolve).
Now all I can use is the Normal profile on H264.
Where the **** are all the other profiles DJI, for those of us who don’t have limitless funds? There were loads on my Phantom 4 Adv+ and my Mavic Pro..

Resolve free can import h265 files under Windows. However, you may need to download the codec for a few pounds from the Windows store. Get a sample M2P h265 file from the internet and try playing it under the stock Windows Media player. If it can't recognise the file then you need the codec. If the file plays but stutters then your machine isn't powerful enough for 4k h265 but you can follow my laptop workflow suggested below.

My PC can just about edit and scrub 4k h265 files in Resolve. However, I do use the "generate optimised media" on clips. It uses up tons of hard disk space but makes things so much smoother.

The free version of Resolve can't render to 4k (I think). However, when it does render to 1080, it will switch to using your original files rather than the optimised media and thus try and maintain quality before down scaling.

My laptop however is another story. I get the M2P to save as h265 .MOV files. I then run the files through ffmpeg to downscale to 720p Prores .MOV files with the same name and extension (important). These files still have 10 bit colour for grading. The trick is to relink you media to your high Res versions prior to rendering (hence the same filenames and extensions).

All free so far!

If you're interested I can share ffmpeg settings and try and find a YouTube clip on proxy workflow in resolve.

 

[HomeyJay]

Hi, thanks for this advice, I’ll be going through it trying it all out!
Resolve (free) does NOT read H265. I think it used to but if you download the new version, V15, you need to buy the full version to get the 265 import. This is $300!
I’m not bothered about 4K - I’m just using the 2.7k /50fps / h264 option and that’s enough for me but even with this, Resolve struggles. I have an old version of Premiere cs6 and that’s perfectly smooth but apparently that has even more problems with H265.
I really don’t know where to turn as the Normal profile doesn’t seem to grade particularly well for me.

Btw, the machine is a Dell T3500 workstation with a quad core Xeon 2.67GHz cpu and Quadro 2000 graphics. Everything on SSD drives, 24gb RAM.

 

[Dale Rodgers]

DR15 free is on both my PC and laptop and I'm working with h265. Check the codec like I mentioned.

 

[HomeyJay]

Wow, I can’t understand that. I posted in their forum that I couldn’t open H265 videos and they posted back saying that the feature was only on the full version!
I’ll check the codec now.

 

[HomeyJay]

Win Media Player wouldn't play the H265 files so I downloaded and installed the codec. Now WMP plays it. Launched Resolve, navigated to the directory where the H265 files are and Resolve crashed immediately. Tried again, crashed again. Uninstalled, reinstalled and once again crashed again on browsing for media!
Will try again in a different directory!

 

[gnirtS]

Resolve free can import h265 files under Windows. However, you may need to download the codec for a few pounds from the Windows store.

The codec is actually free - there are 2 identical ones on the store, one is charged, one "for device manufacturers" is free. And its identical software.

 

[Dale Rodgers]

The codec is actually free - there are 2 identical ones on the store, one is charged, one "for device manufacturers" is free. And its identical software.

Good to know

 

[Dale Rodgers]

Win Media Player wouldn't play the H265 files so I downloaded and installed the codec. Now WMP plays it. Launched Resolve, navigated to the directory where the H265 files are and Resolve crashed immediately. Tried again, crashed again. Uninstalled, reinstalled and once again crashed again on browsing for media!
Will try again in a different directory!

Are you just looking for media rather than playing it when DR crashes?

 

[HomeyJay]

Yes, I don’t get as far as actually playing anything! I’m just browsing directories in the media browser.
I’ve now uninstalled the codec and Resolve no longer crashes but goes back to displaying the Media Offline error for all h265 files it finds...

 

[Dale Rodgers]

Yes, I don’t get as far as actually playing anything! I’m just browsing directories in the media browser.
I’ve now uninstalled the codec and Resolve no longer crashes but goes back to displaying the Media Offline error for all h265 files it finds...

That's a shame.

Wonder what verison of DR15 build you have? Open/create a new project, from the main menu bar, select "Davinci Resolve->About Davinci Resolve" and see what build you have. Mine is 15.1.0.025.

There's other free(ish) editors out there. I used to use Lightworks but unsure about h265 import on free version. Free version used to be limited to exporting in 720p but you could build up your projects, buy a one month licence and work from there. It's install is very, very small and runs very quick on a limited laptop (DR is a real resource hogger!). However, the grading tools are nothing special - it's mainly an NLE editor.

Shotcut might be another option. Again, the colour grading is nothing great and the editor is fairly basic

Failing that, convert the h265 to an intermediate HQ format where you'll have to try and not lose any quality in the conversion. This link gives a few ideas:

Editing formats vs. Delivery formats

It might be a bit out of date but I'd definitely put h265 on the "NOT to edit with" pile!

Good luck.

 

[Rastus]

I’m using win 10 and I can’t get Resolve 15.2 or 15.3 to play h.265 in media manager or whatever Resolve calls it.
I get an error about GPU and screen goes green. I have a GTX 1080 card. Not sure what my problem is.
What codec did you download that allowed you to play h.265?

 

[rwest]

Hi Rastus, it sounds like the problem is caused by CUDA acceleration. Probably a dumb question, but are you running a recent video driver (preferably direct from NVidia)?.

The free version of the codec (written by Microsoft) is available from HEVC Video Extensions from the Device Manufacturer

 

[Rastus]

Thanks for the link. Turns out I already had it installed.
I have the latest drivers and updates for everything. Not sure what the problem is. Probably my system.
I also have a Decklink Mini Monitor 4K. Called Blackmagic Designs support last night. That particular support guy was amazingly unknowledgeable.
Like I mentioned, it probably has something to do with my system.
Thanks again.

 

[Brewbud]

I feel your pain. I need a new laptop and this 4K stuff is going to cost me some $$ and still be marginal at best. Intel 8th gen I7 (6 core) and a GTX1070 or 1080, 16GB ram that I will later upgrade to 32GB. I know the laptop will quickly throttle back as the heat builds up.

Wish I could just build another desktop but I need the portability right now.