DaVinci Resolve 16 Public Beta 2 Out In The Wild by Brian Hallett

Give the beta software a spin to see where Blackmagic is heading with Resolve 16

May 8, 2019

Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 16 and Fusion 16 Public Beta 2. At NAB 2019, Blackmagic Design announced the new version of both programs and now, about a month later, the Australian company has already added a ton of features to the new software. Seriously, do the coders at Blackmagic Design sleep? What you will find in the new DaVinci Resolve 16 and Fusion updates are holistic to the entire program. We are seeing features added to every single page within DaVinci Resolve 16. From the Edit page, Color, Cut (which is Resolve’s quick edit page), Fairlight Audio page, and Fusion. The continued improvements released so quickly I guess means Blackmagic Design is interested in getting their fantastic feature set to you quickly.

Key new features

Addition of all-new Cut page
Support for the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard
Multiple performance improvements with significantly faster Fusion processing
Collaboration workflow improvements – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Speed Warp motion estimation powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Timeline level resolution, frame rate, scaling and monitoring settings within the same project
Upload directly to YouTube and Vimeo
Quick Export for quickly performing renders from all pages
Adjustment Clips to apply filters, effects and grades on top of a range of timeline clips
Frame.io integration supporting media imports, direct uploads, marker and comment syncing – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Significantly improved GPU accelerated real-time scopes
Initial immersive 3D audio support including Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D, MPEG-H, and SMPTE ST 2098 – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Free foley sound effects library available from the Blackmagic Design support website for use in DaVinci Resolve

Cut

Dual timelines with the ability to quickly navigate or edit anywhere on the timeline
Ability to use Source Tape mode to preview multiple media pool clips as a sequence of shots
Dedicated trim tool in the viewer to allow for frame-accurate trimming
Fast review mode with adaptive preview speeds to quickly review footage
Intelligent editing behavior based on playhead proximity to edit points
Dedicated edit and transition buttons
Compact viewer controls for context-specific actions including transform, audio, text and effects
Ability to access and edit all DaVinci Resolve transitions, effects and Fusion title templates
Multiple media pool sort and display modes – including new filmstrip mode and new list mode with thumbnails
Easy access to Quick Export options to export and share videos

Performance

User selection to preserve video essence for faster rendering of clips without content changes^
Improved playback performance with title templates in the effects library^
Improved Fusion playback performance
Improved caching performance for clips with Fusion comps
Improved 3D engine performance for clips with Fusion effects
Improved performance when playing back Fusion clips with cached effects
Improved performance with support for GPU-accelerated scopes
Improved performance for the Super Scale algorithm powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Improved playback performance on Linux systems with a single NVIDIA GPU

Collaboration

Per-system render cache for collaboration projects – DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Ability to create and modify markers in the Color page for collaboration projects – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Ability to modify clip metadata and flags from the Color page for collaboration projects – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Ability to display and change clip color from the Color page for collaboration projects – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Ability to load collaboration projects in read only mode – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ in collaboration projects – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Frame.io integration supporting media imports, direct uploads, marker and comment syncing – DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Ability to override the output and monitoring settings per collaboration system – DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Ability to see the machine and IP address of the user who is currently using a non-collaboration project
Options to show or hide flags and markers of specific colors
Ability to delete markers and flags by color

Edit

Speed Warp motion estimation powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine – DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Timeline level resolution, frame rate, scaling and monitoring settings within the same project^
Adjustment Clips to apply filters, effects and grades on top of a range of timeline clips^
Ability to analyze video clips for detecting and classifying people powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine – DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Custom safe areas for titles and actions^
Ability to assign any media pool clip or timeline as an offline reference clip^
Video orientation angle in the Clip Attributes dialog
Ease in and out position keyframes in the curves editor
Ability to view and edit keyframes for OpenFX plugins in timeline curves
Stabilize video clips from the Inspector
Support for pasting color correction properties from the Paste Attributes dialog
Improved audio behavior when scrubbing in the Edit and Media page viewers
Temporarily enable/disable snapping for titles on the viewer using the Alt/Opt key
All available viewer area is automatically used for 2-up and 4-up displays
Blade operations on a selected clip results in the preceding section being selected
Ability to toggle viewer overlays on/off and assign shortcuts for specific modes in the Edit and Color page viewers^
Support for a larger selection of words in the keyword dictionary from workspace menu
Ability to group and manage smart bins using folders
User preference to automatically create smart bin categories from media pool clips based on keywords, shot, scene and people metadata
Ability to duplicate existing smart bins
Ability to toggle between searching all media pool bins and current bin
Support for Go to In/Go to Out functions for three point edits even when preview marks are not visible
Support for switching the video monitoring output when toggling between source and timeline viewer in gang mode
Automatic updating of the Usage in Media Pool list view
Project setting to limit reel name matching to a specific number of characters when conforming or color tracing timelines^
Project setting to ignore a specific number of characters from the beginning of the reel name when conforming or color tracing timelines^
Newly pasted clips are now automatically selected
Ability to render broadcast wave files with support for metadata when exporting timelines to Pro Tools
Improved handling of video codec defaults and audio file names when exporting timelines to Pro Tools
Ability to switch buses for monitoring from the Edit page
Options to toggle views for rectified, full waveform and waveform borders in timeline options^
Improved alpha channel handling for compound clips with more than two layers^

Fusion

Fusion Studio 16 release concurrent with DaVinci Resolve 16
Improved playback performance with title templates in the effects library
Improved Fusion playback performance
Improved 3D engine performance for clips with Fusion effects
Support for MultiSampling in the 3D Renderer
Ability to flexibly scale animation with changing clip lengths
Improved performance when playing back cached Fusion clips
Improved responsiveness of Fusion viewer interactions when using a Wacom tablet
Ability to view and edit Fusion composition names from the clip thumbnail context menu
Improved memory management on large Fusion compositions with a high layer count
Improved GPU memory utilization for Fusion compositions with temporal processing
Improved performance for Change Depth with new Error Diffusion option
Improved performance and accuracy for Camera Tracker, with support for lens distortion
Improved performance with Fusion Dissolve with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance with Fusion TimeSpeed and TimeStretch with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance for Planar Tracker
Improved performance for B-Spline rendering with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance for Vector Motion Blur and motion blur in other tools with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance for Fusion Splitter and Combiner with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance for Fusion BitmapMask with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance for Fusion CornerPin and PerspectivePin with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance with Fusion Mask rendering with GPU acceleration support
Improved performance with Fusion Color operations with GPU acceleration support

Color

All new scopes engine
- GPU accelerated with real-time performance
- Option to apply a low pass filter for cleaner views
- CIE scope for viewing gamut distribution
- Option to set quality of the scopes
- Additional YRGB and YCbCr modes in Parade
- Option to see extents in Parade and Waveform
- Option to colorize Parade and Waveform
- Additional luminance and chroma modes in Waveform
- Ability to set ranges and view shadows, midtones and highlights independently in the Vectorscope
- Ability to view individual or combined extents for shadows, midtones and highlights in the Vectorscope
- Additional YRGB mode in the Histogram
Option to see input or output histograms in the background of custom curves
Option to see input or output histograms in the background of HSL curves
Support for new auto-color and color match processing powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine^
Ability to gang the zoom on the Color page viewer and the video output^
Ability to view individual red, green and blue channels in the viewer^
Ability to view and adjust keyframes for ResolveFX and OpenFX^
Ability to adjust the thumbnail size for timeline and lightbox to view a larger range of clips
Ability to copy and paste attributes between nodes
Ability to step forward and backward by 1 second
Ability to mark in-out ranges, mark current clip or clear ranges in the timeline for looped playback and to perform quick exports of specific sections
New smart filter for clips with edit sizing
New smart filter for clips with specific ResolveFX or OpenFX applied
Ability to view and set stereoscopic floating windows in pixels^
Additional strength controls for advanced video stabilization
Tracks can be enabled/disabled from the application menu and using shortcuts
Option to monitor stereoscopic content using line by line with the first line being even
List view mode for gallery stills and PowerGrades
Ability to update and navigate the current timeline wipe using the Timelines section in the gallery
Ability to optionally enable scrubbing when performing live preview in the gallery^
Support for a new Selected Still Images split screen mode
Accessing clip attributes from the thumbnail context menu
Revealing media in Media Pool from the thumbnail context menu
Revealing applied LUT in LUT browser from the node context menu
Support for Canon C700 IDTs in ACES workflows
Support for tooltips with track names in the Color page timeline
Support for AstroDesign ALog OETF in Resolve Color Management workflows
Support for 203 nit gamma mapping in Color Management settings when performing SDR to HDR color space conversions
Ability to pan and tilt an image beyond the project resolution in input, node and output sizing
Modifying Canon and Panasonic Camera Raw controls from the DaVinci Resolve Mini and Advanced Panels
Switching tabs automatically when adjusting primary parameters from DaVinci Resolve panels

ResolveFX

ResolveFX Stylize powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine in DaVinci Resolve Studio
ResolveFX Object Removal in DaVinci Resolve Studio^
ResolveFX Analog Damage in DaVinci Resolve Studio
ResolveFX Pencil Sketch in DaVinci Resolve Studio
ResolveFX Chromatic Aberration in DaVinci Resolve Studio
ResolveFX Chromatic Adaptation
ResolveFX Vignette
ResolveFX Invert Color
ResolveFX Drop Shadow
Support for the ResolveFX Blanking Fill, Lens Blur and Tilt Shift Blur in the Fusion page
Support for the ResolveFX Patch Replacer in the Edit page
Support for integrated beauty enhancements in ResolveFX Face Refinement
Improved ResolveFX Beauty with a new Auto mode, better edge behavior, individual controls and larger parameter ranges
Improved ResolveFX Scanline
Improved behavior for handling glow sources in multiple ResolveFX plugins^
Improved behavior for ResolveFX plugins with support for processing the alpha channel in the Edit timeline
Improved ResolveFX Blanking Fill with better defaults, support for more granular cropping and easier controls
Improved ResolveFX Warper with support for keyframing
Improved ResolveFX Dead Pixel with support for keyframing
Improved ResolveFX Colorspace Transform with support for SMPTE-C and Gamma 2.5

Fairlight

Initial support for Dolby Atmos audio in DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Initial support for Auro-3D audio in DaVinci Resolve Studio^
Initial support for MPEG-H audio in DaVinci Resolve Studio*
Initial support for SMPTE ST 2098 3D audio from DaVinci Resolve Studio
Support for B-Chain monitoring in the Fairlight page in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Support for labeling and protecting specific speakers from unwanted signal patching from the B-Chain port setup
Support for a larger variety of track formats including support for 3D audio formats
FairlightFX Frequency Analyzer
FairlightFX Limiter
FairlightFX Phase Meter
FairlightFX Dialog Processor*
FairlightFX Foley Sampler
Elastic Wave adaptive audio timing
Ability to save and recall multiple track automation mixes
Ability to copy, paste, edit and erase user selected portions of track automation data from the Fairlight menu
Improved viewing and control of 3D pans in the Fairlight pan tool
Support for Fairlight Audio Accelerator via Thunderbolt expander for macOS
Support for importing AAF timelines with support for decoding embedded audio content
Viewing and editing automation parameters for buses in the timeline view
New loudness monitoring standards – including ATSC, 1770 and R128 standards
Improved clip normalization with an option to set loudness standards
Ability to view integrated loudness curves for the Main bus in the timeline^
Ability to reset playback volume by Alt/Opt-clicking the volume slider
Media path mapping for the Sound Library
Ability to save and recall full console library presets

Codecs and Delivery

Quick Export for quickly performing renders from various pages^
Rendering all timeline audio tracks individually in single clip mode^
Decoding iOS Voice Memo, including lossless formats
Improved support for decoding and linking IMF supplemental packages in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Support for 20th Century Fox IMF preset in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Option for DCP quantization levels when rendering using the Kakadu JPEG2000 codecs
User alert when the render resolution is larger than the timeline resolution
Ability to use Super Scale in timeline output scaling in order to perform upscaling on renders and deliveries
Support for encoding to Panasonic SHV 8K in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Support for trimming MXF clips with temporal codecs in media management
Ability to minimize or disable viewer updates during rendering
AMD hardware accelerated decoding of H.264 and H.265 on Windows in DaVinci Resolve Studio
AMD hardware accelerated encoding of H.264 and H.265 on Windows in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Improved support for NVIDIA H.264 and H.265 rendering parameters on the Delivery page on Windows and Linux in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Improved support for Intel Quick Sync H.264 and H.265 parameters on the Delivery page on Windows in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Option to select the hardware acceleration method for decoding H.264 and H.265 on Windows and Linux – DaVinci Resolve Studio
Improved performance when decoding H.264 and H.265 clips on macOS
Improved performance when encoding H.264 and H.265 clips on macOS
Option to select hardware or software encoding for H.264 in macOS
Ability to set the Entropy mode when encoding H.264 on macOS
Improved display of options for H.265 profiles with implicit bit depth selection in the Deliver page on macOS
Improved HDR metadata encoding when rendering to H.265
Improved performance when encoding to AVI formats
Support for D-Gamut and D-Log for DJI RAW clips
Support for GPU accelerated decoding of Canon RAW clips using the Canon SDK
Support for decoding Canon C700 Full Frame clips
Support decoding Canon RAW clips in half res and quarter res mode
Support for decoding and encoding Avid DNxUncompressed formats
Support for decoding ARRI HDE clips
Ability to control QuantScale and MaxFrameSizeInPercent parameters when encoding to Grass Valley formats
Improved IMF composition settings options with the ability to rename native assets
Improved naming support for native DCP and IMF renders
Removed folder extensions from IMF/DCP renders

General

Support for the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard
Exporting videos directly to YouTube^
Exporting videos directly to Vimeo^
Per OS login preferences and settings with support for local UI layouts, database management, system and user preferences^
Ability to check for software updates from the DaVinci Resolve menu
Playback speed indicators in Resolve viewers
Ability to enable or disable individual pages in DaVinci Resolve^
Ability to hide the page navigation bar from the Workspace menu
Ability to enable or disable focused panel indicators in DaVinci Resolve
Ability to list and navigate to open Media Pool windows from the Workspace menu
Support for automatically checking for software updates when connected to the internet
Support for Russian user interface
Improved Live Save behavior on the Fusion and Color pages
Ability to add and edit project notes from the Project Manager and app menu^
Support for using timeline name and project name as burn in and render tags
Support for editing descriptions and comments columns for timelines in the Media Page
Ability to view the GPU Processing mode when set to Auto
Support for using DaVinci Resolve Studio dongles to enable Fusion Studio
General stability and performance improvements

Developer

Ability for OpenFX plugins to access any frame from the current clip
Scripting support for python 3.7
Discoverable scripting APIs in python and python 3
Combo boxes in Davinci CTL plugins
Ability to encrypt and specify expiry dates for DaVinci CTLs
Ability to query current timecode and current clip using the scripting API
Improved scripting support for importing, exporting and restoring projects and archives
Improved scripting support for listing, loading, renaming and deleting Fusion compositions and Color versions

Pre-installation Notes

DaVinci Resolve 16 introduces support for operating system user-level configurations and preferences. When starting DaVinci Resolve 16 for the first time, your system level global configuration files, layouts, logs and other preferences will be copied into your user folder. The existing system level files will be left untouched and will continue to work with older versions. Any changes made to your system or user level preferences in DaVinci Resolve 16 will not be reflected in older versions.
DaVinci Resolve 16.0 requires a database upgrade from DaVinci Resolve 15.3.1 and previous versions. We strongly recommend that you backup your existing database (both DiskDB and PostgreSQL) before performing an upgrade.
DaVinci Resolve 16.0 requires a graphics card with at least 2GB of VRAM which supports Metal, OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 10. This applies to both the compute and display graphics cards. Please also install the latest graphics drivers on Windows and Linux recommended by your graphics card vendor.

Minimum system requirements for macOS

macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra
16 GB of system memory is recommended and 32 GB is recommended minimum when using Fusion
Blackmagic Design Desktop Video version 10.4.1 or later
CUDA Driver version 418.105
NVIDIA Driver version – As required by your GPU
RED Rocket-X Driver 2.1.34.0 and Firmware 1.4.22.18 or later
RED Rocket Driver 2.1.23.0 and Firmware 1.1.18.0 or later

Minimum system requirements for Windows

Windows 10 Update
16 GB of system memory is recommended and 32 GB is recommended minimum when using Fusion
Blackmagic Design Desktop Video version 10.4.1 or later
NVIDIA/AMD/Intel GPU Driver version – As required by your GPU
RED Rocket-X Driver 2.1.34.0 and Firmware 1.4.22.18 or later
RED Rocket Driver 2.1.23.0 and Firmware 1.1.18.0 or later