Da Vinci characteristics query

Video and Photo Editing
1

Hi all, you are probably sick me by now but I wanted to take the time to list some of the weird things I experience when using Da Vinci 19, wonder if it it just me or not. I have been running it for around 2 months, just under now, and I have had a computer specialist round just to ensure my desktop was sufficient to run, which it certainly is. Generally I don’t have issues however the following things happen / have happened:

-Some video transitions completely slow down and almost halt the timeline play back (both in software and full screen CTRL F). If I use them, the video has to catch up / speed up considerably once it passes through these transitions on playback. The whole thing goes slow mo and funky. The final delivery is never affected, it is always only when scrubbing or checking in edit.

-Some transitions appear in my toolbar but throw up odd error messages when I hover over them. One is “detail dissolve” but there are others. I get a Blackmagic pop up saying “I have hit a limit” and to buy studio. I thought that if it appeared in free it was useable? This first pop up is then followed by another which has an error message, it reads something along the lines of detail recovery error, I have to check a box and close it each time. I have closed it now, but could screenshot this unless someone knows what it is.

-Music / Bluetooth. This is a major issue. I never normally, but, when I switch my bluetooth on (seperate chinese USB bluetooth plug in) and start listening to music on my headphones as I work, I lose all sound from DV and lose it forever no matter what settings I change. I have to reboot the whole desktop. It always saves where I am and my work, but I literally have to restart entirely to get the audio back and working. Everything in DV is muted until I do this.

-Occasional catrastrophic crashes. I think I have had 2, maybe 3. Todays was the worst though, on my recce vid. I had just started it, and my entire desktop went blue with a weird :frowning: face, my sound went all electric and crashed so I had a permanent glitch sound too. I thought I had literally fried my system. It then restarted like nothing had happened. Really odd.

I joined the Blackmagic forum, and am reading a lot, and I mean a lot of people complaining about crashing and stuttering on videos. In the main mine is fine but is any of this familiar with anyone? I have posted on that forum however there is around a post every 5 minutes and most get lost / unanswered.

4

Not sure about the performance issues and crashes, other than making sure the GPU is set up to accelerate. My UI started flashing with mouse rollovers in the Colour tab a couple of days ago (latest 19.1.2 Win 11). I found this video on the Blackmagic forum useful (if you have NVIDIA), applied his settings, and fine now. It may help with your problems? (Edited to show the thread as the video doesn’t allow linking elsewhere. See the bottom of the thread.)
https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=202729

As for the warning about Studio, that’s the way it works. All the features are in the free version, but some will come up with this warning when not available so you can see what you’re missing. There may be other similar transitions that work if the free version.

5

Thanks Bingbong. I have read that, although must confess most of it is a different language to me. GPU? No idea I’m afraid. I guess it is reassuring that others with decent systems also have issues. I don’t get flickering though. Hopefully it will just be one of those odd things.

6

GPU (graphics processing unit) = graphics card. Low-end computers just use the integrated graphics (iGPU) in the CPU (central processing unit). You probably have a separate card that needs setting up in Resolve settings to make full use of the hardware acceleration.

I’d try those settings in the video anyway.

7

Ah ok. I dont have a graphics card, it uses the cpu. That was one of the things my tech guy told me.

8

I have come back to this thead to ask another DV question rather than start a new one (do I get brownie points for better forum behaviour? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

For those that use DV, a question on colour management. I have just started using it, and having followed online guidance I am changing the settings so that DV will automatically colour manage based on the camera input. When choosing from the camera input, DJI appears however it only has one option which is DJI Gamut or something similar. Other brands have a multitude of options, DJI only has one. I can’t believe that DJI only use one camera across their range so is this something that isn’t accurate or that I need to be aware of?

Having now used it on two videos I can’t help but feel the colour is over saturated. On my Wood Street Village video in the video forum, you can see that the colours are bursting, however the grass looks like it is almost liquefied with the amount of green coming off it. It was a dull murky morning so the result really stands out to me. Unsure if good or bad.

I can of course reduce saturation post correction manually but I am unsure what to expect and whether I am “doin’ it right”.

Cheers

9

I use DaVinci Resolve. I’ve not noticed anything slowing down whilst adding transitions. Perhaps as your computer is using onboard graphics, the cpu is being worked a bit too hard ?
YouTube is a great resource for learning. One YT channel I subscribe to is Darren Mostyn’s channel. :wink::wink:

10

Thanks, yes its an odd on re graphics, most transitions totally stall my timeline playback. In fact so much so I literally spent a day making a video of all transitions that exist, rolling into one another back to back, and uploaded to youtube, so that I can watch it back and see what they do. I lose half of them in DV when editing and playing back as I just can’t see what they are doing until it is rendered. My system is more than capable, and this stuttering and delay is all over the Blackmagic forums, so it must just be a characteristic.

11

You can render those on the timeline so you can see the result without exporting. Just right click on the clip then choose Render In Place…

That creates a new rendered clip so you need to use the same settings as you would export at.

1 Like
12

That’s interesting thanks. Have you seen the footage - do you think the colour is off? I can re-post the video here if needs be.

13

An update to this, and following on from the conversation on my demo video in the Videos category.

I have uploaded a couple of test videos that I took this morning where I have tried to mimic the exposure changes in the demo video. This is by lifting off from a dark patch and rising into the dawn sky. I used Pro Mode and adjusted the ISO and something else.

I have put two identical clips together and added what I think the settings were as I shot both of them although I may have confused myself there. Then I have used the automatic DV colour input space process to correct them without manually doing anything. These two clips are Test 1.

I have then gone back and manually adjusted the colour settings for clip 2 of 2, brightening it and lifting it as it was so dark. This is uploaded in Test 2.

I am following the “input colour space” on Timeline method to do this, it was an in depth process I looked up online and is apparently the simplest and most effective way to manage output. The output is and always has been set to Rec 709. You have to select DJI as the camera used. It definitiely makes a huge difference to the original footage. Links below:

TEST 1

TEST 2

14

The second half of the second clip is spot on. Decent exposure and the colour seems more natural.

What is this process for the input colour space that you’re following. Can you link the page or video please. I’m intrigued by what it’s doing. The workflow I’ve started using is using an adjustment clip and grading via that.

15

If you got to 2 hours 46 mins exactly, you see the process.

To understand what you also need to do to “unlock” this process go back to roughly 2 hours 42 mins. I am finding that it has a huge impact but actually too much of one. However I am starting to manually adjust now too.

16

Indeed it’s having too much of an impact on your colour.

That method is for Log colour profiles, but the Mini 3 doesn’t shoot that way. DV is expecting a greyish log profile, you’re inputting a normal/Rec.709 profile clip and applying the DJI/D-Log setting so the output is too vibrant.

Set the input to Rec.709 and you should be good.

17

Ill have a play thanks. One way that seems to be working for me is to follow the above but crank saturation right down afterwards. Ill carry on experimenting.

Im going to shoot in manual, and use auto as an initial visual reference to “set” the manual brightness to what it looks like it should be (preventing things being too dark which you will see in the next video I upload!).

18

Yes but that’s fudging the system. Set it to Rec.709 and you’ll have a much easier time.

2 Likes
19

Just after some advice please on FPS @ParmoPaul . (Colour page sorted, watched Mostyns video and have performed 1 correction and transferred it across my clips).

I have just uploaded a video I shot this morning, again DV did NOT ask whether I wanted to change the frame rate, sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t. On playback I still get minute judder, when the drone moves you can see it in the playback. 99% of the population wouldn’t notice this, but you will and I can. I am now re uploading it in 30FPS (3:2) whatever that is. Hopefully that will improve things?

This is happening when I am flying slow and smooth, I am not touching any speed or playback settings in DV. Should I be shooting at an optimal FPS on the drone settings / and similarly should I be setting each project in DV to a set frame rate?

20

Just watched back the 30 3:2 version and it is worse, its a faster judder and the imagery is just not smooth. So now rendering back to the 24 FPS it originally chose which is acceptable.

21

What did you shoot in?

22

As long as your shooting frame rate and DV frame rate match then you should be good.

The Mini 3 tops out 4K at 30fps so use that when filming and your DV project settings. 24fps is more “cinematic”, as it is the rate that movies are projected at.

3:2 refers to the conversion between 24 and 30fps. Older TVs, and some modern ones, output at 30fps and can cause the judder.