Hey folks, since some of you were interested in Davinci Resolve video editor, I have some quick tips for you to optimize how it plays the videos you are working on.

Thing you need to keep in mind while considering this editor - to tell the truth, this software focus is professional video color grading tool, but it also has editing capabilities. This is not as 'easy' to use as an editor as Adobe Premiere for example. But hey... it's free! Also - Resolve version 14 is way more optimized than previous v12.5 - it launches and runs way faster, it also accepts .mp3 files (previous versions only accepted lossless formats like .wav as they are "professional" AKA someone had a stick up his butt).

Proxy mode playback - quarter resolution:
I find Resolve 14 playback less choppy than previous versions, you may still encounter some problems, especially with .mov files (Runcam... WHY?!). Check first if your machine is able to keep up with the playback of half or quarter resolution video:



Edit, playback, test.


Hardware acceleration (graphics card):
I only have NVIDIA dedicated GPUs, so I can't tell how this works on Radeons, but I'm sure you can find similar settings in their software. To enable CUDA acceleration, go to Davinci Resolve -> Preferences -> Video I/O and GPU tab. You may need to set GPU processing mode to CUDA and select your dedicated graphics card:



If you can't see your dedicated GPU here, you may want to check if it is used while handling Resolve. For NVIDIA cards, launch Nvidia Control Panel and set Blackmagic Design... to use the proper GPU, not the one integrated into your CPU:


Sorry for the screenshot from polish version

Generate optimized media (time consuming):
After adding the videos to the media pool, right click the video thumbnail and select "Generate optimized media" - it will create a file that is automatically used for playback:



Depending on your project settings, it may take a lot of time to generate - but on the bright side - it may enable you to smoothly edit those 4k files that were making your machine sweat. You may find the settings in File -> Project settings:



As it sometimes take A LOT of time, I use it only as a last resort.


Happy editing,
Konrad