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You‘ve spent hours, days, or weeks perfecting your edit in DaVinci Resolve – carefully assembling clips, adding transitions and effects, mixing audio, and color grading. But there‘s one crucial final step before your video is ready to share with the world: exporting. Exporting compresses your timeline into a single standalone video file that can be uploaded, streamed, or viewed on any device.
While exporting may seem like a simple process, there are dozens of options and settings to configure that can have a big impact on your final exported video quality and file size. Different settings are optimal for different destinations, whether you‘re exporting for YouTube, Instagram, broadcast TV, or to send to a client.
In this guide, we‘ll walk through everything you need to know to export pristine, high-quality videos from DaVinci Resolve. I‘ll explain all the key settings and options, provide recommended presets for common scenarios, and share some pro tips and best practices to make your exporting fast and efficient. So let‘s dive in!
Navigating the Deliver Page
All exporting in Resolve is done from the Deliver page. You can get to it by clicking the "Deliver" button at the bottom of the screen, or using the keyboard shortcut Shift-8.
The Deliver page has three main sections:
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Render Settings: This is where you set up all your export settings like format, codec, resolution, and bitrate. We‘ll go through the key settings you need to know in detail.
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Timeline: You‘ll see your timeline here with options to select a range to export. You can export just a portion of your timeline by setting in and out points.
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Render Queue: This shows the list of jobs lined up to export. You can queue up multiple exports with different settings and Resolve will render them out one by one.
Resolve 18 brought a complete overhaul to the Deliver page interface, with a cleaner look organized into collapsible sections for Video, Audio, File, and Advanced settings. But all the same settings are available.
Essential Export Settings to Know
While there may appear to be an overwhelming number of options, there are just a handful of key settings you need to choose for any export:
Format: This is the overall file format or container for your export, like MP4, MOV, or MKV. MP4 is usually the best choice for web and social media. MOV supports a wider range of professional codecs. MKV is great for archiving as it can store multiple audio and subtitle tracks.
Codec: The codec determines how the video is compressed. H.264 is the most common for general use as it provides a good balance of quality and file size. For higher quality, you can use H.265 (HEVC), but it will have larger file sizes. ProRes, DNxHR, and Cineform are professional codecs used for editing and color grading.
Resolution: Choose the dimensions in pixels of your exported video. You can choose from preset options like 1080p, 4K, or 8K, or set a custom resolution. Consider lowering the resolution from your project resolution if you need smaller files for web streaming.
Frame Rate: In most cases you‘ll want to keep the same frame rate as your project and source footage to avoid ghosting. But you can use different frame rates for slow motion and other effects. Common options are 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, and 60 fps.
Quality/Bitrate: You can control the amount of compression using either the Quality slider or by setting a target bitrate. Higher quality or bitrate means less compression and larger file sizes. Around 10-20 Mbps is good for 1080p streaming.
Audio: If your timeline has audio, make sure to choose your audio format, codec, and bitrate as well. AAC is a good default choice, at 192 or 256 Kbps for stereo. For surround sound you‘ll need higher bitrates.
Those are the essentials to configure for any export. But many more advanced options are available to further dial in your output.
Step-By-Step Exporting
Now that you understand the essential settings, let‘s step through the export process:
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Make sure your timeline is done and ready to export with all edits, effects, titles, and color grading complete.
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Move to the Deliver page and choose your export preset, or create a new one by configuring the settings as described above. You can save your settings as a preset to reuse later.
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Choose a destination for the exported file in the "Render to" field. You can export locally or to a connected network drive. Use a clear file naming convention, especially if you‘re exporting multiple versions.
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If needed, set in and out points on your timeline to export just a portion.
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Click "Add to Queue" to load your export settings into the Render Queue. You can queue up multiple jobs with different settings.
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Click "Render All" to begin the export process. You‘ll see a progress bar and time remaining estimate for each job.
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Once the export is complete, Resolve will send a notification and show a "Render Finished" message. Check the exported file to make sure it looks and sounds correct.
That‘s the basic process – configure your settings, add the job to the queue, and hit render. But there are some other options that can be helpful:
You can add a burnt-in timecode or watermark to your export in the "Advanced Settings" section. This is useful when sending drafts or proofs to clients.
If you‘re using Resolve Studio, you can export a frame-by-frame quality report along with your video, highlighting any compression issues or errors.
You can export still images from individual frames, or a contact sheet of stills spanning your whole timeline. This is handy to generate thumbnails or preview images.
Optimizing for Different Destinations
The ideal export settings depend on where your video will be delivered. Here are some tips for common destinations:
YouTube:
- Format: MP4
- Codec: H.264
- Resolution: 1080p or 4K
- Frame rate: Same as source
- Audio: AAC, 192 Kbps, Stereo
- Bitrate: 10-20 Mbps for 1080p, 35-45 Mbps for 4K
Vimeo:
- Format: MP4
- Codec: H.264
- Resolution: 1080p or 4K
- Frame rate: Same as source
- Audio: AAC, 320 Kbps, Stereo
- Bitrate: 10-20 Mbps for 1080p, 30-60 Mbps for 4K
Instagram:
- Format: MP4
- Codec: H.264
- Resolution: 1080 x 1350 vertical, 1080 x 608 landscape
- Frame rate: 30 fps
- Audio: AAC, 128 Kbps, Stereo
- Bitrate: 3.5 Mbps
Client Delivery / Archiving:
- Format: MOV or MKV
- Codec: ProRes 422 HQ or Cineform
- Resolution: Same as project
- Frame rate: Same as project
- Audio: PCM or FLAC
- Bitrate: 200+ Mbps
The built-in presets in Resolve are a good starting point, but you may want to create your own presets tailored to your specific needs and workflows.
New Export Features in Resolve 18
DaVinci Resolve 18 added some powerful new exporting features and capabilities:
Smart Reframing: Automatically reposition and scale footage when exporting to a different aspect ratio, keeping the action properly framed. Great for generating social media versions.
GPU accelerated effects: Resolve can now render effects like Noise Reduction, Sharpening, and Scaling entirely on the GPU, for dramatically faster encoding.
Pre-export render caching: Background render effects and titles before exporting to skip rendering them during the export process.
Dolby Vision and HDR10+: Export HDR deliverables with dynamic metadata using these advanced HDR formats.
Render status overlay: Shows a heads-up display with export progress and information so you can keep working on other applications during export.
If you‘re on an older version of Resolve, it‘s worth upgrading to take advantage of these new exporting enhancements, especially if you‘re generating lots of deliverables or working in HDR.
Troubleshooting Export Issues
Exporting is generally straightforward, but occasionally things can go wrong. Here are some common issues and how to resolve them:
Export fails with an error message: First, check that you have enough disk space on your target drive. Then, try exporting with a different codec or lowering the bitrate. Some GPUs can‘t handle the latest codecs like H.265. Make sure your GPU drivers are up to date.
Video is pixelated or blocky: The bitrate is likely too low for the resolution. Try increasing the bitrate, or using a higher quality setting.
Audio is out of sync: Make sure your project and export frame rates match. Check that the audio sample rate of your source clips matches the timeline.
Colors look incorrect: If colors look washed out or oversaturated, you may need to adjust your project color management settings, or choose a different color space when exporting.
Export is stuck or hanging: Quit and restart Resolve. Then, break your export into smaller chunks by setting in and out points, or export as individual clips and combine them afterward in the Media page.
If all else fails, try exporting on a different machine to isolate whether it‘s a hardware or software issue. You can also reach out to the BlackMagic forums or support for more advanced troubleshooting.
Managing Exported Files
Proper file management is crucial when dealing with exports, especially if you‘re generating a lot of versions and variations. Some tips:
- Clearly label each exported file with the project name, client, version number, and relevant specs like resolution and frame rate.
- Organize exports into folders by project and date.
- Keep exports on a separate hard drive from your project files and source footage.
- Make backup copies of important exports or master files to protect against drive failures.
- Consider using shared storage or a MAM (media asset manager) like Kyno to organize exports across a facility.
Implementing a consistent and organized system for dealing with exports will save you tons of time and headaches down the line.
Conclusion
Exporting may be the last step of the editing process, but it‘s crucial to get right. By understanding the key settings, following best practices, and keeping your files organized, you can deliver great-looking videos with optimal quality and file size for any destination.
The extensive export options in Resolve can seem daunting at first, but the defaults will work well in most cases. Get to know the essential settings covered here, and branch out to the more advanced options when you need that extra level of control and customization.
For more tips on exporting and optimizing your Resolve workflow, check out the official Blackmagic Design guides and training materials. With a bit of practice and experimentation, you‘ll soon become a master of exporting in DaVinci Resolve.