DaVinci Resolve BEST Export Settings Explained! 18.6 UPDATE

[@orangespill]

Brilliant. Finally someone making an export video with some genuine knowledge behind it. Thanks so much...

[@kikiLafleurGlam]

THIS WAS AWESOME. I Watched a million videos and not one person gave the these export setting in such a way that made you feel like you understood the what and why for most of the features.

[@CharonFaustinus]

Network Optimization is basically faststart option in ffmpeg, it'll move "moov atom" to the beginning of the file. So having moov atom at the beginning of the file have a benefit with no impact of file size and quality. For example, when you upload it to KZbin, your video will get process instantly *while you're still uploading* This is because moov atom contains information about your video such as resolution, frame rate, and other information that require mp4 or mov container to function. (There are a lot of details about how mp4 container works. I'm not going to write it all in here.) This is the same reason why OBS said when you choose mp4 for recording format that the file will corrupt if there's BSOD or power outage. Because moov atom usually write at the end of the file in the finalizing process when you press stop recording. When there's BSOD the moov atom didn't finalize and result in the corrupted file.

[@EposVox]

Yup

[@svenwalter4293]

quality comment

[@iamdriy]

2:17 The BIG asterisk here is that setting your render cache format to something like DNxHR HQ or ProRes 422 HQ will QUICKLY fill up your drive as Resolve has no real cache management system. As an example, I just finished my first project consisting of about ~30GB of raw 4K footage, using these settings, my cache took up 1.5TB of space by the time I finished my project, and since Resolve has no real cache management system as mentioned earlier, you have to manually delete it. How frequently? Well that depends on how large your drive is. For most people (who aren't doing heavy color grading using cached media) I'd argue that it's better to set the optimized media and render cache to something lower quality like DNxHR LB, and then in the advanced settings (10:33) I would uncheck "Use optimized media" and "Use render cached images" and just bite the bullet of longer render times.

[@fromtheotherguy3284]

I've been using Davinci for a while now but only have been doing basic stuff such as clipping video recordings, but I've always had issues on exporting. Your video helps A LOT not only on getting to the point fast but also explains on what each setting does and which system is best for it. Amazing summary.

[@CreativeMindsAudio]

those are some nice features! Looks like I’m gonna upgraded to the studio version. Between the subtitles, transcription stuff, and these export settings, it’s worth it.

[@tobiascrow2792]

The Holy Grail of DaVinci Exporting. Without any doubt, the BEST tutorial on the whole damn internet.

[@EposVox]

What an amazing comment. Thank you.

[@ShravanParthasarathy]

As someone who just transitioned from Premiere to Resolve, this video is SUPER useful. Thank you!

[@ScottHiddelston]

Thanks!

[@EposVox]

Thank YOU!

[@steviehowie]

This is GREAT info! Thank you thank you :) I might suggest turning down some of your film grain and the extreme blue hue on the video, but tons of great knowledge in here.

[@hareblix]

I tried your export settings and they've made such a huge difference. File sizes are way down and upload speeds are up. Thanks for this fam!

[@unfriendme8236]

r u using mac or no?

[@hareblix]

@@unfriendme8236 Nope

[@ZachToupin]

Great video! Exports for KZbin - some say not to go full audio/video bitrates and color depth because then you are letting KZbin do the heavy lifting when it comes to compressing to their platform. Instead, they recommend having Resolve compress slightly higher over KZbin's recommended upload encoding settings. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this or if any testing has been done. I guess it can be hard to find out exactly KZbin's algorithm when it comes to these things.

[@EposVox]

I can explain in more depth in a different format better suited to long-form discussion sometime (comes up a lot on stream etc often) but short answer: those recommendations are incredibly misinformed about basically everything regarding video compression

[@mystifyingentity]

Hey, I was checking out Davinci Resolve again after using it a few times before. I didn't really know what all the extra settings did, but your explanation was super clear! I realize now that I wasn't using the export features to their full potential.

[@AirgunEvolution]

2:00 7:10 10:35 13:39

[@davidpikedesigns]

I was working on a video for my KZbin channel, and I wanted to say thanks for creating this video. It is so easy to just click the EposVox preset I created in DaVinci Resolve when I'm ready to export my video. Your video was so helpful. Thanks again!

[@livinghero]

Thank you! I always look forward to your deep dives on programs I use!

[@adam_tarantino]

Looking forward to using these suggestions on my next video! Definitely interested in the audio normalization. I typically would upload a test render and compare the content loudness dB to more popular creators so I know my loudness is on par with those.

[@TwinzEdiTz]

if you find it easier, in resolve, you can export everything on your timeline, in the fairlight page, as one audio file, once that file is rendered then you can right-click, analyze audio, to get the respective LUFS and Truepeak you are looking for, which youtube is -14 LUFS and -1 dbTP

[@JeremyLeech]

I started exporting my 1080p videos to 4k and the quality is way better. The bitrate, everyone says to crank it but automatic does seem to work well. I’ll have to test it some more

[@ShishaWG]

Unfortunately i dont have the AV1 on my Mac but i am able to export Quicktime h265 with Main 4:2:2 10 - going to try that - Thank you for all the work you put into this :)

[@Maxoverpower]

8:55 this is far from exclusive to screen capture content, virtually ALL video uploaded to youtube in 10-bit SDR will have degraded quality compared to 8-bit uploads, so it's not a good idea to recommend it under any circumstances. I doubt anyone is exporting at 5 Mbps where the compression efficiency gain of 10-bit may outweigh the inherent quality drop of youtube's handling of 10-bit. And it's not like most Windows applications or games render gradients with 10-bit precision for it to have benefit in your local "master" anyway. As for the reason this happens, I'm 99% certain it's because youtube dithers down to 8-bit before the compression step, which in theory retains effective 10-bit smoothness in an 8-bit container, but in practice, none of that noise makes it past the encoder, and instead you get terrible blocking. Feels like a feature that was rolled out in the backend with 0 time spent testing how it actually affects the final result in the real world. The reason I know they dither it down is that even when you upload 10-bit HDR and then view their SDR-converted version, it will often show noise that was never in the source, and was never in the HDR encode.

[@DmitrysGarage]

Are you uploading AV1 and have you noticed any changes in recent weeks as far as AV1 uploads? I noticed KZbin either can't even process some AV1 videos now (waited a day and it won't process, h265 processes in minutes) or everything comes out green. I thought maybe some settings got screwed up going to Resolve 19, but I can't even re-upload an AV1 video I already uploaded successfully. Had to fall back to h265. Appreciate the video btw, I hadn't realized Resolve added AV1 until earlier in the year when I saw your video and I've been enjoying using AV1.

[@no_categories]

oh wow. I've been jonesin' for an easier way to normalize audio for KZbin for EVER! I never even knew that feature was added and I'm so happy to have it now. Thanks for the demo of all these good settings.

[@Tonellacam]

sorry do we chose Main 10 or Main 4:2:2 10 for encoding profile ? thanks in advance , I don't know if I got what you said there because you say use main 10 but on your screen you selected Main 4:2:2 10

[@toxicjester]

Same question there .

[@GamerHeavenOfficial]

Very helpful, thank you.

[@SteaknEllie]

Could you do an updated video please? I thumbled through the settings as they look quite different now, especially the audio tab on the render settings. Would also be good to show a zoomed out Render settings page, as I often got lost as to where you were looking, partly because of the changes but also an overview is nice too. Appreciate the video and the tips!

[@frozennorthproductions]

All of my videos are .mov h.265 with pcm audio and I noticed none of them had audio when uploading to patreon, so I actually had to render them again using .mp4 with aac audio due to compatibility. The same applies for Plex, not all devices can stream PCM so to avoid constant transcoding, it's worth noting that even though .mov with pcm is far better, .mp4 with aac is basically guaranteed to work on every single platform and every single device that exists.

[@SpitfireSpud]

This was a great video. When you say Automatic for best results etc... Is this the same for HDR content too?? As I normally set my Encoding Profile to Main 4:4:4 10 or Main 4:2:2 10, I can't remember off the top which one. Cheers! Also, when you are not using the inspector, you normally have 2 preview windows, which one is the best for getting an idea of what it will look like after render? or is the Render/Deliver page the best place to get a real preview of what it will look like. Thanks.

[@BrandonBurch]

This is super useful 🎉 DR 18.6 FTW!

[@JonathanWentGaming]

This info is gold. Uploading my first video shortly. TYSM!

[@oslthom]

All great points. I'll note one point where I'll dare to disagree, specifically exporting final audio in 24bit. 16bit for masters is perfectly sufficient and indistinguishable in audio quality from 24 bit. On the raw recording and processing side you always want 24bit or more for maximum headroom and flexibility, but for the master 16bit is plenty, because everything already sits where it needs to. Please disagree if I'm missing a good reason to export in 24bit.

[@JohnCiber]

The only feature I miss from Premiere is read Wav files cue markers

[@youtubewatcher6933]

6:41 your face and your beard is just like stoicism statue. Experienced and wise. I like it.

[@IchBinDerJesko]

This is all I was looking for. Great video...finally I know what to set everything with a good reasoning behind it

[@GespachoGrande]

Awesome. I've been using Adobe Audition for loudness. Having it included in the rocket panel of DR eliminates that cumbersome extra step.

[@EposVox]

Yup!!

[@EposVox]

Now we just need presets for VSTs etc to save :/

[@digitalcity1]

The Fairlight page in Resolve has had loudness metering for years with all the standards. You didn't need Audition.

[@EposVox]

@@digitalcity1 It had *metering*, not an easy way to automatically normalize the whole mix that way

[@MrVuittonDon]

Why not use DNxHR HQX?

[@Danny-Lightning-WR]

i have the studio and the latest update, on windows 11 and i dont have some of these options available.

[@EposVox]

Like… what?

[@Danny-Lightning-CSR]

@@EposVox KZbin never notifies me of replies so i had to come back to your video to see if i got a reply but.. This is What i have on my render settings, how i have it set, i do not see some of this on your screen and or you had a few things i did not have. Format - quicktime codec -h265 encoder - nvidia CheckBox - network optimization resolution - ultra hd checkbox - use vertical resolution frame rate - 30 check box - for chapter markers quality - auto best or restrict to encoding profile - main 10 keyframes - check box, auto or every Checkbox - frame reordering rate control - variable bitrate preset - medium tuning - high quality two pass - quarter lookahead - 16 frames checkbox - disable adaptive i frame as scene cuts Checkbox - enable adaptive b frame AQ Strength 8 Check box -enable non reference p frame check box - enable weighted prediction next we move down to advanced settings.. but i'll skip all of that ..

[@HowSwey]

would you recommend this for Instagram reels?

[@MathNerdGamer]

I typically export DNxHR and then use ffmpeg to encode after-the-fact. It's actually very easy to set up all the latest and fanciest ffmpeg features using the media autobuild suite, and this completely bypasses any export issues I used to have with Resolve.

[@EposVox]

Sounds good for the free version, but would be mostly wasted effort for Studio users

[@adimology]

Hi Epos, I have a question Up until now, I use my SSD to store my footage and put the cache/optimized files on the HDD. it's because I never use a cache because I think it's double the storage usage Why using cache if I can directly edit from my footage on my SSD? and why transcode to DNxHQ from my sony 8bit mp4 footage? is it necessary? Thanks before!

[@CrashGame]

Thank you! These give me great results!

[@motionblurgamer]

My experience with the Automatic Best profile in DaVinci Resolve is completely different from yours. The export quality has been so much better for me if I restrict bitrate myself. It seems that the "Best" don't select a high enough bitrate to preserve details properly. Maybe a difference between Mac and PC? Different Hardware encoders?

[@EposVox]

Well I've gotten identical results on PC and Mac, having only just switched to Mac within the past month or so.

[@infernalreapers]

@@EposVox @motionblurgamer I had the same issue with automatic bitrate while exporting HDR color graded files. Maybe in SDR or not spuer high quality projects Auto works fine.

[@kobefan124]

What about 720p video? Should I still upscale that to 4K like you suggested with 1080p videos or should I just upscale to 1440 since the fraction is the same?

[@EposVox]

Do 1440p!

[@Losliving]

I feel like I leveled up watching this. Appreciate you!

[@AndresHernandezFilms]

Whoaaaa thank you!!! seeing an instant change upload speed and quality. Subscribed!!

[@TheChartreuseLeprechaun]

Thanks for this! Been waiting to upgrade! So much good stuff! Again, thanks for the coverage!!

[@EnCoreLabTV]

Thank you very much for your tips. I will apply them right from my nearest rendering.

[@NurseLee]

You are the man! I'm currently switching to Davinci Resolve from Adobe. thank you so much EposVox!

[@jmurray2018]

Great video where’s the export settings located ?

[@PandaApocalypta]

An amazing video and so well explained! Thank you for the help!

[@Welshmanshots]

3:28 i had to recently use MOV due to some weird audio glitch I was getting, although sometimes i would forget to switch it to MP4 because i have always used it and never really noticed a difference in audio between the two although when i changed my buffer size on my interface from 256 to 92 that changed and i have started to export files in mov, something i used to do years ago without even realising. EDIT: Those in the free version of resolve you can export 4K video idk when they added this but it works on v18.6

[@imniallg]

@eposvox KZbin doesn’t recognise your subtitles because your timeline started at 1 hour. Set it to 00 and it should work perfectly.

[@EposVox]

Are you sure? I've tried with a bunch of different containers now and KZbin never recognizes the included subtitles, only delivers auto-generated ones.

[@ProducerMode]

Please make the full course available on KZbin, thanks.

[@flare6030]

I currently only have 1 SSD and 1 HDD, what would be the best workflow for recording clips, cache, and exports? If I buy another SSD should I use the HDD and what for? Is it better to use the HDD for exports or recording clips? Right now I just have everything on an SSD. Thanks

[@Reallskovar]

What is the correct way to downsample footage in resolve? example: 4K to 1080p or 8k to 1080p

[@EposVox]

Set your timeline resolution to 1080p, plop your footage on there

[@BloomfieldProductions]

I have more settings in advanced settings and under encoding profile like bit rate controll and two pass full frame look ahead what do these all do?

[@BloomfieldProductions]

As well as gamma tag color space tag

[@BloomfieldProductions]

I’m on 18.6 as well

[@jseliski]

Thanks. For cache could I just add an external usb c drive

[@tripparian8913]

Amazing video! Thanks for explaining the whys! Great content!

[@caveman3703]

Such a great video, super in depth and exactly what I need. I am just as obsessed as you are with quality :D

[@michellemartincreative]

Thank you for this! I just made my first ever KZbin video and this was so helpful to understand the export settings and get my video out there. Thanks for sharing!

[@FREEDOMFPV84]

So is it better to leave the setting under h265 on auto or native whats the difference

[@MilkyPandaWay-lz4nf]

What render settings would you recommend for racing gameplay video for KZbin?

[@Tetra84]

do you find having your raw files on your nas makes editing slower than having it on your local machine?

[@Ataraxy013]

These are good tips. I'm using DaVinci for color grading and Vegas for rendering. I uploaded both a 4k h264 and 4k h265 video to test on youtube and they came back visually identical. Note I'm editing anime and gameplay footage captured in 1440p. Gonna stick to h264 for speed/efficiency tradeoff for the same results. Will however be switching to flac instead of aac for maximum uncompressed input for yt.

[@HVYCHKNRADIO]

Thanks for the video I’ve been using Resolve after the update and you explained the export settings impeccably.

[@CreateNowSleepLater]

You can't imagine how I boiled the ocean on my new rig with storage locations. I bought 3 NVMe drives but only had dedicated lanes to the CPU. The third is on the chipset. I have an older drive for static assets as well. I have my OS/Davinci on one drive. One Cache drive and 2 assets (1 NVMe / 1 Old Sata). Should I use the slowest to render to? In my head that makes sense.The second slowes would be the NVMe on the chipset but the way I think it works it Davinci will use the cache drive for the project. Does it pull the assets into cache?

[@travflame]

Thank you a lot, this helped me to maximize the quality of my videos. Good stuff!

[@AxeRugby]

Mate this was class. thankyou, would pay for your tutorial when it comes out.

[@BenjaminBjurstrom]

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for a making the preset available. Just used it and it turned out great!

[@joshelias8472]

Great video! I have a problem though, I don't seem to have the main 422 10 encoder setting. Do you know why that is? I have the Studio 19

[@chaliics]

I do use 18.5 Free version. It seems HW acceleration is used when exporting h264/h265 to h265. But if the source file is in AV1, HW acceleration is not used even if exporting to h265.

[@EposVox]

Well that means you're probably reading the HW *decode*, not encode metrics

[@chaliics]

@@EposVox i thought that too at first. but it is using GPU Encode in task manager. tried to post a imgur link to screenshot, but KZbin seems to delete comments with links. Dunno if Resolve bug or undocumented test feature, but thats the reason why i am staying on 18.5 as free user for now.

[@EposVox]

Huh. Interesting. Thanks for sharing

[@chaliics]

@@EposVox imgur "link": "kVLeKrO" From encoding speed, and task manager, i am convinced i am seeing what i think i am seeing 🤔

[@GreggMcLachlan]

Fantastic video! I've updated to these settings. One question: what setting do you use for Render > Key frames. I set mine to be Every 1 Frame

[@EposVox]

1 is good

[@goironic]

amazing content this made a HUGE difference with my content. appreciate the great knowledge!

[@BigThingsTour]

Thanks Heaps Great Video Lots of great info!!

[@LetsBFME]

Excellent video! Would you consider doing an updated video on color spaces and ranges in OBS for recording gaming videos? You have a video on this from a few years ago, but I feel like an update on this topic would be very useful. In particular, ideal settings for recording (maybe streaming?) both legacy SDR games and modern HDR game would be very helpful. Thanks!

[@DmoYuKusho]

Should I use H.265 for my proxy media resolution in my project settings if my Export Settings is also H.265?

[@hdrsiy2132]

What about instagram reels? Do these rule still apply? Is it better to render in 4k instead of 1080p ?

[@NatLifeSounds]

I'm using your settings, really helpful. But one thing I can't change is bitrait. I'm still using 80000kb/s for my 24fps video from BM 6k Braw, I just afraid that automatic can change it somehow

[@ForesightJo]

Thank you for communicating this stuff so well!

[@jeromelightbody5155]

This is such a beautiful video definitely, will be sharing this

[@robertoarosio5495]

Great video, but I still have a doubt, with these settings h.265 Best in bitrate and Main or Main 10 (depending if screen recording or video), which settings on PC for rat control: variable bitrate, constant bitrate, CBR high quality or VBR high quality. Thanks.

[@TheHeruJourney]

Man, that was so helpful. Subscribed and liked, highly deserved! Keep'em coming please.

[@EposVox]

Thanks, will do!

[@TheHeruJourney]

@@EposVox Can I ask what settings do you recommend for KZbin, in Project Settings > Color Management? Thanks!

[@Hazardteam]

This is a very useful video. And concise.

[@anyadunstone7548]

Thank you 🙏 this has been super helpful. very appreciated 🙏

[@MrVuittonDon]

What about Color Tag And Gamma Tag on the deilvery tab settings? I am using PC ad want to upload to social media sites.

[@ImnotAbelsuni34]

Thank you so much! I just started learning Resolve, and this helped a lot.

[@FloydVDocDeVore]

Thank you very much for making a useful video about export. I recently upgraded to DR19 Studio and I see under Audio Normalization a checkbox "Output Track1" that was not in 18.6.x. Should I check that box for KZbin (or other platforms)?

[@jaycranmer2001]

Whats better pro res or h265hvec for the best video quality on windows

[@_shogun_gaming_]

Have you ever used vegas pro?

[@EposVox]

Yes

[@joanharmonize]

The one export setting video that I will be keeping for future reference for sure. Thanks for this buddy! Quick question regarding baking subtitles into the video in the export setting, doesn’t this mean that your video will always have the subtitle when in reality some people may prefer the option to have it turned off? Or have I missed something obvious here?

[@EposVox]

It's still a separate track, just to have in the master. Doesn't show on KZbin - user still has to turn that on in the player

[@Aran_Fever]

Excellent explaining, thank you!

[@Sopotastic]

Best video ever super informative 🎉🎉🎉 thanks man

[@SEEK2FLY]

New subscriber here, This is gold dude thanks so much.

[@EposVox]

Thanks for subscribing!

[@rollvideo]

Unless I'm mistaken; I think a lot has changed to the Preferences and Project Settings. I changed some of your suggested settings but I get the impression that BMD has deleted some of them due to recent efficiencies inside DR. Would it be worth making an updated video on this subject so its easier to follow along?

[@EposVox]

Nothing has changed from this video to now o_O

[@MaximoJoshua]

great video, learned a ton. quick question, is the grain added for stylistic reasons, or does it help avoid compression blocks? just curious

[@EposVox]

Both!

[@kylemckenna]

Excellent video! Do you still recommend normalizing audio while editing or just using the export normalize option for youtube?

[@EposVox]

You still need to balance your levels of different tracks and have your overall mix in the right ballpark, but for KZbin videos and such I wouldn't bother trying to perfectly normalize it during edit IMO

[@kylemckenna]

@@EposVox appreciate it!

[@ech33]

Im using da vinci resolve studio 19, but my encoding profile has mo other option except main. Why is that? Thanks

[@HeyImJanC]

My guy, good tutorial but my color grading changed to everything more red in the export which looked horrible. How do I fix that?

[@Redfoetus]

Thank you so much for this video dude ! 🔥

[@OfficeofthePacific]

Great video. How should I render a video that has mostly 8 bit 4:2:0 footage bit also some 10 bit 4:2:2? Thanks

[@EposVox]

I'd do 10-bit 4:2:0 personally

[@OfficeofthePacific]

​@@EposVoxany advantage of reshooting in 8 bit 4:2:0. Also, I need to confirm it's actually 4:2:0. Can't confirm subsampling in DaVinci media pool info. Thank again 🙏

[@OfficeofthePacific]

So my music video has 2 minutes and 33 seconds of B-Roll 8 Bit 4:2:0 and 1 minute and 32 seconds of 10 Bit 4:2:2 main footage. Is it still best to render in 10 Bit 4:2:0. Thank you 🙏

[@meronmountains7052]

Thank you so much for making this video! I'm very new to Davinci. I've spent two weeks learning how to edit my project and now I am finally ready to export it! I've watched soooo many KZbin tutorials on the correct export settings that my head is spinning! I just want to make simple videos for KZbin using Iphone 15 camera. (No ProRes or Raw footage) I am not worried about mega quality, just want it to be decent and keep the file small and render time fast. (I'm using a MacBookPro.) Thanks for the extra tip about Audio Normalization: KZbin Mode....got that box checked! Hoping your setting will work for me.