DaVinci Resolve has a quite good and flexible media management module that significantly reduces the amount of data transferred post-editing for color correction and VFX. However, if you don’t understand what you are doing when using it, the results can leave you stuck.
First, let’s look at the test project we will be using.
This project consists of a mix of different formats that are not very well organized and, most importantly, do not have the Reel Name set. Some timecodes overlap, and we have one Compound Clip and one Fusion Clip in the project.
Additionally, there is one timeline in the project where not all of the source files are present, one clip is split in half between parts (marked with green arrows), and a second file is inserted as a b-roll. This b-roll uses a timewarp (variable speed) – marked with a red arrow.
Formats used:
- • B-raw
- • Arri Prores
- • Red Raw
- • Canon XF-AVC-Intra
- • ProRES file of unknown origin
- • h264
The Red Raw is quite large, so the camera split it into 2 parts of 4GB each (this is standard for Red Digital Cinema cameras). A fragment of this file is intentionally chosen so that the split of the two actual files falls within it.
Using the Media Management Tool
You can access the Media Management tool by selecting File -> Media Management…
The basic interface looks like this:
| The red rectangle marks the clips we will be working on. You can choose between all the project clips, clips from one or several timelines, or just selected clips. |
| The blue rectangle marks the actions we will be performing with the clips – copying or transcoding. |
| The turquoise rectangle marks the path to the folder where we will copy the results of our actions. |
| The orange rectangle marks the volume of data currently being processed and the volume we will have as output. |
Depending on the choice of copying or transcoding, the part highlighted in the red rectangle will change. Note that the output volume of data has also changed. In this case, all the source files of this project occupy almost 19GB, but if transcoded to h264, the volume decreases to 750MB.
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If we are working not with the entire project but with timelines or clips, appropriate options for further selection will appear in the tool’s interface. Note that in the case of choosing a timeline, the volume of source clips has decreased from 19GB to 16.3GB because not all clips in the project are used in the selected timeline. In the case of clips, the volume is not indicated because the tool is set to work with clips from the media pool, and I have not selected any clips. But if I choose the option “Selected timeline clips,” the volume will immediately appear because there is a selected clip on the timeline.
Let’s look at the settings for actions with selected material. In the next screenshot, I chose to copy all the project material but specified to copy only the used clips (Used media), so the source footage volume is not 19GB but 16.3GB, and perform a trim operation (cut out unused parts and leave only the used frames) with the addition of 10 frames of overlap before and after the edit (the arrow indicates where to set this). This reduced the output material volume from 16.3GB to 6.5GB.
Available options:
1. Use project name subfolder: The material will be copied to a folder named after the project within the specified path.
| C:/Users/valen/Documents/SynologyDrive/temp |
If the first attempt fails, the second attempt will be made to folder “project name” 2, then “project name” 3 and so on.
2. Consolidate multiple edit segments into one file: If a file is used in two (or more) places in the edit and this option is not active, Resolve will make a trimmed copy of this file for each of these clips and add a suffix like -0001 to the name of each of these files. If this function is active, Resolve will make one trimmed file that contains all the material from the first to the last cut (+ overlaps). In most cases, it is better to have this function activated.
3. Preserve folder hierarchy after X folder levels: When this option is active, Resolve will recreate the folder hierarchy for the created files; the depth of reproduction is set by the Folder levels parameter.
4. Relink to new files: Resolve will relink the new files instead of the old ones in the project after the files are copied. It is better not to use it because rolling back can be difficult if something goes wrong. Instead, export the timeline to a .drt format, open it in a new project, and reconform it to the newly created files. If something goes wrong, return to the original project and re-export the problematic files with new settings.
If we choose to work not with the files of the entire project but with Timelines, the options will be the same except for the ability to copy or transcode all project material (the All-media option) because it does not make sense. As a bonus, Resolve will automatically create .drt files for verification and transfer for each selected timeline. If we choose to work with individual clips, the option to work with selected clips in the Media Pool or on the timeline will appear. If you forgot to select the necessary clips before starting the tool, you will need to click Cancel, select the needed clips, and restart Media Management.
Not all formats that Resolve can work with support the trim function. If a file that cannot be trimmed is encountered, Resolve will give an error message. Here is a list of formats that support this function:
- • QuickTime
- • MXF
- • R3D
- • Image-based raw media formats including Blackmagic RAW and Alexa raw
- • DPX EXR JPEG 2000 TIFF Cineon and other compatible image sequence formats
- • AVI
- • H.264
- • XAVC
- • AVC-Intra
When choosing transcoding instead of copying, standard format selection and settings options will appear in the interface, just like in the Deliver tab.
Let’s return to our project and copy the necessary files with the following Media Management settings:
It stopped with the following error:
For unknown reasons, Resolve did not like the unknown Prores file. I made a copy of the timeline and deleted it, but it did not like another one.
After several attempts and errors, it turned out that Resolve could not trim the unknown Prores4444.mov (but managed the ARRI ProRes4444) and two Prores4444 in .mxf container. What to do in such cases? Either do not use the trim function or go to the original timeline, select these problematic clips, and copy them to the main directory.
I also exported the original timeline to .drt for verification. Created a new project and imported this .drt into it. It seemed fine, but there was a problem – the project used the original files.
I left the compound clip and fusion clip and deleted all other files from the project.
After adding new files to the project, most of them were automatically linked.
Others had to be manually linked. The reason – one of the ARRI files, from which we made two because it was used twice, did not fit because the second of these files had a new name (suffix added), and the files in the compound clip and fusion clip did not see the new files. I am almost sure that if the Reel names were set for each original clip from the beginning, this error would not have occurred. The “Conform lock with selected media pool clip” command helped to fix the situation. After that, you can re-export the .drt that refers to the new files and pass it further.
