DaVinci Resolve has come a very long way over the last few years. From its humble existing as the colour grading tool of choice, it’s grown into a full-blown editor that now easily competes with the established big boys in the non-linear editing world, like Premiere Pro, Final Cut and Avid. After several months of beta testing, Blackmagic has now announced the final release of version 16.1, including a lot of updates.
Resolve has grown quite massively in popularity over the last year or so. This is largely thanks to the insane reception received by the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (which is STILL 2 months back-ordered more than a year after release!) and the more recent Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K – both of which come with a free license for the full Studio version of DaVinci Resolve. And, naturally, it has the best support out there for BRAW.
But there is a free version of DaVinci Resolve that everybody is able to use, regardless of whether or not you buy a Blackmagic camera, and most of the differences between the free and Studio versions won’t be missed by 99% of people. And, as it’s free, you’ve got nothing to lose by checking it out except a little of your time. A lot of stuff has come over the last few iterations of the software, and 16.1 is no exception. The twenty-five and a half minute above is an overview of some of the new features available in DaVinci Resolve 16, but here’s a complete list of everything that’s changed.
Cut
Sync Bin view which shows synced clip cutaways for the current shot on the timeline in a live multi-view for up to 9 camerasSync Clip window to perform timecode based, audio waveform based and in or out point based syncing for clipsLive overwrite from the Sync Bin multi-view where the desired camera number can be pressed on the keyboard and the cut away length can be adjusted live with the scroll dialSupport for automatically grouping shots from one camera by analyzing timecode and camera number metadataClose Up is now powered by the DaVinci Neural Engine to automatically identify multiple faces in the clip and reframe and zoom in on the subjectsAbility to extend the timeline from the Sync Bin view to easily find the next edit for your timelineSmart Indicators on the timeline which show where the closest edit points are based on the playhead positionBoring detector with timeline indicators to detect edits which are running too longJump cut detector with timeline indicators for flash frames and jump cutsSupport for a new transition dialog to quickly find and apply the desired transition to the closest edit point using the scroll dial on the DaVinci Resolve Editor KeyboardSupport for a new picture in picture mode to quickly apply a picture in picture edit by easily selecting the image quadrant using the scroll dial in the DaVinci Resolve Editor KeyboardSupport for a new blended scroll mode in the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard that dynamically toggles between scroll and jog transportSupport for a split clip action in the toolbarSupport for performing a slide edit by Alt/Option + dragging the timeline clip overlaySupport for adding bins and moving clips between bins in the media poolImproved representation of small cuts on the top timelineImproved thumbnail clip hover behavior when selecting and previewing source media in the viewerImproved responsiveness when scrubbing the in and out points for long clips in range editor
Edit
Support for using embedded timecode for clip based formats when the project setting is set to use frame count timecodeAbility to copy and paste transitions across multiple edit points in the timelineSupport for switching between clip and edit point selections on the timelineSupport for temporarily toggling between selection and trim edit mode during an edit actionSupport for track name and track number burn-in and render tagsSupport for previewing audio when dynamic trimming at greater than 1x speedsSupport for dragging adjustment clips to the media poolSupport for renaming adjustment clips in the inspectorSupport for showing or hiding individual panels using keyboard shortcutsImproved default multicam naming behaviorAbility to name angles after clip names or file names when creating a multi-cam clipSupport for matching a multicam edit frame to the underlying source clipSupport for switching to the correct multicam angle when performing a multicam match frameImproved graticule and timecode display on timeline rulersSupport for opening Final Cut Pro 7 XML files from Finder to import media or timelines on macOS systemsAlt/Option-clicking on a track destination selector on the edit timeline will now exclusively select that trackSupport for tooltips to show track names in the mini track viewSupport for automatically selecting the newly added take in the take selectorImproved dual screen behavior for the edit page with support for single viewer and full height metadata and effects libraryImproved performance when analyzing clips for detecting and classifying peopleImproved easing behavior when applying smoothness to position keyframesImproved blade behavior when there is a clip selectionImproved behavior when navigating between clips and edit points on the edit timeline when subtitles are present
Fusion
Support for reading media with super scale applied in the media poolSupport for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera presets in the Camera3D and CameraTracker toolsImproved memory management on compositions with multiple input layersImproved memory management on multi-GPU systemsImproved viewer interactivity and playback performance on single GPU systemsImproved render all savers status displaySupport for ACEScg as a gamut option
ResolveFX
ResolveFX Stop MotionResolveFX and OpenFX plugins can now process and modify the alpha channelSupport for additive compositing for ResolveFX Light Rays and ResolveFX GlowSupport for automatically enabling usage of OFX alpha for ResolveFX Match Move and ResolveFX Drop Shadow
Color
Support for viewing flags applied on the current clip on the video monitoring outputSupport for limiting viewer overlays in HDR mode to 100 nitsSupport for an option to update the shared node grade from a version stored in a gallery stillSupport for stereoscopic controls in the Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Mini panelSupport for OpenFX controls in the Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Mini panelSupport for generating high resolution 65-point cube LUTs from color page thumbnailsAbility to paste a power window by appending to the existing windows from the Power Windows option menuSupport for a user preference under color to restrict node navigation to color corrector nodes and avoid mixer nodes and splitter and combiner nodesImproved CIE scopes with a 1976 u’v’ view and the ability to show an additional reference gamutImproved color match processing powered by the DaVinci Neural EngineAbility to step the timeline wipe frame forward and back from the view menu and using the relevant shortcutsSupport for previewing timeline clip grades from the gallery when live preview is enabledSupport for a 2.0:1 output blanking preset in the timeline menuSupport for Fujifilm F-Log colorspaceRestored menu entries for half step printer lights in the color application menu
Fairlight
Support for 96 KHz and 192 KHz sample rates at a project level for DaVinci Resolve StudioSupport for clipping indicator for main buses on the Fairlight mixerImproved sound library search with support for binary and wildcard searchesSupport for enabling extended bounce tail durations from the option menu for audio clips with reverb and other tail effectsSupport for customizing the tail duration threshold for reverb and other tail effectsSupport for automatically enabling Insert In for an audio track when manually patching track inputsImproved performance when loading and switching timelinesImproved performance when generating waveform profiles for nested timelinesImproved peak hold and decay behavior for meters in FairlightFX pluginsSupport for displaying and persisting individual audio effect windows on top of other windows
Media and Delivery
Ability to preserve video essence for faster rendering of uncompressed clips without content changesSupport for decoding and encoding ProRes IMFsSupport for decoding and encoding DNxUncompressed half float formatsSupport for decoding IMA4 format audio in QuickTime clipsSupport for decoding floating point audio in QuickTime clipsSupport for a preference to stop renders when a frame or clip cannot be processedSupport for decoding floating point TIFF imagesSupport for decoding DPX 10-bit RGBA filesSupport for encoding AVC Intra 50, 100 and 200 on DaVinci Resolve StudioSupport for user selectable audio sample rates for timeline rendersImproved performance when decoding H.264 and H.265 clips using GPU acceleration on AMD graphics cardsImproved encoding to Panasonic SHV 8K with support for 50fps in DaVinci Resolve StudioImproved support for reading QuickTime container metadataAbility to disable video on Pro Tools and audio only exportsSupport for exporting EDLs with multiple audio tracksAbility to render adaptive audio tracks as discrete mono channelsAbility to export subtitles when exporting a timeline to Pro Tools using the deliver page presetSupport for rendering embedded audio timecode for synced audio clips when using the Pro Tools export presetSupport for GPU accelerated debayering on CUDA systems when decoding ARRIRAW clips using the ARRI SDK Full Res debayerImproved Vimeo render settings with options for setting description, visibility and password for the uploaded videoSupport for a warning when exporting an IMF or DCP package with an incorrect audio track setupSupport for decoding spanned AVCHD MTS clipsImproved playback speed when decoding JPEG 2000 clipsImproved performance when media managing long wav filesImproved performance when rendering QuickTime clips to network mounted drivesImproved performance when switching to bins that contain a large number of clipsImproved performance when deleting a large number of media pool clipsImproved behavior when rendering a single multi-channel audio track as individual wav filesImproved ProRes 4444 playback performanceSupport for identifying and importing multiple Panasonic P2 shots in a single folder as separate clips
General
Support for a Clean Feed viewer mode on an additional display on DaVinci Resolve StudioAbility to halve the current playback speed as well as playback at half, quarter and 1/8th speed using the Play Slow commandSupport for additional flag and marker colorsSupport for resolving the good take tag to # instead of 1Ability to repeat alternate frames for 48fps clips in Clip Attributes to emulate 24fps capture and playbackSupport for retaining the original creation date metadata when restoring or importing projectsImproved behavior when editing parameter values using Wacom tabletsImproved playback performance in the media, edit and cut pagesImproved performance when live saving projectsImproved performance when saving projects in collaboration workflowsImproved playback quality for variable frame rate QuickTime filesImproved scripting API with support for deleting a projectImproved scripting API when getting and setting frame rate and super scale properties from project settings and clip attributesSupport for disabling unbuffered I/O for any media storage location on macOS systemsSupport for decoding ALAC files on Windows and Linux systemsSupport for an option to optimize projects in disk databases by Option/Alt right clicking a project in the project managerSupport for accessing and editing project notes from the File menuSupport for choosing the preferred network interface from the project server application when sharing databases and generating access keysGeneral performance and stability improvements
If you want to check it out for yourself, head on over to the Blackmagic website where you can download DaVinci Resolve for free for Windows, Mac and even Linux.
