HELP!!! My video quality looks different after rendering

Ok, I am using a GH4 Lumix with a 45mm f1.8 Olympus lens. I uploaded everything on my iMac and edited along with color graded. When viewing all the editing and grading I did on Davinci, I then rendered it. When I viewed the footage on quicktime, it looks a bit different. Some shots are a lot lighter than the images I see rather than the images I see while color grading. I dont know what to do? I am fairly new to this, and I would like to make sure the videos look exactly how I have graded them. Please help, because this has become a huge inconvenience for me.

Also, some of my clips say :Media offline". I do not know how this has happened, and I would like to fix this.

Another question: When I drag my clips from the media pool to the editing section, the audio is no longer coming with the video clips. Do I need to have the link icon turned on in order to have the audio come with the video?

iMAC mid 2013. 3.6Ghz i7 quad with 16GB ram and 1TB storage, Along with 2GB of video card.

I uploaded everything on my iMac

Upload means to transfer from a local computer to a remote computer over a network. What you're doing is just copying the files to the iMac.

Why do so many get this wrong?

Resolve is like Lightroom in that it works better when you ingest your video using the process that the creators set up.
So start by bringing in your clips via the Media Pane and the move them into the Media Pool by right clicking (option click on Mac).
The other thing is once you've imported clips, you can't move the clips to another drive. Even when you relink them it never works right again.
As for bringing in clips with no audio, that's a feature. I know that you can do it by holding down the option key and dragging a clip onto the timeline. Shift-drag gets you just audio, I believe

As for clips looking lighter and less saturated in Quicktime, no clue. I've had the same problem and to me it looks like a color profile problem, but I have no evidence to back that up. Hopefully someone with more understanding will chime in.

Read the manual.

Know going in that you're never going to get accurate results making judgements on the GUI monitor within Resolve.

The only way to color-correct effectively is to use a color-managed output (like a Blackmagic video device) and an external calibrated display.

In any case where you see a difference in rendering, render out a second or two of SMPTE bars and a grayscale ramp at the head of the clip, bring it back into Resolve, and compare it to the original using the scopes. If the scopes show a difference, check your color management settings and your render settings. If the scopes are identical, the files are identical.

There's a LOT of discussion about this issue and usually it comes down to lack of experience/knowledge and lack of a colour managed, externally monitored workflow. However, to get you out of a difficult situation and assuming you're delivering only for web, then you can try these simple steps in this order:

Turn off 'use Mac Display Color Profile for viewers' (this is in Color Management settings in Resolve). Your image will look different in the viewers, but you really need this option switched off.

Render out as ProRes 422 HQ

Try using VLC to play the file back. Chances are it will match what you see in Resolve. Don't use Quicktime - Gamma is incorrectly represented when playing back some video codecs.

Unfortunately web browsers display colour differently so that is out of your control.

Get this project out the way, then go and read the manual and study colour science, save some cash and buy some external monitoring hardware

Read the manual.

Know going in that you're never going to get accurate results making judgements on the GUI monitor within Resolve.

The only way to color-correct effectively is to use a color-managed output (like a Blackmagic video device) and an external calibrated display.

In any case where you see a difference in rendering, render out a second or two of SMPTE bars and a grayscale ramp at the head of the clip, bring it back into Resolve, and compare it to the original using the scopes. If the scopes show a difference, check your color management settings and your render settings. If the scopes are identical, the files are identical.

Thanks Marc to remember these good tips to keep in mind.

Turn off 'use Mac Display Color Profile for viewers' (this is in Color Management settings in Resolve).

When I am messing about on the 14beta version on my iMac, I actually leave this checked (the monitor has been CalMan characterized and the system ColorSync is overridden by the Client3 ICC Manager. That would be one way to at least get the display in the ballpark. There are also however a myriad of other factors, not the least of which is the specific behaviour of media players and their Wild West approach to how the file is interpreted. There is also the issue of RGB "Full Range" vs. Linear "709" which can lead to very large differences in how the black/white levels are computed and displayed. I expect that a large number of operators are exporting media in 4:4:4 under the mistaken belief that bigger is better. What it does is make things ambiguous.

If an operator's experience of colorspace, codec, and so on are limited to Black=0,0,0 and White=255,255,255; that is just ballroom dancing, blindfolded in a minefield.

jPo, CSI

Turn off 'use Mac Display Color Profile for viewers' (this is in Color Management settings in Resolve).

When I am messing about on the 14beta version on my iMac, I actually leave this checked (the monitor has been CalMan characterized and the system ColorSync is overridden by the Client3 ICC Manager. That would be one way to at least get the display in the ballpark. There are also however a myriad of other factors, not the least of which is the specific behaviour of media players and their Wild West approach to how the file is interpreted. There is also the issue of RGB "Full Range" vs. Linear "709" which can lead to very large differences in how the black/white levels are computed and displayed. I expect that a large number of operators are exporting media in 4:4:4 under the mistaken belief that bigger is better. What it does is make things ambiguous.

If an operator's experience of colorspace, codec, and so on are limited to Black=0,0,0 and White=255,255,255; that is just ballroom dancing, blindfolded in a minefield.

jPo, CSI

I actually have 'Mac Display Color Profile for viewers' enabled on my system also. It does a good job of making the GUI image (on a 2.2 gamma monitor) look closer to my external monitor's (2.4) image. It's quite handy if you have a proper setup, but for those creating, monitoring and delivering on the GUI only (as amateur and wrong as that is...), this feature just complicates matters and confuses already confused people.

I tend to recommend people stick to ProRes 422 HQ output to avoid them getting bogged down in the full range vs linear issue also that can cause more confusion when using 444 codecs. You're right that there are a myriad of other factors involved and new Resolve users must make sure they do their homework, but there are ways to muddle through and find a simple workflow that does a decent job. Remember new users, it's harder than you think and the learning never stops

TIL that if your exported video looks washed out in Quicktime there is something you can try.
On the Deliver page under the Advanced tab there is the choice of Data Level: Auto, Video, or Full. By default it's on Auto, but try using the other two to see if it improves the look of your Quicktime files.

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