No 2-pass encoding on free version?

Pardon me if this should be obvious, but I have looked over the User Guide and searched all over online and can't seem to figure this out. I am using the latest free version of Resolve. According to the guide, there should be a multi-pass encoding option when using H264 for either QuickTime or MP4, but I am not given this option. I have looked at screenshots from other people and the option is just not there for me. Am I crazy or is this just not an option in the free version? If so, really ought to be mentioned in the guide...

Along similar lines, I noticed the audio for MP4 formats maxes out at a relatively low bitrate of 192 kbps. Is this also a limitation of the free version?

I am currently trying to figure out what the best encoding workflow is for me. I really don't need any of the features of the paid version, so if these are the only things missing, then I would like some suggestions on the best render settings in Resolve for videos that will be re-encoded with Handbrake for upload to YouTube (preferably something high quality and fast, basically). Thanks!

I would like some suggestions on the best render settings in Resolve for videos that will be re-encoded with Handbrake for upload to YouTube (preferably something high quality and fast, basically). Thanks!

You can encode from Resolve directly for YouTube and other places and 2-pass is not going to help here anyway. 2-pass is only useful if you need a fixed length encoding.

I would recommend H.264, MP4 using Network Optimization enabled with automatic keyframes and frame reordering enabled.

For HD I would not go over 20Mbps and for 4K I would stay around 60-80Mbps. Anything above those values is not going to improve the quality of your video.

With respect to audio, 192 kbps is just fine, your ears will not hear the difference if higher bitrates are used.

Of course for editing and mastering you would want to use higher bitrates but then you would not want to use aac anyway.

I usually use 2-pass VBR to keep the file sizes down without hurting the quality. Most of the file sizes I have been getting so far are quite large compared to what I used to get with Premiere. Makes a big difference with upload times. Just to confirm, is 2-pass even an option for me in the free version? Does not seem to be.

I'm a musician and recording engineer, so I promise I can hear the difference :p I prefer 256 kbps as a good balance between quality and size.

If you render as an h264 .mov file you can set the audio to linear PCM 24bit 48k. Make sure that if using the .mov format and the video is destined for YouTube, that Frame re-ordering is set to OFF.

To clarify, 256 kbps is the AUDIO bitrate, as opposed to the apparent 192 kbps limit. I normally upload 1080p videos, so I generally shoot for an average of around 16-20 mbps for the video bitrate. Having said that, I don't see any options in Resolve to actually control that number, just generic "High" "Medium" etc settings.

The render bit rate is set on the deliver page. Next to Quality you can select "Restrict to" and set the bit rate you require.

The render bit rate is set on the deliver page. Next to Quality you can select "Restrict to" and set the bit rate you require.

True. No way to specify a target bitrate, though I guess I am just used to how Premiere does things (a target and a maximum bitrate) and struggling to come to grips with how much less control there is over the encoding in Resolve (I do rather like it as an NLE otherwise, though). Do you have any insight as to the 2-pass option on free vs paid? Or the 192 kbps limit on free vs paid? No one seems to

The Restrict To option is the target bit rate. Double click on the figure in the box and enter the number you require.
I upload to YouTube at 35000kbps with audio between 1500 and 2300kbps.

I would think "restrict to" would be the maximum bitrate, which is different from the target bitrate. I would normally set the target to 16 mbps and the maximum to 20 mbps. It is my understanding that this sets the average bitrate (of a variable bitrate file, which is my preference) to 16 mbps, but it can dip above or below that. Perhaps you are talking about constant bitrate instead? I have no desire to work with CBR files as they are unnecessarily huge for my purposes.

Yes I use Variable bit rate. With the Restrict To set to 35000kbps, my last video had a data rate of 34959kbps with a total bit rate, including the audio, of 37264kbps.

Yes I use Variable bit rate. With the Restrict To set to 35000kbps, my last video had a data rate of 34959kbps with a total bit rate, including the audio, of 37264kbps.

Right, so the "restrict to" is the maximum, not the target bit rate. The manual confirms this, but the manual also has plenty of other blatantly false information, such as saying that AAC is only available on Mac (it isn't). I do not understand why there is so much misinformation and why they do not make the free vs studio differences clear. There is no full list anywhere, it's crazy to me.

The only place I have seen the differences listed is in the download section of the BM site.

I am working on the studio version (v14) and there is no 2 pass encoding either. (Win10 64bit)

I have asked in this forum too about this subject but got zero replies. I have no idea why i don't have those settings on my Resolve Deliver Page when they are pictured in the manual.

Perhaps providing system and Resolve version info may help us help you?

It is the latest version, 14.0.1 I believe. I do know it is the latest version because I updated it maybe 2 weeks ago. I'm on Windows 10. If it matters, I upgraded from the beta, which also did not have the 2-pass option.

I upgraded today from 12.5 to 14.0.1

No variable bitrate option neither running under Win7 Pro 64.

For anyone still curious, I contacted Blackmagic and apparently the Windows version of the software just doesn't have support for 2-pass encoding or higher audio bitrates. Maybe a future release will.

I always output a ProRes master file and then use Handbrake to encode an MP4 output.

It is very fast and has all the adjustment controls you could ever need including 2 pass encoding and bit rate limits.

It also produces the best images at low bit rates that I seen (IMHO).

And its free.

Mac, Windows and Linux

https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

Nick, as I said before, you can use linear PCM audio with h264. Instead of 192kbps, a 24bit 48k wav file will give you a bit rate of around 1500kbps. True there is no 2 pass h264 encoding, but I haven't found this to be a problem. This is with the free version on Win10.

Nick, as I said before, you can use linear PCM audio with h264. Instead of 192kbps, a 24bit 48k wav file will give you a bit rate of around 1500kbps. True there is no 2 pass h264 encoding, but I haven't found this to be a problem. This is with the free version on Win10.

Yes, I am aware, but this results in much larger file sizes. The point of compressing, particularly with 2-pass VBR, is to maintain quality while reducing file size. I do not WANT linear PCM. I WANT high quality compressed audio.

You guys may wanna check this out, to find the best parameters

https://mattgadient.com/x264-vs-x265-vs ... -examples/

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Screen Shot 2017-11-09 at 8.52.23 AM.JPG (112.64 KiB) Viewed 11008 times

There is single Pass and Multiple Pass on the 14.01 Free version.
I assume multiple pass will give you 2 passes.

Please read the above. I have confirmed with Blackmagic that the option does not exist for Windows users on the latest version.

My guess is that on the Mac that selection item shown (multi-pass etc) is using the OS video subsystem and the system internal AVC encoder. No such animal on Windows. Therefore all we have is the native AVC encoder used by Resolve in libavcodec, which I believe is likely OpenH264.

As AVC encoders go, OpenH264 is pretty weak.

By definition, compressed audio files are not high quality because of the amount of data thrown away. The only way is to use a lossless compression scheme such as Apple Lossless, FLAC , Dolby True HD, or Meridian Lossless Packing. As far as I know none of these are integrated with a video stream.

The only way is to use a lossless compression scheme such as Apple Lossless, FLAC , Dolby True HD, or Meridian Lossless Packing.

Dolby True HD actually uses MLP as the basis for its compression scheme.

There is DTS-HD Master Audio, of course, which is also lossless.

By definition, compressed audio files are not high quality because of the amount of data thrown away. The only way is to use a lossless compression scheme such as Apple Lossless, FLAC , Dolby True HD, or Meridian Lossless Packing. As far as I know none of these are integrated with a video stream.

Compressed audio files are by definition not highest quality. That does not mean they can not be high quality. No matter how you export, when uploading to YouTube, all videos will be transcoded (and therefore compressed again). I suggest that you look over the official YouTube recommendations for videos: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

I am not trying to be argumentative, but you have been rather combative on this and not once attempted to even address the core issue of my post, which was the fact that options which are stated to exist in the manual do not seem to exist. I did not ask for your subjective analysis of the validity of those options. Since I have now confirmed that both the multiple passes and the higher audio quality are indeed not in the Windows version (likely because of the issues mentioned above), I believe we can either close the thread or move back to discussing the second part of my question: with those options not available, what settings do people recommend for exporting when the intention is to encode again using an external encoder like HandBrake. For example, Jack mentioned he exports to ProRes.

(Also, yes, you can integrate FLAC and others into an MP4 video)

Handbrake can not read DNxHR files. Last week I spent a few hours doing tests and my only solution to create a playable 2160p MP4 video was exporting fromResolve a huge AVY YUW uncompressed master. About 170GB for a 5 minute video.

No ProRes output from Resolve under Windows, I'm afraid.

I'm very interested in this second part of the thread.

Handbrake can not read DNxHR files.

ffmpeg can handle DNxHR and Cineform. You can use the Dali's Mustache converter which is a front end to ffmpeg. It's not free, $25US, but worth mentioning. Yes, a weird name for the product.

Of course you can use ffmpeg directly. For example

Code: Select all

ffmpeg.exe -i %1 -c:v libx264 -preset:v medium -profile:v high -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac b:a 192k -chunk_size 64K "%~dpn1.mp4"

Choose your desired preset, crf and audio bitrate value.

If you need to target a specific bitrate then you can try the following verses crf.
e.g. -b:v 35M -maxrate 45M

35Mbps average and 45Mbps max. Choose your desired bitrate settings.
I don't have any two pass ffmpeg x264 scripts laying around, so can't help there.

ffmpeg can handle DNxHR and Cineform. You can use the Dali's Mustache converter which is a front end to ffmpeg.

I don't think Dali Convert supports Cineform. (It does do DNxHR though.)

Dali Convert does support Cineform. Input only.