Exported video less smooth than source - beginner needs help

Hello everyone,

I have a problem with a recorded game footage that appears less smooth after being rendered and exported in Davinci Resolve. Please forgive me my lack of knowledge, but I really don't know what I'm doing wrong here.

I've recorded game footage in 30 fps in mp4 format. It's nice and smooth. However, once I import it to Davinci Resolve (either by allowing it to change the master settings automatically or when setting it manually to 30 fps in both timeline and playback) it's not as smooth. It's visible in the preview (which didn't concern me) and after delivery - I tried several different delivery options, my default being the template for Youtube 1080p, either quicktime or mp4, using the H.264 codec and default settings. Setting Quality to "Automatic - Best" or leaving it on "restrict to 10000 kb/s" doesn't make a difference, none of the settings really do.

If anyone can be bothered to look at a 20 second long test recording for the purposes of showing what I mean, here are the 2 videos:

1. The source recording, smooth:

2. The post-Resolve, unchanged footage, not so smooth:

You can see the difference in the first 5 seconds by looking at the hand-cursor, or later in the game itself, by looking at the green selection box (doesn't extend all the way in the less smooth version).

I've tried to research the problem on my own and try different settings but they don't seem to make any difference. The effects applied from Resolve like fade ins/outs, text, etc. are all perfectly smooth, it's the source recording that seems to be played at a lower fps or something like that. Please, if you could shed some light on the issue, I would be very grateful.

Davinci Resolve ver. 14.3.0.014
Windows 10
nVidia Geforce GTX 1060 6GB
i7-7700
16GB RAM

Hey Przemysław

Considering you indeed made sure timeline/project rates match your source files.

Did you try to export to something less compressed? Just to make sure what you're seeing isn't due to compression somehow?

DNXHR 444 or the RGB version of Cineform

Was the game footage recorded with a variable frame rate? That might give some problems.

Thank you for the replies.

I tried using the formats you suggested, Hector, but there's 2 problems:
1. It seems I'll have to install some codecs to be even able to see the videos, since VLC says I don't have the supported ones to view it.
2. The files are so big that it really isn't an option for me - I record episodes of 30-40 minutes. Those would be massive.

Also, as for the compression, I'm not sure, but even in Davinci Resolve's preview the video isn't smooth already. I'm not sure if that matters or can be used to deduce something out of it.

Tero, I used OBS Studio to record the footage and there's an option to explicitly set the FPS we want to record in. I originally recorded in 60, but I wanted to go down to 30 because the game only runs in 30 fps anyway and that would mean smaller files to upload without any loss of quality, faster rendering(?) and viewers with older computers would have an easier time watching without the Youtube's unchangable 60 fps when it's not necessary. Now I've tested it with 60 fps and even when recording at 60 fps I see a little loss of smoothness after rendering in Resolve (using mp4 H.264). The source video is buttery smooth and the 60 fps post-Resolve video is almost that, but not quite.
Would anyone have any ideas of why that is?

Hey, just a last bump, if anyone wants to chime in.

I used Media Player Classic from the k-lite codec pack to view the other, less compressed formats like DNXHR 444 but it seems there is no difference, the video is still much less smooth than the source one, same "choppiness" occurs. I really wish there were some easy to change settings to fix the problem. It's so disappointing seeing the source video so smooth and not being able to have it like that in the final render. Please, if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. I'd really like to get to the source of the problem and figure out what it is.

Hey, just a last bump, if anyone wants to chime in.

I used Media Player Classic from the k-lite codec pack to view the other, less compressed formats like DNXHR 444 but it seems there is no difference, the video is still much less smooth than the source one, same "choppiness" occurs. I really wish there were some easy to change settings to fix the problem. It's so disappointing seeing the source video so smooth and not being able to have it like that in the final render. Please, if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. I'd really like to get to the source of the problem and figure out what it is.

Hey Przemysław

Can you send me a sample of the file?