Colour distortion with 10-bit recordings

Hi there,

I have been recording 10-bit clips with OBS using the colour format 10-bit P010, 4:2:0, 2 planes, combined with the colour space Rec. 709 and the encoder NVIDIA NVENC HEVC. Recording format is MP4.

The recorded files look fine in video players such as VLC player or Windows Media Player. However, when I drop the recorded clips in DaVinci Resolve (free version) and play them in the preview window, I get distorted colours for random parts of the clips (see screenshots of DaVinci timeline window below).

The first screenshot shows a frame of a clip where colours are fine, and a frame just a second later where colours have been randomly distorted.

When I export the clips, the colour distortions remain in the exported video file.

Has someone experienced this and is there a fix?

Thanks,
Christian

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Possibly you've recorded H.265 10bit which the Resolve Free version doesn't support. If that's the case you'll need the Studio version for that.

I should also note that if you're doing screen/desktop captures via OBS there is nothing to gain by recording in 10bit because the file being streamed to you is highly likely being played back in 8bit.

Thank you for your response!

Here are my OBS recording settings. Are any of these unsuitable for 10-bit? I'm still a bit new to this. (Have changed the settings to MKV video format in the meantime.)

I did notice that using the 10-bit P010 color format significantly improves the footage, particularly with regards to colour banding (e.g. sky footage). The improvement is visible both when watching the video on Desktop or uploading it on Youtube. Therefore, I would not want to go back to 8-bit.

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With some experimenting, I did find a workaround. Instead of recording in MP4, I now record in MKV and then run the footage through another program called Videopad, where I export it with maximum settings as an MKV video file. I then load this file into Davinci and render it as a MOV file which works perfectly fine, and I'm getting a clear 10-bit file rendered by Davinci without colour distortion. Not sure why this works, but it does.

But in the long run, I would like to avoid this workaround, so if anyone has an idea whether anything with my recording settings is suboptimal, please let me know.

I found the solution to the problem. The problem was that I was trying to edit 10-bit footage recorded with the NVIDIA NVENC HEVC encoder in the free Davinci Resolve version. I purchased the Studio version now and it all works well now.

Thank you, @Shebbe, your comment was basically the response I needed, I just didn't connect the dots as I didn't know that NVIDIA NVENC HEVC is H.265.

Further reading for anyone interested: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=166300

As you discovered Resolve gives no indication to the user that the footage you are trying to edit is unsupported. I find this completely unacceptable and would request you to add your support to my feature request to add error messages for unsupported codecs

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=199305

I do realize since you bought studio, the 10 bit issue no longer effects you (same as me), but I think it is the least we can do for the next guy, and there will no doubt be a half dozen posts this week of the same issue from other very smart users confused as hell why their footage looks fine in one program but is broke in resolve.

Yes, it certainly deserves fixing in the sense that users are advised that 10-bit is not supported. Happy to support your feature request - where and how can I do that?

Yes, it is certainly that deserves fixing in the sense that users are advised that 10-bit is not supported. Happy to support your feature request - where and how can I do that?

Right here

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=199305