Bug Report – Nested Timelines get cropped destructively.

Hi everyone,

If this isn't the correct place to report a bug, please let me know how and where I should submit this properly. That said, I believe I’ve found an issue related to timeline nesting.

The bug:
When importing one timeline into another (i.e., nesting a timeline), the content is always cropped if the resolutions differ, regardless of timeline resolution, input scaling, or output scaling settings.

Why this is a bug:

It's limiting — you lose part of the image even if you want to scale or reposition it.
It's unintuitive — the behavior doesn't align with how clips or footage are handled under the same circumstances.
It's inconsistent — imported timelines behave differently from clips, which contradicts expected behavior and user settings.

Steps to reproduce:

Create a timeline A in 4K with footage in it.
Create a second timeline B in 1080p.
Drop timeline A as a nested timeline into B.
No matter what input/output scaling settings are used, timeline A appears cropped, and scaling it down doesn't reveal the missing parts.

Compare this with placing a 4K clip into the 1080p timeline — the full image is still there, and can be scaled or repositioned manually as expected.

Expected behavior:
Nested timelines should behave like clips — respecting the input scaling settings and preserving full image data unless explicitly cropped. If "Center crop with no resizing" is selected, then like clips, the image should be scaled but still fully accessible if manually adjusted. Right now, it behaves destructively for nested timelines.

Context & Notes:
I've read the manual sections on timeline resolution, input/output scaling, and the four scaling modes. I understand how these usually affect media. However, none of the settings seem to override this destructive behavior when nesting timelines.

So — is there a proper workflow I'm missing, or is this just something that hasn’t been addressed yet?
Would love to hear workarounds, if any.

Thanks for your time and help!

Why this is a bug:

None of those things determine whether or not it's a bug.

If it's working as designed (and it is), then by definition it's not a bug.

But, you're not alone in wanting the design to change. I believe there's a Feature Request for this already, if you'd like to try a Search and add your vote.

viewforum.php?f=33

Thanks. I guess it's not as bad as a crash bug... but when I set it not to crop my footage and it still crops it... and only with nested timeline but works fine with imported footage.. that inconsistency cannot be by design! That's a bug. I can't believe fixing broken tools are considered feature requests, I guess it's my own fault for getting used to good design.

Edit:

Unfortunately, the only reliable solution right now is to export the larger timeline as a ProRes file and reimport it. It’s disappointing that this is still the best option. Just don't destructively crop images unless the users want to. It should simply respect the Timeline Output Settings. You added those settings for a reason... and this is why I'm convinced this should be seen as a bug! The Timeline Output Setting is inconsistent and not intuitive.

I hope the davinci resolve team realizes how important and varied video has become in multiple fields today and how important it is to not constraint to user to outdated standards. Many users know what they are doing and they simply need modularity: we are building our own workflows for our own needs.