Bug: Timeline Markers Causing Playback Performance Impact

I have found some serious editing performance issues with resolves in relation to markers. My editing process involves marking a timeline for b-roll during the rough cut. It took me forever to realize that the reason resuming and playback after an edit lagged so much as the project evolved was related to the markers and not the footage I was adding. When I delete all markers, it's like night and day with the project.

Setup
OS: Windows 10
Hardware: 32gb ram, RTX 2060 6GB vram, i7-9750
Version: 16.2.6.005
Footage: 4K H265 / Optimized @1/8th

Steps To Reproduce
1. Create a simple 10 minute timeline
2. Enable ripple markers
3. Chop the footage into 30 edit points with 30 markers placed along the timeline
4. Ripple edit a few times from somewhere in the middle of the timeline and notice the CPU usage jump to 100, resuming playback takes 10-20 seconds on my PC
5. Remove all markers, perform same action, see immediate playback occur

Workaround
Disabling ripple markers, and avoiding ripple editing has some performance improvement but nothing is as effective as removing the markers altogether which cripples my workflow.

Note
I also created this marker related bug: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=117693

I've never noticed this with any version of Resolve for Windows, often starting with 3 hour timelines and culling down to 90 minutes.

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Hi Paige

Please export a minimal project file (DRP) with the timeline in question. Media not needed.
Go to the Help menu in Resolve and click on Create Diagnostic logs on desktop to create a zip file.
Then open Windows System Information from the Start menu and select File > Save (not Export), to create an .NFO file.

Please generate a file-share link from Dropbox or a similar app/site linking to these three files - so our engineers can take a look.

Thanks
Shrinivas

[Shrinivas Ramani]

Paige,

Thanks for the DM. We're not able to observe this either in internal tests or using your specific project in a similar Windows setup.

Just to ensure we're not missing anything:
a. can I check if you're on a PostgreSQL database? Is this observable if you import this project to a local disk database?
b. could you share a brief screen capture to show the playback lag?

Thanks
Shrinivas

I am having the exact same issue. I had an 8h timeline with no issues, and once I put 120 markers in, the performance has gotten to the point where Davinci is unusable.

I have problems with 30-40 markers already. The program seriously freezes for several seconds for each action. Only the complete removal of the marker helps.

Hi there, just wanted to add, that I am very happy to see this thread as this bug / performance issue with markers is super frustrating.

I already tried out numerous things, but as soon as I have about 20-30 markers in the timeline and a bunch of cuts, the performance goes down to zero after adding more markers or removing small parts of the video content. It literally happens every time after a certain amount of ripple cuts performed and markers set.

Is there any solution to that problem in sight?

See the project setup in the attached screenshot

Is there any solution to that problem in sight?

I sent in my file and they couldn't repro the issue. I have an M1 Mac now and the issue is less noticeable. It seems like for whatever reason, the algorithm that modifies markers is very (exponentially?) resource intensive.

I also get this error https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=117693 which is another "use lots of markers" bug. So I get the sense that Blackmagic are missing a test case that uses a midrange machine, and tons of markers. The sort of thing that a low budget documentary maker might be doing.

That is a pitty.. especially as I thought, that my machine was quite high end actually.. I also noticed, that the workload is on the GPU on my computer. After adding a new marker to the scene the GPU has a 100% worklaod for about 12 Seconds (in my 18 min video with lots of markers)

How do you edit your videos then, did you stop using markers at all or are you living with it, or do you edit your videos in several chunks now?

Hi, did anyone get to the bottom of this issue? I guess I'm posting here to keep this alive. I use Resolve Studio leveraging a 2060 NVIDIA for editing, and this issue with video decode killing performance after adding (or deleting) a marker is easily reproduceable and makes working on the timeline a painful task. Because of the simplicity of reproducing, I'm surprised more people are not experiencing this.

Aside from the more than adequate 2060, I have a 8 core/16 thread Ryzen 4800H, 16 GB of RAM (never more than 50% used while editing), and I'm working with media on an M.2 NVMe SSD. I also have the options set in Resolve to use the GFX for decoding.

Adding or deleting a marker causes a 6 to 10 second performance hit on video decode on the GFX, just like the screenshot provided by the previous poster. Restarting the app has zero effect, it's immediately bad as soon as I add a marker to the timeline.

Also, the project is uncomplicated, it's only 3 tracks, one of which is audio, but there are a large number of ripple cuts.

Any word on if this issue is being addressed? I'm working in Studio version 17.4.2 and markers (both timeline and clip) continue to be a major problem. I emailed support on Dec 16 and the only response I have received so far was asking for my project file and diagnostic logs.

I'm experiencing problems with both timeline and clip markers. I have an assistant editor who is dropping markers with keywords on clips. Then I mark up the timeline. Project got to the point where I literally could not do anything without a lag in response. I duplicated my project and deleted all of the timeline markers. Saw a slight improvement in performance. Once I cleared all the clip markers, everything ran without issue.

With the markers in place, I experience the exact same issues described by others on this thread. GPU0 ramps up to 100% load, GPU1 drops to 0% load, and my CPU bounces between 40% and 90% load, per the Performance tab in Task Manager. After a 6 to 10-second hang, playback resumes without issue until I add/modify a marker or make a ripple edit. Problems persist without change regardless of whether or not I reference the original source media, use Timeline Proxy Mode, or generate quarter res proxy files on an internal NVMe drive that clocks in at 2700 MB/s.

System Specs:
Windows 10 Pro, version 21H2, build 19044.1348
AMD TR Pro 3975WX 32-Core 3.5 GHz
256GB RAM
Dual NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
Resolve Version 17.4.2 Build 9

Project file, Resolve diagnostic log, and NFO file accessible here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj15R5fQd4-Ah-07-X5 ... w?e=h3qmvi

Damn, I know understand why my resolve is buggy, it is has been months since I am editing very painfully because of that issue, which is in fact a bug! Damn... I contacted the support for that. This isn't normal.

Demo:

Hi all,

Dos anyone have any news concerning this issue ?

I have the same one, can't barely work once I start using markers heavily and this is a big workflow/ time consuming issue.

Thanks

No answer from the support to me but I'm no Studio user.

Please do report to the support team anyway!

This is a critical issue as it invalidates some worklows.

As a workarround I replace markers with subtitles items.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Even with the DRPs we still cant repo.. is this with dual screen monitoring or multiple screens or something else thats not clear from above?

@Peter
Single Screen, Windows 10 x64, DaVinci Resolve Free 17.4.3

Here is an edl you can try (timecode start = 0)

Thx!

Confirm this.

I'm using older hardware. MBP 2013.

Time frozen after placing only 4 markers.

Unfortunately hadn't seen this thread and opened a new one...

Whenever we place a marker or move an existing one (in Edit->timeline) playback start is delayed for several seconds. If placing a marker during playback, the video starts stuttering (about a second later) for several seconds. Whenever I need to add/move markers I need to wait a couple of seconds before starting playback.

Have had this issue since our beginning with Resolve middle of last year, and it has remained throughout all versions up to 17.4.5.

Running Windows 10/11 ("upgrading" to 11 has made no difference) on a Lenovo P17 with Nvidia's Quadro RTX 5000 (currently on 472.84).

I so hope this issue will be tracked down.

It is Jan 5th 2023, I'm in Resolve Studio 18.1.2, and I just experienced this bug. Very annoying. Any updates that we are aware of? Same issue for me - too many markers results in the pinwheel of death for several minutes every time I try to load the timeline. And every time I make a slice the pinwheel of death comes on for about 20 seconds. Delete all markers and it's butter again.

Free Resolve 16.2.8.005 on High Sierra has this issue, too. It's discouraging to see it is still a problem even in version 18. Having lots of markers causes choppy playback with a high fps scrub when it tries to catch up, or paused video with continuing sound when I either add a new marker, use the blade tool, or delete segments. For playback, I don't have to use proxy mode when I have no markers. I do with them.

I think the timeline level markers might have the worst effect. I don't remember the severe effects when using just clip level markers. I used timeline markers exclusively one time and it was unbearable. I deleted all the markers and playback went back to normal.

Since BM can't reproduce it, then not everyone is having the issue. I wonder if people having this issue are the same people experiencing constant crashes with Fusion.

Just jumping in to say that as of version 18.1 build 16 this is still an issue. Switching to a timeline with a lot of markers causes the computer to hang for 5-10 seconds sometimes longer depending on what machine I'm working on. Like others have mentioned this a very frustrating bug as we use markers heavily in our workflow. Hopefully a fix for this comes soon.