Blackmagic Forum

Hello all! I've been using DaVinci Resolve for a little while now and am wondering if I could be making things easier on myself and so I wanted to see how others are shooting/editing on an iPhone and then exporting for use on YouTube. My overall goal is to retain as much quality as possible and to make the process easier if possible. Below is the process and settings I'm using in my workflow. Looking forward to your feedback!

1. 99% of my video is shot on an iPhone 12 Pro Max using the native Camera app. Settings are as follows:

Formats--
Camera Capture-
High Efficiency
Photo Capture-
Apple ProRAW - Off

Record Video-
4K at 60fps
Show PAL Formats - Off
HDR Video - On
Auto FPS - Auto 30 fps
Lock Camera - Off

Record Slo-mo-
1080p HD at 240 fps

Record Stereo Sound - On

Preserve Settings-
Camera Mode - Off
Creative Controls - Off
Exposure Adjustment - Off
Live Photo - On

Lens Correction - On
Smart HDR - On

2. After the video is recorded, I move it to my Windows PC. Because DaVinci resolve doesn't seem to like the MP4 container from iPhones, I first convert it using EaseFab Video Converter. Part of my concern with this is I feel like I'm probably losing some quality by re-encoding the file. Also, going back to step one, would using a different camera app like FiLMiC Pro allow me to avoid this step all together?

Video--
Video Codec: dnxhd
Bitrate(kbps): 75000
Resolution: 3840*2160
Frame Rate(fps): 60

Audio--
Audio Codec: pcm_s16le
Bitrate(kbps): 3210
Sample Rate(hz): 48000
Channels: 5.1 Channels

3. Drop all of the video into DaVinci Resolve for editing. Project Settings:

Timeline resolution - 3840x2160 Ultra HD
Pixel aspect ratio - Square
Timeline frame rate - 60
Playback frame rate - 60

4. Exporting the video for YouTube. Render Settings:

H.264 Master-
Format: MP4
Codec: H.264
Resolution: 3840x2160 Ultra HD
Frame rate: 60
Quality: Automatic - Best
Encoding Profile: Auto
Key Frames: Automatic

Again, I'm looing forward to some feedback on this process from some of the experts around here! TIA!

Mine is simple.

Don't.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... nemacamera

I'm not an iPhone user, but for the export to youtube, I personally export to h.265 10 bits color (Main10) to keep the most of the quality.

Smaller files and better quality overall (nice for archiving purpose if you keep them after your upload), quicker to upload, and when you upload it to youtube, they will compress it again to other format anyway.

I personally deselect the "Key Frames: Automatic" and put it on 1 (it acts like 0) to be safe, because I often got artifact when it was on Auto in the past.

And for the other guy in the thread :
The Best Camera Is The One You Have With You < You should meditate on this

Jim Simon wrote:Mine is simple. Don't.

I agree. Whenever I encounter a producer or director who wants to use an iPhone or a GoPro or a DJI camera, I tell them, "please use a 10-bit Blackmagic Pocket Camera shooting BRaw or ProRes instead." We can always degrade the footage to make it look like a phone if you really want to. But the smartphones are so problematic in terms of level, bit-depth, sound, lack of timecode, and high compression, they're disastrous for post.

Of course, there are always once-in-a-lifetime experiences like shocking live events (gunshot crimes, volcano eruptions, car crashes) where an iPhone is all you can get, and I understand that.

Another thread derailed with things not relevant to the original post

But hey :

@ 1:50 :

The guy just wants to get some feedbacks from others who are filming with an iPhone.

What you can do is start a thread where you talk about how it's baaad to film anything with a smartphone and how everybody should buy an URSA Mini pro. How dare they!! People wanting to edit their smartphone videos with Davinci Resolve, not on my watch.

I gave some ideas for the exports... instead of being such of .... you have all the knowledge, put yourself in the shoes of someone who is filming with a smartphone and forget about your fancy camera.

The tool used to created the video file is IRRELEVANT!

This is weird lol

BillFranklin wrote:........

Oh btw, check what are the file format supported by youtube

https://support.google.com/youtube/trou ... 8402?hl=en

Code: Select all

.MOV
.MPEG4
.MP4
.AVI
.WMV
.MPEGPS
.FLV
3GPP
WebM
DNxHR
ProRes
CineForm
HEVC (h265)


So if you want, you could export your video to a high quality DNxHR HQX (or CineForm) file and upload it directly to youtube. I've done it, it works well, but I never really saw a difference between a high quality video file using h264/h265 and the DNxHR version of it. Youtube will encode it again anyways, and trash so much details.

A DNxHR HQX will take longer to upload of course

BillFranklin wrote:2. After the video is recorded, I move it to my Windows PC. Because DaVinci resolve doesn't seem to like the MP4 container from iPhones, I first convert it using EaseFab Video Converter. Part of my concern with this is I feel like I'm probably losing some quality by re-encoding the file. Also, going back to step one, would using a different camera app like FiLMiC Pro allow me to avoid this step all together?

I've just put together an online event that involved a lot of contributed footage filmed on various phones and ipads.
Working on Linux, AAC sadly isn't supported so I ran every video through FFMPEG. This was solely to convert the audio to uncompressed and to rewrap in mov rather than mp4. This doesn't re-encode the video so saved a quality loss at that point.

I'd really recommend getting to know FFMPEG as it's immensely powerful.

Marc Wielage wrote:Of course, there are always once-in-a-lifetime experiences like shocking live events (gunshot crimes, volcano eruptions, car crashes) where an iPhone is all you can get, and I understand that.

Works for Tornados too:

Maxwellx wrote:Another thread derailed with things not relevant to the original post

But hey :

@ 1:50 :

The guy just wants to get some feedbacks from others who are filming with an iPhone.

What you can do is start a thread where you talk about how it's baaad to film anything with a smartphone and everybody should buy an URSA Mini pro. How dare they!! People wanting to edit their smartphone videos with Davinci Resolve.

I gave some ideas for the exports... instead of being such of .... you have all the knowledge, put yourself in the shoes of someone who is filming with a smartphone and forget about your fancy camera.

The tool used to created the video file is IRRELEVANT!

This is weird lol

Thank you for great links and yes totally agree.

You gotta love when someone suggests purchasing a $1,000+ camera instead of just not commenting on a post that they don't know how to answer....

I appreciate the video links, but those don't really answer the question.

The main focus isn't necessarily how I'm recording on the phone (although I'm open to feedback and those videos are good for that), but more so what do I do after? Do I have to convert the video using another encoder? If not, how do I avoid it? The suggestion of using FFMPEG tells me that regardless of using the native app on the phone or FiLMiC Pro, I'll probably end up having to do this regardless.

I can't be the only person out there who records video on an iPhone and then tries to edit it in Resolve, so I was hoping to get some first hand accounts of what people are doing in that scenario.

Unfortunately, even with FiLMiC Pro you can't be sure to get constant frame rates on an iPhone.
My suggestion: use FCP-X. Apple is selling many more telephones than computers these days, and they seem to take care that it works.
DaVinci Resolve is coming from totally different background, the world of professional film and TV. In that world, a constant frame rate and clean timecode is mandatory. Actually, DR is handling phone footage (or screen recordings, for that matter) to some degree. But you can never be sure, it'll be a game of chance.
If you want to stay on a PC with DR, use ffmpeg (or any of the free GUIs for it) and transcode the footage to an intermediate codec, like Cineform, DNxHR or ProRes in a fixed frame rate. That will also make it run smoother on a PC in the free version.

BillFranklin wrote:You gotta love when someone suggests purchasing a $1,000+ camera instead of just not commenting on a post that they don't know how to answer....

I appreciate the video links, but those don't really answer the question.

The links of the videos were a "response" to the two people who derailed the thread
But besides that, I have some suggestions in my other responses that could be interesting (or not).

like here (posting.php?mode=quote&f=21&t=139177&p=750888#pr750191) :

So if you want, you could export your video to a high quality DNxHR HQX (or CineForm) file and upload it directly to youtube. I've done it, it works well, but I never really saw a difference between a high quality video file using h264/h265 and the DNxHR version of it. Youtube will encode it again anyways, and trash so much details.

A DNxHR HQX will take longer to upload of course

You said you wanted to retain the most of the original quality.
Youtube will butcher it anyway.

4. Exporting the video for YouTube. Render Settings:

H.264 Master-
Format: MP4
Codec: H.264
Resolution: 3840x2160 Ultra HD
Frame rate: 60
Quality: Automatic - Best
Encoding Profile: Auto
Key Frames: Automatic

I would put "Key Frames" on 1 (=0) for h.264/h.265

On his channel are many tips for shooting on smartphones and tips about using filmicpro

I shot a few clips on iPhone 12 pro max and FilmicPro, transfered it to the mac via FilmicPro sharing (FilmicPro says it keeps the best quality, saving to iPhone will compress it) and dropped it into DRS 17 without problem. I used FilmicPro log V3, FilmicPro extrem setting

Would you mind to check with MediaInfo if those clips arrive as VFR or CFR?
I got only a humble SE II.

General
Complete name : /Volumes/Media DaVinci Resolve/clips airdrop/03282021_152758.mov
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 0000.00 (qt )
File size : 114 MiB
Duration : 6 s 335 ms
Overall bit rate : 151 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2021-03-28 13:27:58
Tagged date : UTC 2021-03-28 13:28:04
Writing library : Apple QuickTime
com.FilmicPro.FilmicLibrary.dynamicRange : wide10
com.apple.quicktime.publisher : ISO: 34.398438
com.apple.quicktime.software : Created with FiLMiC Pro 6.13.3 build 17362

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L6.2@Main
Codec ID : hvc1
Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration : 6 s 322 ms
Bit rate : 151 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 1 606 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Minimum frame rate : 24.000 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.977
Stream size : 114 MiB (99%)
Title : Core Media Video
Encoded date : UTC 2021-03-28 13:27:58
Tagged date : UTC 2021-03-28 13:28:04
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : hvcC

BillFranklin wrote:You gotta love when someone suggests purchasing a $1,000+ camera instead of just not commenting on a post that they don't know how to answer....

I appreciate the video links, but those don't really answer the question.

The main focus isn't necessarily how I'm recording on the phone (although I'm open to feedback and those videos are good for that), but more so what do I do after? Do I have to convert the video using another encoder? If not, how do I avoid it? The suggestion of using FFMPEG tells me that regardless of using the native app on the phone or FiLMiC Pro, I'll probably end up having to do this regardless.

I can't be the only person out there who records video on an iPhone and then tries to edit it in Resolve, so I was hoping to get some first hand accounts of what people are doing in that scenario.

Filmic Pro has been working for me without issues. It has options to have fixed frame rates and proper audio format including 48KHz sampling rate. I recommend it. I will not use native iPhone files due to the variable frame rate causing issues in Resolve.

While I second the use of 48 kHz to avoid problems in DR (like with proxies) I don't see any option for a fixed frame rate.

I don’t think there is an option for CBR on iPhones, you could use Handbrake if you must have CBR, look at this Info

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere ... 607#M39900

&Sopho wrote:I don’t think there is an option for CBR on iPhones, you could use Handbrake if you must have CBR, look at this Info

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere ... 607#M39900

Sorry, I mean CFR

That link makes it very clear.
One caveat, though: since HandBrake is encoding into H.264 or 265, you'll want to have a Mac or DR Studio on the PC. While the visual quality can be set very high, it's still a demanding codec to work with.

I regularly use Filmic Pro Log profile with an iPhone 6 plus. For certain shots where the cinema camera is too big.

Short takes are normally not that much of a problem.

I really hate, getting Phone/DJI/GoPro etc. material thrown at my timeline, but if I have to deal with it, I use Shutter Encoder (free) to transcode it to uncompressed AVI to keep max. Quality and get rid of variable frame rates.

https://www.shutterencoder.com/

Shutter Encoder is also my suggestion.
Of Course, you can use it to transcode into just about any intermediate (aka mezzanine) codec too.

Definitely play with all the apps and settings described above.

In my experience, the absolute key is to have as much light as you can without clipping.

Really pay attention to light.

So long as the iPhone doesn’t have to struggle in low light, you can avoid much of the compression artifacts which kill you.

More than in other situations, plan for what you want to do with that footage, so you can fix it in post:

I've been kind of busy lately, but decided I'd follow up with my findings in case anyone else finds this handy.

I haven't changed anything with my native iPhone settings, nor have I downloaded FiLMiC pro yet. I'll try that out some other time.

In terms of workflow, I've found the solution to importing my files and it's kind of stupid. Apparently Windows doesn't natively support playback of H.265/HEVC footage. So for $.99 on the Microsoft store, you can download the needed extensions.

The place where I found the resolution was in fix #2 over at: beginnersapproach.com/davinci-resolve-media-offiline/

The extension on the Microsoft Store is called: HEVC Video Extensions

Once I installed that extension, the clips on my timeline instantly worked without me even having to restart DR (I kind of forgot it was still open). So this means I can skip the step of encoding my video before dumping it in DR, which save A TON of time in the editing process.

Hopefully this helps someone out because I know I was just dealing with it for a while and am glad I took some more time to sit down and look at it again. Thank you all again for your responses!