Blocks on the Water and Render Res

HP i7-7700 @3.6ghz 64bit os
32gb Ram
GeForce GTX 1070
Windows 10 home

DaVinci Resolve Studio 17 (updated)


I'm finishing up my business launch video. This will be publicly available and is made more as an announcement to my current audience.

I have yet to add titles and transitions.

I have two important questions to help me polish this.

While I have read many threads with regard to blocky artifacts in shadows and dark areas, I haven't been able to negotiate those posts to relate it to my situation.

Starting at 2:40, the darker water has blocky business.
That's not the business I'm in.
I've adjusted it numerous times and have only succeeded in making it look weird. What you see in the video linked here is the best I've gotten it and I wonder if you can advise me on a solution to eliminate it.

Next question: from 3:26 to 3:50 (and in one of the mine scenes), I zoom to at least 2x, maybe more.
The source footage is 4K 10 bit.
In fact, the entire video is made up of 10 bit 4K footage.
Do I render the final project at 1080 because of the zoom that lasts less than a minute and compromise the resolution of the other 5 minutes of video.. or do I render the final project at 4K and compromise the integrity of the 20 seconds of of Zoom?

I'm excited to learn whatever I learn from y'all this time!

Do the block artifacts appear in the export, or only after upload to YouTube?

There are ways to Upscale the footage so that the 2X will be less compromised. Within Resolve there is SuperScale. If that doesn't meet your needs, there are third-party upscalers that can do better.

I would suggest you upload in 4k. As YT re-encodes everything the blockiness is no doubt compression artifacts introduced in their re-encoding. YT allows a higher bandwidth for 2k and above. Though I shoot in HD all my videos are upscaled to UHD for YT. This eliminates the blockiness.

Do the block artifacts appear in the export, or only after upload to YouTube?

There are ways to Upscale the footage so that the 2X will be less compromised. Within Resolve there is SuperScale. If that doesn't meet your needs, there are third-party upscalers that can do better.

Thanks for that.
I will look for a super scale and play with it.

As for the blocky, it is visible before I render, it is visible after I render more so, and then of course it's visible on YouTube.

If it's in the original footage, you would need a better drone to overcome that kind of artifact. I understand DJI makes one that can shoot RAW.

If it's in the original footage, you would need a better drone to overcome that kind of artifact. I understand DJI makes one that can shoot RAW.

It's not in the original footage.
It's in my grade.
Like maybe I'm not finding the line between shadow and dark or shadow and light...
When I adjust those, it just moves.. I think it might be what I've seen referred to as "chasing shadows" because it just moves with the change in brightness.

The original footage is 10 bit from the Evo 2 Pro.
It's all pretty clean.

It's in my grade.

OK.

What's your setup here? ACES? RCM? What settings if so?

What's the grade for those clips?

It's in my grade.

OK.

What's your setup here? ACES? RCM? What settings if so?

What's the grade for those clips?

Hey Jim.

DCM
Rec. 709
Rec 709

First node a little noise reduction

2nd lift +1
Gamma +2

3rd Lut Kodak look

4 saturation +79
Color boost -5
Hue vs sat curve - orange
Gamma -.02
Gain .89
Shadow -.32
Light .02
HL .01

Rendered 265 mp4 main10