Import 8-bit H.265 video in free version?

Hi,

I wish to use 8-bit H.265 video files from a Nikon Z9 camera. These files are in N-RAW format and as far as I can tell, this can't be changed. I've read that 8bit H.265 files should be OK, however when I try to import them, only the audio is imported.

I've tried various options in Resolve's decoding preferences but nothing there helps.

Is there any way that I can use these files with 3840x2160 resolution @ 30fps in DaVinci Resolve (free)?

I am using Arch Linux. The video card is not exactly stellar, it's a NVIDIA Corporation TU116 GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER. I don't know if this is an issue.

Thanks

Are you certain that the clips are 8bit and not 10bit? The free version of Resolve only supports 10bit h265 on newer Macs.
What driver version are you using for the GTX 1650?

The Z9 can record either 8- or 10-bit H265.
N-RAWs are 12-bit.

https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z9 ... es_32.html

Are you certain that the clips are 8bit and not 10bit? The free version of Resolve only supports 10bit h265 on newer Macs.
What driver version are you using for the GTX 1650?

Yes, the Z9 has options H.265 8-bit as well as H.265 10-bit, and I'd like to shoot with a frame size of 3840x2160.

The card is using the Nvidia 570.144 driver.

If necessary, I will shoot H.264 8-bit files. The problem is that the camera uses Nikon's propriety RAW format N-RAW and this won't load in Linux. From what I see, Linux has no available utility to transcode N-RAW files to any other format.

So now I have two questions:

1) will the free Windows version of Resolve load H.264 N-RAW files?
2) will the paid Resolve Studio for Linux load H.265 8-bit N-RAW files and/or H.264 8-bit N-RAW files?

I don't have the option of using a Mac to edit, unfortunately.

Thanks

[Shrinivas Ramani]

I am using Arch Linux.

Hi

For H.264 and H.265, the free DaVinci Resolve can leverage Windows and macOS APIs. Linux does not offer native licensed APIs for these codecs. You will need to transcode the footage to a mezzanine format that Resolve can read on the free version. Reference document

On Rocky Linux, with the manufacturer drivers, DaVinci Resolve Studio can leverage the Nvidia codec APIs to read and write supported H.26x formats.



Regards
Shrinivas

Hi,

I wish to use 8-bit H.265 video files from a Nikon Z9 camera. These files are in N-RAW format and as far as I can tell, this can't be changed. I've read that 8bit H.265 files should be OK, however when I try to import them, only the audio is imported.

The Proxies? The Nraw 8k also creates some proxies.

The Z9 can record either 8- or 10-bit H265.
N-RAWs are 12-bit.

https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z9 ... es_32.html

Hello again,

As I write this, my last (and second) message is waiting to be approved by the moderator. I was confused in that one about the Z9's H.264 and H.265 (8 bit) files being N-RAW, which of cause they can't be, as they're both encoded. So please ignore my second post.

With ffmpeg, I managed to import an H.264 file into Resolve with:

ffmpeg -i input.MP4 -c:v dnxhd -vf "scale=1920:1080,fps=30000/1001,format=yuv422p" -b:v 115M -c:a pcm_s16le output.mov

For the 8-bit H.265 file, I found a way of importing it, but it is incredibly slow. I can transcode it using ffmpeg and the VP9 codec but the rate is slower than 1 second per frame on my system.

So from the page https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VP9 I can use the following

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf 18 -c:a pcm output.webm

If I install Windows and use the free Windows version of Resolve, will I be able to import an 8-bit H.265 file directly?

Resolve on Linux requires the paid version to support H.264/5

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 3705210000


Transcode everything to DNxHR HQ with Shutter Encoder (free). Also make sure audio is not AAC, it also is not supported.

As you have discovered Black Magic does not provide any error messages for unsupported codecs, which I find absurd.

I have created a feature request to add sensible error messages and would love your support on it

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=199305&hilit=+sensible+error+message

Why are you shooting 8 bit? I can't think of any reason to bother with 8 bit 265 on the Z9. Not unless you need straight to the web with no grading or editing.

If you can handle the file sizes shoot ProRes 422 HQ. I think the free version can import that.

IIRC 19.x brought support for 10 bit HEVC to the free version under Windows but I don't use the free so maybe I misunderstood. Yes 8 bit should be supported under Windows with the free version but why are you shooting 8 bit?

Why are you shooting 8 bit? I can't think of any reason to bother with 8 bit 265 on the Z9. Not unless you need straight to the web with no grading or editing.

If you can handle the file sizes shoot ProRes 422 HQ. I think the free version can import that.

IIRC 19.x brought support for 10 bit HEVC to the free version under Windows but I don't use the free so maybe I misunderstood. Yes 8 bit should be supported under Windows with the free version but why are you shooting 8 bit?

Thank you Nick, that's a tremendous help. Yes, ProRes 422 HQ imports perfectly well and the Resolve timeline seems to play adequately with these files on my old computer. A sample ProRes 422 HQ file from the Z9 has the following features using MediaInfo:

Code: Select all

General
Complete name                            : /home/iain/Desktop/MIP_9921.MOV
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   2016.09 (qt  /niko)
File size                                : 569 MiB
Duration                                 : 5 s 205 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 917 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS
Encoded date                             : 2025-04-28 09:58:32 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-04-28 09:58:32 UTC

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : ProRes
Format version                           : Version 0
Format profile                           : 422 HQ
Codec ID                                 : apch
Duration                                 : 5 s 205 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 911 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:2
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 3.665
Stream size                              : 565 MiB (99%)
Writing library                          : nik0
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : 2025-04-28 09:58:32 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-04-28 09:58:32 UTC
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : lpcm
Duration                                 : 5 s 205 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 304 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Stream size                              : 1.43 MiB (0%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : 2025-04-28 09:58:32 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-04-28 09:58:32 UTC


From this I assume then that I need to select "YUV" for the colour space in the Project Settings of Resolve. The target devices for this project are Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 tablets which have a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The filming will see the camera used in portrait orientation (as will be the tablets). I want to shoot 4K to future proof the project and to use the footage for promotional purposes. The Resolve timeline with have a 1536 x 2048 custom resolution (rather than 2048 x 1536), so I'll lose a bit from the top and bottom of the frame after the video is zoomed to fit.

If you can offer any other tips about the project or camera settings, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

EDIT:

In order to play the edited video on the Samsung tablets, I've been exporting from Resolve using Format: Quicktime, Codec: MPEG, Type: MPEG4 Video and Audio Codec: Linear PCM. These, which have H.263 video encoding and lossless audio, do not play directly on the tablets. The audio is important in this project so I'm re-encoding with OPUS at a high bit-rate. If I copy the H.263 video setting, it won't play on the tablets (perhaps it would with mp3 audio, i haven't tried), so I'm using H.264 with OPUS. This does play. The transcoding is done with:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 20 -c:a libopus -b:a 512K -vf format=yuv420p -movflags +faststart outputH264.mp4