Workflow to change project framerate

We have some projects that accidentally got switched to a 24p framerate.
They got created with 25p but the first inserted clip was 24p. This was not noticed for a while.


What is the best workflow to fix that?
I know that I have to create a new project.
I can not copy&paste the timeline as that locks the new project into 24p.
I can not create a 25p dummy timeline, then copy&paste the timeline as Resolve forbids this with an error message about mismatched frame rates.


The current workflow is:

• create new project
• add 25p dummy clip into project
• create 25p timeline from clip
• switch to broken 24p project
• enter timeline
• CTRL+A, CTRL+C all clips
• switch to new 25p project
• enter timeline
• CTRL+A, DEL dummy clip
• assign stereo, mono,... to audio tracks
• CTRL+V timeline content
• fix names of timeline tracks
• switch to broken 24p project
• check what clips belong to what bin
• switch to new 25p project
• recreate bin structure
• repeat for other bins and other timelines
• finally save

Each switching between projects takes up a lot of time.

I just found this

I just found this

Doesn't work in 16.2.
Wfter "undo" the project ist still empty.

Did the procedure you detailed in your first post actually do anything for you? Copying clips from one timeline to another with a different frame rate typically doesn't work -- you'll paste the clips successfully, but the media will read as "off-line". The old trick of deleting and then restoring clips could lead to errors, and I think they've since made that impossible, probably as a precaution.

One thing you could try is exporting an XML, then using a text editor to change the frame rate. There are likely to be timing or sync errors, but it might be less work than starting from scratch, depending.

the first inserted clip was 24p.

Does that mean only one clip was shot at 24 fps? How'd that happen?

the first inserted clip was 24p.

Does that mean only one clip was shot at 24 fps? How'd that happen?

As far as we could find out post-mortem, Resolve imported our .WAV audio files as being 24p.
Despite obviously not having video and thus no frame rate.

Since we have a continous audio recording that contains LTC as one audio track,
the idea was to sync everything to it. But resolve doesn't do multicam sync with audio clips.
Despite LTC obviously being...audio.

I've noticed that audio recorders with proper timecode will add a 'frame rate' to the recording. That may be the culprit.

But it may also create a problem. If the audio was recorded at 24, and the image at 25...

I've noticed that audio recorders with proper timecode will add a 'frame rate' to the recording. That may be the culprit.

But it may also create a problem. If the audio was recorded at 24, and the image at 25...

No. It was a Zoom H6. The LTC was just a pure audio track.
It was recoded at 48.000fps.

Does the H6 allow "frame rate" settings? My F4 does. My H4n does not.

In any event, you can create a 25 fps timeline in the same project. But I suspect that just copying the clips won't work. You may need to start over in the proper timeline to get the correct edit points and keep sync.

Does the H6 allow "frame rate" settings? My F4 does. My H4n does not.

No. It's basically a less buggy H4n with 2 additional channels.
Doesn't know about syncing or timecode or frame rates like the F4.
The output is 3 stereo .wav files. Not one multichannel MPEG container containing the PCM audio and timing information.

Something you might experiment with (with a copy of a project), export a drp of your current 24p project. Rename the created drp to ".zip" extention (a drp file is just a zip file). Open this "zipped" project in something like 7Zip. Drag the "project.xml" to your desktop. Open it with a text editor (something that displays xml files with some formatting is preferred). Change references of 24 fps to 25 fps. Save the file. Drag it back into the "zip" file and confirm to replace the file currently in the zip file. Rename the project file back to a ".drp" extension. Import this back into Resolve giving it a new name. The new project and timeline will be 25p.

I did this with a 29.97 project, changing and re-importing it as a 25p project. Because the clips were now playing slower, the whole timeline was a longer duration, but all elements had the correct timing (cuts where they should be, and text display timing of words being spoken), though audio was no longer in sync.

Going from a 24p project to a 25p one with the majority of your clips actually being 25p, you may get better results.

Does the DRP contain time in HH:MM:SS.FF or in number of frames?

It doesn’t appear to be formatted time, but some integer intervals. Maybe clip frame or project frame intervals. All I did was change two references of 29.97 to 25.

It doesn’t appear to be formatted time, but some integer intervals. Maybe clip frame or project frame intervals. All I did was change two references of 29.97 to 25.

Integers would always be frame numbers and that means 24p vs. 25p is a difference that quickly sums up.

Yes, most likely frames. That’s probably why my 29.97 clips were playing at the slower rate of 25fps. Something strange I noticed is the timeline scale shown above the tracks showed the timeline having a duration of 32 minutes. That’s the correct duration in the original 29.97 project. But when I exported the timeline the file duration became around 38 minutes. This is the exact difference between 29.97 and 25 FPS. That means the timeline scale is being affected. Time the playback of the playhead for 1 minute on the timeline scale and the actual time is 1.19x longer. I think more experimentation needs to be done before a useful process for changing project framerate can be accomplished.

Try copying all 29.97p timeline items (CTRL+A, CTRL+C) and pasting them into a new 25p timeline instead.

You can force the project to switch the frame rate by writing to the database directly. I've done it only to test if it was possible. I've no idea what kind of havoc a forced frame rate change will create.