Issue #01: Jerky playback of a GoPro footage

Dear Support,

I have a very annoying issue with a GoPro footage playback on a timeline (not tried anything else) - the playback is jerky, choppy and laggy sometimes, especially noticeable on pan shots. Videos are from GoPro Hero7 Black (FHD 1440p 4:3 59.94fps HEVC 60Mbps).

Details:
- Scrubbing is fast and responsive, no problems with performance here.
- Optimized media does not help at all - the same effect.
- Half resolution proxy: no effect.
- The CPU/GPU utilization is under 50% during playback.
- Footage is on SATA SSD.
- Windows itself plays the footage fine and smooth without any issues, in any player (Windows, VLC, MPC-HC).
- No effects used on video, just cropped to fit 16:9 timeline.
- Rendered output is fine and smooth.
- Project/Timeline settings are 59.94fps, tried to set the "Monitor" setting to 60fps as I have a 60Hz monitor, but without any improvement.
- Red/green dot on top of preview window shows green and 59.94fps during playback.
- System: i5-8500, Nvidia GTX 1070 (Nvidia Studio video drivers v442.19 - current, with previous 441.xx the same issue), 16GB RAM, SSDs
- HEVC video extension from device manufacturer (Microsoft)
- DaVinci Resolve Studio v16.1.2

Any ideas?

P.S. I already watched a lot of "5 easy steps for smooth playback" videos which recommend to turn Optimized media and Cache, read a lot of forums without, including few on this resource, reddit and other. NO solution yet.

[Peter Chamberlain]

from the help menu, double check the exact resolve version and that it is Studio.
do you have your project settings, master settings, timeline frame rate and playback rate set to 59.94.
if so, on the color page, what is the playback frame rate?

Also make sure you have the latest firmware on your GoPro 7. There was an issue with the stabilization during slow pan shots. (It would try to stabilize the motion lol)

GoPro and drones can use heavy codecs as well that may choke computers. You may need to trans-code to DNx or ProRes etc. for smoother playback & editing?

GoPro and drones can use heavy codecs as well that may choke computers. You may need to trans-code to DNx or ProRes etc. for smoother playback & editing?

Although, in Teppo's case he says scrubbing is smooth, which suggests Resolve is decoding the frames at a reasonable rate.

We need more information about the frame rate settings Peter asked for and also his full system specs.

You may want to try downgrading to lower version of Resolve 16. (16.1.0.055 helped in my case)

Check out my thread, I have similar issues : viewtopic.php?f=21&t=108329

Also - do you have free of Studio version?

from the help menu, double check the exact resolve version and that it is Studio.
do you have your project settings, master settings, timeline frame rate and playback rate set to 59.94.
if so, on the color page, what is the playback frame rate?

Hi, thanks for your reply.

- The version is Studio 6.1.2.026 (see attached)
- Project settings and timeline settings all are 59.94 (see attached)
- On color page it is mostly 59.94, but sometimes shortly for fraction of second drops to 58 exactly, while on the edit page it always stays on 59.94. What that means?

Also make sure you have the latest firmware on your GoPro 7. There was an issue with the stabilization during slow pan shots. (It would try to stabilize the motion lol)

GoPro and drones can use heavy codecs as well that may choke computers. You may need to trans-code to DNx or ProRes etc. for smoother playback & editing?

Yes, I'm aware of this GPH7 issue with pan shots on early firmware, but it's already fixed. The footage plays smooth in Windows player, as well as the rendered output.

I tried to create Optimized media, but the result is the same. How can I tell that the Optimized media is actually played out, as I can't find any indicator for that (the menu option to use the OM is on).

GoPro and drones can use heavy codecs as well that may choke computers. You may need to trans-code to DNx or ProRes etc. for smoother playback & editing?

Although, in Teppo's case he says scrubbing is smooth, which suggests Resolve is decoding the frames at a reasonable rate.

We need more information about the frame rate settings Peter asked for and also his full system specs.

Also even the x2 and x4 is playing smoothly (with the same random stutters), only x8 playback starts freezing. So I suppose this is not a performance issue.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Once u generate optimizer media u can “ turn it on” look in playback menu.

The edit page drops video frames to play audio correctly, color page does not so if ur color page is not full speed all the time, it’s likely hardware limit that optimized media can fix, when its on.

Once u generate optimizer media u can “ turn it on” look in playback menu.

The edit page drops video frames to play audio correctly, color page does not so if ur color page is not full speed all the time, it’s likely hardware limit that optimized media can fix, when its on.

Thank you for your reply,

I generated the OM and the "Use OM..." option is On, but there is no difference in playback - the same random stutters.

If I understand correctly you are trying to explain that the sound is playing at correct speed (sample rate in the file), but the video is playing at different rate, because the video is 59.94fps, while the monitor is 60Hz, so there are some occasional extra or dropped frames, right?

If so, what should I configure/set in DaVinci Resolve to get the same smooth playback as it is in the Windows Media Player (or in VLC, or in MPC-HC)?

Thank you.

Have you got "Show All Video Frames" turned on in the Edit page?

Have you got "Show All Video Frames" turned on in the Edit page?

This option improves the playback a lot. Still not ideal (very small freezes can still be noticed), but much, much better.

Now the frame rate indicator blinks red and changes number shortly during the playback, while previously it was green always with fixed value.

The Cut page seems is not affected by this option, still plays jerky as it was.

Have you got "Show All Video Frames" turned on in the Edit page?

This option improves the playback a lot. Still not ideal (very small freezes can still be noticed), but much, much better.

Now the frame rate indicator blinks red and changes number shortly during the playback, while previously it was green always with fixed value.

The Cut page seems is not affected by this option, still plays jerky as it was.

While the video playback is now smoother, the downside of this solution is that the sound become distorted ...

Tried to switch to TV (which is HDMI output instead of PC monitor DP), and set to a 59Hz video mode, but this does not improve the playback at all. The idea to match the timeline and footage FPS with a monitor Hz did not work ...

While the video playback is now smoother, the downside of this solution is that the sound become distorted ...

Yes, this setting would be better named: "prefer smooth audio / prefer smooth video" (But that's a bit long for a button lol)

Any improvements in 16.2?

I'm in the middle of the project, so cannot check that. I've seen several threads with even worse playback issues in 16.2? like 5fps or so.

Can you please check if the jerky playback is fixed or not in 16.2?

Thanks.

Any improvements in 16.2?
Can you please check if the jerky playback is fixed or not in 16.2?

Checking myself - nope, the same issue ...

I am hitching myself into this thread, as this is the post that shows the most similarities to my own issues with DR and stuttering playback.

I am importing 1920x1080p 50FPS footage from a Canon Legria HF R88 camcorder (compressed h264).
Not knowing too much about how to optimize playback in DR, I set the project and timeline playback to 50fps (I need 50fps output) and working only with the camera footate, playback in the timeline is.. ok.
As soon as I add even simple Fusion titles, playback of parts with added titles stutters until the clip has been cached (red line turns blue), which again is.. "ok" for a low amount of short clips.

Turning on 'show all frames' made playback even slower. For part of the timeline that hadn't been cached (red to blue), playback drops to ~10FPS - around 17FPS with show all frames off.

I am now working with a project, where I need a title to be present roughly 95% of the time (a simple frame, but still with a nice animation in at the start, so it can't just be a static image.. I mean.. that's what Fusion is all about, right?), but now no part of the timeline where that Fusion title is present plays back properly, until DR has had time to chew on that specific part I want to play back (red line turning blue), but since this takes ages, I feel I spend more time waiting than actually working, after switching to DR.. I can't find any option to pre-render the timeline either.. Generating OM takes ~15 minutes (for a 22minute project) and does not improve playback (there is still a red line across the entire timeline)

I came from Premiere Elements. Yes, do laugh, but even without rendering every clip, that thing actually managed to play back the timeline smoothly without any hickups, regardless of how many extra tracks you added, titles or whatnot.. I am using the free version of DR(16.2.0.055 - I have been offered the latest updated, but the notes do not mention anything in regards to updated performance regarding h264 footage).
I really really really like DR for the nice addons like Fusion with all the features it brings - creating your own custom titles and spo much more and even being able to save them for re-use, (albeit not beginner-friendly process), is such a sweet feature that I would be happy to shell out the $$ for the full version, but with the primary workflow being bogged down like it is now.. no,

The kicker: for the current project, I have 2 more tracks with titles across 95% of the timeline.. Welcome to snooze-town :/

i7 8700k
16GB Ram (on the low side, according to the guide)
Asus GTX1060 6GB RAM

Scratch/Cache is on a dedicated SSD, source media is on a network drive with 1Gbps interface. RAM is the only thing that seems to be sort of maxed out when playing back CPU-usage is at ~35% and GPU is low (although it is my understanding that GPU isn't fully utilized in the free version?)
The source-files for the project take up roughly 13.6GB - the cache/scratch-disc for this project alone is up to 269GB .. yes, it's the _only_ project on that scratch-disc.

Sorry for interrupting

/rené

Rene

I am in the same boat....just noticing it now as I play more.

Sony x70 footage, h264 XAVC 50 Mbps footage has some stuttering.....using the "show all frames" in edit made helps, but as also said, audio gets distorted now and then.

I am hoping there is a fix for this...I just bought the full version for H264 capability......

Premiere plays the same footage smooth as silk..........

I am hoping I didn't jump too soon in buying this....

I use a GTX 1060 6GB GPU. It is fine in 1080, but will slow down in UHD with titles. If I want to run a UHD timeline while editing I will often switch to the half resolution proxy setting. As the CPU is doing the codec decoding it takes a big hit with h264 at 50fps which is why a lot of users recommend transcoding to a more friendly editing format such as DNxHD or Prores.
You can of course edit your 4k footage in a 1080 timeline and then change it to 4k before rendering.
As to GoPro footage, if it has been shot with a variable framerate this will cause further problems as NLEs like Resolve need to see constant framerate footage.
For using Fusion RAM seems to be the key with the recommended minimum of 32GB as well as a GPU with at least 8GB VRAM.
The bottom line is that Resolve requires robust hardware resources to run well. As to Show All Video Frames, this is from the manual.

I am having the exact same problem. Only with 59.940 footage. Did anyone here found any solution?? Is quite annoyinng isnt it?

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=113989

There are my examples in case anyone wants to have a look.

Double check your timeline settings. Not just the playback settings, but the "timeline FORMAT".

I was doing some testing with various XAVC formats from my camera to try and get to the bottom of some stuttering video issues (other threads)......

I found on my system that 1080p 30fps 35 Mbps footage was playing back ok video wise but the audio with the clip was playing back fast and broken.

I used "project settings" to check the settings.....found the "timeline format" was set to 24 fps and greyed out.....so....I killed that timeline, clicked file>newtimeline.....then clicked on CUSTOM in the bottom left.....that let me set the timeline format to 30 fps.

Clicked save an that created a new timeline ...dropped the same footage onto the timeline I had been trying before and viola. the audio was fixed.....

The of thing is, if I go back to project settings, the "format" is STILL showing as 24 fps!

A bug maybe??

Double check your timeline settings. Not just the playback settings, but the "timeline FORMAT".

I was doing some testing with various XAVC formats from my camera to try and get to the bottom of some stuttering video issues (other threads)......

I found on my system that 1080p 30fps 35 Mbps footage was playing back ok video wise but the audio with the clip was playing back fast and broken.

I used "project settings" to check the settings.....found the "timeline format" was set to 24 fps and greyed out.....so....I killed that timeline, clicked file>newtimeline.....then clicked on CUSTOM in the bottom left.....that let me set the timeline format to 30 fps.

Clicked save an that created a new timeline ...dropped the same footage onto the timeline I had been trying before and viola. the audio was fixed.....

The of thing is, if I go back to project settings, the "format" is STILL showing as 24 fps!

A bug maybe??

georgej I know what you mean. The timeline format is somehting you have to define as soon as you create a project, before dropping any media, once media is added that project will lock to that format, no minding if you add more timelines. So if that happened to you, you have to start a new project and define the timeline fps before doing anything else.. hope that helps!
Sadly for this scenario, this is not what's happening.

georgej,
bror31,

Guys! The Project settings and the Timeline settings are independent since v16. Your problem is about wrong configuration. This thread is about the issue with playback when the settings are correct!

georgej,
bror31,

Guys! The Project settings and Timeline settings are independent since v16. Your problem is about wrong configuration. This thread is about the issue with playback when the settings are correct!

Teppo, my problem is the same as yours. I was giving adice georgej in his problem, even tho is the wrong topic. Feel fre to read my post so you can understand I'm having your same issue.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=113989

Teppo, my problem is the same as yours. I was giving adice georgej in his problem, even tho is the wrong topic. Feel fre to read my post so you can understand I'm having your same issue.
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=113989

Sorry, I meant the georgej's issue, not yours. I subscribed to your thread as well to check the progress.

The real problem here is that many people don't understand the issue or are not very experienced and are posting unrelated issues or solutions.

Teppo, my problem is the same as yours. I was giving adice georgej in his problem, even tho is the wrong topic. Feel fre to read my post so you can understand I'm having your same issue.
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=113989

Sorry, I meant the georgej's issue, not yours. I subscribed to your thread as well to check the progress.

The real problem here is that many people don't understand the issue or are not very experienced and are posting unrelated issues or solutions.

Exactly, they just don't wanna listen to facts or can't accept DR is having an issue. Most of the time is due to our "pc spcs" ha!

I did this video that shows how bad DR handles 59.94 in my pc and at the same time I run the same file in Premiere and it does it smoothly:

Teppo, my problem is the same as yours. I was giving adice georgej in his problem, even tho is the wrong topic. Feel fre to read my post so you can understand I'm having your same issue.
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=113989

Sorry, I meant the georgej's issue, not yours. I subscribed to your thread as well to check the progress.

The real problem here is that many people don't understand the issue or are not very experienced and are posting unrelated issues or solutions.

I do not feel my suggestion is "unrelated " at all.

The topic says "jerky playback".....that is the issue right?

"this topic is about when setup is correct"...well, yeah- we are ALL going to assume we are set up correctly

.....but I WAS "set up properly"...my point was that even when I set the timeline up properly, as far as I know, it was jumping back to 24fps....for whatever reason.

The problem for me acted EXACTLY like what the OP said he experienced.....change the setting for "use all frames", and audio goes funky....

So I suggested what I did.....worked for me......

I am living this life of misery as well, with my GPH7 video.

I'd be willing to pay more money for DR, or pay for updated, if the fix was to license better H.xx decoding/encooding engines.

I am living this life of misery as well, with my GPH7 video.

I'd be willing to pay more money for DR, or pay for updated, if the fix was to license better H.xx decoding/encooding engines.

I don't lnow if this will work for you guys.. becasue there is actually no logic explanatio behiind it but afer several tries and different methoed the thing that sorted it for me was uninstalling DR completely from the system and re install it. I know it sounds like blowing a old video game cartridge.. but it worked

"bror31: Exactly, they just don't wanna listen to facts or can't accept DR is having an issue."

Yes, if that were the case !

"bror31: Exactly, they just don't wanna listen to facts or can't accept DR is having an issue."

Yes, if that were the case !

Ole please relax! Take it easy and enjoy a little. It won't kill you.

Exactly, they just don't wanna listen to facts or can't accept DR is having an issue. Most of the time is due to our "pc spcs" ha!

If I recall correctly -- maybe I'm wrong? was it another user/thread? -- you uploaded footage, and any number of people here (me included?) played it without issue on a variety of systems, both more and less powerful than yours.

So, in such cases, whether it was you or somebody else, the obvious explanation is user or configuration error. And, 93.6% of the time, that's what it turns out to be here, after long tortured discussions, in which the newcomer insists, I'm doing everything right, nobody listens to me! Until, that is, the actual [user] problem is revealed. This happens regularly here, and has for years. A few threads down, you can find the latest example: the GPU was in the wrong slot.

OTOH, I guess it could be worse. We've got another newbie in a nearby thread who's openly insulting one of the Resolve developers, for taking the time to help him, patiently and at great length.

No good deed?

Exactly, they just don't wanna listen to facts or can't accept DR is having an issue. Most of the time is due to our "pc spcs" ha!

If I recall correctly -- maybe I'm wrong? was it another user/thread? -- you uploaded footage, and any number of people here (me included?) played it without issue on a variety of systems, both more and less powerful than yours.

So, in such cases, whether it was you or somebody else, the obvious explanation is user or configuration error. And, 93.6% of the time, that's what it turns out to be here, after long tortured discussions, in which the newcomer insists, I'm doing everything right, nobody listens to me! Until, that is, the actual [user] problem is revealed. This happens regularly here, and has for years. A few threads down, you can find the latest example: the GPU was in the wrong slot.

OTOH, I guess it could be worse. We've got another newbie in a nearby thread who's openly insulting one of the Resolve developers, for taking the time to help him, patiently and at great length.

No good deed?

First of all darling, I can't thank Ole enough all he did.. I guess over the last post that's the way of communication he was using and I just followed him.. for the craic. Whatever you think it's your problem.

Second, sadly, we'll never know if it was a "user" problem. I followed all the steps everyone gave and nothing sorted it. A re installation did. Was because a configuration error or a bug? We won't know as all the steps where tried too. Anyhow, my complaint, was not about "I'm doing everything right" because I usually don't do things right, but was related to how some post they suggest things that where previously tried, stated in the post, and they would insist with that idea.

So sorry, but was not the "obvious explanation" in this case.