- Posts: 70
- Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:07 pm
- Real Name: Justin Schenk
Let me tell you how I've spent the last 3 hours:
I'm taking the time to convey this story for a very specific reason. I'm not interested in whatever smarmy jerk wants to get on here and tell me how stupid I am for missing X-Y-and-Z. I'm not interested in learning to better understand whatever obtuse feature or setting led to this behavior. I'm not really interested in anyone's "help" right now, and I'm not asking for it. Don't even respond, because I'm not going to read it.
What I am here to do is to tell Blackmagic here in their public forum that this is a horrendous, incomprehensible user experience. It should be fairly obvious that I have demonstrated at least a workable knowledge of how to get around Resolve. I've been using it for years and while I'm by no means an expert, I use it regularly and rely on it for at least some part of my supplemental income. I'm not here to complain about some petty aesthetic change - or the fact that you enter the Fusion tab at your own risk because IT WILL CRASH ON YOU AT ANY MOMENT FOR ANY REASON WITH 100% CERTAINTY.
I'm here to complain about the show-stopping backend failures that leave the user holding the bag: Playback inconsistencies, inconsistent menu items, black frames that destroy renders, clips that chug for no reason, poor communication with the user, Fusion clips that worked fine yesterday but refuse to render under any circumstances at all today, functionality changes so poorly named that they create massive confusion among the userbase (Optimized Media used to basically be proxies...then a real Proxy option was implemented but the Optimized Media option was kept only with some of UI options changed...but don't get "Proxies" confused with "Timeline Proxy mode"...which seems to have almost nothing to do with "proxies" AT ALL and should probably be called something less obtuse like "Playback Resolution"...), features that are sloppily implemented (Whoopsies! Titles don't display the correct luma in Davinci Wide Gamut! ...and still don't).
It remains the case that you can have years of experience in the software, at least a workable understanding of the feature changes across at least the last two or 3 versions, and a functional knowledge of how the playback engine is supposed to work and how to use its features - yet you can still piss away 3 hours just trying to get smooth playback.
Personally, I think I'm going back to Adobe. I want my time back. This sht sucks.
I need to add a title to this piece of footage. Cool. I'll use one of the included pre-baked ones. They're great.
Okay. I have added the word "By" with the Digital Glitch title. Looks great. Now I need to time it properly.
Uh oh! It won't play back smoothly. Dropped frames left and right, and I can't tell what's going on at all.
Let's try it a few more times...Nope.
Let's drop the timeline resolution to half. Nope.
Quarter? Nope.
OKAY. FINE. I didn't transcode my footage from UHD H.264. I guess my WORKSTATION is having a hard time rendering this SINGLE WORD over my footage for that reason. I understand. I'll generate optimized media to lighten the load.
Well, that took a while and ate up a bunch of space on my drive. Great. Let's get back to it.
No change in performance. Playback still hitches and stutters and I have no idea what's going on.
Is it using the optimized media I just generated? "Use Optimized Media" is checked under playback, but how do you tell?
Is it in the "File" attribute metadata? No. Is there a new bin item? No. Can I right-click the clip and tell? No. Is there an indicator on the clip in the timeline? Not that I can see.
Time to Google, I guess.
Hah. This person is confusing Proxy Media with Timeline Proxy Mode.
So, is this person.
And this one. Jesus.
Okay, this rando says you can simply add a column within the bin's "list view" that says "Optimized Media." That makes sense. Why didn't I think of that?
...wait...where is it? Did I glance over it? I'll look again. No. Again? No. Okay, very slowly this time...still no. They took it out!? But why!?
Maybe if I add the "Proxy" column, Optimized Media will be a subheading displayed there? No.
Ohhh. You know what, I bet this was posted prior to Resolve adding the "proxy" function. Things are different now. I'd better look elsewhere.
Okay. This person says you can create a smart bin for Optimized Media. Let's do that.
Alright. Add new Smart Bin...let's title it: Optimized Media... Great. Now...hmm...where is it?
Media Pool Properties? No. Really!? I'd better check again. Still no. Metadata? Ugh look at all this crap...no no no. Clip Details? No. Well, maybe codec...but where's Optimized Media!?
Where even is this file on my disk!? Answer: apparently in a filename structure that is incomprehensible. Sick.
Let's RTFM: Wow, 130 mentions of "Optimized Media", huh? That's a lot.
That one wasn't helpful. Nor was that one. Already knew this one. Okay, you know what? Fk this.
Is my rendering cache turned on? Yes, set to User. Have I set the main footage clip render cache to "on"? Yes. What about the Fusion title? Set to "on" also. And I've told Resolve to "render in the background"? Yes, after 5 seconds.
IS MY CACHE DRIVE OUT OF MEMORY?? Not even close.
Back to trolling for information. What you got, YouTube?
...WHOA WHAT DID THIS GUY JUST SAY? RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN!?
Optimized media must have the SAME CONTAINER as the original footage to work!? IS THAT TRUE!? THAT CANNOT BE TRUE. WHY WOULD THAT BE TRUE!? So, you're telling me that if have Resolve transcode this MP4 footage into some codec with a .MOV container, it's just going to throw up its hands and say, "I dunno man, I'm lost!" That absolutely cannot be true. I've never heard anyone else say that, and I've never come across that in the manual! There just no way! And there's no warning from the software telling the user they've made some kind of critical mistake? I just don't buy it.
Let's try it out. Back in settings/Optimized Media and Render Cache, AND I only have 3 codec options!? DNxHx, Cineform, and "uncompressed". So, really there's just two!? No, but...look...
File/Media Management/Video...yeah - look! Cineon, MXF, Quicktime. MPEG, H.264, Cineform. What the actual f***...
GOOD GOD. SCREW THIS. Screw all of this. Is it still dropping frames while rendering this SINGLE WORD over my footage? Yes. Completely unusable.
FINE. PROXIES IT IS. YOU GOT IT. Let's check the settings first.
Resolve is going to choose the resolution automatically, we're gonna shoot for DNxHR - fine, whatever it doesn't matter. Generating proxies is gonna take about 15 more minutes.
Okay. That's done. Kind of hilarious that Resolve has decided my expensive workstation should default to working with 960x540 proxies...but, okay. At least I can get back to work.
YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY FKING KIDDING ME. IT STILL CAN'T RENDER THIS SINGLE WORD OVER MY 960x540 FOOTAGE WITHOUT DROPPING SO MANY FRAMES IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO LINE THE TITLES UP WITH THE AUDIO CUES!?
Am I using proxies!? Very clearly yes; the footage looks beat to sht.
ONE HALF TIMELINE PROXY RESOLUTION!? No.
ONE QUARTER!? No.
HOLD ON, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY I CAN SCRUB THROUGH THIS FOOTAGE LIKE A LUNATIC WITHOUT DROPPING A SINGLE FRAME - TITLE ANIMATION INCLUDED - YET IT'S ASKING TOO MUCH TO PLAY IT BACK IN REAL-TIME WITHOUT SHTTING THE BED??
Wait, proxies off, optimized media off, 1/4 resolution. Flawless scrubbing - INCLUDING problematic title.
Optimized media still off. Proxies still off. FULL RESOLUTION. Flawless scrubbing - INCLUDING problematic title. Timeline still red indicating nothing has been rendered.
Cringes...presses play at full resolution, UDH H.264. Footage plays back flawlessly. Yes, that's including the Fusion title that's caused so many problems for the last two hours.
I'm taking the time to convey this story for a very specific reason. I'm not interested in whatever smarmy jerk wants to get on here and tell me how stupid I am for missing X-Y-and-Z. I'm not interested in learning to better understand whatever obtuse feature or setting led to this behavior. I'm not really interested in anyone's "help" right now, and I'm not asking for it. Don't even respond, because I'm not going to read it.
What I am here to do is to tell Blackmagic here in their public forum that this is a horrendous, incomprehensible user experience. It should be fairly obvious that I have demonstrated at least a workable knowledge of how to get around Resolve. I've been using it for years and while I'm by no means an expert, I use it regularly and rely on it for at least some part of my supplemental income. I'm not here to complain about some petty aesthetic change - or the fact that you enter the Fusion tab at your own risk because IT WILL CRASH ON YOU AT ANY MOMENT FOR ANY REASON WITH 100% CERTAINTY.
I'm here to complain about the show-stopping backend failures that leave the user holding the bag: Playback inconsistencies, inconsistent menu items, black frames that destroy renders, clips that chug for no reason, poor communication with the user, Fusion clips that worked fine yesterday but refuse to render under any circumstances at all today, functionality changes so poorly named that they create massive confusion among the userbase (Optimized Media used to basically be proxies...then a real Proxy option was implemented but the Optimized Media option was kept only with some of UI options changed...but don't get "Proxies" confused with "Timeline Proxy mode"...which seems to have almost nothing to do with "proxies" AT ALL and should probably be called something less obtuse like "Playback Resolution"...), features that are sloppily implemented (Whoopsies! Titles don't display the correct luma in Davinci Wide Gamut! ...and still don't).
It remains the case that you can have years of experience in the software, at least a workable understanding of the feature changes across at least the last two or 3 versions, and a functional knowledge of how the playback engine is supposed to work and how to use its features - yet you can still piss away 3 hours just trying to get smooth playback.
Personally, I think I'm going back to Adobe. I want my time back. This sht sucks.