x264 encoder, Resolve 17 Studio for Windows, macOS, Linux

For me not showing in GUI at all.
Bundle is there. I gave it full 777 permissions. OSX Mojave.

Have the Security and Privacy preferences open when you launch Resolve. Under General, below where it says "Allow apps downloaded from" it should display a note like "this file was blocked from running" with a "run anyway" option. That's what I had to do before I could get it to actually load in the UI.

Even sudo spctl --master-disable
doesn't change anything. There must be some other reason.

Wrong path?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You mean for the plugin bundle?
No, checked few times:
/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle

Permissions on actual binary:
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 user staff 2400144 Nov 13 21:32 /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle/Contents/MacOS-x86-64/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp
com.apple.quarantine 57

I've also checked Resolve log and nothing there about trying to load this plugin.
Does OSX itself needs something special, like developer tools, etc?

You mean for the plugin bundle?
No, checked few times:
/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle

Permissions on actual binary:
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 user staff 2400144 Nov 13 21:32 /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle/Contents/MacOS-x86-64/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp
com.apple.quarantine 57

I've also checked Resolve log and nothing there about trying to load this plugin.
Does OSX itself needs something special, like developer tools, etc?

Try to remove quarantined attribute.

Code: Select all

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle/Contents/MacOS-x86-64/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp"

Already tried.
Need to remove from folders as well(?) or create new ones.
Plug-in binary itself now has no quarantine now.

update: re-created bundle folder structure from scratch, put binary there. No quarantine attributes anymore, still doesn't work

Thank you Sergei.

What I noticed so far:

- Bitrate is in KBps...I think mbps would be better.

- I tried to render but render queue reported: FAILED, rendering never really starts but it actually reports it's rendering, could not snap it out of it even by pressing "stop", GUI becomes non-responsive, one can only press X and quit Resolve.

This issue happens for me too and I don't have this tool. Try positioning your play head in the middle of the project before rendering. Fixed it for me.

Adding ffmpeg ProRes this way would be nice...

+1000

(on Linux)

Succeeded in building it on Windows with Visual Studio 2019 but all I get is x264_encoder_plugin.dll and not two files (x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp and libx264-161.dll) like the artifacts uploaded by Sergey and the sizes of the file don't match too, but I guess that depends on the x264 builds. Anyone else succeeded in building this and actually used the plugin inside DVR Studio ?

Succeeded in building it on Windows with Visual Studio 2019 but all I get is x264_encoder_plugin.dll and not two files (x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp and libx264-161.dll) like the artifacts uploaded by Sergey and the sizes of the file don't match too, but I guess that depends on the x264 builds. Anyone else succeeded in building this and actually used the plugin inside DVR Studio ?

Solution for Visual Studio does not make dvcp and do not copy libx264-161.dll.
You must recreate bundle structure, rename x264_encoder_plugin.dll to x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp, and copy libx264-161.dll.

Succeeded in building it on Windows with Visual Studio 2019 but all I get is x264_encoder_plugin.dll and not two files (x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp and libx264-161.dll) like the artifacts uploaded by Sergey and the sizes of the file don't match too, but I guess that depends on the x264 builds. Anyone else succeeded in building this and actually used the plugin inside DVR Studio ?

Solution for Visual Studio does not make dvcp and do not copy libx264-161.dll.
You must recreate bundle structure, rename x264_encoder_plugin.dll to x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp, and copy libx264-161.dll.

Interesting, thank you Sergey. But my x264_encoder_plugin.dll (that I should rename into .dvcp) built is 2.18Mb whereas yours is 74 Kb, I think it already contains the libx264 inside

Succeeded in building it on Windows with Visual Studio 2019 but all I get is x264_encoder_plugin.dll and not two files (x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp and libx264-161.dll) like the artifacts uploaded by Sergey and the sizes of the file don't match too, but I guess that depends on the x264 builds. Anyone else succeeded in building this and actually used the plugin inside DVR Studio ?

Solution for Visual Studio does not make dvcp and do not copy libx264-161.dll.
You must recreate bundle structure, rename x264_encoder_plugin.dll to x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp, and copy libx264-161.dll.

Interesting, thank you Sergey. But my x264_encoder_plugin.dll (that I should rename into .dvcp) built is 2.18Mb whereas yours is 74 Kb, I think it already contains the libx264 inside

Then you do not need to include libx264-161.dll into the bundle.

Thanks for the effort put into this. I have downloaded the version for Linux and it is working...mostly. If I choose MP4 as my container, I can choose the plugin for Video, but when I go to the Audio tab, there is nothing in the Codec dropdown list. Is this to be expected? I was hoping to not have render audio and video separately and then mux them together. Thanks.

I did notice if I choose Quicktime as my container the Audio tab allows me to choose PCM audio, but ideally it would be best to have AAC as the codec.

Thanks for the effort put into this. I have downloaded the version for Linux and it is working...mostly. If I choose MP4 as my container, I can choose the plugin for Video, but when I go to the Audio tab, there is nothing in the Codec dropdown list. Is this to be expected? I was hoping to not have render audio and video separately and then mux them together. Thanks.

I did notice if I choose Quicktime as my container the Audio tab allows me to choose PCM audio, but ideally it would be best to have AAC as the codec.

Yes. The libx264 codec does not include an aac encoder for audio, and none are built in to Resolve linux. There is a PCM encoder, but no PCM support inside an mp4. If you switch container to mov, select the same encoder plugin, you'll be able to export audio as PCM.

WAV is awesome also. Do you need AAC for final delivery / broadcast / diffusion ?

no PCM support inside an mp4.

Panasonic cameras record PCM to MP4 files.

Resolve on a Mac now offers PCM for MP4 export as well.

no PCM support inside an mp4.

Panasonic cameras record PCM to MP4 files.

Resolve on a Mac now offers PCM for MP4 export as well.

You can create files with LinearPCM WAVE audio tracks inside MP4. You can even create .mov files and renamed them to .MP4 if you wish . To put it simply, this is not "official". Some software accept anything you feed them (VLC Media Player, ffmpeg etc.), some others software/hardware stick to standards

Compiled for Linux here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kih4x6rc5imvq ... X.zip?dl=0

First thank you for compiling and uploading it. Can you confirm this is the correct path on Linux.

Plugin Repository :: Plugin library failed to load for /opt/resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle/Contents/Linux-x86-64/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp

Thanks in advance

I want to +1 the "simple text area" idea. I'm also happy to NOT export audio as I don't use AAC. I prefer WAV and then MUX the two together that way I can use opus, aac etc.

I used this plugin build on linux and although it performs WAY better than the internal H264 it's still not good enough.

I tested a 1 minute video
using the FFMPEG plugin pack my file is
84MiB - CRF31, Very Slow, High, Encode time 59s.

Using my own parameters via TIF output and then FFMPEG CLI
39 MiB, Encode time 90s.

Basically BIT RATE <> Automatically mean better quality.

My version has no perceptible visual quality loss, the 1st one from the GUI does. So PLEASE can we have a simple textbox which allows us to pass parameters to FFMPEG. This will allow me to get the SMALLEST file at GREAT QUALITY. When I choose CRF22 using the plugin I get a file like mine quality wize but the size is almost 3-4x larger.

Typical encode is around CRF 20-25 for x264.
CRF 31 is rather low quality file, but if you are happy then that’s fine.
If you file is clean you will get some bitrate at those settings, but if it’s noisy then you may get 2x bigger for the same CRF. That’s the beauty of CRF mode- relative quality for given source.

Typical encode is around CRF 20-25 for x264.
CRF 31 is rather low quality file, but if you are happy then that’s fine.
If you file is clean you will get some bitrate at those settings, but if it’s noisy then you may get 2x bigger for the same CRF. That’s the beauty of CRF mode- relative quality for given source.

I'm not happy with CRF31 - thats the point. Even at CRF31 I could not get the file as SMALL as my own settings at CRF22.

Basically, PLUGIN needs CRF31 to even get close to my own setings FILESIZE wise. But my own settings are like a CRF22 in quality but smaller than a CRF31 plugin setting. Hence why I say a simple textbox would be ideal as just setting the CRF wastes loads of space.

It’s about impossible to have these size differences.
It doesn’t matter if you go over ffmpeg, x264 binary or plugin etc. In all cases you use same x264 engine and for given setting files should be about identical ( you may use slightly different build etc.)

CRF 22 should never produce smaller files than CRF 31 for the same source.
There must be some other reason.
Plugin is just a quick demo code provided by BM as an example. It would need bit of work and polishing, but so far no one is interested to work on it.

Hi Andrew,

I agree a straight setting of CRF22 will always be bigger than CRF31. I'm saying that when I pass my own tweaks to ffmpeg the resultant file is MUCH smaller than CRF31 yet the quality - according to the eye is like CRF22. That's why I'm advocating for a simple "text area" to pass custom parameters. Simply setting a CRF value doesn't work great. It still means I'm left with exporting TIFF/PNG and WAVE then muxing with ffmpeg direct to get a CRF22 LIKE file with half the size than CRF31 80MiB vs 40MiB.

Hmmmm...
Not sure what option could make such big difference as CRF 22 and 31 are far apart.
Are both files 4:2:0?

For those interested the MainConcept H264 H265 plugin finally got out ! Interesting

https://www.mainconcept.com/products/plugins/blackmagic-design-plugins/bmd.html

Always nice to have options.

I really wish that BMD would give Daniel, who develops the free x264/x265 solution for Adobe's AE and PP, a license, so he can make a similar solution for Resolve. He is very willing to do so and have tried to contact BMD several times! Check out his work at voukoder.org

It's happening! Check this out: ...I'm not allowed to post URLs, so, go to voukoder dot org and then find the forum, click 'feature requests' and then the thread called "Davinci Resolve now allows for third party render". There you will find the first Voukoder prototype for DVR, and it seems to work well already!

There is a thread about it.

Hello, I am using Windows.
I have copied the folder 'x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle' in 'c:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\IOPlugins\'

but whan I start Resolve the only codec available for MP4 format is H.264. For QuickTime there are several codecs (included H.264) but again no X264.
What is wrong? Is there something to configure for plugins activation? Where could be the mistake?

Thank you vary much

Thank you very much its working!
Is it possible to make a profile for H265 with 10bit? I still see Resolve studio suffering exporting H265 High profile, eventhough I have a Radeon VII on Mac.

Thanks and good job for this one !

Wonder if we can get the x265 in the future...

+10

Thank you very much its working!
Is it possible to make a profile for H265 with 10bit? I still see Resolve studio suffering exporting H265 High profile, eventhough I have a Radeon VII on Mac.

Thanks and good job for this one !

Don't you have "main10" in the profile Menu ?

What's lacking is 10 bit 4:2:2

Yes, that's a shame. Main10 works we'll here.

You mean for the plugin bundle?
No, checked few times:
/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle

Permissions on actual binary:
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 user staff 2400144 Nov 13 21:32 /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle/Contents/MacOS-x86-64/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp
com.apple.quarantine 57

I've also checked Resolve log and nothing there about trying to load this plugin.
Does OSX itself needs something special, like developer tools, etc?

Is this resolved? I have the same issue.

The MacOS version on here is Intel Binary only... So I compiled the Apple Silicone version, and added it to the bundle here. So this one should work on both Apple Silicone, and Intel!

https://mega.nz/file/UwJTCJiK#16FZop4Ve ... QvOJLMcg48

When you install this, it may be a good idea to remove the Quarantine...

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Path/To/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle


For those of you who don't trust user compiled binaries, Here is how I compiled it...
I used x264 from homebrew that was already installed because I have ffmpeg, but you can install it with `brew install x264` assuming you installed homebrew from http://brew.sh. then I edited the MakeFile's X264_DIR to
`X264_DIR = /opt/homebrew/Cellar/x264/r3095/`, then run `make`

As you know, Blackmagic has added an open plugin SDK toolkit for encoder developers (in DaVinci Resolve 17 Studio).

They also added an implementation for x264 (C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Developer\CodecPlugin\Examples\x264_encoder_plugin)

So, I am compiling this plugin for Windows and Mac platforms. You can test it if you like.

You need to unzip the downloaded archive to C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\IOPlugins on Windows or to /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins on macOS. You probably need to create IOPlugins folder.

Then restart Resolve.

x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle.png

Screenshot 2020-11-11 134155.png

Win: https://yadi.sk/d/GfyncFMQ8qnuzQ
Mac: https://yadi.sk/d/pGmERKeOXV4NuA
Linux: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kih4x6rc5imvq ... X.zip?dl=0
(Linux version from here: https://liftgammagain.com/forum/index.p ... ins.15195/)

You mean for the plugin bundle?
No, checked few times:
/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle

Permissions on actual binary:
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 user staff 2400144 Nov 13 21:32 /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle/Contents/MacOS-x86-64/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp
com.apple.quarantine 57

I've also checked Resolve log and nothing there about trying to load this plugin.
Does OSX itself needs something special, like developer tools, etc?

Is this resolved? I have the same issue.

You can fix the permissions problems by removing the quarantine flag that MacOS puts on all downloaded files... just run: xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine "/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle"

That will make it work

You can fix the permissions problems by removing the quarantine flag that MacOS puts on all downloaded files... just run: xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine "/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle"

That will make it work

many thanks
I'll try that shortly

For me not showing in GUI at all.
Bundle is there. I gave it full 777 permissions. OSX Mojave.

Have the Security and Privacy preferences open when you launch Resolve. Under General, below where it says "Allow apps downloaded from" it should display a note like "this file was blocked from running" with a "run anyway" option. That's what I had to do before I could get it to actually load in the UI.

Under Ventura I found the option in "Privacy and Security" no submenu, but scrolling to the bottom of the new style RHS pane showed the warning with the option to "Run anyway". After enabling that I still had to click "Run anyway" on a warning popup as one does with unknown Apps.

I think this process should be added to the initial write-up as its an important step.

Hello !

I tried to Install the bundle at the correct location :
C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\IOPlugins

But when lauching Resolve, it doesn't show on the deliveries page's GUI. I already have an other installed bundle at the same location and I can see it in Resolve.

I'm running the lastest version of Resolve Studio 18 on windows 10 (AMD CPU 3950X/2080Ti GPU).

Am I missing something ? Already checked the permissions on the folders.

Thanks guys !

Hey yall,

The link for windows plugin https://yadi.sk/d/GfyncFMQ8qnuzQ seems dead ?
Does anyone have this built plugin they could share ?

Just getting in to resolve and finding the compression of the builtin h264 painful!

Hoping this saves having to re-compress stuff w/ Handbrake.

Thanks,
-Evan

The MacOS version on here is Intel Binary only... So I compiled the Apple Silicone version, and added it to the bundle here. So this one should work on both Apple Silicone, and Intel!

Thanks Benjamin!

Please guys with more dev skills than us...could you enable 10bit on this plugin??

x264 supports 10bit encoding now...but this plugin is still in 8bit as discovered before...

Thanks a TON to anyone who succeeds in the endeavor

Has anybody compiled this recently using Visual Studio 2022?

I downloaded the x264 sources and got it compiled with msys2, but trying to compile the sample plugin - it's looking for "audio_encoder.h". This header file doesn't seem to be included in both the x264 or the sample plugin, is this from FFMPEG?

Here's the procedure I took..

> Install msys2
> In the msys shell, ran the following to install dependencies

--
pacman -Sy pacman
pacman -Syu
pacman -Su
pacman -S yasm
pacman -S nasm
pacman -S make
pacman -S git

> cloned the x264 sources from GIT

> ran the "x64 Native Tools command prompt"

> inside the "x64 Native Tools command prompt" - I went to the msys64 folder than ran

--
msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64 -full-path

> Inside the msys2 shell I compiled x264

--
cd /C/VideoEditingUtils/x264
CC=cl ./configure --enable-shared --prefix-${PWD}/installed
make
make install

> I then tried compiling the sample project using visual studio, it finds x264 headers without issue but is unable to find "audio_encoder.h"

Was able to get this compiled by removing the references to the audio encoder - not really sure why the source was updated with those audio codec dependencies when they don't exist. Would have been better if BM stuck it in its own folder (for those people wanted to create an IO Codec for Audio instead of video).

I'm thinking about creating a copy of the sample source, checking it into GIT, maybe modifying the parameters a bit to make it straightforward and have sane defaults, maybe even clean it up so that it compiles without needing Visual Studio UI.

There's a couple of other issues with it with the 2-pass, it leaves some extra / temporary files behind.

Hey community,
I am really looking forward having x264 built into Resolve Studio, but I have two questions:

1) Which path is it?
OSX/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/

or

[user]/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins/

2) In neither path do I have the folder "IOPlugins". Can I just create one with that name?

Thanks in advance!
Jannik

You have to create the folder.

I've been playing around with this encoder for a while (can share the binaries if anybody wants it and changes to the source as well) but it's slower than software encoder that comes with Davinci Resolve.

The

YVY (which I'm assuming is the native representation in resolve) -> NV12 (Y + PACKED UV) is pretty slow - this particular conversion takes longer than the actual function call to X264 to encode the frame in most frames.

You have to create the folder.

Thanks. In which directory? In the user-Library or the boot-drive-Library? (see my post above).

Thanks in advance.

You have to create the folder.

Thanks. In which directory? In the user-Library or the boot-drive-Library? (see my post above).

Thanks in advance.

For the MAC, it depends on how you installed it. The README.txt says

* Mac: /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/IOPlugins
* Mac (AppStore): ~/Library/Containers/com.blackmagic-design.DaVinciResolveAppStore/Data/Library/Application Support/IOPlugins

When downloaded from the APPSTORE, it's relative to your home folder which is signified by ~

You'll have to create the IOPlugins folder as listed above, then create the plugin structure (see below)

x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\Contents\MacOS\

Then rename the shared library you built to x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp and place it in the folder above.

Finally, you need to remove the quarantine flag by executing

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine %SOMEPATH%/IOPlugins/x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle

Sorry I still do not get it:

then create the plugin structure (see below)

x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\Contents\MacOS\

I'm not sure what you mean by that. How do I create that?

Then rename the shared library you built to x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp and place it in the folder above.

Which shared library? Why is it now shared?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry I still do not get it:

You have to create those folders in the IOPlugins folder you created.


IOPlugins\
IOPlugins\x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\
IOPlugins\x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\Contents\
IOPlugins\x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\Contents\MacOS\

Which shared library? Why is it now shared?

When you compile the x264_encoder_plugin it spits out a Shared Library. In windows Shared Libraries have file extensions ending with ".dll", on Linux it's ".so". It might be ".so" as well under MacOS.

You have to rename that ".so" file it built to "x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp" and copy it to the MacOS folder you created above.

Thank you for your guidance. I am really sorry to have more questions...

You have to create those folders in the IOPlugins folder you created.
IOPlugins\
IOPlugins\x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\
IOPlugins\x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\Contents\
IOPlugins\x264_encoder_plugin.dvcp.bundle\MacOS\

You mean like that?

Screenshot 2024-06-27 at 00.26.06.png (56.81 KiB) Viewed 5944 times

When you compile the x264_encoder_plugin

I need to compile the plugin? With what software do I compile it?

Again thanks in advance. I really just thought I needed to copy-paste the downloaded file and that's it.

Thank you for your guidance. I am really sorry to have more questions...

Sorry about that, "MacOS" needs to be under "Contents".

As for x264 under MacOS and installing all the tools, it's going to be pretty tough for anybody to explain how to compile / build software unless that person has software development background (and know to use those development tools). Best thing you can do is to ask somebody with MacOS to compile it and share the binary.

I've compiled it for Windows and Linux and can share it (along with changes to the source), can't do that for the MAC.