< Previous | Contents | Next >
Assigning Clip Levels in the Media Pool
When you first import media into the Media Pool, either manually in the Media page or automatically by importing an AAF or XML project in the Edit page, Resolve automatically assigns the “Auto” Levels setting. When a clip is set to Auto, the Levels setting used is determined based on the codec of the source media.
DaVinci Resolve generally does a good job of figuring out the appropriate Levels setting of each clip on its own. However, in certain circumstances, such as when you’re working with media that was originated in one format but transcoded into another, you may find that you need to manually choose the appropriate settings so that the levels of each clip are interpreted correctly. This can be done using each clip’s Levels setting in the Clip Attributes window, available from the Media Pool contextual menu in either the Media or Edit pages.
1 Open the Media or Edit page.
2 Select one or more clips, then right-click one of them and choose Clip Attributes.
3 Click the Levels ratio button corresponding to the data level setting you want to assign, then click OK.
TIP: If you need to change the Levels setting of a range of clips that share a unique property such as reel name, resolution, frame rate, or file path, you can view the Media Pool by column, and sort by the particular column that will best isolate the range of media to which you need to make a data level assignment.
TIP: If you need to change the Levels setting of a range of clips that share a unique property such as reel name, resolution, frame rate, or file path, you can view the Media Pool by column, and sort by the particular column that will best isolate the range of media to which you need to make a data level assignment.
TIP: If you need to change the Levels setting of a range of clips that share a unique property such as reel name, resolution, frame rate, or file path, you can view the Media Pool by column, and sort by the particular column that will best isolate the range of media to which you need to make a data level assignment.
Once you change a clip’s Levels setting, that clip will automatically be reconverted based on the new assignment. If it appears to be correct, then you’re ready to work. If it doesn’t, then you may want to reconsider the Levels assignment you’ve made, and you should check with the person who provided the media to find out how it was generated, captured, and exported.
So long as the Levels settings used by your clips are accurate, you should be ready to work. However, problems can still occur based on what external video hardware you’re using with your workstation, and how you need to deliver the finished media to your client. For this reason, there are three additional data level settings that you can use to maintain data integrity, while at the same time seeing the proper image as you work.
Video Monitoring Data Levels
Superficial problems may result if the settings used by your external display differ from the settings you’re using to process data levels in Resolve. Accordingly, there is a Video/Full Level setting in the Master Settings panel of the Project Settings (in the Video Monitoring section).
When you change this setting, the image being output to your external display should change, but the image you see in your Viewer will not. That’s because this setting only affects the data levels being output via the video interface connecting the Resolve workstation to your external display. It has no
effect on the data that’s processed internally by Resolve, or on the files written when you render in the Deliver page.