Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 17.4

Now up to 5 times faster for 8K editing and grading on Apple Mac models with M1 Pro and Max, plus Dropbox Replay integration and more!

Fremont, CA – October 21, 2021 – Blackmagic Design today announced DaVinci Resolve 17.4 which transforms the speed of DaVinci Resolve to work up to 5 times faster on the new Apple Mac models with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. With this massive speed increase, customers can now play back, edit and grade 8K projects even faster, and can work with up to 12 streams of 8K footage.

DaVinci Resolve 17.4 is available for download now from the Blackmagic Design website.

DaVinci Resolve 17.4 also increases the decoding speed of 12K Blackmagic RAW files, making it over 3 times faster and H.265 rendering is also 1.5 times faster. Plus, DaVinci Neural Engine performance is up to 4 times faster, for real time facial recognition, object detection and smart reframing! Support for ProMotion 120Hz displays makes playback and editing incredibly smooth and HDR viewers are also supported on the new Apple MacBook HDR displays.

DaVinci Resolve 17.4 also adds Dropbox Replay integration. Projects will flow smoothly from DaVinci Resolve Studio directly to Dropbox Replay for easy video review and approval. Frame accurate colored markers, comments and annotations made in Dropbox Replay are almost instantaneously synced to the DaVinci Resolve timeline. Plus with a simple login, customers will only have to sign in once. Other features include quick and easy render set up with dedicated Dropbox and Dropbox Replay presets as well as automatic background uploads that are monitored for status and confirmed when complete.

For subtitling, DaVinci Resolve 17.4 includes automatic resizing of backgrounds and cursor placement when creating captions, as well as nested timeline subtitle tracks now auto-populating the main timeline to speed up creating captions.

There are also improvements to the edit page such as better functionality for position curves in the timeline, so customers can more easily adjust the ease in and out points. This creates a more custom transition from one point to another when applying zoom or image position adjustments. Customers will also now be able to use DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor to switch between cameras in multicam clips on the edit page making it faster to cut programs together. Additional support for asymmetrical trimming allows customers to adjust a transition’s in point without affecting its out point or vice versa, enabling them to fine tune work more quickly.

With Fusion, customers get additional support for languages with combined glyphs and those that may write right to left such as Arabic and Hebrew. Combined with improved vertical layouts, rotation and line direction when working with Text+, this will enable customers to work in a wider range of languages and layouts.

DaVinci Resolve 17.4 adds greater support for automatic color management, making it faster and simpler to set up projects. Additionally, this update adds support for ACES 1.3, including gamut compression, so customers can now more accurately display wide gamut images to be certain they are getting the best representation of the source image.

A new Resolve FX called custom mixer allows customers to combine effects and make adjustments to grades with finer control. Plus, a new 3D keyer adds the ability to make finer adjustments to the key and matte finesse settings to make it easier to create clean masks with more accurate keys and finer edges. For DaVinci Resolve Studio, there’s also a new film halation which will add the effect of a glow or light reflections around high contrast edges, giving images a more filmic look.

Fairlight audio now has support for Steinberg VST3 audio plugins, giving access to more audio effects so customers can create the perfect soundtrack. Plus, there are keyboard shortcuts or click and drag to reorder, move and duplicate effects in the Fairlight mixer, displays single sided audio transitions as fades and added support for multi channel audio outputs.

When finishing projects customers can now export projects with YouTube video chapters, improved encode settings for the YouTube render preset and the ability to use hardware accelerated H.265 on Windows.

“This amazing update gives customers massive performance gains on the new Apple MacBook Pro models with the M1 Pro and Max processors. It completely transforms workflows and unlocks some incredible creative potential. What’s exciting is simply by downloading this free DaVinci Resolve update customers will get all these features for free,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “To have the capability now to easily edit and color grade Blackmagic RAW 8K footage in HDR and all on a laptop while you’re miles away from the studio is incredible. Plus the ability to easily collaborate on projects with Dropbox Replay makes it such an exciting time for our customers to be out there creating content. We’re very excited to see what our customers can do with this amazing update to DaVinci Resolve.”

DaVinci Resolve 17.4 Features

Key Features

Hardware accelerated Apple ProRes on Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max.
120Hz support on Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max for smoother UI and playback.
Faster DaVinci Neural Engine performance on Mac OS 12.
Native HDR viewers on supported Mac hardware.
Comments and annotations sync between Dropbox Replay and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Markers and comments sync between Dropbox and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Export timeline markers titles as YouTube video or Quicktime chapters.
Steinberg VST3 support giving access to even more audio effects.
Simplified color management, SDR and HDR selection and new automatic project settings.
New Resolve FX including film halation.
Improved 3D keyer and matte finesse controls.
Text+ support for combining glyphs, vertical layouts and right to left for Arabic, Hebrew etc.
Significantly faster ProRes decode, encode and AI performance for M1.
Subtitle backgrounds auto resize and nested timelines decompose to parent.

Support for Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max

Hardware accelerated Apple ProRes on Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max.
120Hz support on Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max for smoother UI and playback.
Faster DaVinci Neural Engine performance on Mac OS 12.
Native HDR viewers on supported Mac hardware.
Native full screen mode on Mac.

Dropbox Comment Integration

Dropbox login within DaVinci Resolve preferences.
Render directly to Dropbox or Dropbox Replay.
Automatic background uploads when render completes.
Comments and annotations sync between Dropbox Replay and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Markers and comments sync between Dropbox and DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Edit

Subtitle and caption backgrounds now auto-resize to fit text content.
Subtitle tracks in nested timelines now decompose to the main timeline.
Adding a new subtitle caption now auto-focuses on the text area.
Simple titles and subtitles are faster on Apple Silicon systems.
Improved ease in and out functionality for position curves in the timeline.
Options to include effects and grades for render in place operations.
Switch multicam angles in the edit page with the speed editor.
Ability to mark selection for timeline gaps.
Edit asymmetric audio transitions created in the Fairlight page.
Trim video and audio transitions asymmetrically using cmd/ctrl.
Fine audio clip gain adjustments using shift + mouse drag.
Support for pasting retime attributes on audio clips.
Option to limit audio sync to the first timecode match.
Preview composite modes by hovering over each mode in the inspector.
Ability to set per-clip deinterlace quality in the inspector.
New square iris transition.
Support for custom aspect ratio controls for shape transitions.
Improved overlays for Fusion tools in the viewer.
Improved undo support for Fusion effects and Text+ in the inspector.
Support for folder based organization of effect templates.
New customizable key actions to go to previous/next timeline tabs.
Ability to close timeline tabs with middle click.
Preview generators and titles from the effects panel in the cut viewer.

Color

Support for an automatic mode for color managed projects.
Support for ACES 1.3, gamut compression and new CSC transforms.
New 3D Keyer with new modes, better selection/stroke logic, live feedback.
Improved HSL and Luma keyers with updated matte finesse controls.
Track forward and back with a single action in trackers and magic masks.
Node tooltips now indicate LUT and effect type present.
Dragging new links to layer and key mixers auto-creates node inputs.
Dragging color nodes over key links creates key-to-RGB connections.
Added individual primary and secondary tool icons for faster switching.
Clip filters for timeline clips with Dolby Vision analysis or trim.
Disabled clips are now shown as gray in the timeline.
Support for applying camera LUTs and CDLs to ARRI MXF ProRes clips.
The printer light state is now persisted across application restart.
Navigating to markers in the timeline now auto scrolls to center marker.

Resolve FX

Film halation emulates film stock reflections and scatter with Studio.
Custom mixer to combine effects and grades with finer control.
Improved 3D, HSL and Luma keyers in edit and Fusion.
Better noise handling and key refinement for existing keyers.
Improved patch replacer with ability to align source and target.
Film grain with interactive previews and grain freeze options.

Fairlight

Support for Steinberg VST3 audio plugins on Mac OS and Windows.
Ability to reorder, move and duplicate effects in the mixer.
Support for copying clip ranges with partial fades.
Single sided audio transitions are now displayed as fades.
Support for multi channel audio outputs on Linux.
Better waveform displays at smaller track heights and lower zoom levels.
Ability to shift-click and cmd-click on keyframe selections in the timeline.
Navigating to previous or next timeline marker now selects the marker.
Improved default processing order in Fairlight mixers.
Automation curves display current values when no automation is present.
Point selections now flash in edit selection mode.
Improved column order and search behavior in the clip index.
Improved jog, scroll and shuttle with the editing keyboard and speed editor.
Fairlight FX meters have resizable displays and improved channel labels.
Improved audio performance when using Blackmagic monitoring devices.

Fusion

Text+ support for combined glyphs and right to left language layouts.
Improved vertical Text+ layout, vertical glyphs, rotation and line direction.
Improved Text+ character grouping, spacing, underlining and borders.
Text+ supports per-character stylistic sets for supported fonts.
Support for OpenType features, including old-style numbers in Text+.
Multiple Text+ improvements for character styling and animation.
Hover to show tool descriptions in the effects panel and add tool window.
Improved default tracker search and pattern size for grid warps.
New search area scale slider in tracker options.

Codecs and File I/O

Improved encode settings for YouTube render preset.
Option to export a timeline marker color as YouTube video chapters.
Option to export a timeline marker color as QuickTime chapter markers.
Support for decoding opus audio in QuickTime and MP4 clips.
Hardware accelerated Panasonic 8K AVC decodes on Apple Silicon.
Improved decode speeds for ARRI ARX clips.
Hardware accelerated H.265 encodes on free version on Windows.
H.264 encode profile options on supported Nvidia systems with Studio.
H.264/H.265 encode bit rate controls on supported Windows Intel systems.
Faster encodes and decodes for Windows Intel systems with Studio.
Support for encoding to ZIP1 EXR format.
Ability to add custom languages in DCP/IMF composition naming options.
Ability to use approved operator / rating / region lists for DCP naming.
Marker support in the IO encode plugin SDK
Ability to bypass re-encodes for Sony XAVC Intra clips.
Improved retention of comments metadata for third party XML workflows.
Improved display of render job names with tooltips.

General

Right click audio icon to adjust volume on media, color and deliver pages.
Auto-identifying media storage sequential image formats as stills or clips.
Prompt to overwrite existing projects when invoking save as.
Locked project indicator for PostgreSQL databases with usage info tooltip.
Ability to clone a PostgreSQL database from the project manager.
Ability to export PostgreSQL access keys from the project manager.
Option to import into current timeline when importing an AAF.
Scripting API support to access inspector properties for video clips.
Scripting API support to set playhead position on the timeline.
Scripting API support to get color version for video clips.
Scripting API support for reflecting upload status in render job APIs.
Scripting API support for setting network optimization in render jobs.
Scripting API support for H.264 multi-pass encode option in Mac OS.
Improved scripting property set when querying MediaIn nodes.
General performance and stability improvements.

Availability and Price

DaVinci Resolve 17.4 is available now for download free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Tags: Blackmagic Design, DaVinci Resolve 17.4