UKH

Looking for some advice on which video editing software would be best for a beginner. PC user. 

Going to Nepal (hopefully) in November to climb Ama Dablam and would like to make a short travel film (nothing elaborate). Camera will be a Canon G7xiii and a GoPro thrown in for good measure.

Thanks in advance.  

I'll probably get shouted down for this, but Adobe Premiere is really not that hard to get your head round, and you can do a monthly plan for £30 per month, should be more than enough time to get your head round it enough to piece together a short video of your trip. 

It has tonnes of features (after all, feature films get cut on it) so you're absolutely not going to find that there's something you need to do that it can't handle.  There are millions of tutorials on YouTube for is you get stuck.  I'm no editor, but it took me only a couple of hours to get my head round it enough to piece together a short movie with some music for my mates birthday.

There is a more basic version called Premiere Rush, that's more aimed at social media vids, so is less complex and lighter on features, but you have to buy a years subscription, and I've never used it so don't know what it's like.

There's quite a few free ones like Windows MovieMaker etc, but I've never used any of them so couldn't tell you which is the best. 

thanks, really helpful. It's not the first time I've heard that it isn't difficult to get your head around it. I will have a play around and see how I get on. 

Thanks

kdenlive is okay if you want opensource. It's a bit more frustrating to work with but gets the job done. Plenty of support available with it too

I can't emphasise how good some of the free software can be.  Most people equate using more expensive software with automatically getting better results. This simply is not true.

I don't have any direct experience of PC based programs, but on the Mac, iMovie is incredibly well featured and allows you to make superb films. If you can use it!   And that's the nub. However there are masses of superb tutorials on youtube and in combination with Keynote (PC -Powerpoint), it's hard to imagine what you might want for your expedition film that you can't do with something quite basic together with some skill.

As ever, it's not the size of your . . . .

As an addendum - remember the old adage - viewers are more tolerant of bad pictures of interesting subjects than they ever are of bad sound. Get a decent microphone and wind cover before spending £30 a month on software. The film and sound you capture will underpin everything. You can then take a dozen goes at converting it into a bloc-buster, but getting better original footage is hard.

I'm sure you'll be fine - just don't be intimidated by it - it has a billion features that you're never gonna need so just don't worry about them.

When you open it up there are a number of different layouts/workspaces that are selectable on the top, one of them is called "Learning".  Hit that and there's a couple of tutorials on there which take you through the basics.  You'll be up and running in no time.

Oh, a little extra tip which you may or may not know already - download the GoPro iOS app and adjust the settings on your GoPro using that via Bluetooth as it's way way easier than trying to do it all on the GoPro itself.  Make sure that the framerate on both the GoPro and your Canon are both set the same (I'd suggest 25p but up to you!) as this will avoid issues when you come to edit.  I'm told GoPro's default to 29.97 out the box. 

I use Cyberlink PowderDirector. Cost £50 for the disc. Quite easy to use and has a good set of inbuilt help/instruction pages if you get stuck. Cant do much to adjust the original video quality but is great for all kinds of editing.  My stuff is all on YouTube somewhere.

The best for price application is DaVinci Resolve (free). The only limitations is that If your GoPro puts out HEVC or H265, you need to transcode first. Not a big thing. 
 

It is a tad more complex and harder to use than Premiere Pro. But it really isn’t Rocket science and the reasonable CUT view is rather easy to use. Though I personally still prefer the EDIT view. But I’n stubborn.

If you’d only edit the GoPro footage, then the GoPro editor might be even enough. Problem is matching two different cameras, the color science on them Is different so the results look different.

Tell you what, if he really wants to get into the science of colours correction & grading DaVinci resolve is the one to go for.  Half of Hollywood grade using that...

£30 a month is crazy, Davinci Resolve is where I am going, I was a Premiere user (when you could buy software) but it’s just ridiculous renting software for that sort of money for occasional use

This is exactly what CineD and VLOG etc are for, but I’m guessing that’s not an option with GoPro ?

Yeah I know the switch to a subscription model pissed a lot of people off, I can understand that.  I use it for work stuff so £30 a month is liveable with. 

If you just need it for a month to cut one thing, one month of 30 quid is nowt compared to the cost of a trip to Nepal!

If I didn't have to use Premiere then I'd probably have a look at the various free NLEs, but I've never actually used any of them so couldn't recommend any.

I've seen some lovely stuff cut on Resolve however, no doubt it can do the job...

Yeah I’m a mere punter and I like Premiere, I really do but am using an older version of CS, also my Mac has got too old to run the newer stuff so I’m jumping to PC (when I can decide what to spec) which I use at work so it easier for me to use one platform.

I have weighed up Resolve and Premier and nearly went Adobe but needed Lightroom, Premiere and Photoshop, which means renting the whole suite for £60 a month for a heap of other stuff I won’t ever touch, £720 a year is just not going to happen, I can afford it but can’t justify it for the amount of use it would get.

Oh although I need if for work I'd class myself as an absolute punter!   I do content management for a production company, and the system we're looking to use has a really nice integration with Premiere so I'll use it it to make basic compilations and cuts as and when.   It has way more features than I need, but it's the only NLE with a nice integration with the system we'll use.

It's quite sneaky the way so much software has switched to a subscription... It's like they all realised at once that we won't pay £720 up front, but we will pay the £60 per month as it seems less onerous.  All a way to make more money I suppose....

Not really. Log profiles and flat color profiles help to color grade the set. Not really color -match two different cameras. For that to work, custom WB set is needed. And preferably a colorchart. 

I've used PowerDirector for many years, solid piece of software.

Recently moved to using MAGIX Movie Edit ProPrem (that's a mouthful); found it to be quicker for me to edit/trim lots of clip for MTB.

Also be aware, that uploading to YTube and Vimeo etc will lead to added compression, so your creation won't look as great as you had envisage online.

... I'm going go back to shooting 1440P. Was shooting at 1080P to save space/battery/processing time, but compression when uploading is just too much. I can film at 4K, but found it rips through GoPro battery life and files end up being large and that quickly uses up Vimeo upload limits when I have a bunch to upload (which to be fair is rare nowadays). 

I use Lightworks.

It's complicated and hard work initially  and only outputs at 720 in the free version.

Powerful and good one you get the idea, if you used it often. I still forget how to do things every now and again. And struggle to get fades and transitions how I want them all the time.

I can't be bothered to learn another piece of software now.

Make of that what you will... 

I use OpenShot, simple, free, open source, what's not to like?  Earlier releases were a bit unstable but I haven't had any issues for a few years now.

You want something very, very simple. Most of the software mentioned above will have you knowing what you want to do, but then spending hours trying to work out how to do it.

In some cases it might take several hours of gogling and watching mind numbing 15 minute long tutorials on youtube to find out that what you want to do is done by pressing "alt+j" or selecting a given function in a dropbox hidden in a menu.

With that said, the GoPro own PC based software is simple to use and will do everything you need it to, or at the very least will give you a good headstart, and when/if you come to meet it's limitations you can delve into other software for that particular clip/scene.

I still use GoPro's software often when i want to do simple edits and only use others when i need more complex functions

Latest can be had here https://gopro.com/en/in/shop/softwareandapp/gopro-studio/GoPro-Studio.html

All my projects are shot in 4k. They are edited in Resolve and are huge, obviously.

However when I want to upload them to YouTube, or Vimeo if I ever tried, then I shrink the file size to something more manageable without visibly affecting the image quality. For this part of my workflow I use Handbreak. I can get a five times reduction in file size. This reduces the time taken to upload to YouTube and gives YouTube less say reduced image quality through compression.

I use this tutorial to reduce file sizes before sending to YouTube.

Its not work safe, but it is funny and very informative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD2k1L28R-I&list=FLr7dMldhojjSW2fCGvprs...

Here is a 4k upload to YouTube. Granted there isn't much happening in the way of fast motion to challenge the compression algorithms of YouTube. But it was shot 4k 10bit 4:2:2 with a Hybrid Log gamma profile. The Resolve final render was close to 10Gb in size and that was when converted to a Rec709 colour space for YouTube. After putting the 10Gb file through the Handbreak washer it was shrunk to 1.18Gb in size. 1.18Gb is still massive for a 10 minute clip at 4k but it downloaded faster to YouTube and had most of the compression sorted before YouTube had a crack as well.

youtube.com/watch?v=By0Kc3HXw-s&

I started off my video editing journey with Adobe Premier Elements and PowerDirector. Both cost about the same and hold your hand from start to finish.

I refuse to pay monthly for any software.

If and when you outgrow Premier Elements or PowerDirector and want to play with more features then I highly recommend Blackmagic Davinci Resolve. The free version is excellent and gives you almost all the features of the paid version, to the point that you may never need to buy it.

Its a beast of an editing application with a steep learning curve, however there are more and more YouTube tutorials out there. You'll soon work out which channels to watch, and which ones are just one step ahead of you in their editing knowledge, but have learned to create Tutorials for their channels.

The best and free editing software is Resolve. Its far superior to Adobe's Premier, with its costly monthly subscription.

For simple editing software, which is not elaborate, to create really good short Travel Films then Premier Elements or PowerDirector.

That’s nowt... One of the producers at my work wanted to shoot at 983 mbps!
 

We managed to talk them down to 400mbps but we’re still going to be moving around some massive, massive files.  I’m going to be spending a lot of time watching progress bars this year... Bloody 4K!

Well to be honest BRaw 400mbps is completely different to All-I 400mbps HEVC to long GOP 400mbps HEVC.

So it really Depends.

good thing it’s not Red Raw 8k though

I'm guessing that you are using a Big Boy professional camera and a Big Ass computer to handle 983mbps footage.

I just have a consumer camera, GH5, that can shoot 400mbps but my itty-bitty 256Mb SD cards would fill up in minutes, so I go for the more leisurely 150mbps.

I may, one day, treat myself to an external recorder for those big-ass bit rates which are more forgiving when editing in Resolve and my non-apple-stoopidly-expensive-macpro computer.

All this for my own personal amusement. 😂

Mate, it’s been weeks of negotiation to try and settle on a format.  

We have to try and balance the company and producers’ desire to shoot “the highest quality possible” and what the cost/time/post implications are.

Please don’t tell them about 8k will you!?  

On top of that there was aspect ratio and frame rate arguments going on at the same time. Not sure it ever got settled...

Yeah, Sony F55s (not the newest but seem to be favoured by the DOP) and some decent IT, but the IT connectivity is all gonna have to be upgraded as it’s all built to handle HD, and 4K is gonna hammer it.

We were actually looking at some renting external recorders for shoot days as the management of cards on site is gonna be a nightmare... same issues as you’ve encountered.

Just record 8k h265 on a Samsung phone. Job done.

I believe they like 30fps.

😀

Got my beady eye on an Atmos Ninja v5 monitor/recorder.

Don't suppose you have any experience of such stuff?

I'd quite like to create HDR projects. I thought I had a HDR monitor but got stung by Dell's deceptive and ambiguous marketing. Not all 10bit monitors are HDR. Lesson learned.

Heck. Most are not even real 10bit. 
 

As your not into gaming, 4K high quality TVs are actually a good alternative. And you can still calibrate them. 

Have ’em get some Black Magic Pocket Cinema 4 or 6K cameras. Record directly to USB-C SSD (like Samsung T5/6/7). And in BRaw plus opengate format (full sensor readout). Figure out aspect ratios in post

The thought has crossed my mind. A TV would be considerably cheaper than my monitor. But seeing as I don't do this for a living, Miss Lemming would kill me for buying more toys.

Panasonic are making some sexy new cameras at the moment to compete with the BMPCC's

Yup. 
 

but AFAIK they don’t do direct record to USB-C. S1H might, but you can also get like 4 BMPK4Ks with the same dough. 

Which is why I have to consider a Ninja v5. Do you know much about them?

Nah. Too spendy. 
 

But should be rather good. The SSD media is a tad spendy on them. And when ya record DNxHR, it’s gonna hog space.

I’m no help on this front I’m afraid. We had an Atomos Samurai at my last place of work, not really my dept. but I remember the guys who used it being pretty impressed by it. 

You star. Thank you

Have amended my workflow

- Output uncompressed .avi from MAGIX after editing clips together. (its big, but worth it)  Essentially a RAW equivalent.

- Use Handbrake to compress to MPEG4 for Vimeo

Not only is the file smaller than the MPEG4 outputted directly from MAGIX , but its vastly superior quality with minimal artefacts.  Used H265.

Now just need to upload the handbrake test file to Vimeo to see what they then do with it

Vimeo will re-encode it... but from my experience, it's not to bad. Youtube is a lot worse.

You have read through this, I assume?
https://vimeo.com/help/compression

I think I'm right. Even though MAGIX suppports HEVC, it requeres additional purchase or something.

So when you export directly from MAGIX, you might be using H264.

But if you re-encode (or "export") with Handbreak, you actually do so with into H265/HEVC.

Ref.
https://www.magix.com/us/video-editor/movie-edit-pro/specifications/

And as you can imagine, H265 being newer  is much more efficient.


Note. H265 ends up with being more effective (smaller file-size) for 4k streams. But for FullHD or 720p, H254 might actually result in smaller files.

Yes I know Magix only support H264, so thought would give H265 a whirl with Handbrake!

To be fair to MAGIX I should output H264 from Handbrake to directly compare; but the H264 output from Magix was pretty crappy at the same bit rate.

Have read that the Vimeo guidelines. Used the Handbrakes Vimeo 60p suggestion as a starting point then tweaked to 30P and to better fit the Vimeo guidelines.  And yes, that's why I use Vimeo over YT wrt compression crappiness wise.

As it is starting from a better place with the Handbrake file, I'm hoping the Vimeo conversion will not add much crappiness.  We will see, still uploading ... at 50% .. should have made the test video shorter time wise, lol,

And cheers for the input on Codecs, appreciated.

Apologies to the OP for the Hijack ...

In reply to HeMa:

So it is better, but Vimeo still adds plenty of artefacts cw the Handbrake MPEG4.

These are the Handbrake Settings for outputting the MPEG from the AVI.  Any suggestions for improvements so that Vimeo does less when it converts?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ne86vwj41bue9uk/Screenshot%202021-02-01%20120208....

This is the test footage on Vimeo.  The AVI & Handbrake MPEG4 are much cleaner!

https://vimeo.com/507031964/9dde94233a

(sound is junk as stupidly used the GoPro wind noise setting) ...

Sadly can't help with the Handbrake settings... as I export H265 directly out with Youtube or Vimeo settings from Resolve.

I only use Handbrake to re-encode vids I've saved from streaming services, to be more suited to what ever platform I'm going to look at them (generally 720p or 1080p, as they're mostly tv-shows or kids cartoons).

That being said, both Youtube and Vimeo auto-select the res and such according to your connection. E.g. your sample clip looked quite bad and blocky at 720p just now.

But what you should do, is after uploading it to Vimeo, is to download it again and then compare the Handbreak version to the one downloaded from Vimeo locally. Taking the connection out of the equation.

Also might be smart to compre the codex -details  using stuff like VLC (or a specific media setting tool). That might give ya some idea on what settings to tweak in Handbreak for better results.

Note, I generally use Constant Quality instead of AVG Bitrate setting.

Also, why are you using masks/filters in Handbrake? I would rather incorporate those into your NLE (so MAGIX) workflow and export. Because you have more control on them there than in Handbrake.... and it would mean the re-encode in Handbrake would take less time.

In all essence, try to treat the "proxy"-file you export from MAGIX as the final "version". And then only re-encode to a more suitable (and matching to Vimeo specs) delivery format.


Oh, here are the suggested Vimeo settings for Handbrake.
https://vimeo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/224978308-HandBrake 

Thanks, all useful.

Great find on the Vimeo Handbrake settings - will give them whirl!

It was my first go with Handbrake, so added a few options like sharpening

.. I wanted to see what it did; I do need to see how it compares with MAGIX ... my thought being if Handbrake is better at outputting than MAGIX, then other global features like sharpening might be better.

Much like Output sharpening in LR when you do the final file export?

.. and then the sharpening is tailored/optimised to the compression by Handbrake ?

You can force it to use 1080P

That tutorial is phenomenal. 🤣

And from my amateur eye, I can't tell the difference once I send my Handbreak converted projects to YouTube. I'm guessing that Handbreak does such a good job transcoding that  YouTube compression is greatly reduced.

Can you share your Handbrake avi to MPEG4 settings?

I don't know what editing software you use but Davinci resolve has excellent sharpening. However the killer app for me is its Noise reduction in the Paid-For version. It really is bye-bye noise in dim lighting with crappy camera sensors.

This was filmed on a GH4 in very dark conditions. The original footage had a shed load of noise, but once put through the Noise Reduction filter, I'm more than impressed with the image quality YouTube produces. The Noise Reduction is considerably better with my GH5 when I film in 10bit at 4:2:2.

One day, I may invest in a Blackmagic pocket camera.😀

youtube.com/watch?v=cpWKeWLv_hE&

Edit

I don't know about your viewing experience but watching the clips through a window provided by UKC produces awful results. I find it better to watch direct from the YouTube site.

I keep most stuff as-is, because I don't know what all the features do however this is what I've got dialed in to a Custom Preset at h265 and 4K

Dimensions

3840x2160

Video Codec h265 10-bit(x265

Video

Framerate (fps) Constant

Quality

Constant quality 22

2-pass encoding

Optimise Video

Fast to Slow (Depending how patient I am with conversion time)

Audio

AAC Passthrough

Not that it really matters and I'm probably being a pedant for pointing it out, but that's UHD rather than 4k. 

I know lots of people, particularly those marketing TV sets use them interchangeably....

Off course you can force/change it. But when viewed from a not good quality connection it will be even worse quality. Which is why I prefer to watch them in the Auto-setting.

I think some of the problems were indeed related to the connection, not Vimeo per se.

Which is why I hinted that once you've uploaded it into vimeo, download it and compare with the one you sent out on your workstation. Thus removing bandwidth from the equation.

True.

But at least I did not confuse SDR, HDR, SD and HD. 😀

Yep, already done that:

Handbrake version and the Vimeo 1080P conversion here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p1yzy44mftj0a2g/AADVXcEB72W2dPf_FoAk9KDra?dl=0

I’m certain I’ve done all that in the past!

Had a look at them. Indeed there are some considerable artifacts found on the Vimeo version (the same I saw when I watched it online). So it was not a bandwidth issue, but the actual compression.

That being said, it was fast paced movement and the Vimeo file-size is around half that of the handbrake version. So somewhat understandable. 

Have a play with the handbrake settings and re-test is that works out better.

Looked like a nice place for riding, where was it from. Canary Islands?

I quickly checked what I loaded in Vimeo and the only one having even remotely enough movement was a gopro (so 720p res) ski thing from like 2012,  vimeo.com/38732842 . It doesn't seem to have compression issues... But it was exported into H264 afaik (from Final Cut Pro 7?).

If you also have a look at this (my local mini-golf winter crack)  vimeo.com/321432461 , there is a lot less movement (camera on a tripod), so even at 4k (UHD) there pretty much is compression issues. This was exported directly to H265 from Resolve using the Vimeo -settings.

As a final note, since you mostly seem to be operating in FHD. You might think about using H264 (at least have a go at it). Because I think MAGIC can put that out directly. So you don't even need to re-encode it using Handbrake. This would streamline your work a bit. And also as Vimeo is re-encoding it anyway it's not a major deal. This works out really well, as then you'll also save drive-space on your own comp. As you don't need to have the high-quality "export" from NLE waiting to be re-encoded into the version sent to Vimeo. Naturally this also assumes that you have no other use for the high quality version.

For reference, from what I have gathered from my friends that are actually professionals in video shooting and productions, is that they store the source material (and perhaps lower-res proxy-files), edit everything in their selected NLE (using them proxy files). Re-link to original media from proxies (if needed) and export into final delivery format. This way they have the greatest amount of control on what they deliver. Exporting something out from the NLE and then re-encoding it, can cause issues. And now your workflow has it happening twice (handbrake and what ever vimeo does).

That's right - this is the online/offline workflow.  Because we're capturing files at super high bitrates (these days we're talking around 400 mbps) and may have hours and hours of footage at this res (50 hours of rushes to 1 hour of programme is normal) it's impractical to have all of these huge files sitting online whilst you're editing, not to mention that it needs some serious compute power to deal with all that.  Therefore you make lower birate proxies (sometime called mezzanine files) and use these to make a more or less picture locked edit.  You then relink the original camera files (this is called a conform) finish the fine editing and grading.

If you're not working with a huge amount of massive files, don't have space issues and your computer isn't struggling to handle the processing you don't really need to adopt an online/offline workflow.  

You know, I find the GoPro app very good.

You can string a few videos together, trim them, correct the horizon, add filters and effects.

It also gives you a choice of transition effects that it does automatically (and in time with music).

It really is a neat and simple way of putting things together, and does not cost anything. 

Been there tried that (used GoPros software quite a bit). The compression issues/artefacts are even worse! (fine for looking at on a phone)

Thanks so much for taking the time. You can see the issues!

Have been experimenting with various combinations, will report later.

Its Madeira BTW, top drawer riding. Those clips were the easier flow trails. We rode some mind blowing stuff, lots of EWS and TransMadeira stages (the latter was on at the same time we were there, hence some tape on the trails).

Use this for comparing file properties https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo 

Use the "tree" vies and it shows you everything.

Thats a nifty lil program...

VLC also pretty much show you all the same info though... and on top of that you can watch the flick to boost .

Might anyway get that, as it seems to be also distributed for MacOS.

I probably use MediaInfo more than any other application, I'd honestly not be able to do my job without it!

It's really good if you're trying to find out discrepancies in video settings as you can multi-select two, or more, video files, right click and it'll open a window for each so you can do a really quick side by side comparison.

Massive fan of VLC, gets used a lot professionally as it'll pretty much play anything even truncated files or files with buggered headers.  The only thing that winds me up about it is that it plays back the video using a counter, rather than the embedded timecode.  I've looked and looked but I can't find a way to make it display TC?!  I've got another player that displays TC, but I'd much prefer it if VLC did! 

Whilst I'm at it, there's a website called Ninite where you can select a whole bunch of freeware programmes (including VLC, Handbrake, Audacity, MediaInfo etc) and download an installer which will install them all in one click.  Unfortunately it's Windows only (sorry HeMa).

Nice find... might need to go there once my work laptop admin-privileges are restored... darn corporate IT and making life harder for us trying to keep things going.

Compare option is indeed nifty.

re-timecode on VLC. perhaps either of these will help.
https://www.digitional.com/how-to-display-system-time-in-vlc-player-in-full....

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=22491

Luckily when I got my job the sent me a new laptop direct from the supplier so corporate IT have never had the chance to inflict a load of draconian rules on it...

That first option displays system time (i.e. what time of day it is now), rather than the embedded timecode.  

I couldn't find the right setting for the second one, it's a couple of years old so maybe the option has been moved in the meantime?

It's no great shakes though, if I just need to watch something I use VLC, and I have another player that displays the embedded TC if I need it.  In any case if we're sending out low res videos to translators and transcribers we always supply them with BITC, for the avoidance of any doubt!

So the upshot from my testing is that for fast moving HD footage 'Magix to Avi to Handbrake MPEG4 H264' gives much cleaner MPEG4 footage than 'Magix direct to MPEG4 H264'. [even at the best settings in Magix]

.. I can live with the extra step to .avi.  And delete the .avi after Handbraking it.

Just need to upload a 1.5 GB 'Handbrake MPEG4 H264' to see what Vimeo does to it  

I'd go Handbrake to h265. Smaller file size for uploading to the t'internet.

HeMa thought that H264 was better suited for HD footage.  Don't really mind the larger file size. 

My limited 5 minute understanding that are they both equalish in quality. H265 may be a little bit better with new algorithms, yet h265 smaller file size.

Just to be clear to all who are assisting Chris here, you want to download them from Dropbox and take a look at the files locally stored on your computer, not play them from the DropBox page (as I just did!).

I forgot that if you store a video file on DropBox they transcode yet another copy from the original so that you can stream it from their page.  Unsurprisingly they look awful.

Now that I downloaded them, I think the Handbrake made test looks ok, but the Vimeo made one is a bit ropey, quite a lot of noise in the detail.

I'm not sure H264/5 isn't the problem they can both handle fast paced video, I think the issue is that the Vimeo transcoders are making a proxy of a proxy.  You're better off outputting it as a DNxHD or ProRes and uploading that.  The Vimeo transcoders will have more data to work with, so will be able to make a better quality proxy.

It'll take a bit of time to upload sure, but I'm pretty sure we've all got plenty of time on our hands right now....

Yup...

Albeit I think Vimeo only takes ProRes which might not be an option for non Macs.

The best option for non DNxHD/ProRes would be to directly export from the NLE in a setting that Vimeo does not need to re-encode. In my case, I have simply used Resolves Vimeo-preset (h265, as I deliver in 4k/UHD). And when I did small a few test runs, the file-size has stayed almost the same, meaning that Vimeo has done very little.

Yeah I checked that, and whilst Vimeo suggest h264/5 and ProRes (for best results), they say that they take "most major codecs" so I'm not sure if they'll take a DNx or not? 

I'm thinking it probably would (same with an AVCIntra andCam etc) but they would prefer it if people don't upload these!

I suspect their transcoders work best with those listed, but will be able to handle other formats albeit more slowly and less efficiently! 

Nice that resolve has a preset for Vimeo - like you say it's probably very close to their standard format so just does a rewrap rather than full transcode...

Resolve has a preset for YouTube and it's awful.☹️

From my amature experience I just create an MP4 at h264 and then let Handbreak do it's magic.

I'd love to render to H265 but Resolve is not playing nicely with my new graphic card RTX3070 😩

Cheers everyone!

I think I've reached the limit wrt to final video quality via HD-1080P-GoPro footage using Magix to .avi to Handbrake to Vimeo.

Plan for future

- Shoot 1440 (4k too much on GoPro card space, battery life and then editing etc)

- Learn Resolve (free version); it's downloaded !

The Vimeo biking footage here:

vimeo.com/507618950

Note: the audio is rubbish; had the GoPro auto-wind setting on: AVOID! 

Still lots of artefacts at 1080P, but much improved thanks to all your help.

May I suggest you start with this chap for quick tutorials

youtube.com/watch?v=maq4ZIARaWw&

And then move onto these chaps for more in-depth tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6LqojU1x4LWWhL7QqLB8Mw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCiW5SSb88hl5zACG93WqQQ

I liked Resolve so much I bought a license. I've never regretted that purchase.

How odd that Resolve’s YouTube preset is so bad. Are you running the latest version?

Maybe it’s just that Blackmagic and Google don’t get on!?

No worries, not sure I was much help but the vids look great.

Good luck with Resolve, I’m sure you be all over it in no time!

I think its more like Resolve matches YouTube quality. Which happens to be really crap. Still for my crappy bouldering flicks it’s good enough. 

Yeah it’s easy to get carried away isn’t it... This isn’t Gladiator we’re making here (I say this a LOT at work, it never goes down well...)

Blackmagic and Nvidia don't get on either. I have a RTX 3070 and I'm in a world of pain with this new card. I can't use the up-to-date drivers because they are unstable. And Beta 17 is a complete no-no and crashes every time.

My latest YouTube masterpiece is 1 hour and 30 minutes long. 😴