Blackmagic Design updates DaVinci Resolve to version 17.3

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve version 17.3, while focusing on Apple’s M1 chip, brings many other new features.

Thanks to new support for Apple’s M1 chips, DaVinci Resolve offers three times faster processing compared to the previous version of Blackmagic Design’s software. This means faster 4K playback, editing and color grading, and even 8K projects can be worked on with the Apple M1 chips. In addition, thanks to the tiled rendering of the new processing engine, the program consumes 30% less battery power on laptops.

Similarly, Mac users with M1 chips will be able to encode in H.265 format, prioritize speed to reduce rendering time “by up to 65%” and decode AVC-Intra files using the decoder included in the Apple chip.

Version 17.3 enhancements

The latest version of Blackmagic Design’s software includes many other new features. Among them are new grid shapes and greater control when using pixel blur, allowing you to fine-tune the intensity and appearance of the pixel blur effect. In addition, exclusion masks have rotation controls to hide unwanted objects, while new settings for saturation and mid-tones in the “Brightness” plug-in allow to fine-tune lighting effects. In turn, controls for anamorphic aperture allow a wider range of lenses to be simulated.

The latency of the Fairlight module has also been improved with new drivers that allow the buffer to be adjusted, providing the opportunity to optimize processing for specific equipment, thus facilitating recording and playback. In addition, it is now possible to export clips or tracks directly from this module, including audio levels, attenuations, equalizations and effects or iXML metadata, as well as normalize clips to different loudness standards. This makes it easier to transfer the audio to other more complex projects or for further processing.

Constantly updated

DaVinci Resolve 17 now includes over 300 innovative features including HDR color grading, redesigned primary color controls, a state-of-the-art Fairlight audio engine with the ability to process 2000 tracks in real time, and dozens of tools such as the new inspector, clip metadata display, and a “revolutionary” way to organize bins.

Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design, details the main new features of the software: “This is truly an amazing update that gives customers huge performance and power efficiency gains on Mac models with M1, and it totally transforms your computer, simply by downloading this free of charge DaVinci Resolve software update. This speed increase is stunning and it’s hard to believe. I have not seen a speed improvement this large since the original 68000 to Power PC transition back in the 1990’s and it is just amazing. Who would have thought just a year ago that multiple 4K streams could be played back and edited natively on a MacBook Air, but it’s easy now on DaVinci Resolve with M1. The engineering team has worked so hard on this new image processing engine for DaVinci Resolve, and it is an incredibly exciting time to be developing software for the Mac!”

Key features of DaVinci Resolve version 17.3 include

Apple Silicon Performance

• Up to 3x faster new processing engine enabling 8K edit and grading.

Fairlight

• Improved thru-latency and adjustable processing and input buffers.
• Improved export dialog with naming, metadata and format control.
• Timeline clips can be selected from the Fairlight edit index.
• Improved Fairlight timeline ruler resolution.
• Buses can be reordered by dragging in the track index.
• New audio I/O preference options with support for separate I/O selections.
• Improved mix-down support for LRC, 5.0 and 7.0 track formats.
• Improved edit, nudge and fade behavior for linked clips.

Color

• Color Warper supports persistent default grid resolutions.
• HDR color controls support persistent default zone presets.
• Active playheads can be switched by clicking on the split screen viewer.
• New anamorphic aperture controls for Resolve FX Aperture Diffraction. Studio only.
• New shapes and finer mosaic control for Resolve FX Mosaic Blur.
• New rotation controls for Resolve FX Keyer garbage mattes.
• New sat and gamma controls and faster performance for Resolve FX Glow.

Cut

• List views in the media pool can be sorted from column selection.
• New badge to easily identify still clips on the timeline.

Edit

• Edits from sub-clips can now be match-framed to original media.
• Shape and iris transitions can be rotated from the inspector.
• Play around selection now works with transition selections.
• Newly added subtitles retain playhead position to allow text preview.
• Compound clip instances in the timeline can be renamed.
• Fusion compositions can be renamed from the inspector panel.
• Options to name and use full clip extents when creating a subclip.

Fusion

• DRFX bundles can be double-clicked to install on Windows and Linux.
• Support for viewing the node type by holding Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-E.

Codecs and Deliver

• DaVinci Resolve Studio support for audio encoding in the encoder plugin SDK.
• Hardware accelerated AVC Intra decodes for on Apple Silicon.
• Support for decoding and encoding JPEG-HT .JPH image sequences.
• Improved H.264 and H.265 decode performance in Windows Intel systems.
• Optimized H.265 encodes for speed on Apple Silicon systems.
• Support for decoding MKV clips with VP9 video codecs.
• Improved decode performance for MKV clips with AAC and AC3 audio.
• Support for embedding MPEG2 bitstream captions in XDCAM clips.

General

• Improved startup speeds for disk databases with many projects.
• Support for simplified database creation and connection process.
• AAF imports now support translation of simple nested clips.