DaVinci Resolve 19.1 released with powerful new features and multiple improvements

The first full point release of this development cycle, DaVinci Resolve 19.1 adds some major new features into Blackmagic’s deservedly popular NLE.

There’s a fair deal to unpack here with DaVinci Resolve 19.1, but here are the headlines.

V19.1 adds new Fusion titles and effects, improved multicam audio editing and better effect handling for stereo tracks. Edit page updates now include additional options for audio ducking, trim shortcuts and a new audio trim slider in the inspector. Fusion updates include support for USD 24, USD scene export from compositions, as well as polygon and B-spline viewer toolbar controls. 

Meanwhile, for color there are new gallery node stack selection tools and new custom curve controls for the DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel. 

This update also improves audio track management and provides better visibility of trimmed clips in Fairlight, improved sync bin functionality on the media page, and the ability to reorder render jobs on the deliver page. And the fact that dual screen layouts now allow secondary screen resizable window can only be a good thing.

As ever, head to the Blackmagic support page to download.

The company has also has thoughtfully produced a comprehensive new DaVinci Resolve 19.1 features guide, which as a 47 page long PDF is definitely in-depth. Here’s the skimmable bullets list to be going on with.

What's new in DaVinci Resolve 19.1

The following features have been added or updated.

Media Page

• Context menu option to automatically sync bins from file folders.
• Ability to export multiple selected timelines from the media pool.
• Media pool now remembers the last opened bins between restarts.
• Media pool column presets now persists sort order.
• Smart bin and smart filter option to filter media from a specific bin.
• Manual sync options to retain video metadata and native audio.
• Media Management audio transcodes now default to 24 bit.
• Support for decoding spatial photos on Mac.
• Ability to relink media pool clips from all pages.
• Templates using .drb files can now include empty bins.
• Metadata support for tilt angle and roll angle from Canon files.
• Change start timecode for multicams and compound clips.

Edit Page

• New Fusion titles, effects and generators in the effects panel.
• Searching for effects can now use category names to find matches.
• Improved marker index search with support for all marker fields.
• Ability to set the location of the fixed playhead.
• Clips are now always pasted at playhead instead of mark in.
• Menu actions to select nearest in, out or roll edit points.
• Render in place now supports metadata tags for filename.
• Ability to delete multiple selected tracks via the track index.
• Timeline aspect ratio option in the safe area overlays dialog.
• Automatic Fusion caches now apply to both effects and templates.
• Audio Ducker support for multiple tracks to trigger ducking.
• Access track EQ, dynamics and plugins from the audio mixer.
• Toggle track header control states by clicking and dragging.
• Apply track destination via the track header context menu.
• Multiple video destinations for editing nested clips with decompose.
• Menu option to create new tracks when adding clips to timeline.
• Menu toggle for all tracks auto selector and track destination.
• Improved nested timeline audio with native mixes and solo states.
• Improved responsiveness when switching multicam angles.
• Source audio channels option when editing multicam angles.
• Mono channel selection from clip context menu or inspector.
• Inspector trim slider to trim levels of individual source channels.
• Ability to set individual audio channels to none in clip attributes.
• Fine grained virtual slider adjustments with option, alt or shift.
• Match frame and match frame to source for nested clips.

Fusion Page

• New uExport tool to export USD scenes from compositions.
• Field dominance changes are honored in interlaced media inputs.
• Polygon and B-spline viewer toolbar controls for multi poly tool.
• New switch and uSwitch to manage and keyframe multiple inputs.
• OCIO display transforms can now be applied with a tool.
• OCIO CDL transforms can now be used as view LUTs.
• Support for USD 24.08 with improved MaterialX performance.
• Fusion compositions in the media pool can now use IntelliTrack.
• Improved performance with multiple and long paintbrush operations.
• Support for freeze frame with TimeSpeed.

Color Page

• Dedicated mini panel controls to edit custom curve control points.
• Copy active node stack layer from timeline clips in the gallery.
• Ability to set default qualifier mode for new clips.
• Ability to export stills with Dolby Vision tone mapping.
• Post group clip node stack layer option in project settings.
• Per-user option for changed node color in the node options menu.
• Ability to filter timeline clips by node color.
• Object Mask caches persist until manually reset or re-analyzed.
• Input and output tooltips for splitter, combiner and matte nodes.
  
  

Resolve FX

• New grain controls for Resolve FX Sky Replacement.
• New saturation and gamma controls for Resolve FX light rays.
• Ability to set per-channel settings for blur effects.

Fairlight Page

• Track effects can now be applied to stereo linked tracks.
• Audio tracks can now be duplicated via the context menu.
• Ability to disable audio tracks.
• Ability to delete multiple selected tracks from the track index.
• Reorder tracks and busses by dragging the name plate in the mixer.
• Support for trimming from unity in the mixer.
• Support for new stereo direct, 7.1.2 and 9.1.4 Dolby audio formats.
• Fine grained virtual slider adjustments with option, alt or shift.
• Clearer timeline displays:
• for adjacent waveforms when trimming clips.
• for clip names against clip waveform backgrounds.
• when resizing tracks.
• for the playhead indicator in the scroll bar.
• Mono channel selection from the clip context menu or inspector.
• Separate track groups panel accessible via a header icon.

Deliver Page

• Drag to reorder render jobs in the render queue.
• Support for encoding MV HEVC spatial video on Mac.
• Encode Sony MXF Op1A to XDCAM drives on Mac and Windows.
• Encode H.265 Main10 formats in DaVinci Resolve on Windows.
• AV1 encodes in DaVinci Resolve with Nvidia acceleration.
• Option to render without timecode for mobile uploads to YouTube.
• Render settings now default to timeline resolution and frame rate.
• Decode and encode EXR standard metadata attributes.
• P2 Viewer compatibility for Panasonic P2 renders.

Scripting API

• Load cloud projects.
• Query and set mark in and out ranges.
• Auto sync media pool clips using audio waveform or timecode.
• Render options for start frame, timecode and to replace files.
• Ability to delete a render preset.
• Invoke Quick Export renders.
• Reset all grades and nodes from node graph.
• Apply grade from DRX and CDL LUT to layers from the Graph API.
• Create gallery albums.
• Query and set per-node cache modes.
• Query and enable clip cache for Fusion output and color output
• Query media pool entry for a timeline.

General Improvements

• Dual screen layouts now allow secondary screen resizable window.
• Improved toolbar and application menu layout on Windows.
• Search menu actions from the Help menu in Windows and Linux.
• Notification support when users join or leave multi-user projects.
• Application menu actions to go to previous or next timeline.
• Support for marker notes metadata tags in data burn in.
• Open or close inspector metadata by clicking on header.
• DCTLs support color picker, reset buttons and randomizer controls.
• DCTL transforms now have alpha channel support.
• Ability to view DCTL build errors, expiry dates and control tooltips.
• General performance and stability improvements.