From my reading it seems that Resolve runs fine on Linux with the exception of some codecs not being available.
My biggest concern is with playing footage inside of Resovle (I think the codec issue might affect this as well). My Sony A7IV records footage at 4k h264 (10 bit 4:2:2), the free version in Windows doesn’t playback this footage at all. MacOS doesn’t have this issue at all.
I’m assuming I’ll need to transcode my footage with ffmpeg on Linux the same as I do on Windows. Is that correct?
I normally transcode into DNxHD or DNxHR, I don’t think normal h264 works, but davinci runs so much smoother with DNxHD anyways.
Afaik the free version has no support for h264 whatsoever on Linux. I think you will have to transcode.
H264 does work fine in the paid version. The lack of AAC support is sometimes an issue though. For footage in AAC+H264, I usually just run it through ffmpeg to transcode the audio to PCM and keep the video as-is.
I would try a transcode to DNxHR, it’s much quicker to edit with anyways since it’s optimized for that. h264/265 is ridiculously resource intensive to edit.
How much bigger are the file sizes? I’ve transcoded to ProRes previously and that was on average 6x bigger
Here’s the bitrate table: https://avidtech.my.salesforce-sites.com/pkb/articles/en_US/White_Paper/DNxHR-Codec-Bandwidth-Specifications
Keep in mind these are listed in MB/s, so multiply by 8 to get Mb/s if you’re used to that number. HQ/HQX in UHD 29.97 for example is about 6.2GB per minute, or 375GB per hour.
How much bigger depends on your source footage, if you’re recording in say UHD 29.97 10 bit 4:2:2 at 400Mbps, then the DNxHR HQX version would be about double the size.
You can just remove the DNxHR proxies when done so the space isn’t being taken up.
Yes, for video files, needs to convert to MOV:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_hq -pix_fmt yuv422p -c:a pcm_s16le -f mov output.mov
H264 or mp4 file format is proprietary and requires a license. Windows includes the license thus why mp4’s work but Linux doesn’t include them outside of the Pro version.
Ffmpeg or handbrake can convert your video files to another encoding format that works.
The Arch wiki goes over troubleshooting tips https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/DaVinci_Resolve#Troubleshooting
Are you using an AMD card? You might run into some trouble.
Also there’s a codec suppport list here: https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/SupportNotes/DaVinci_Resolve_18_Supported_Codec_List.pdf
It says that for Windows, only 8-bit H264 is support on free. For Linux, H264 is only supported on Studio. On MacOS, it’s supported on both free and Studio hence why you have no problem there.
I’ve got a GTX 1660TI
Sounds good! NVIDIA cards work well with Resolve on Linux.
I’m running Nvidia 2070 super in arch/manjaro for years and I edit all my footage in resolve. I love it. My phone and GoPro have no audio. I have a script to convert to mov. Other than that shits mint. I love it.
I would try the nvidia images from ublue as they should work out of the box.
Btw no dual boot support in these images.
Advantage is that the ublue images will not break all the time, even though using nvidias proprietary drivers
