Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve

Getting started in a new Software can be tough. I usually just want to get started with my edit without having to look for the right buttons to achieve what I have in mind. In the previous article, we looked at setting up your project, importing and organising media and generating proxies to get you ready for your first edit really fast. If you’re already set, the following will give you input on where you’ll find everything in Resolve to get your first cut done.

Get your Project settings right.

After you’ve imported and organised all your footage, you probably want to start editing right away. Still, there’s one more thing we need to do beforehand: set up the project’s framerate and resolution. Unlike Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve uses a single frame rate for the whole project. This will be the framerate all your Timelines will automatically be created with. When importing footage, this will be automatically played at the Timeline’s speed. If you, e.g., insert 50fps in a 25fps timeline, Resolve will drop frames to make it play in real-time. It’s important to know that after creating your first Timeline in a project, the current set project framerate will be locked. But don’t worry: although the project uses a single frame rate, it’s still possible to create timelines with different frame rates in that project. To set the project frames to the project settings, click the gearwheel icon in the bottom-right corner of the project, and the master settings will open.

A cool feature to mention is the ‘Use vertical resolution’ checkbox, which lets you switch to vertical resolution quickly without even thinking about the right numbers. This is also possible for a single Timeline instead of a project. If you tend to work with the settings a lot, click the three-dot menu in the top-left corner of projects to set your current settings as a default preset.

Now that you’ve set your project settings, you can create a Timeline by right-clicking in the media pool and selecting Create New Timeline, or pressing Ctrl / Cmd + n. If you want to have a different framerate or Resolution than what is set in the project settings before, untick the ” Use project settings checkbox to get into the small menu.

A small gearwheel icon in the Timeline’s thumbnail indicates it’s a custom timeline. It will automatically open and become visible through the playhead, turning red. If you’d like to give your Timelines different colours, you can do that by right-clicking them in the Media Pool and choosing clip colour.

Media Pool navigation on the Edit page

When working on a different page, your Media Pool is accessible via the Media Pool Panel, which you can activate in the top-left corner. It can be accessed on every page except the Deliver Page. Like in Premiere Pro, you have different view options. The three available are list, thumbnail, and metadata view. To switch between them, use the drop-down menu in the top bar.

List view gives you the most information about your clip. Using thumbnail view, it’s easy to identify the clip by a picture. A powerful feature in the thumbnail view is the live preview: when you hover over a thumbnail, you will see a preview of your clip in the source viewer. It can be deactivated in the three-dotted menu of the source viewer by deselecting live media preview.

To deactivate the sound when Live previewing, press Shift + s. If you want to adjust the thumbnail size, use the zoom function in the top bar. If you’d like a thumbnail as well as some metadata, the metadata view is for you.
When you’re looking for a particular clip, there’s a search bar in the top menu that allows you to find clips by any metadata available, including the one you set yourself when organising your clips. After you’ve found your clip, seeing the waveform can be quite helpful. By double-clicking, your clip will be loaded into the source viewer.

J, l, and K can be used like in Premiere Pro. By pressing the left or right arrow key, the clip will scrub single frames backwards or forwards.

Get through lots of footage. Fast.

By default, Resolves’ source viewer is set to Source Clip mode, in which it lets you preview and work with one clip at a time. I also like to work with Source Tape. This can be opened by clicking on the drop-down menu in the top left of the source viewer or pressing Shift + Q to switch between Source Clip and Tape.

The clips in the current bin are then available in the source viewer as if they were one clip. This makes it super-fast to go through a lot of footage and find the needed B-Roll, e.g., to add into a Source Timeline. Which leads me to one feature I find very useful: using a Timeline in the Source Viewer. If you’re the person who likes to preselect clips in a timeline, this is the tool for you! Simply drag and drop your preselection Timeline into your Source Viewer, or right-click on it in the Media Pool and select Open in Timeline with source viewer.

You can then use the Timeline like a clip and insert from it into your main edit without the need to switch between timelines all the time. Using a Timeline as Source Timeline will be indicated by the playhead turning blue.

Getting shots into the Timeline

To only insert the needed clip part into the Timeline, I set my in point with I and my out point with O. Alternatively, you can use the in and out mark buttons in the lower left corner of the source viewer. Accidentally set points and want to get rid of them again? Press alt / opt + I or O to delete the in or out point. For Resolve, it’s important to know that shortcuts do different things, depending on what is currently active. E.g., if you press X in the source viewer, it will delete both in and out points. If you press X while the Timeline is active, it’ll mark the clip at the playhead’s position.

A tip that helped me a lot: lots of buttons show a small overlay when you hover that gives you information about the functionality and shortcuts. There are seven insert options for adding footage to the Timeline.

Important to know: The behaviour when inserting a clip depends on the number of tracks and whether Auto Select is active. In addition to the most frequently used, the insert options are: fit to fill, place on top, append at end, and ripple overwrite. Their shortcuts are assigned to the F-buttons F9-F12 and Shift+F10-F12. They can also be found in the edit menu at the top of your screen. Beware Mac users: You might need to switch the fn keys from volume and brightness to the standard fn key on your Mac to use this.

You like to drag and drop? Check out the possibility to drag and drop from the source viewer into the Timeline Viewers Insert Option Menu. This will open when moving footage above the source viewer and gives you the option to drop onto an insert option.

Mismatched Resolution: Wait, is this already scaled?

When editing, handling different framerates and resolutions is an everyday task. Thankfully, when working with DaVinci Resolve, that’s no problem at all, since mixed frame rates are possible in a single Timeline.
When switching, I liked how Resolve sped up my workflow by handling scaling for mismatched resolutions. I think Premiere Pro handles this quite poorly, since I’ve always had to scale clips manually in the Timeline. Resolve offers four distinct options: Crop, Fill, Fit, and Stretch.

The option to scale the entire image to fit is the default setting and ensures the entire image is visible without blanking. When Crop is activated, Resolve will centre Crop without resizing. Larger clips will be cropped, smaller ones will have black borders. Using a full-frame scale with Crop will scale the clip to fill the frame, zooming in until the shortest dimension fits. The last option is to use a stretch frame on all corners. In this case, Resolve will distort the image to fit the frame.

By default, higher-resolution media will always be scaled down to the Timeline resolution. If you want to change that, go to Project Settings > Image Scaling > Input Scaling. If you want to change the scaling mode for individual clips, you can do so easily in the inspector’s retime and scaling window. Since Resolves Timeline resolution can always be changed, it’s good to know that correct scaling will be maintained. This gives you a lot of flexibility when working with different distribution aspect ratios.

Timeline navigation

When looking at the Timeline, Resolve should look familiar to you from Premiere Pro. The height of the audio and video Timeline can be adapted by clicking and dragging the Timeline divider. The height of the tracks can be adjusted by pressing Shift and scrolling, or by dragging the track divider to adjust only one track. To scroll through the Timeline, you can use strg / cmd + scrolling. Zooming in and out is possible with opt/alt + scrolling.

But there’s one advantage with zooming in Resolve: The Timeline toolbar offers three buttons for predefined zoom settings and one slider for individual adjustments. The left button will zoom to the full extent, the right to full detail zoom. The middle one will zoom to the current slider setting. You can therefore quickly jump to different settings without a lot of clicking or scrolling.

What I found quite annoying was the different navigation in the Timeline between Resolve and Premiere. When using Premiere, I liked to zoom around the mouse pointer. By default, resolve zooms around the playhead. If you don’t want that, simply change it in the menu view > zoom around mouse pointer. Honestly, when I finally realised I could change that, I had already gotten used to the Resolve default, and my Premiere way suddenly felt like chaos.

What still irritated me was only being able to see one open Timeline at a time. But this can be fixed by going into the Timeline View options. These open when you click the left icon on the Timeline toolbar and give you options to modify how your Timeline looks. The Display Stacked Timelines setting at the top lets you see all your open Timelines as tabs, like in Premiere Pro.

To open another Timeline, simply double-click on it in the Media Pool. Alternatively, you can open and switch between Timelines by using the drop-down menu at the top of the Timeline Viewer.

If you want to work from one Timeline into another, you can view multiple timelines simultaneously. To do so, click the small Symbol on the right, above the Timeline, while Display Stacked Timeline is activated. This will open a second Timeline Space below the first one. To open a Timeline in this space, double-click the wanted Timeline while the new space is selected. This is indicated by its Timeline Name being red.

Editing modes: Different workflows for different editors

As one major difference, editing tools in Resolve are consolidated into three editing modes: Selection Mode, Trim Edit Mode, and Blade Mode. The Key Advantage: Fewer tools mean fewer hotkeys to remember. Different editing operations are therefore intuitively performed by clicking on different parts of the clip. For example, if you’re in Trim Edit Mode, you can ripple by positioning the mouse pointer near an edit point, roll by positioning the mouse pointer over the edit point, slip with the mouse over the upper part of it, or slide by positioning the mouse on the lower part of the clip in the Timeline.

If you want to move a clip freely or delete something, Selection Mode is the one you want to go for, since this isn’t possible in any other Mode. You can still ripple and roll in Selection Mode, but Slip and Slide aren’t available. If you want to use the Blade, well, Blade Edit Mode would be the one. To switch between modes, you can either use the icons in the Timeline toolbar or their shortcuts. Like I said before, knowing which button does what and having a routine in that makes you fast, which is why the Edit Mode shortcuts irritated me the most when switching: instead of the shortcut v for Selection, it’s a, and instead of c it’s b for Blade.

It might take some time to get used to the new shortcuts, but all the functions you know from Premiere are there, too. E.g., cutting at the playhead can be done with Cmd/Ctrl+B. What I wish I had known earlier: alt/option + y lets you mark everything from the playhead forward, as you would in Premiere Pro. Playhead can be moved backwards with strg/cmd + y. If you want to turn snapping or linked Selection on or off, you can use the magnet and chain buttons in the Timeline toolbar. Alternatively, linked Selection can be temporarily disabled by pressing Alt, or by snapping with N while holding the mouse button. In addition, when dragging, holding Alt will copy the clip.

Need to fix something? Inspector.

With all shots in the Timeline, there might be a need for some refinement. This is what the inspector is for. It’s the place to optimise and adjust your clips and to work on effects you’ve added. To make adjustments in the inspector, check that the clip you want to work on is selected. This will be visible through a red outline.
What I really appreciate: Basic adjustments can be found here without having to add them from the effects panel.

First, there’s reframing. You can do this with the Transform tool in the inspector, which gives you easy access to zooming, position changing, rotation, and flipping. If the Studio version of Resolve is available to you, the AI Smart Reframe function helps you quickly reframe individual clips to other aspect ratios. For fast cropping, there’s a cropping function integrated directly into the inspector, too. Looking for a way to adjust across a defined range of clips? Adjustment clips can be added from the effects panel—these work just like in Premiere Pro.

If you need some speed adjustments, Speed Change will help you. With this, the Clips speed can be changed as a percentage or in fps. Important when switching from Premiere: By default, Resolve does not ripple the Timeline when adjusting a clip’s speed. This can be changed by checking the Ripple Timeline checkbox. Speed Change also gives you direction-change and freeze-frame options.

The stabilisation is one thing that really annoyed me when using Premiere Pro, since it was slow and didn’t work too well. Thinking about Resolves: it’s fast, accessible through the inspector, and yields a good outcome. You can choose between three modes: Perspective, Similarity, and Translation. When using Blackmagic Cameras, gyroscopic stabilisation is also available. Most of the time, the Perspective does the job. You can also adjust the cropping ratio, smoothness, and strength the way you like. Good to know: Unlike Premiere Pro, Resolve stabilisation can be applied to every clip, whether or not a speed change has been applied. Clips don’t need to be nested to apply stabilisation.

By now, you’ve got everything you need to edit the visual side of your video. For input on working with your audio and music, and on sharing and delivering your final clip, stay tuned.

The post Switching to Davinci Resolve: Your first cut first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jana Johnston.

Placement in the Pipeline and the Ecosystem: For those who don’t know the tool: Apple Creator Studio is Apple’s new subscription bundle for Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, Compressor and company. It collects the firm’s long-running apps under one roof, apparently to remind users they still exist.

Old tools, new subscription

Apple has announced Apple Creator Studio, a new subscription at 12.99 dollars per month (129 dollars per year) that combines the company’s creative and productivity apps into a single plan. The bundle launches on 28 January 2026 with a one-month free trial and discounted student pricing.

The offer includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage, along with premium templates for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Freeform will join later this year. Family Sharing allows up to six users. For those who prefer traditional ownership, Apple confirmed that all pro apps will remain available as one-time Mac App Store purchases, a wise reassurance given that some of these apps see updates about as often as Halley’s Comet.

AI headlines, unclear substance

The bundle carries the usual 2026-era headline, F***** AI everywhere. But Apple’s newsroom announcement remains vague on technical details, and none of the tools appear to have been rebuilt or meaningfully modernised.

Final Cut Pro adds Beat Detection, which uses an AI model from Logic Pro to mark beats on a timeline. Editors can align cuts to music, though this feature has been available in competing NLEs for years. Montage Maker auto-edits footage based on the best visual moments, and Auto Crop reformats clips for vertical output. A Transcript Search and a Visual Search are supposed to help locate shots, though Apple did not explain how the algorithms evaluate content.

Logic Pro, MainStage, and Pixelmator Pro each receive AI-branded updates too, with Apple promising enhanced creative tools. No performance data, model types, or reproducible benchmarks have been published.

Motion and Compressor are included in the bundle as if they had recently evolved, but even the most charitable user would struggle to find significant updates from this decade. Their interfaces and functions remain nearly identical to releases from the late 2010s.

Pixelmator and productivity perks

The more active development clearly comes from Pixelmator Pro, which finally arrives on iPad with Apple Pencil support. It gains a Warp tool and cross-platform compatibility. Apple also introduces a Content Hub offering stock-style assets across its apps. Subscribers to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers gain access to premium templates and beta tools such as Magic Fill for spreadsheet completion and a text generator for presentation outlines. Apple calls these AI-powered, though again, details are thin.

The audience question

Creator Studio’s real target appears to be users deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem, those who already own Apple hardware, sync files through iCloud, and occasionally edit or compose but do not rely on frequent software updates. For professional postproduction environments, the package’s low entry cost may seem attractive, yet its long-term reliability is uncertain. Update history for Motion and Compressor suggests Apple’s creative maintenance cycle is, at best, intermittent.

Services first, creatives second

Apple’s newsroom release ties Creator Studio to record-breaking 2025 services revenue. The company’s real strategy seems less about improving the apps and more about turning previously static tools into a recurring-revenue stream. The 13-dollar monthly price places it below Adobe Creative Cloud, though it is limited strictly to macOS and iPadOS devices. Some features require Apple Intelligence-capable hardware, further narrowing the audience. Apple has not disclosed regional rollout details or whether the AI models run on-device or in the cloud.

Verdict for production

Creator Studio simplifies access for hobbyists and educators who want Apple’s tools for occasional use. Working editors, compers, videeogrpahers and musicians expecting frequent feature releases or pipeline stability will likely stay with established platforms. As always, professionals should test any new Apple suite in a controlled environment before integrating it into live projects.

We’ll see when it is released, and how the update cycle will develop.

The post Apple Bundles Its Ageing Pro Apps in Subscription first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Many filmmakers, editors, or archivists have faced the same problems: low-resolution footage that looks blocky on modern displays, noisy shots captured in poor light, or old tapes and compressed files that feel unusable in today’s production standards. Manually fixing these flaws takes hours – time that could be spent on editing and storytelling instead of patching technical problems.
This is where Aiarty Video Enhancer fits in. Built for professionals who need reliable results, Aiarty uses carefully trained AI models to restore detail, upscale resolution, denoise footage, and smooth motion, all while keeping natural textures intact.

Whether you’re trying to unify mixed resolutions, revive digitized VHS or MiniDV archives, prepare client deliverables for 4K playback, or give YouTube content a professional polish, Aiarty helps you achieve more consistent quality with less effort.

What Is Aiarty Video Enhancer

Aiarty Video Enhancer is a desktop-based AI video enhancer and upscaler tool, designed to run safely offline with full support for Nvidia, AMD, and Apple Silicon acceleration. Unlike many cloud-based tools, it processes locally, ensuring privacy for client work and sensitive archives.

At its core is a hybrid Diffusion-GAN architecture, trained on a large dataset of both images and videos. This combination produces natural results without the “painterly” look or over-sharpen effects often seen in other AI enhancers. The software directly addresses today’s production challenges:

• Mixed sources, inconsistent quality: Footage from old phones, DSLRs, drones, digitized VHS, and screen captures often arrive at different resolutions and compression levels.
• High viewer expectations: For video zoom-in effects or on 4K screens, compression artifacts, noise, and blur are more visible than ever.
• Time pressure: Tight deadlines make manual cleanup workflows impractical. Batch queuing in Aiarty streamlines workflows.
• Privacy concerns: Because Aiarty runs offline, you don’t need to upload sensitive footage to a cloud server.

How Aiarty Video Enhancer Fits Into Your Workflow

Aiarty is designed to slide into your workflow without forcing you to rethink your entire setup. The interface is straightforward: import, select a model and target resolution, preview, and export. Under the hood, though, the software is making deep-learning based decisions about video noise reduction, texture recovery, and frame interpolation that would take hours to attempt manually.

Step 1. Import your footage.

Aiarty supports common formats, including MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, MXF, TS, M2TS and more. You can drop in anything from HEVC to ProRes codecs. Batch processing is available if you’re working on multiple shots.

Step 2. Choose an AI model.

The strength of Aiarty lies in its specialized models, each tuned for a different type of footage or scenario:

• moDetail-HQ v2 recovers fine detail in skin, fabric, hair, or foliage, and applies decent denosing and deblurring when necessary.
• Smooth-HQ v2 prioritizes faithful restoration with minimal artifacts, ideal for interviews, weddings, or polished commercial work.
• superVideo vHQ tackles low-light and grain-heavy footage, with more dedicated noise reduction algorithms for challenging dark scenes.

More details about these AI models are further explained in the technology section below.

Step 3. Select your output resolution.

You can upscale x2, x4, or target a specific resolution such as 4K UHD. For quality restoration without changing the dimension, you can also select x1.

Step 4. Preview before export.

Aiarty’s real-time preview lets you pause and test different models on a frame before running a full export. This saves enormous time and makes it easy to find the best settings.

Step 5. Export or apply quick editing.

For delivery, Aiarty supports ProRes for editing workflows, high-bitrate H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and AV1 for efficient web publishing.

Beyond video upscaling, Aiarty also includes frame interpolation (for 90fps or 120fps slow-motion playback), AI audio denoise (removing background hiss or hum), and a basic color panel to adjust white balance, saturation, contrast, etc. These aren’t meant to replace a grading suite, but they’re invaluable for prep work and fast corrections.

With this feature set, Aiarty Video Enhancer slots seamlessly into any production pipeline.

• Creators: Clean up noisy vlogs, restore old recordings, or upscale legacy content for social platforms.
• Studios: Batch-process hundreds of hours of raw footage with consistent, high-quality results.
• Marketers and agencies: Deliver sharp, artifact-free videos that meet brand standards without blowing budgets or timelines.

Extra Tip: Enhancing Stills with Aiarty Image Enhancer

For creators who also work with low-resolution images, old photos, or AI-generated art, Aiarty Image Enhancer fits into your workflow. While the video enhancer cleans up footage, the image enhancer can denoise, sharpen, and upscale still images to 8K, 16K, and higher. Ideal for printing, e-commerce assets, 4K wallpapers, or slideshows. This way, both your videos and images maintain a consistent level of polish.

Technical Analysis – Behind the Scenes

The promise of any AI video enhancer rests on how well its models are trained and how intelligently they process footage. Aiarty isn’t just applying filters on top of video or stretching pixels with mathematical bicubic interpolation; it’s built around machine learning models trained on a proprietary dataset of diverse imagery, from low-light live action to high-detail clips featuring organic textures like skin and fabric. This variety gives the system a strong foundation to handle different production scenarios.

At the core, Aiarty relies on Diffusion + GAN-based architectures. Diffusion models excel at generating fine details for a more realistic look, while GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) enforce realism by comparing outputs against “ground truth” references, without hallucinating harsh artifacts. The combination produces sharp textures that feel natural rather than artificially sharpened.

Each of the three main models reflects a specific training emphasis:

moDetail-HQ v2 (Diffusion+GAN) is trained to restore details and enhance edge definition. It’s especially effective with faces, clothing, outdoor plants, and objects with organic textures.

Smooth-HQ v2 (Diffusion) uses a gentler training objective to maintain fidelity and color realism, focusing on smooth denoise and deblur with texture consistency. Editors who prioritize naturalism often find this the safest option.

superVideo vHQ (Diffusion+GAN) leans on a hybrid approach with additional noise-heavy datasets, making it suited for restoring flawed dark scenes, high-ISO noise footage, or grainy archives.

Performance is another area where the engineering shows. Aiarty makes full use of GPU acceleration, supporting Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Apple Silicon natively. In practice, this means real-time or near real-time 4K upscaling on modern systems, with GPU utilization reaching above 95%.

While no AI enhancer is perfect, Aiarty’s technology gives confidence. The system doesn’t “hallucinate” unnatural details or push footage into an “oily” artificial look; instead, it rebuilds clarity in a way that fits naturally into professional post workflows.

Practical Tips: Getting the Most Out of Aiarty

Even with a strong AI backbone, the results you get depend on how you approach the tool. Here are some practices that users and testers have found most effective:

1. Match the model to the footage

Not all footage benefits from the same algorithm. For fine detail like hair or textiles, the moDetail-HQ v2 model is often best. If you do client weddings or interviews where natural skin tones matter more than hyper-sharpness, Smooth-HQ v2 usually gives cleaner, more faithful results. For grainy VHS or low-light archives, superVideo vHQ is worth the extra render time.

2. Scale step-by-step if needed

Jumping directly from SD to 4K doesn’t always yield the cleanest result. In some cases, scaling in two passes (x2, then x2 again) produces smoother edges and better texture consistency.

3. Zoom in for previews

The preview tool isn’t just for quick looks, it’s your best way to compare different models side by side. Testing parts of the clip before committing to a full export can save hours, especially on long projects.

4. Think about export formats early

If you’re planning to color grade or edit in NLEs, exporting to ProRes (MOV) gives you room to push the footage further. For lighter web-ready files, H.264, H.265 (HEVC), or AV1 balances quality and size well.

5. Take advantage of interpolation

Several users mentioned that frame interpolation was the feature that changed their creative process. As graphic designer Nathalie Boucher explained on Product Hunt, being able to generate natural-looking slow-motion with Aiarty opens up “creative flexibility for music videos and experimental projects“.

6. Keep hardware in mind

While Aiarty is optimized for GPUs, older cards may struggle with large batch jobs. Users working with heavy archive restorations have found it helpful to trim down sequences for testing before scaling up to the full workflow.

For professionals, the biggest takeaway is that Aiarty is more about having a reliable AI companion to enhance video quality. As videographer Pascal Gauthier put it, “The ability to upscale to 4K while also cleaning up blurry or noisy clips is a massive time saver. Having everything handled in one tool rather than using multiple plugins makes the workflow so much easier“.

Get Started with Aiarty

Aiarty Video Enhancer doesn’t replace the artistry of editing, but it does reduce the technical roadblocks. From client work to independent projects, creators are finding new efficiency. Freelancers can restore and deliver client archives faster. YouTubers can elevate production quality without expensive gear. Institutions can revive decades-old collections.

And if your workflow also involves stills (whether it’s for 300DPI posters and photo prints, 4K wallpapers, or website banners), Aiarty Image Enhancer extends the same AI-powered restoration to images. It uses AI inference to denoise, sharpen, and upscale images, while restoring details based on deep learning. Grab a Free License of Aiarty Video Enhancer to explore full features, with exclusive support for creators.

For avid users, enjoy the software bundle of Aiarty Image Enhancer and Aiarty Video Enhancer. Both tools come with a lifetime license that never expires, along with unlimited free updates to future versions. No extra upgrade costs are required, so users can always enjoy the latest features.

System Requirements of Aiarty Video Enhancer:

• Windows 10 or higher, Intel/AMD/Nvidia. 8GB RAM or more.
• macOS 13.0 or higher, Intel CPU/Apple Silicon Chips. 8GB RAM or more.
• Optimized for DirectML/TensorRT/CoreML acceleration on supported hardware.

System Requirements of Aiarty Image Enhancer:

• Windows 10 or higher, Intel/AMD/Nvidia. 8GB RAM or more.
• macOS Catalina 10.15 or higher (Intel CPU), macOS Big Sur 11 or higher (Apple Silicon), 8GB or more.
• CoreML hardware acceleration for macOS 12 or higher. DirectML/TensorRT acceleration on supported hardware.

About Aiarty

Aiarty is the AI-focused innovation brand from Digiarty Software, a trusted name in multimedia since 2006. Backed by a team of passionate engineers, Aiarty develops state-of-the-art AI tools that elevate digital experiences worldwide. Learn more about Aiarty at https://www.aiarty.com/

The post Need an AI Video Enhancer in Your Workflow? Aiarty Video Enhancer! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Advertorial.

With version Edius 11.40.18961, Grass Valley delivers one of the most substantial free updates since the launch of EDIUS 11. The focus is clear: speed and stability in project handling. The centrepiece is a completely reworked Bin window. The HTML5-based Bin introduced in EDIUS 11 had long-term architectural advantages but showed performance bottlenecks when handling hundreds or thousands of clips. Large projects became sluggish. According to release notes and IBC demonstrations, the Bin now uses a new, faster core engine. Clip loading, scrolling, and search are markedly quicker, with improved keyboard navigation and drag-and-drop operations.

For editors managing feature-length timelines, broadcast projects, or multi-camera documentary work, these changes translate into shorter waiting times and fewer workarounds. Project startup is faster, background jobs are more visible, and sequence creation in large projects benefits from optimised database handling. The Bin now also includes batch clip renaming, more intuitive context menus, and visual progress indicators tied directly to clips. These may sound minor, but for productions that rely on consistent metadata—think sports highlights, news agencies, or fast-turnaround event coverage—they address long-standing pain points.

Configurable projects, fewer surprises

EDIUS 11.40 introduces a default project name setting, configurable under User Settings > Application > Project. Previously, default names were handled inconsistently, leading to confusion when multiple projects were saved under generic labels. This setting now centralises control. The Restore and Transfer Clips feature has also been refined. For productions with proxy workflows or remote storage, more reliable restoration means less downtime when reconnecting assets.

AI: from speech to text, and text to voice

The update integrates native speech-to-text (STT) directly into EDIUS, reducing reliance on external BAT Server workflows. Editors can download AI models in different sizes (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large) depending on required accuracy and hardware capacity. Larger models deliver more precise results but demand more compute power. Crucially, GPU acceleration is supported, which significantly shortens transcription times for users with capable NVIDIA cards.

Output is generated as subtitle files directly compatible with VisTitle, meaning captions can be styled, edited, and timed without leaving EDIUS. This makes subtitling for accessibility or localisation less dependent on third-party tools.

The BAT Server add-on, however, is not being sidelined. On the contrary, it gains new functions: multilingual translation of subtitles, beat detection for marker-aligned editing, and an experimental voice synthesis tool. The latter allows automatic voiceovers from existing subtitles or audio recordings, with selectable voices and gender options. Early demonstrations at IBC 2025 showed real-time translation workflows. For instance, German audio automatically translated into English speech. “Foa eweryboti to bettar underzstand ze germaans” ;) At the time of writing, this feature is in preview and not independently verified for production use.

Edit as you capture

The new capture environment in EDIUS 11.40 revolves around CapIt, a tool designed not only for ingest from traditional I/O cards but also from less conventional sources such as NDI streams, webcams, livestreams, and even secondary EDIUS systems. CapIt allows overlays, blurs, and mosaics to be applied during recording, effectively enabling real-time compliance and branding. In the Workgroup edition, the headline feature is Edit-while-Capture: as soon as a recording starts, the growing file can be pulled into the timeline and cut while the ingest continues. For live productions, this means highlight reels, instant replays, or end-of-show edits can be assembled before recording even finishes. Files are written in the Grass Valley HQX codec, ensuring editability during ingest without intermediate transcoding. Together, these functions make capture in EDIUS more than just a pre-edit step; it becomes an active part of production.

Intel NPU and noise reduction

One of the smaller but technically interesting updates is support for Intel NPU hardware. Noise reduction now runs on Intel’s Neural Processing Units, found in newer CPUs, instead of occupying CPU cores. This frees system resources for playback and editing tasks. For users on Intel’s latest platforms, this may reduce the need for heavy GPU-based denoising plugins in certain cases.

Plugins and filter visibility

EDIUS finally moves beyond VST2 audio plugins, adding VST3 support. This resolves a compatibility gap, as most current audio tools are now developed exclusively for VST3. Users relying on third-party EQs, compressors, or restoration plugins should see broader compatibility going forward.

Plugin handling in general is improved. If a project contains a missing plugin, EDIUS now displays the plugin name rather than simply flagging an unknown effect. For productions re-opened years later, or in facilities where licensing lapses, this provides clarity on what needs to be reinstalled. Filter handling also sees refinements. The Information Palette now shows the preset name rather than only the base effect, and timeline filters display preset metadata for quicker identification. This helps when multiple colour correction or grading presets are applied across sequences.

The Auto Color Correction filter has gained two notable upgrades: improved accuracy when working with clips that include alpha channels, and an automatic saturation adjustment toggle. These improvements require re-analysis to take effect, but they close gaps where older builds delivered incorrect corrections, especially in compositing workflows.

Hardware acceleration: more tasks offloaded

EDIUS 11.40 extends hardware acceleration to more processes. Timeline clips with time effects, frame rate conversions, and alpha blending can now be hardware processed, provided interpolation is not set to optical flow and clip sizes match project settings. For users on modern GPUs, this reduces CPU strain and increases timeline responsiveness. For facilities, it also allows more predictable hardware provisioning, knowing that common operations like speed changes or alpha blending will not block CPU pipelines.

Stabilisation with Mercalli 6

Grass Valley has partnered with ProDAD to integrate Mercalli 6 stabilisation. Long considered one of the most reliable stabilisers in postproduction, Mercalli’s sixth generation is now faster and available as both standalone software and BAT Server integration. This allows automated batch stabilisation via presets, which can be useful in drone footage workflows, action sports, or ENG (electronic news gathering) where stabilisation is needed at scale. Existing Mercalli users are offered upgrade pricing.

Scene detection and media management

EDIUS 11.40 will also include a Scene Detection tool, released separately but free of charge. It automatically splits long recordings into shot-level clips, with options for fine-grained control. For documentary and reality TV editors, this can replace manual logging steps. Changes in Mync, the companion media manager, mirror EDIUS updates: added Canon EOS C50 support, acquisition metadata for Canon XF-AVC and XF-HEVC formats, and improved H.264 export compatibility for older Smart TVs.

T3 Pro Player/Recorder

Alongside the software, Grass Valley introduced the T3 Pro Player/Recorder, positioned as a mid-tier option beneath the T3 Elite. The Pro version offers dual-channel 4K 60p recording and playback, but omits redundant power supplies and card reader panels. While not upgradable to the Elite, it provides a lower-cost path for facilities needing robust 4K playback or ingest.

Stability fixes

EDIUS 11.40 addresses a long list of bugs. Notable fixes include:

• Crashes when opening large projects after another project is already loaded.
• Timeline export failures when colour bar clips were present.
• Black frames in certain H.264 playback cases.
• Incorrect proxy handling in XDCAM workflows.
• Undo-related crashes.
• Errors in waveform cache generation.

For studios that rely on EDIUS for long-form projects, these fixes reduce the likelihood of corrupt project states and unexpected interruptions.

Compatibility and future-proofing

EDIUS Cloud now supports Windows Server 2025, extending compatibility for cloud-deployed editing environments. This positions the software for longer-term use in facility deployments without requiring near-term OS migration.

Conclusion

EDIUS 11.40 is not just an incremental patch. It combines under-the-hood speed boosts with headline features like speech-to-text, VST3 plugin support, Edit-while-Capture, and Mercalli 6. For editors working in live event, news, or fast-turnaround environments, these updates bring measurable workflow gains.

Grass Valley calls it “the fastest EDIUS ever”. While the claim is marketing, the bin and sequence performance improvements are noticeable. As always, production facilities should test all new features, particularly AI-driven tools and Edit-while-Capture, before introducing them into mission-critical pipelines.

Get Edius HERE

The post EDIUS 11.40: Faster Bins, Smarter AI, and Edit-as-you-Capture first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Very soon after making that big arctic wave with DaVinci Resolve (DR for short) version 20.2 supporting ProRes RAW, Blackmagic (BM for short) has fixed some of the most annoying bugs with 20.2.1. Now we can truly explore ProRes RAW from an iPhone 17 and other sources. Clips from an iPhone 17 were kindly supplied by Kurt Friis Hansen from Denmark, who shot some tests with all three lenses, carefully framed and exposed. These are night shots, so we have very high contrast and low-light. We are of course very curious when it comes to noise from that small sensor, and the influence of compression and pre-filtering (if any). So his footage should be perfect to check these – but there was one hurdle.

System requirements for MacOS

While DR is still running fine under MacOS Sonoma 14.8, you’ll not get access to all the advanced adjustments you may expect from a true RAW format. There’s simply no choice under the entry “Plugin” other than “Standard”, so you can only adjust exposure and white balance. After all, in many cases that may already be enough, if you don’t decide to stick to the camera metadata anyway. The decoding from RAW should be set to HLG, as this is the iPhone’s color space, at least it’s not labeled „none“ anymore. But you’ll have the option of decoding into Apple Log or Log 2 (yes, a new, flatter version).

But where is the rest? Well, it was obviously up to Apple to care for that, since it all showed up on a machine with MacOS Sequoia 15.7 installed. Even the current versions of Apple’s Compressor (4.11) and Final Cut Pro (11.2) need Sequoia to receive the updates. Final Cut Pro, or FCP in short, BTW has lost the “X”, just like the new MacOS naming. On a system with those already present and with DR updated to 20.2.1 we had access to all the parameters you’d expect from a serious RAW format. Now, this system had already receiced Apple’s recent Pro Video Formats update and was showing all new features right away. After receiving information from others, who were not as lucky, we needed to dig deeper.

Problems upgrading projects

To check things, we made a virgin installation of Sequoia 15.7, adding only Apple’s video codecs and DR. When trying to copy and open one of our existing projects, we were back to square one: no RAW parameters. We carefully went through many iterations of installing fresh systems, and combinations of DR installed first or after Apple’s codec pack. What worked in the end was starting a fresh project in DR, importing PRR clips and voilá – all parameters availble! We got confirmation that it should work from Sequoia 15.6.1 upwards. But an existing project doesn’t show these when simply adding PRR clips, you need an empty project and import some PRR footage first. After that, you can also import timelines from other projects. Having test clips shot open gate, we configured our project for DCI 4K at 25 fps and scaled full with crop

True RAW, finally

Now it’s all there, even if there’s a minor cosmetic error: as long as Demosaic is set to Standard you can’t really use the three sliders on top of the right side. They should be greyed out, since they only become workable after switching Demosaic to Custom, and they only work on clips from an iPhone 17. What’s more annoying: you still can’t define RAW presets for PRR under Camera RAW in the project settings, so you’ll need to change them one by one. At least, they get copied by using gallery stills. We found all information about those three sliders in the help files for FCP, but not yet in DR.

Color Noise will not increase it, but reduce – of course. The other two are doing pretty much what the name implies: enhance only edges, and/or apply sharpening. As usual, use with discretion, and they can also slow down playback in high resolutions. On our very noisy test shots at night they are pretty useless, color noise didn’t do much and the other two look ugly, as you’d expect. There is another option in Compressor, which Apple seems to keep for themselves: ML Denoise (yes, machine learning) at three levels. It’s not even in FCP 11.2, but Compressor is not expensive, and we’ll do further testing.

The hardware

There’s not really much in the metadata, just the camera, its manufacturer, plus location and date of the shot. You don’t even see which lens was used in the metadata in DR or the shutter angle, even if the latter exists in the file. A bit depth of 16 for video seems slightly exaggerated, even Nikon is just claiming 12 bit for all three of the codecs offered in their new ZR.

Audio in the iPhone is limited to 16 bit and ProRes RAW internally to the standard version, HQ needs external recording. Some claim that you can trick it into using that, by setting up with an external SSD and then removing it. But do you really want such massive data inside the phone? Even if our noisy night shots may be at the upper limit, while ProRes RAW is quite variable, see here.

The data rate for video in our test samples in ProRes RAW open gate (4224 by 3024) is quite high at around 1200 mbps, recording at 25 fps. The best news here: this is constant frame rate! True, there is a beta version of Mavis Camera with CFR, even on older iPhones. But only for the iPhone 17 it’s officially announced. And before you start bothering BM: no, that will not come to older iPhones, you need extra hardware in the phone for this. We got that ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’, as they say. Now, that hardware also allows BM to add their Camera ProDock, which offers the connections needed for professional work, like timecode and genlock. Only SDI output is missing, you’ll need to use HDMI. But for a price of 325,- US$ that’s still impressive.

Image quality

Right from the start, the samples taken don’t look all the same quality wise, even if taken under identical conditions and all set to ISO 5000 in the RAW tab. According to Apple, all the sensors now have 48 megasensels. Yes, I refuse to call them pixels, since this is RAW and pixels only exist after debayering (aka demosaicing) anyway. While the new wide and tele shots have far better resolution than the 12 ‘mpx’ ones in older models, at closer inspection they are slightly worse than from the 24mm f equivalent still called the main camera for good reason.

The wide, a 13mm equivalent, has about 120 degrees of view and one would expect serious distortion from such a tiny ultrawide. It’s actually there, but automatically corrected when Processing is set to “iPhone ProRes RAW”. The correction and the resulting cropping nevertheless result in some loss of resolution, since it can’t use all the sensels at open gate. At f 2.2 it’s a bit slower too, but that does not result in much more noise. If raised from log to good contrast in post, it also vignettes.

Photographers, like Lux Camera, are pretty impressed with the tele, a 100mm equivalent. They even enjoy it when zoomed in further by what Apple calls “optical” zoom quality, while that is not of much interest when filming. Since the stabilization in the iPhone is not working when shooting PRR, a 200mm equivalent would need a tripod made of concrete. Even at its true resolution, the tele is softer than the main lens. Our clip at dark night is also clearly showing the fact that this lens is more than one stop slower at f 2.8.

Conclusion

We don’t expect anybody to replace an Arri Alexa with an iPhone for a major production. But for the first time a smartphone can be teamed-up in a professional environment with reliable synchronisation and serious grading options. No more fiddling with asynchronous sound, no more guesswork where a shot belongs in time or fighting compression artefacts. You can get into really small spaces, hand that phone to actors, or hang it on a pretty small drone. Heck, for that price you can even risk to crash it, if needed to get that perfect shot.

And other cameras, like the BMPCC or the Nikon ZR? We are seeing a shift of paradigm here, away from clunky external solutions, to recording compressed RAW in cameras. Red’s monopoly seems to be gone, and it’s good to have choices! Of course, we’ll have a closer look at BRAW vs. PRR and also at denoising those extreme night shots above.

Hell Froze Over – ProRes RAW for Resolve

The post ProRes RAW News – Fresh from the Freezer first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.