Using Davinci Resolve for video for BD, avoiding recompression?

Teagan wrote on 8/16/2025, 11:18 AM

Hi I've been remastering my old projects for BD and UHD and DVD architect 7 is very handy for the regular blu ray versions as it has custom menus. The problem is that I am having to transfer my projects over from davinci resolve to vegas pro 19 via XML file and having to render it in the magix AVC blu ray presets there to avoid recompression (and having to use CPU main concept only as dvda7 doesn't like GPU accelerated video for some reason) but some of my projects have effects with plugins in davinci resolve that don't transfer over so I am having to render those blu ray video files in davinci resolve instead.

The main problem I'm encountering is that no matter what I do in davinci resolve, all h.264 video formats always have to be recompressed in dvda7 and I can't find a way around this. I know it's only a small degradation of quality but does anyone know any combination of settings I can do that will allow me to render blu ray compliant files for dvda7 within davinci resolve?

Comments

EricLNZ wrote on 8/16/2025, 7:49 PM

Short answer, avoid using any GPU when rendering in Resolve. Presumably you've already tried this when playing around with all Resolve H264 formats so this suggestion doesn't solve your problem.

Like you I've found DVDA7 doesn't like a file which has been rendered using any GPU. I don't think GPU acceleration creating FX is an issue, but I could be wrong. With VP21 using Magix AVC to create an avc file gives a DVDA7 non compliant file if I use NV Encoder in the Encode Mode setting. Using Mainconcept AVC instead gives a compliant file. Actually I use neither as I prefer the Sony AVC render template which doesn't have the options and its files are compliant. I suspect the Sony AVC is using internal GPU provided by my Intel CPU. I say this because it renders faster than Magix AVC with MC AVC but not as fast as Magix AVC with NV Encoder.

Teagan wrote on 8/16/2025, 8:47 PM

I've tried every combination of h.264 available in every profile especially "native" which by context is CPU only and that makes the render incredibly longer to complete but in davinci resolve I am unable to totally disable gpu hardware acceleration at the program level. When I render task manager does not show GPU encode activity at all as well.

At this point I'm wondering if there's a technical limitation like I and B frames that I'm not in compliance with in the blu ray standard that I don't know about. That or I have to plug in another monitor into my motherboard HDMI port to enable the Igpu to choose that instead of this nvidia card, to see if that gets around the program level gpu selection lockout that it forces my nvidia card to be selected with.

EricLNZ wrote on 8/16/2025, 9:05 PM

I and B frames etc are way above my head. Anyway here's the media info from a compliant AVC stream from VP21 Sony AVC render just in case it contains any useful info.

Dexcon wrote on 8/16/2025, 10:06 PM

In DR's Preferences / System (tab) / 'Memory and GPU' selection, have you tried unchecking all GPU Configuration options?