Question
What's new in DaVinci Resolve 17.4, released on October 23, 2021?
Answer
Now available from the support site.
Focus
I think that the features that attract attention vary from person to person depending on the usage situation, but I pay attention to the following contents.
- Optimization for Apple M1Pro and M1Max
- Dropbox compatible
- Even the Windows free version supports H.265 hardware encoding installed in GPUs and Intel CPUs
- Various functions of Text+ have been improved , vertical writing (vertical layout) is supported!
- Supports automatic color management with color spaces & conversions
Although not listed as a new feature by the manufacturer, enhancements related to display size and layout correction when windows are moved between monitors with different display scales have also been confirmed. I think there are quite a few people who are happy.
New function explanation video
Official video explanation. (English)
Summary of new features
The following 8 points are listed in the function summary displayed immediately after installing the new version.
- Performance optimized for M1
- Simplify color management
- Enhanced 3D keyer
- Supports Steinberg VST3
- YOUTUBE VIDEO CHAPTER
- New Resolve FX plugin
- Rich text + support
- Improved subtitles

Details of new features
The update contents are as follows.
This is a quote from the press release.
Main function
- Hardware accelerated Apple ProRes on Apple M1 Pro/M1 Max.
- Supports 120Hz on Apple M1 Pro/M1 Max. Smoother UI and playback.
- Faster DaVinci Neural Engine performance on Mac OS 12.
- Native HDR viewer (supported Mac hardware only).
- Synchronize comments and annotations between Dropbox Replay and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
- Sync markers and comments between Dropbox and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
- Export timeline markers as YouTube videos or Quicktime chapters.
- Supports Steinberg VST3. Wider range of audio effects available.
- Simplified color management, SDR/HDR selection and new automatic project settings.
- Added new ResolveFX such as film halation.
- Improved 3D keyer and matte finesse controls.
- Text+Tool now supports joining glyphs, vertical layout, and right-to-left layouts such as Arabic and Hebrew.
- M1's ProRes decoding and encoding, significantly faster AI performance.
- Auto-resize subtitle backgrounds, expand nested timeline subtitles to parent timeline.
Support for Apple M1 Pro/M1 Max
- Hardware accelerated Apple ProRes on Apple M1 Pro/M1 Max.
- Supports 120Hz on Apple M1 Pro/M1 Max. Smoother UI and playback.
- Faster DaVinci Neural Engine performance on Mac OS 12.
- Native HDR viewer (supported Mac hardware only).
- Mac's native fullscreen mode.
Dropbox comment integration
- Log in to Dropbox in DaVinci Resolve preferences.
- Render directly to Dropbox or Dropbox Replay.
- Automatic background upload when rendering is complete.
- Synchronize comments and annotations between Dropbox Replay and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
- Sync markers and comments between Dropbox and DaVinci Resolve Studio.
edit
- Subtitles and caption backgrounds automatically resize to fit the text content.
- Subtitle tracks from nested timelines can be expanded into the main timeline.
- Auto focus on text area when adding new subtitle captions.
- Simple titles and subtitles are faster on systems with Apple silicon.
- Improved the function of the curve related to the position in the timeline, and the ease-in and ease-out function is improved.
- Options to include effects and grading in render-in-place processing.
- Switching between multicam angles using the Speed Editor on the edit page.
- Mark function to select gaps in the timeline.
- Editing asymmetric audio transitions created on the Fairlight page.
- Asymmetrically trim video and audio transitions using Command/Control keys.
- Fine-tune the gain of an audio clip by holding Shift and dragging the mouse.
- Paste retime attributes to audio clips.
- Option to limit audio sync to first timecode match.
- Preview each mode by hovering over the blending mode in the inspector.
- Deinterlacing quality can be set per clip in the inspector.
- New quadrilateral eye list transition.
- Supports custom aspect ratio control for shape transitions.
- Improved overlay for Fusion tools in the viewer.
- Improved undo for Fusion effects and Text+ in inspector.
- Ability to organize effect templates based on folders.
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts to move to previous/next timeline tab.
- Ability to close timeline tabs with middle click.
- Preview generators and titles in the Effects panel in the cut page viewer.
Color
- Support for automatic mode in color management projects.
- Support for ACES 1.3, gamut compression and new CSC transforms.
- New 3D keyer supports new modes and live feedback for improved selection/strokes.
- Improved HSL/luminance keyer and updated matte finesse controls.
- Single action forward/reverse tracking with Tracker and Magic Mask.
- When LUTs and effects are applied, the type is displayed in the node's tooltip.
- Automatically create node inputs when dragging new links to layers and key mixers.
- Connect the key and RGB by dragging the color node and overlaying it on the link of the key.
- Separate primary and secondary tool icons have been added for quick switching.
- Search for timeline clips that have been Dolby Vision analyzed or trimmed.
- Disabled clips are grayed out in the timeline.
- Apply camera LUTs and CDLs to ARRI MXF ProRes clips.
- Maintain printer light state after reboot.
- Automatically scroll to center marker when navigating timeline markers.
Resolve FX
- Film Halation emulates the reflections and scattering of film stock (Studio version).
- Custom mixer for more precise control over combining effects and grades.
- Improved 3D, HSL and Luminance keyers in Edit and Fusion pages.
- Improved noise handling and key tweaking for existing keyers.
- Improved patch replacer to align source and target.
- Film grain now supports interactive preview and grain freeze.
Fairlight
- Support for Steinberg VST3 audio plugins on Mac OS and Windows.
- Rearrange, move, and duplicate effects in the Mixer.
- Copy clip range with partial fade.
- Show single-sided audio transitions as fades.
- Support for multi-channel audio output on Linux.
- Improved display of waveforms with low track heights and low zoom levels.
- Shift-click or Command-click in the timeline to select keyframes.
- When navigating to the previous/next timeline marker, select that marker.
- Improved default processing order in Fairlight mixer.
- Automation curves show current values when no automation is present.
- Blinks when a point is selected in edit select mode.
- Improved clip index column order and search behavior.
- Improved jog, scroll and shuttle in Editor Keyboard and Speed Editor.
- FairlightFX meters now have resizable display support and improved channel labels.
- Improved audio performance when using Blackmagic monitoring devices.
Fusion
- Support for combined glyphs and right-to-left language layout in Text+.
- Improved vertical text + layout, vertical glyphs, rotation and line direction.
- Improved text+ character grouping, spacing, underline and border functionality.
- Text+ now supports per-character styling for supported fonts.
- Text+ now supports OpenType features such as old glyph numbers.
- Several text styling and animation improvements in Text+.
- Display tool description and add tool window when hovering over effect panel.
- Improved tracker default search and grid warp pattern size.
- Added search area scale slider to tracker options.
Codec and file I/O
- Improved encoding settings for YouTube render presets.
- Option to export timeline marker colors as chapters in YouTube videos.
- Option to export timeline marker colors as QuickTime chapter markers.
- Support for decoding Opus audio in QuickTime and MP4 clips.
- Panasonic 8K AVC decoding with hardware acceleration on Apple silicon.
- Faster decoding of ARRI ARX clips.
- H.265 encoding with Windows hardware acceleration (free version).
- H.264 encoding profile option (DaVinci Resolve Studio) on supported Nvidia systems.
- Bitrate control for H.264/H.265 encoding on supported Intel-based Windows systems.
- Faster encoding and decoding on Intel-based Windows systems (DaVinci Resolve Studio).
- Supports encoding to ZIP1 EXR format.
- Ability to add custom languages to DCP/IMF composition naming options.
- A list of approved operators/ratings/regions can be used to name DCPs.
- Marker support in IO Encode Plugin SDK.
- Ability to bypass re-encoding for Sony XAVC Intra clips.
- Better preservation of comment metadata in third-party XML workflows.
- Improved rendering of render job names in tooltips.
whole
- Right-click the audio icon to adjust media volume on the media page, color page, and deliver page.
- Automatic identification of media storage sequence image formats as stills or clips.
- Confirm whether to overwrite the existing project when executing "Save As".
- Show locked projects in PostgreSQL database and usage information tooltips.
- Clone PostgreSQL database in Project Manager.
- Export PostgreSQL database in project manager.
- Import option to current timeline when importing AAF.
- Support for accessing video clip inspector properties in the scripting API.
- Support for setting the playhead position of the timeline in the scripting API.
- Support for getting color versions of video clips in scripting API.
- Support reflection of upload status of render job API in script API.
- Support for setting network optimization for render jobs in the scripting API.
- Support for Mac OS H.264 multi-pass encoding option in scripting API.
- Improved script property set when querying media input nodes.
- Improved overall performance and stability
Minimum system requirements for macOS
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- 8GB system memory. 16GB when using Fusion
- Blackmagic Design Desktop Video version 12.0 or higher
- Integrated or discrete GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM.
- A GPU that supports Metal or OpenCL1.2.
Windows minimum system requirements
- Windows 10 Creators Update.
- 16GB system memory. 32GB when using Fusion
- Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 10.4.1 or newer
- Integrated or discrete GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM
- GPU that supports OpenCL1.2 or CUDA11
- NVIDIA/AMD/Intel GPU driver version – as required by your GPU