Guide to the Media Management Tool For Saving Space in DaVinci Resolve

This is one of Resolve’s most useful hidden features.

This is one I tell people about really often. Why? Projects get bloated. They take up lots of space. And you may want to get rid of the bloat to speed up your project, or share a project with a collaborator without all the unused footage.

Let’s say you’ve picture-locked an edit. Now you’re ready to send the project to your colorist and sound designer.

Why ship a drive with absolutely all the media? It’s just extra space and could mean a bigger drive and greater cost.

The media management feature lets you export only the media you’ve used in a particular timeline!

It’s easy to use and has some features to help you create your streamlined project.

In this video from Hugo Will, you’ll learn about:

  • Trimming down a timeline
  • Finding the Media Management tool
  • Overview of the Media Management settings
  • Copying and trimming only used media files
  • Transcoding to save space
  • Exporting a project OR only clips used in a timeline OR selected clips only

This can also be used to copy and export a number of clips without needing to use the delivery page.

I hope you find this as useful as I have!

1 thought on “Guide to the Media Management Tool For Saving Space in DaVinci Resolve”

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  1. Hello,

    I have project I wish to send to a colorist. With Premiere I used its media management tool. Very comfortable with the concept of trimming the files to that which is used.

    This project is shot with RED R3D files. I found the media tool and chose to prepare my timeline for grading. Set the trim handles to 4sec at 24 frames. Set a destination on my system (MacBook Pro M1 Max). Keep original file format (R3D). Executed the project consolidation. It ended up to be about 65 gigs. Short 30 sec spot. The colorist opened the RTN and the shots were completely out of sync with the cut. I open the Timeline myself on my system and it was not correct. Here is the issue I found the trim handles were not correct. I slid the clip back into sync only to find that there was no handle left on the end of the shot. It used it to slip into sync.

    The fact that is is out of sync is bad enough. It could be slid in to sync. The colorist did that then saved it only to open it again and find the project out of sync again.

    Is there a string to be mindful of to keep it stable and accurate.

    Please let me know. Plus dose this make sense outlining my issue.

    Reply

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