Export right

BeginnerDuration ~11 min video + 30 min hands-onTools DaVinci Resolve (free)

Why this lesson

You can balance a shot. Now you have to get it out of Resolve without wrecking it — and this is where a surprising amount of good grading dies. A colorist delivers a file that looks washed-out on the client’s screen, or crushed on YouTube, or won’t play at all, and the grade that took an hour is judged by a two-minute export they rushed. The Deliver page has dozens of fields and most beginners freeze. The truth is you only need to understand a handful: codec, resolution, frame rate, levels, and audio. Get those right and your delivery matches what you saw. This lesson demystifies the Deliver page and gives you a reliable export recipe you can save as a preset and reuse forever.

Watch

Watch for: Mostyn's practical tips from a working suite. Early on: how to build and save your own render preset (he makes a ProRes HD preset and adds it to Quick Export). Watch the 'check your clips' tip — before every render he filters for UNGRADED clips so he never delivers a shot he forgot to grade. And the 'additional outputs' tip is the one to steal: he queues a ProRes master and an H.264 as a single job so Resolve renders both in one pass instead of two.

The explainer

The Deliver page is three columns: render settings on the left (what you’re making), the viewer and timeline in the middle (what you’re exporting), and the render queue on the right (the list of jobs Resolve will process). Ignore the intimidating stuff — tape output, IMF, and the like are for facilities. Here’s the handful that matters for beginner delivery.

Codec — how the video is compressed. For a final file going to the web, a client, or social, the answer is almost always H.264 (or the newer H.265): small files, high quality, plays on everything. If you need a high-quality master to archive or hand to an editor for more work, use a mezzanine codec like ProRes (Mac) or DNxHR (cross-platform) — bigger files, near-lossless, better for re-editing. Resolve ships presets for all of these at the top of the render settings; start from a preset, then tweak.

Resolution and frame rate — match your timeline. Ninety-nine percent of the time you export at the same resolution (e.g. 1920×1080 or 3840×2160) and the same frame rate as your project. Changing frame rate on export can introduce stutter, so unless you have a specific reason, leave it matching. For vertical/social you change the resolution to a portrait or square shape — Mostyn shows the Instagram 1080×1080 route via the Cut page’s format presets.

Levels — the one that silently ruins exports. Digital video can encode its brightness range two ways. Video levels (also called “limited” range) map black and white to a restricted band; full levels map them to the entire 0–1023 range. If your export’s level setting disagrees with how the destination interprets the file, the result looks washed-out (blacks lifted to grey) or crushed (detail lost). The safe default for normal deliverables is to leave the render preset’s data levels on Auto, or set Video levels for standard Rec.709 delivery — and then check the delivered file plays back looking like Resolve did. If it doesn’t, a levels mismatch is your first suspect. This is why we harp on it: the picture is often perfect and the container setting is wrong.

Audio — don’t ship it silent or wrong. Confirm the audio is enabled, at a sane codec (AAC for H.264 web delivery, or PCM for masters), and actually present. It’s a five-second check that saves a re-export.

Render presets — set it once, reuse forever. Once you’ve dialed in a delivery you use often — “1080p H.264 for YouTube,” “ProRes HD master” — save it as a preset. Now it’s one click. Mostyn’s Quick Export tip goes further: presets can be triggered right from the Color or Edit page without visiting Deliver at all, for single-file exports.

Queue smartly. You rarely need just one file. Add every version you need to the render queue — or use additional outputs on a single job — so a master and a client H.264 render together in one pass. And before you hit render, do Mostyn’s check: filter your timeline for ungraded clips so you never deliver a shot you forgot.

The recipe, in short: start from a preset (H.264 for web, ProRes/DNxHR for a master) → match resolution and frame rate to your timeline → get levels right and verify the played-back file → confirm audio → save it as your reusable preset → queue and render.

Do it

1. Grade or balance a short timeline, then open the Deliver page.
2. Click the H.264 preset. Set the format to MP4, resolution and frame rate to match your timeline, and give it a filename and location.
3. Check Audio is on (AAC). Leave data levels on Auto for now.
4. Save as a new render preset — call it YouTube 1080 H.264.
5. Add to the render queue and render. Then play the exported file outside Resolve and compare it to the Resolve viewer — confirm the blacks and whites match (that’s your levels check).
6. Now add a second output: a ProRes (or DNxHR) master of the same timeline, and render both in one pass.
7. Bonus: before rendering, filter the Deliver page for ungraded clips to prove the habit.

Export quick reference — codec, resolution, levels, audio, presetsexport-quick-reference.pdf115 KBOriginal course material — free to useLevel 1 workbook — every lesson's Do it exercise, checkboxes, capstone brief & sign-offlevel-1-workbook.pdf571 KBOriginal course material — free to use

Terms introduced

Terms introduced in this lesson

• Video vs full levels
• Codec
• Render preset

Each term links to the glossary, where it is defined by the way you just used it.

Check

Check yourself

1. You export for YouTube / general delivery. Which codec preset is the normal choice for a final web file?

   H.264 (or H.265) — small, high-quality, plays everywhereDNxHR 444Uncompressed TIFF sequenceWhatever is first in the list

2. Your delivered file looks washed out or crushed compared to what you saw in Resolve. What is the most likely culprit?

   The audio codecA data-levels / video-vs-full levels mismatch on exportWrong frame rateToo high a bit rate

3. What is a render preset good for?

   Grading the shotSaving a set of export settings you reuse, so you dial in the right delivery in one clickNothing — always set every field by handChanging the color space

4. You need one master file for archive AND a smaller H.264 for the client, from the same timeline. What is the efficient way?

   Re-grade for eachIt is not possibleAdd both to the render queue (or use additional outputs) so Resolve renders them in one passExport twice manually from scratch

Check answers

You can move on when you can… export a graded timeline at the correct codec, resolution, frame rate and levels, verify the delivered file matches what you saw in Resolve, and save your settings as a reusable preset.

Mark this lesson complete

Go deeper

Thom Lyons — The Complete Guide to the DaVinci Resolve Deliver Page (35 min, reference): the thorough, current tour of the entire Deliver page — every section, codec, and preset explained calmly, plus multiple-export queueing for “one for YouTube, one for archive.” Use it as a reference when a delivery spec asks for something the beginner recipe doesn’t cover.

Watch for: [Reference.] The three-section layout of the Deliver page, the H.264 vs H.265 vs ProRes preset choices, and how he sets up multiple exports in the render queue from one timeline.

That completes Level 1. Next, prove it: the Level 1 capstone — Balance a scene.