Short answer: before you edit, settle the three project settings that shape everything else: timeline frame rate, delivery shape and the color-management pipeline. Then choose storage locations and performance formats that fit the way you work. Proxy Media, Optimized Media and Render Cache can be changed or regenerated later. Timeline frame rate can't. Once the Media Pool holds clips, Resolve locks it, so set it while the project is still empty.
DaVinci Resolve keeps all of this in the Project Settings window. Click the gear button at the bottom right of any page, or choose File > Project Settings. The window has so many panels that a new project looks more complicated than it is. You don't need to change every field. Make the few decisions that affect the rest of the edit, and leave the reversible settings for later.
Start with the settings that can change the shape of the edit
For a new project, I'd go in this order:
- Decide the delivery shape: widescreen, vertical, square or another defined canvas.
- Choose the timeline frame rate from the footage and delivery requirement.
- Choose a color-management approach that matches the cameras, working space and final output.
- Pick the folders for generated project media, proxies, cache and gallery stills, and keep a separate record of the original source-media locations.
- Only then tune proxy, optimized-media and render-cache formats for your machine and storage.
Treat that order as a planning habit. You still don't have to fill in every advanced option. If one item is unclear, put a note in the project name or a short project memo and settle it before the first serious grade or export. A late decision usually costs you confusion spread across several timelines, clips and deliverables.
1. Set the timeline frame rate before importing media
Timeline frame rate is the first setting I check, and it's the one with a hard deadline. Blackmagic's Resolve 21.1 manual says to choose it before importing media. The first time you import into an empty Media Pool, Resolve warns you if the clips don't match and offers to switch the setting to match them. Once one or more files are in the Media Pool, the project's timeline frame rate can't be changed. Treat the intended delivery frame rate as a day-one decision.
Your clips don't all have to share one frame rate. The project just needs a timebase you chose on purpose. A 24 fps narrative timeline, a 25 fps regional delivery and a 30 fps web project can each be the right call in context. The answer comes from the intended delivery and the source footage. There's no universal “best” number.
The DaVinci Resolve frame-rate guide covers the choice itself. In Project Settings, open Master Settings and check the timeline frame-rate field before you import clips. In an existing project, a few clips at a different rate are no reason to start over. Resolve conforms mixed-rate material according to the Mixed frame rate format setting, so decide how those clips should play in the finished timeline. If one deliverable really needs another rate, uncheck Use Project Settings in the New Timeline dialog and give that timeline its own frame rate.
2. Choose timeline resolution and delivery shape early
Timeline resolution sets the working canvas: a widescreen 3840 × 2160 project, a 1920 × 1080 project or a vertical 1080 × 1920 project, for example. You can change the resolution later, but then scaling, positioning and graphics all need another look. So choose a delivery shape before you start reframing shots.
Vertical and square work changes more than two numbers in a dropdown. Faces, titles, screen recordings and graphics may all need repositioning. Cut a widescreen master first, decide at the end that it should be vertical, and the technical change takes seconds. The editorial reframing is the real job.
Set the timeline resolution in Master Settings, then check Image Scaling for clips that don't match the canvas. Decide whether to show the whole frame, fill the canvas and crop, or reframe important shots one by one. A scaling preset won't make every shot look intentional.
If the project has more than one output, define the primary master first and write down the secondary shapes you'll make later. The first timeline stays stable while you plan the alternate deliverables, and each alternate can get its own timeline settings when you build it.
3. Pick a color-management pipeline before serious grading
The Color Management panel decides how Resolve interprets and transforms image data. It applies to the whole project by default, so choose it before you build a large set of grades that depend on one reading of the footage.
Resolve offers several documented paths, including DaVinci YRGB, DaVinci YRGB Color Managed and ACES workflows. Blackmagic’s official color page presents Resolve color management and ACES as supported ways to work with color spaces and output transforms. The manual explains what each control does. It doesn't name one pipeline as correct for every camera, editor or delivery.
Use the pipeline that matches the source material and the work you actually have to deliver. On a studio or client job, match their input, working and output spec. On a small web project, keep the setup simple and write down what you selected. I'd take a known pipeline I can explain over a clever one I can't, especially on the day a clip looks different after a change.
For the detailed choice between Resolve Color Management and a manual CST approach, read the color-management guide. That page goes deep. This one only tells you when the decision belongs in the setup sequence: early.
4. Give Project Settings a storage plan
Open Working Folders in Master Settings. It holds four paths: Project media location for media Resolve creates itself (Voiceover recordings, for example), Proxy generation location, Cache files location and Gallery stills location. These are working and generated files. The panel doesn't move or protect your original camera media, so record the source-media locations separately and keep that footage on storage you can identify and back up.
Choose locations you'll recognize later. A project is easier to move when generated media, proxy and cache folders have predictable names and sit on storage with enough free space. By default the cache and gallery stills go into hidden folders on the first Media Storage volume set in Preferences, which is easy to forget when that drive fills up. Keep cache and generated media off a drive that's already close to full. If you're preparing a handoff, record the original source-media locations separately from the proxy, cache and other generated-file locations.
Where the project itself is saved is a separate question. The guide to where Resolve projects are saved covers the project-library side. Use Working Folders to confirm where temporary and generated media goes, and manage the original source files on their own.
5. Keep Proxy Media, Optimized Media and Render Cache separate in your head
All three help playback. They just do different jobs.
- Proxy Media is a lighter stand-in for the source media: smaller, easier to decode, or both. Project Settings let you choose its resolution (Original, Half, Quarter and smaller, or automatic), its format and its generation location. Proxies help with editing, collaboration and a controlled handoff.
- Optimized Media is media Resolve generates to make hard-to-decode source files easier to work with. It's a performance aid you can regenerate whenever you need it.
- Render Cache stores rendered results for parts of the timeline, so Resolve doesn't have to recalculate effects and grades on every playback pass. It's regenerable working data too.
Never treat optimized media or render cache as your only archive of the project. They're local working aids. If another editor needs to continue the project, they need the project file, the source media and a clearly planned proxy or archive package. A folder full of cache files won't help them.
In Project Settings, choose formats that balance decode speed, image quality and available storage. When you need to plan a portable edit or troubleshoot offline media, the Resolve proxy workflow goes further.
6. Check the safety net: Live Save and Project Backups
Live Save and Project Backups solve different problems. Live Save writes your changes incrementally as you work, so you're no longer depending on Command-S or Ctrl-S. Project Backups saves complete project files at set intervals, and it runs whether Live Save is on or off. Turn on both. One doesn't replace the other.
Live Save closes the gap between your current work and the last saved state. Scheduled Project Backups give you restore points: by default a new one every 10 minutes within the last hour, plus hourly backups after that. Each backup leaves out stills and LUTs to save space, and none of them contains media. Keep source media, graphics, LUTs, stills and other irreplaceable assets in a separate backup plan. To restore, right-click the project in the Project Manager and choose Project Backups. A backup opens as an independent project and doesn't overwrite the original.
Set the backup location and how many backups to keep in Preferences > User > Project Save and Load. Backups saved to the same failing drive fail with it. For a project with meaningful footage or client deadlines, keep a copy of the project and irreplaceable source material on storage separate from the primary working disk.
7. Use presets as starting points, not blind defaults
Project Settings presets can save nearly every parameter in every panel of the window. You'll find them in the three-dot option menu at the upper right of Project Settings. They pay off when you keep creating the same kind of project, such as a known delivery format with a known color pipeline. Set Current Settings as Default Preset makes a preset load in every new project.
Build a preset only after you understand its assumptions. Name it after the delivery and color context, like “UHD web SDR 24”. A name like “Best Settings” tells you nothing six months later. A preset can change several panels at once, so review Master Settings, Image Scaling, Color Management and Working Folders after loading or updating it. If a setting is critical, note its current value before you apply the preset so you can restore it deliberately.
Project Settings also has a search bar. Type a setting name, click the match, and Resolve jumps to that panel and briefly highlights the setting. That's quicker and safer than changing a nearby setting because its label looks familiar.
8. Run a delivery preflight before the final render
Project setup doesn't replace the final export check. Before you render, compare the actual delivery specification with the active timeline and Deliver settings:
- resolution and aspect ratio;
- frame rate and frame-rate conversion choices;
- color-space, gamma and data-level tags where the destination requires them;
- audio bus, channel layout and sample-rate expectations;
- codec, container, bitrate or quality setting;
- file naming, destination and whether the export is a master, review file or platform upload.
A timeline can be right for editing and still wrong for a particular delivery. The DaVinci Resolve export guide walks through the Deliver page. Use this preflight as the last comparison between the project you built and the file you were asked to deliver.
Project Settings checklist
- Timeline frame rate chosen before serious editing begins.
- Primary delivery shape and timeline resolution recorded.
- Color-management pipeline selected for the source and output.
- Generated project media, proxy media, render cache and gallery-stills locations checked; original source-media locations recorded separately.
- Proxy, optimized-media and render-cache formats chosen for the available storage.
- Live Save state checked; Project Backups configured and pointed at a usable location.
- Any loaded preset reviewed panel by panel.
- Final Deliver settings compared with the actual delivery specification.
FAQ
Can I change the timeline frame rate after importing media?
Not the project-wide rate. Once one or more files are in the Media Pool, Resolve won't let you change the project's timeline frame rate. If you need another timebase, create a new timeline with Use Project Settings unchecked and set the rate there, or start a new project with the intended rate and move the edit across in a controlled way.
Can I change the timeline resolution later?
Yes. Timeline resolution stays adjustable, but changing from widescreen to vertical or square usually means editorial reframing of shots, titles and graphics.
Are Optimized Media and Render Cache the same as Proxy Media?
No. All three can improve playback. Proxy Media is a stand-in for the source that you can also hand off with a project. Optimized Media makes hard-to-decode clips easier to play, and Render Cache saves rendered effects and grades. Each one is generated separately and can be rebuilt.
Should I use Resolve Color Management or ACES?
Choose the pipeline that matches your source footage, grading workflow and delivery requirements. No single choice fits every Resolve project.
What should I check before exporting?
Check resolution, frame rate, color and gamma tags, audio bus and channel layout, codec or container, quality settings, destination and the delivery specification you are trying to meet.
