hi there,

haven´t been here for a while, but good to be back!

I have a question: I have a rather big complex project i would like to export from kdenlive to davinci resolve:

Is there a working way of exporting a xml or some nle readable file/cutlist from kdenlive?

and the second question: What would be the best lossless format to export to do color grading and effects in another program like resolve?

I see the lossless options in the render menu but i am not familiar with the codecs, would huvyuff be the best choice? or one of the other options?

the source material is very mixed: a lot of it recorded with a sony a7s and the avchd codec which compresses a lot, so i have the fear to lose quality when going "lossless" and back to the final grade.. thanks!

Hello,
Kdenlive format is XML But XML is "just encoding", here it is MLT XML, structured for kdenlive.
For your purpose, OpenTimelineIO can convert from/to variety of of editor formats, like Kdenlive (*.kdenlive) and FinalCutPro XML (*.fcpxml), which is handled by Première too. I don't know if Resolve can import any of these formats. Note that export/import can't translate the effects and transitions, which presence, name and parameters are specific to each program. And the official Kdenlive translator may fail on some transitions, if it block you, you would have to remove them in kdenlive (or fix the python script just need to remove the loop operating on transitions, was never merged in otio).
Else, you can create lossless encoding profiles (ffv1, qtrle), or compressed formats like H264 with max quality setting (you can manually set quality parameter to less than 15 if you still see losses, personally I don't see any on my materials). DNXHD is not lossless, it suffers discrete bitrate values that are not always appropriate.

Hi vpion,

thanks so much for these explanations, I get it more clear now.. .
I will definitely try OpenTimelineIO , I am right now on manjaro, I have to figure out how to install it,
do I need to compile it and it interacts with kdenlive then? or is it part of the kdenlive app image?

As you can imagine if i would try to fix python scripts I would just do things worse
I wouldnt mind transitions wont get translated, If i can just get the rough cut from one program to another, I am totally happy.

I do think i can import final cut files or premier files into resolve, or if not, I could go on from there maybe with aatranslator, a software i use a lot to convert aaf files into all kind of formats and vice versa for sound editing (https://www.aatranslator.com.au runs great under wine)

kalimerox wrote:Hi vpion,

thanks so much for these explanations, I get it more clear now.. .
I will definitely try OpenTimelineIO , I am right now on manjaro, I have to figure out how to install it,
do I need to compile it and it interacts with kdenlive then? or is it part of the kdenlive app image?

ah i see it is a separate program, I just installed, and try my way through, maybe it is a lack of coffee: timelineioview i can see my timeline opened , but i cannot convert or do anything.. i will read my way through the documentation , thanks again!!

once you have otio installed, you should have kdenlive File > import or export menu entries available.
actually it is just running `otioconvert` tool you can launch by hand.

ah thank you very much!!

I tried different exports, but they do not seem to work in my case. when i use my edit, i get error messages on all the different outputs.. when i make a simple testproject, with 3 cuts and 2 tracks of video, I can generate a output file for example for final cut pro. unfortunately this is not readable in resolve as i just found out and also with aatranslator that specific file does not convert to aaf or anything else. ....


PS : it would be great to convince aatranslator to support kdenlive: although it is commercial and not cheap, it really became the swiss army tool of file conversion, for example i use it a lot to convert avid .aaf to ardour xml to import video edits into ardour for sound postproduction etc..

following this up: I try to export to tiff, to get the most quality transfer, and import into resolve. problem is: the time shifts. does anyone of you have experienced something like this? i recorded 25 fps and have theproject settings as well set to 25, however when exporting and re importing i get a time shift (the exported tiffs seem to be longer... )

is this a common thing? thank you!