DaVinci Resolve audio not playing


Came upon audio not playing issues editing video files in DaVinci Resolve? If so, you may wish to read this post. It elaborates a workaround to get DaVinci Resolve handling your audio well.

Audio in MTS files not playing in DaVinci Resolve
“Hi there, I’m a new user of DaVinci Resolve. The issue that I am experiencing is that MTS files that I import into Resolve are not playing the included audio, the video plays as expected just without the audio. There are videos I can load that do work and have full audio, but not the ones in the MTS format I shoot. Can you advise how I can resolve this issue? Thanks.”

MOV audio not playing within DaVinci Resolve
“Dear All, can anyone help please? When I attempt to load .MOV files into Resolve the video runs fine but there is no audio. The files play normally, with sound, through QuickTime Player. Is there any way to fix this? Any assistance offered would be greatly appreciated.”

The biggest advantage of DaVinci Resolve is the fact that there is a free version which anyone can use. While Resolve’s biggest drawback as an editing program is the formats it does not support – which include Dolby/AC3 audio in MTS files, most Avid files, loads of MOV files with different codecs, and quite a lot more.

If you want to solve audio not playing issues in DaVinci Resolve, simply transcode the footage to a suitable Resolve friendly format – DNxHD for Windows or ProRes for Mac. The guide below is going to tell you how to do this.

How to convert video files for fixing audio not playing issues in DaVinci Resolve?

Software requirement
HD Video Converter
importing MTS files into DaVinci Resolveimporting MTS files into DaVinci Resolve

The steps:
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as a Video Converter for DaVinci Resolve. When its main interface pops up, click ‘Add File’ to input your source media.
solve DaVinci Resolve MTS import issue

Step 2: Choose output format for DaVinci Resolve
To convert video files to DNxHD for DaVinci Resolve, you can from ‘Profile’ bar, select ‘Avid DNxHD (*.mov)’ as output format under ‘Avid Media Composer’ column.
transcode MTS files to DNxHD .mov or ProRes .mov for Resolve

To encode video files to ProRes 422 for DaVinci Resolve, you can choose ‘Final Cut Pro’ > ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as target format.
open MTS video in DaVinci Resolve
Important: If you’ve loaded a number of video clips to do batch conversion, please do remember ticking off ‘Apply to All’ option before you start.

Step 3: Custom video and audio settings
If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button and go to ‘Profiles Settings’ panel to modify video and audio settings like video encoder, resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio encoder, sample rate, audio bit rate, and audio channels. 3D settings are also available.

Step 4: Start video files to DNxHD/ProRes MOV Conversion
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. As soon as the conversion is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the exported DNxHD/ProRes MOV files for use in DaVinci Resolve with optimum performance. You won’t encounter audio lost issues any more.

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