ROOK Ultimate VHS (DaVinci Resolve)

83 VHS, tape, grunge and CRT effects for DaVinci Resolve.

15 VHS looks, each built for horizontal, vertical and 4x5, so nothing stretches on your timeline.

Drag it from the Power Bin, pick the look from one dropdown, done. 21 Power Bins at 24, 30 and 60 fps.

v1.3 (free update): Smooth Playback is now a real fast preview on the heavy looks (up to 10× faster to play), with a PREVIEW tag so you can't export it by accident. Plus a one-click installer.

v1.2 (free update): runs way smoother.

• Smooth Playback checkbox on every look. Tick it while you edit and the heavy VHS looks run way smoother. Untick it before you export for full quality.
• Works at 24, 30 or 60 fps. Tape glitches, flicker and shake take the same time at any frame rate.
• Shorter Power Bin drops (20 frames), so a heavy look doesn't land over a long stretch of clips.
• Super 8 gate texture animates again.
• Easier install on Windows (steps below).

Shooting S-Log3? Tick ROOK Grade. It's in the Inspector under Setup ("ROOK Grade (S-Log3 footage)"), and it turns log footage into the finished look in one click.

Heavy-effects note: Handycam 2004 is our heaviest look. At 60 fps or on a lighter Mac, turn on Smooth Playback, or compound clip + Render in Place before playback.

What you need

• DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.1 or newer (the paid version; built and tested on Studio 21). It doesn't run on free Resolve. On a Resolve older than 19.1, keep using v1.1.
• Mac: Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) with 16 GB of memory, or 32 GB if you edit 4K.
• Windows: Windows 10 or 11 with a dedicated graphics card.

Still laggy? In this order: tick Smooth Playback → Playback → Timeline Proxy Resolution → Half → Playback → Render Cache → Smart → for 4K/H.265 footage, right-click the clips → Generate Optimized Media → still heavy, select the effect + clips → New Compound Clip → Render in Place.

Installing on Windows

1. Close Resolve all the way.
2. Right-click the zip → Extract All. (Don't drag files straight out of the zip.)
3. Open File Explorer, paste %APPDATA%\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\Fusion\Templates into the address bar and press Enter. If Windows can't find it, use C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Templates
4. Open the extracted "2 - Fusion Templates" folder and drag the Edit folder in (plus ROOK Assets if your pack has it). Choose "Replace the files in the destination" if asked.
5. Check the path reads Templates → Edit → Effects → ROOK…, then restart Resolve.
6. Black Power Bin clips? Delete the old bin and import the .drb again from "3 - Power Bins" → your frame rate.

Full steps with pictures are in "1 - READ ME FIRST - Install Guide.pdf" in your download.

Install help with pictures: rookproducts.com/help