DaVinci Resolve 12.5, billed as a "massive" update to Blackmagic Design's editing and color-grading software, went into public beta this morning.

Features new to the latest version include a slate of new editing and trimming features and improved HDR support, the company said.

On the editorial side of the application, users now have access to an audio waveform overlay on top of a video clip, allowing easier navigation in some cases when the shape of the waveform works as a visual cue. The trimming toolset has been expanded with context-sensitive features that give editors access to the appropriate trim tools on the timeline without requiring the use of keyboard shortcuts or menu selections. 

Media management and metadata support has been expanded. For example, Resolve now maintains a metadata keyword dictionary allowing previously used keywords to be more readily attached to clips. CSV files are now supported for metadata import and export, and display names can be automatically created based on metadata tags.

Resolve's Media Pool now has Power Bins designed for sharing content such as graphics, stock footage, sound effects and music across multiple projects.

Retime effects and speed ramps have been retooled with separate curves for frame position and playback speed, allowing frames to be moved to any point in time and allowing variable speed changes between ranges of frames. Multiple keyframes can be selected and moved at the same time using new visual controls.

In the color workflow, Resolve's node editor has been updated to make it easier to navigate between nodes, swap nodes, make multi-node selections with a lasso tool, and more. Saved grades can be dragged in as a single node or as a fully expanded node tree. New temperature and tint sliders are now part of the primary grading controls. Native GPU- and CPU-accelerated effects have been added for everything from gamma transformations to film grain and lens blurs. A multi-GPU-accelerated noise-reduction algorithm is also new to 12.5.

The HDR enhancements include the ability to set specific nodes as HDR, which enables extended-dyanmic-range grading tools in Resolve. Blackmagic said high-quality compressed formats such as Apple ProRes 4444 XQ and Avid DNxHR enable end-to-end HDR workflow by helping reduce the otherwise daunting storage requirements of uncompressed 16-bit float files.