Unlike many other host applications, Resolve offers multiple places to apply effects, each with their own nuances in the way that they’re processed. Currently, the best place for applying Neat Video is a node on the Color page. Due to its architecture, Resolve may require more GPU memory on other pages, so when efficiency is important it is best to apply on the Color page.
The order of nodes is also important. In most color grading scenarios, it’s best to perform the Neat Video noise reduction process on the first node in the tree, placing subsequent grading operations after it. This gives the plug-in access to the original, unaltered video signal and allows us to work downstream of the noise reduction process without worrying that our color corrections might reduce the accuracy of the de-noising. There are some exceptions to this rule, specifically in Log and color-managed grading workflows. In these cases, the Neat Video node is still placed early in the tree, but may be preceded by LUTs or Color Space Transforms to convert the video data into a format optimized for the Neat Video plug-in.
Working in Rec709, Log and Color-Managed Workflows have their own nuances. There are specific steps you should follow to achieve great results. Learn more in Neat Blog.