.drp and Project.db¶

Observed with DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1.1. Nothing here comes from official documentation.

A Resolve project exists in two forms that hold the same records:

Form	What it is	drpkit
`.drp`	File → Export Project: a zip archive of XML files	read, write, compose
`Project.db`	a project inside a disk-database project library: one SQLite file per project	read only

.drp: the zip archive¶

Entry	Holds
`project.xml`	project settings and the `LocableBlobSet` (sic) of lockable blobs: clip colors (`Sm2TiItemLockableBlob`) and timeline markers (`Sm2SequenceLockableBlob`)
`MediaPool/<folder path>/MpFolder.xml`	one per media-pool folder: media-pool items (`Sm2MpAudioClip`, …) and timelines (`Sm2MpTimelineClip` → `Sm2Timeline` → `Sm2Sequence`)
`SeqContainer/<uuid>.xml`	one per timeline: `Sm2SequenceContainer` with the tracks (`Sm2TiTrack`) and their items
`Gallery.xml`	color page stills (not read)

Element names in the XML are the database table names (Sm2…, Bt…); each record carries a DbId attribute (a UUID) that other records reference.

Timeline records (MpFolder.xml)¶

Element	Field	Meaning
`Sm2Timeline`	`Name`	timeline name
	`Sequence`	`DbId` of its `Sm2Sequence`
	`FrameRate`	timeline frame rate, hex of a little-endian double (the first 16 hex digits)
`Sm2Sequence`	`FieldsBlob`	hex of a QDataStream `QVariantMap` (below) — holds `FLStudioModelBA`, the Fairlight mixer
	`MediaExtents`	hex of two little-endian doubles: start seconds and span seconds. Start × fps = `Timeline.GetStartFrame()`

Tracks and items (SeqContainer/*.xml)¶

Sm2SequenceContainer
 ├ VideoTrackVec / AudioTrackVec
 │   └ Element → Sm2TiTrack   Type (1 = audio), UserDefinedName, Sequence, Items
 │        └ Items → Element → Sm2TiAudioClip | Sm2TiTransition | …
 └ Sequence  (DbId of the Sm2Sequence, links the container to its timeline)

The fields of clips and transitions are listed in Clips & edits.

Project.db: the SQLite database¶

drpkit opens it with file:<path>?mode=ro&immutable=1 (no lock, no write, no journal). The same records are tables; column names match the XML element names.

Table	Columns used	Meaning
`Sm2Timeline`	`Name`, `Sequence`, `FieldsBlob`	timelines. `FieldsBlob` is empty here
`Sm2Sequence`	`Sm2Sequence_id`, `FieldsBlob`	the timeline's sequence; `FieldsBlob` holds `FLStudioModelBA`
`Sm2TiTrack`	`Sm2TiTrack_id`, `Sequence`, `Type`, `UserDefinedName`	tracks of a sequence
`Sm2TiItem`	`Sm2TiItem_id`, `Sm2TiTrack_id`, `DbType`, `Name`, `PrettyType`, `Start`, `Duration`, `In`, `AlignmentType`, `Position`, `EffectFiltersBA`, `FieldsBlob`	clips and transitions; `DbType` is the XML element name (`Sm2TiAudioClip`, `Sm2TiTransition`)
`BtLockableBlob`	`BlobOwner`, `FieldsBlob`	clip colors and timeline markers (one table for both)

Joins:

-- mixer: timeline name + its Fairlight model
SELECT t.Name, s.FieldsBlob
  FROM Sm2Sequence s JOIN Sm2Timeline t ON t.Sequence = s.Sm2Sequence_id;

-- clips and transitions of one timeline, in track order
SELECT k.Type, k.UserDefinedName, i.DbType, i.Sm2TiItem_id, i.Name, i.PrettyType, i.Start, i.Duration,
       i."In", i.AlignmentType, i.Position, i.EffectFiltersBA, i.FieldsBlob
  FROM Sm2TiItem i JOIN Sm2TiTrack k ON i.Sm2TiTrack_id = k.Sm2TiTrack_id
 WHERE k.Sequence = :sequence ORDER BY k.rowid, i.Start;

-- colors (BlobOwner = Sm2TiItem_id) and markers (BlobOwner = Sm2Sequence_id)
SELECT FieldsBlob, BlobOwner FROM BtLockableBlob WHERE FieldsBlob IS NOT NULL;

Project.db has no frame rate in the tables drpkit reads, so --edits from a database reports frames only (no timecode, no absolute marker frames).

Encodings¶

Four container formats appear inside these fields.

QDataStream `QVariantMap` (`FieldsBlob`)¶

Qt's big-endian serialization:

u32 version | u32 count | count × ( key: QString, value: QVariant )
QString  = u32 byte length (0xFFFFFFFF = null) + UTF-16BE
QVariant = u32 type id + u8 null flag + value

Type id	Value
1	bool (1 byte)
2 / 3	int32 / uint32 (BE)
4 / 5	int64 / uint64 (BE)
6	double (BE)
8	nested `QVariantMap` (u32 count + entries)
9	`QVariantList` (u32 count + QVariants)
10	QString
11	`QStringList`
12	`QByteArray` (u32 length, 0xFFFFFFFF = null, + bytes)

The Sm2Sequence FieldsBlob has keys such as FLStudioModelBA, SeqRef, ModTimeInSecs, FirstMainBusFormat, Thumbnail.

qCompress (`FLStudioModelBA`)¶

FLStudioModelBA is a QByteArray produced by Qt's qCompress: a 4-byte big-endian uncompressed size followed by a zlib stream. Its content is described in Fairlight model.

Versioned blob (`EffectFiltersBA`, clip `FieldsBlob`, media `Clip` / `FieldsBlob`)¶

u32BE 2 (version) | u32BE length (includes the flag byte) | u8 flag | payload
flag 0x80 = payload stored as-is, 0x81 = payload compressed with zstd

The payload is a protobuf message (field numbers and wire types, no schema). Resolve writes most of these zstd-compressed; drpkit writes 0x80, which Resolve accepts. Reading 0x81 needs Python 3.14+ (compression.zstd) or the zstandard package.

Lockable blob (`Sm2…LockableBlob` / `BtLockableBlob`)¶

FieldsBlob is a QVariantMap with one key, BlobData (a QByteArray):

u32BE 0x00002711 | u32BE length (includes the flag byte) | u8 flag (0x80 raw / 0x81 zstd) | protobuf

Clip colors store a fixed 3-byte payload (80 28 <code>), markers a protobuf list — see Clips & edits.

Protobuf¶

Standard protobuf wire format: varint keys field << 3 | wiretype; wire type 0 = varint, 1 = 8 bytes, 2 = length-delimited, 5 = 4 bytes. Signed positions use zigzag encoding. Inside the length-delimited fields Resolve mixes little-endian values (doubles of scalar knobs, keyframe records) and big-endian ones (fade curve points, nested length headers) — each is noted where it occurs.