Marker Madness

What it does

You dropped a hundred markers across a timeline. Some are on clips, some are on the ruler, some are named, some aren't. You need to find the red ones, rename them all, nudge them two frames earlier, export a CSV with thumbnail frames, and do it before lunch.

Marker Madness puts every marker in your timeline — clip markers and timeline markers alike — into a single, searchable, sortable table you can actually work with. Filter by color, track, or keyword, batch rename with find/replace, nudge by frames, copy markers across timelines — or even across projects — and paste onto the exact track you choose. Export to CSV or HTML. Grab still frames. Generate VFX shot change reports between editorial versions. It's everything Resolve should have built into the markers panel.

Version 1.3 added full bidirectional Marker Exchange with Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer. Export your Resolve markers as a Premiere-readable CSV or an Avid locator file, then import them back with a single click — colors mapped automatically, markers landing on the timeline ruler ready to place.

Version 1.4.1 adds the Quick Edit Bar — a floating strip above the table for one-click color filter and marker recoloring without opening a panel — plus a configurable thumbnail grab delay for batch exports on high-resolution timelines, and selection retention so your picks stay highlighted when you tab back from Resolve.

Version 1.5 adds Media Pool mode — a Timeline ⇄ Media Pool toggle that turns Marker Madness loose on source clip markers. Select clips in the Media Pool (the same selection that loads the source viewer) and batch recolor, rename, edit, and delete their markers across every selected clip at once — changes appear in the source viewer instantly. Dropped a stack of markers in the source viewer and wish they weren't all the default color? Now it's one recolor away.*

Version 1.6 connects markers to clip metadata. Flag any markers as VFX shots, then push their names and notes straight into each source clip’s VFX Shot # and VFX Notes fields — where Data Burn-In can read them on export. It runs the other way too: fill in the Metadata panel and pull it back onto your markers. A VFX filter scopes the whole app, so a vendor-only CSV or HTML report is two clicks. And because metadata lives on the source clip, a plate cut in several times can only hold one shot number — so Marker Madness reports those collisions instead of letting the last write win.

* Media Pool mode works within Resolve's API limits: there is no way for a script to read or move the source viewer's playhead, or grab its frames. So Jump to Marker, Add at Playhead, Batch Stamp, frame grabs/exports, the Transfer buttons, Nudge, and CSV/Exchange import stay Timeline-mode features — the buttons say so politely rather than failing. If Blackmagic opens up those APIs, these come to Media Pool mode too.

Features

Browse all markers — timeline and clip — with color, timecode, name, note, and duration
Media Pool mode — batch recolor, rename, and delete markers on source clips, straight from the Media Pool selection, with instant source-viewer updates
Inline editing — click any name or note cell to edit directly in the table
Filter by color, track, keyword, or clip name — filters combine live as you type
Batch rename with find/replace, prefix/suffix, case conversion, trim, and counter
Right-click the Color column to recolor any selection at once
Nudge selected markers forward or backward by any number of frames
Promote clip markers to the timeline ruler — or demote timeline markers to a clip
Copy or move clip markers straight from one track to another (e.g. V1 → V4)
Copy markers across timelines — even between projects — and paste at playhead: choose Timeline Ruler or any specific track
Jump to any marker, or toggle auto-jump to follow selection with the playhead
Grab a live thumbnail for any marker and export it as a PNG
Batch export still frames for every marker — or just the selected ones — in one shot
Export to CSV with optional thumbnails and an auto-generated HTML report
Import a CSV to recreate markers from a spreadsheet
Shot Change Report — diff two CSV exports to see which VFX shots changed, dropped, or are new
Marker Exchange — export to Adobe Premiere Pro (CSV) or Avid Media Composer (locator file) and import back in one step
Color mapping on import — Avid locator colors translate to the nearest Resolve marker color automatically
Drag column headings to reorder — order saves between sessions and carries to CSV exports
Float on Top keeps the window visible above Resolve
Undo stack — most operations are reversible in one click
Auto-refreshes when you click back in from Resolve — selections stay highlighted
Quick Edit Bar — floating color filter and recolor strip above the table, always visible
Configurable grab delay — tune the thumbnail capture pause for high-res timelines
Works with DaVinci Resolve 18+ — free version and Studio both fully supported

Pro Tips

Step counter — the middle number trick

Counter starts at Start × Step. Set Start:1, Step:10, Digits:3 → 010, 020, 030. Perfect for VFX shot numbering.

After Counter position

Choose "After counter" in the Add field to place your text after the number: ShotName_010_VFX in one pass.

Marker Renamer auto-refreshes

Select different markers, click back into the Renamer panel — the preview updates automatically to reflect your new selection.

Shot Change Report — VFX change notices in seconds

Export a CSV before the editor makes cuts, then another after. Load both into Shot Change Report for an instant diff. Export as a printable HTML report for production meetings.

Paste onto a specific clip track

When pasting markers, a dialog lets you choose: Timeline Ruler, or any video/audio track that has a clip at the paste position. Clip markers go exactly where you need them.

The undo stack clears on Refresh

Batch operations push onto the undo stack, but hitting Refresh resets it. Commit to a refresh only when you're happy with what's on the timeline.

Quick Edit Bar — recolor without opening a panel

The strip just above the marker table lets you filter by color and recolor any selection in one click. No dialog, no right-click menu — just select markers, pick a color, done.

Grab delay — fix duplicate thumbnail frames

If batch-exported thumbnails repeat the same frame, go to Settings and increase the Grab delay (ms). 150ms works for most timelines; 300ms is reliable on high-res footage. Resolve needs a moment to cache the frame after the playhead moves.

Marker Exchange — round-tripping with Premiere Pro

Export your Resolve markers, open the file in Premiere's Markers panel (☰ → Import Markers), make notes or changes, then export from Premiere and import back. Use the TC Offset field if your timelines have different start timecodes.

Marker Exchange — round-tripping with Avid

The Avid locator file uses tab-delimited .txt format. Import in Avid via Clip menu → Import Locators. Avid colors (Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow, Red, White) map directly to the matching Resolve marker color on import.

Version History

v1.8.3 — Markers on titles and generators (Text+, Fusion titles) now appear — Resolve reports no source offset for generator clips, so their markers computed to positions outside the clip and were silently filtered out, leaving whole tracks looking empty. They are now anchored to the title itself (positions approximate; editing and deleting are exact). A broken item on one track no longer stops the marker scan — every track loads and errors are reported in the status bar. Added a sortable Track column (V#/A#, Ruler) to the main table and CSV export.
v1.8.1 — One window at a time — launching the tool while it is already open now brings the open window to the front instead of starting a second copy.
v1.8 — Added the rename counter to the Stamp tool: Batch Stamp can now number markers as it creates them, using the same numbering as Batch Rename. The Stamp dialog also gained keyboard control of its dropdowns and a visible focus indicator, and the main window now opens wide enough to show the Nudge controls.
v1.7 — Buttons are legible again. Neutral buttons used mid-grey labels on a near-panel grey, so the button shape was invisible and the label read as permanently disabled; every button now takes a light face with near-black text, and the text colour is derived from the face so a new button colour cannot bring the problem back. Added Continue from highest to Batch Rename — it scans every marker in the timeline, finds the largest number already in use, and sets Start one step past it, for slotting a new run of shots in after an existing 010/020/030. The counter example under Step is now a live readout instead of a fixed string, and Digits defaults to 3. Toolbar rows that do not fit the window now wrap onto extra lines instead of running off the right edge.
v1.6 — Added VFX marker designation and two-way sync with clip metadata. Flag markers as VFX shots, then push names and notes into VFX Shot # / VFX Notes for Data Burn-In, or pull metadata back onto markers — filling markers that already exist, creating ones that don’t, or both. A new VFX column and filter scope the table, CSV, HTML report and batch rename. Because metadata belongs to the source clip, a plate used several times with different shot numbers is reported as a collision rather than silently overwritten. Batch Rename gained a Version suffix (_v1, _v01, -v003), always appended last. The Counter’s Start is now the first number rather than a multiplier. Fixed: renaming, recoloring, nudging or transferring a marker no longer discards its stored data.
v1.5 — Added Media Pool mode: a Timeline ⇄ Media Pool toggle for source-clip markers. Select clips in the Media Pool and batch recolor, rename, edit, and delete their markers across every selected clip at once — changes show in the source viewer instantly, with timecodes in each clip's own timebase. Timeline-only features (jump, add-at-playhead, stamp, frame grabs, transfers, nudge, imports) are cleanly disabled in this mode pending Resolve API support.
v1.4.5 — Added Copy→Track / Move→Track — transfer clip markers straight from one track to another (e.g. V1 → V4), with the same track picker, offset and color options, conflict skipping, and full undo/redo.
v1.4.4 — Added a Track filter — filter the marker table by track (V1, V2, A1…) alongside Color and Type, driving batch rename, exports, and Delete All. Fixed a bug where editing clip markers on tracks above V1 (batch rename, inline edits, recoloring) created duplicate markers on V1 instead of updating in place.
v1.4.3 — Fixed first-launch window sizing on smaller displays — the window now fits the screen instead of opening too tall and crushing the bottom controls.
v1.4.2 — Fixed Cmd+V double-paste and Cmd+A select-all in text fields (works with Caps Lock on or off).
v1.4.1 — Fixed cross-project paste; de-bolded Batch Rename UI; Reset Column Layout button size corrected.
v1.4 — Added Marker Exchange (bidirectional Premiere Pro & Avid), Shot Change Report, and Video Only mode.
v1.3 — Initial public release.