Create Proxy or transcode easily with Davinci Resolve

Keeping the actual folder structure, create a low resolution proxy file in Davinci Resolve. This method is easier and faster than using Adobe Media Encoder to create proxy.

[@JamwalLokeshS]

no other tutorial on creating proxy files worked for me.This one absolutely did. Thanks a lot Mr !!!

[@Moundain]

You are welcome. We are happy

[@BrianMarcWhittaker]

Thank you! I didn’t know the media management tool was a thing. That’s apparently quicker than creating a timeline first then exporting the string out.

[@Moundain]

Yes. This is easier

[@yoeljacobson]

I thought that Macs struggle to decode 4.2.2 and that it's better to choose 4.2.0 or best is 4.4.4. so why did you recommend using it?

[@yoeljacobson]

My bad thats only HEVC 422

[@Moundain]

Mac and gpus in apple can decode prores easily. 444 has better quality and easy to decode... But require higher speed data transfer..( file size can be huge) So 422 is kind of a trade off between speed and processing 422 444 etc is just a color storage method. It's used in both hevc and prores

[@marki583]

My transcoding is taking 10 hours. Is that normal?

[@Moundain]

Depends on original duration of footage, resolution of footage and graphics card.. on an average computer 1 hour of 4k footage will take 2 hours to transcode

[@yeskevz]

The audio disappears when I have proxy on. It comes back when I switch to "Prefer camera originals". Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[@Moundain]

May be the audio is encoded to a wrong format in proxy. Just play the proxy in source monitor or any other video player to confirm

[@yeskevz]

@@Moundain No sound if I play the proxy alone

[@Moundain]

So audio was not encoded while making proxy. How did you make the proxy..

[@yeskevz]

@@Moundain Right click in the media tab and create proxy media

[@davidlarocque6156]

lol, DO NOT use h264 as a proxy file format on PC. DNxHD will be much better as it's an actual editing format.

[@Moundain]

DnxHd has better colours and better as an editing format. But more graphics card has inbuilt encoder and decoder for h264 and the file size is less

[@Paperman145]

H264 does not contain timecode tbh it should not be user

[@Moundain]

@@Paperman145 sorry h264 can have timecode

[@putraadyatma7423]

and then make a tutorial for the relink from proxy to the original with the timeline has edited

[@Moundain]

Thank you. We are doing it.

[@LegendaryJim]

why the hell would you transcode a proxy to h.264. that defeats the whole purpose of doing this. lol.

[@Moundain]

There is no strict rule on format. Depends on which format plays in your computer easily. Most pcs play h.264 with ease

[@LegendaryJim]

@@Moundain there are other reasons one might transcode, but H.264 and 265 are the most heavily compressed formats you can use, meaning they create by orders of magnitude the highest workload for the CPU/GPU. It's ok if you're just converting them to a format solely for playback, but for editing it is terrible. (which is what proxies are for...) You'd want instead to use an uncompressed format (DNxHR, ProRes, etc..) that is easier to edit, so your computer isn't constantly compressing and uncompressing a video pinning your GPU at 100% just from scrubbing a timeline.

[@Moundain]

​@@LegendaryJim Yes you are right, H264 is heavily compressed. But fortunately most graphics cards and onboard graphics on motherboards (other than server boards produced during the past 15 years)have realtime MPEG decoders which can decode H264 easily without any stress (Apple system have Prores decoders too). You need really fast storage systems like SSD or RAIDs to play uncompressed video and sometimes, playing uncompressed video demands higher throwout through RAM and Bus. We use 720p H264 which works well for us even on average computers which are more than 10 years old. In case your system is older than that, say more than 20 years, either need a new graphics card or use 320p file which should play easily on the system. Please let us know your system configuration, then we may be able to help you with the ideal solution.

[@LegendaryJim]

I am just starting out with video editing, but I'm also a systems engineer, so I'm good. Don't really need much help. My setup is fine. (ryzen 5 1600/RTX 2060 - offloading to GPU with paid version. so cpu doesn't do much) and of course if you downscale the video to 720P the magnitude of data compressed would be so negligible that virtually anything could edit it, but I'd also be referencing a video at less than 1/3rd my target resolution. (4K) and at a lower bit depth. It'll just make it more difficult to discern the impact grades, filters, and zooms have on the finer details in the image if I do that. I'm fine using uncompressed formats as I stage my timeline clips on two 4TB m.2 drives, disk space is much cheaper than a new graphics card. so it's not really a problem. The data stream for uncompressed formats doesn't typically get anywhere near the average speed of modern SSDs tbh. (unless they're 8K+ at high frame rates or rendering multiple clips simultaneously.) I only watched this video because I was looking into other ways to optimize timeline performance. Transcoding proxies takes a lot of time and space. I often have to swap data around onto a larger storage archive when I'm not using it or delete the proxies. I find this little function "generate optimized media"-while still a bit time consuming-seems to simplify things because it's not quite as big as the manual transcode proxies and it's super easy to clean it up after you're done without breaking anything... so I guess I'll just stick with that.

[@Moundain]

@@LegendaryJim Finally playback depends on your graphics card and processor. Ryzen 5 1600 will play 4K H264 at low bit rate. But you can add up a graphics card for a smoother playback. Or use optimised media option in Resolve