What Is a Proxy Video in Post-Production and How Does It Work

If you work with video, whether you’re a professional editor, an ambitious social media content creator, or just a casual user, have you ever encountered this situation – annoying stuttering when dragging the progress bar or playhead on the timeline, or choppy playback?

If you’re an experienced user, you know the culprit is the high-resolution video files. When this happens, the editing software may ask you to use proxy videos for faster and smoother editing. So, what is a proxy video in editing?

This post explains what a proxy video is, why it is important in the digital world, and some programs that support proxy files to enhance editing efficiency.

What Is a Proxy Video in Editing?

A proxy video is a low-resolution and smaller-sized copy of the high-resolution original video.

More concisely, when you create a proxy video, your editing software will produce a less sharp and highly compressed duplicate file of the original media to speed up your editing process and playback.

When handling high-resolution files from smartphones, digital cameras, drones, and other crystal footage like 2K, 4K, 6K, and even 8K videos, you can use a proxy copy to ensure a smooth workflow.

Please note that proxy videos do not affect the resolution of the final exported file. They are only available during the editing process.

Why Use Proxy Videos?

While many video editing applications can edit high-resolution videos like 4K or 8K, or you have a powerful computer to process these media files, you may still suffer from lagging playback or interruptions due to the large file size and high resolution. A proxy video changes everything and ensures a smooth editing experience.

Now, let’s look at the compelling benefits of proxies in video editing.

Smooth and Real-Time Preview

The most powerful CPUs and GPUs will be overwhelmed when processing multiple 4K or 6K clips, especially with effects and color grading applied. If you use proxy files, the lightweight copies of the heavy original media, you can smoothly scrub through the timeline. Meanwhile, when you want to check part of the timeline with special effects added, the software can also generate a preview at a fast speed.

Enhance Editing Efficiency

As mentioned above, the primary purpose of a proxy video is to improve the editing performance. Undoubtedly, a smoother editing experience will significantly increase your editing efficiency and save you time. Furthermore, using proxy files during the editing process can also enhance your creative inspiration, as you will no longer be interrupted by stuttering.

Downsides of Proxy Videos

Proxy copies of large videos can efficiently prevent the computer from lagging, thus allowing for smoother editing. However, due to the low-resolution characteristics of proxies, the video may appear blurry in the preview window. In this case, you may not be able to read the on-screen text or clearly view some details on the video.

There’s no doubt that the pros of proxied media outweigh its cons. Many video editing programs offer proxy settings to help users edit videos smoothly, quickly, and efficiently.

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Proxy Video Editing Software

Which editing applications support proxy video editing? Let’s take a quick look.

• Adobe Premiere Pro
• DaVinci Resolve
• CapCut
• After Effects
• Vegas Pro
• Avid Media Composer
• Kdenlive
• After Effects
• Final Cut Pro
• …

This section briefly introduces three of the best proxy video editing software applications.

Adobe Premiere Pro

The professional-grade video editor offers a robust and user-friendly proxy workflow to help you work with 8K, HDR, and high frame rate videos. It allows you to switch between the original files and proxy copies to get your work done faster.

Adobe Premiere Pro can generate proxy media when importing files, and it will automatically attach them to the original high-resolution footage. How to get proxy files in Premiere Pro? Just right-click the video, select Proxy > Create Proxies, and then select frame size and codec.

DaVinci Resolve

As a tremendously powerful video editor, DaVinci Resolve also supports the proxy mode for creating low-resolution versions of your original media to enable smoother and faster editing.

To use proxy media in DaVinci Resolve, first, you need to configure project settings for proxies by selecting File > Projects, then going to the Optimized Media and Render Cache section to make settings. After you import a video, right-click it and choose the Generate Proxy Media.

CapCut

CapCut is another proxy video editing software program you can try. When the application detects lagging from your PC when editing videos, it pops up a window asking if you need to use proxy files. Of course, you can enable the proxy mode for all projects.

On the main interface of CapCut, choose Settings from the Menu dropdown, go to Performance, select the box saying Turn it on to edit smoothly and faster without losing video quality, and click Save.

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Conclusion

A proxy video is just a low-resolution copy of high-resolution video files to accelerate the editing process by sacrificing quality temporarily. Use proxy media to take less time waiting for your PC to respond when processing large video files, giving you more time to focus on your creation.