About Proxy Media

Proxies are low-resolution copies of high-resolution clips. Using proxies increases playback performance, especially when working with large files.

Proxies can be generated at any point for any media. Therefore, there is no option to enable or disable proxy generation. Proxy settings specify how and when proxies are generated for clips used in the project.

On-Demand Proxies

Proxies can be enabled and disabled for individual clips, regardless of whether proxy generation was enabled by default during project creation.

The Proxy Quality workflow reduces the amount of data being calculated in complex setups without needing proxies stored on disk, simply by changing the quality.

Since overall interactivity and performance are determined by the slowest link in the chain, if reading the source media causes performance loss for large setups, proxies can be optionally generated on disk.

Import Options

A Proxies button is available in the General options of the MediaHub. When Generate Proxies By Default is enabled for a project, the button is enabled by default, and proxy media will be generated on import. The option can be disabled and re-enabled at any point to change the proxy generation behaviour for specific media.

Rendering Options

Since proxy media is optional, preferences are available to define whether or not to write proxy media during rendering. These preferences affect the Timeline, Batch, Batch FX, Generators, and the Modules.

Use the Proxy Rendering setting in the Default Rendering Options section of the General User Preferences to select one of three options:

Full Resolution and Proxy: The application renders at both full resolution and proxy resolution.
Full Resolution: The application renders only at full resolution.
Proxy: This sets the Timeline Rendering options to “Proxy Only”.

Note: The Proxy option only applies to the Timeline. When selected, Batch, Batch FX, Generators, and the Modules are set to “Full Resolution and Proxy”, as they do not support Proxy Only rendering. They instead have a Generate Proxies option in their respective Rendering drop-down, which is enabled or disabled, based on this preference setting.

Generating Media Proxies on Demand

On-demand proxy generation is achieved through a clip's context menu, under the Media section, which gives you two self-explanatory options, relative to proxy generation:

Generate Proxies
Flush Proxies

You can do this at any point, regardless of whether or not you enabled proxy generation by default when the project was created.

This can be done to an individual clip, to a Reel, or a Library.

Visual Indication

In order to get a quick snapshot of which clips have proxy media, as well as their current status, you can:

Enable List View in the Media Panel and look in the Proxy Resolution column, which will display a hyphen if no proxies exist on disk for that media, the resolution of the proxies if they exist on disk, and “pending…” if proxies are in the midst of being generated.
Alt + Click on a clip. The proxies information appears in the Clip Information window.