Understanding ProRes Proxy to ProRes

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Level 1

10 points

Understanding ProRes Proxy to ProRes

Trying to get my head around the proxy thing. In FCP X I have - create Optimized Media & Proxy Media Checked. So I am doing all my editing in Proxy right?

So now it come time to export my project. I use compressor and select ProRes 422 (regular quality) and it appears to work BUT takes 8 times the length of my clip to transcode! So it is basically taking the proxy, seeing what I've done to it and then adding those changes to what version of the clip? the ProRess Std verions?

Just wondering how Compressor / FCP X goes from a ProRes proxy version to a Std ProRes version or HQ or 444 version - what is actually happening?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.8 C2D 6 gigs Ram - 8600Gt

Posted on Jul 11, 2011 7:56 PM

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Answer 1

steve z

Level 3

824 points

Jul 11, 2011 8:20 PM in response to DJLove

"So I am doing all my editing in Proxy right?"

No! Unless in FCPX under preferences you select proxy as your playback media you will be using the optimized (Pro Res 422) media.

"So now it come time to export my project"

Before you export go back to your preferences and change playback to use optimized media. Then instead of using compressor just use export (command +E) current settings and you should get your full resolution (pro Res 422) video, probably quicker than going through compressor.

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Answer 2

DJLove Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 11, 2011 9:34 PM in response to steve z

What you said is correct, I change the check box from proxy to "Use original or Optimized" but then the timeline was unrendered so I assume now it has to apply all the changes to this different version of the project.

I turned off the color correct, the item that need to be rendered and did a Export and it took no time at all. Let me try with the color correction turned on and see if it takes 8x!

Changing preferences like you described seems somewhat clunky, now when I want to edit I have to change then back???

(As I've reported in anther post the drop down in the export movie window do not produce a proper prores file - eg 444, HQ, LT etc. They are all encoded at 25Mbps but show up as the correct type of ProRes file - very strange)

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Answer 3

DJLove Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 11, 2011 9:45 PM in response to DJLove

Ok looks like an 8x render time too. Oh god, I have 2 hours of footage to color correct!! My poor old laptop! Perhaps I'll try it in Premiere Pro 5.5 🙂

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Answer 4

DJLove Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 11, 2011 10:29 PM in response to DJLove

Tried on MBP i7 2010, 1/2 the time. I need a new machine!

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Answer 5

Jul 12, 2011 4:40 AM in response to DJLove

Proxy media is a proxy to the original media. FCPX always retains the original media.

When you edit the proxy, the edit is only applied to the proxy data, not the originals. When you export (cmd-E), frame rate is set in the project, and the output quality (eg ProRes, ProResHQ, etc set in the export dialog box. The output file is created by re-applying the edits in the timeline by rendering those to the original media as per these settings.

If your original media was 720p60 H264 (from AVCHD ingest), for example, you could set the project to 30fps (730p30) and export to ProResHQ if you liked. This would require your Mac to decode the original, apply the changes, and recompress to ProResHQ. However long this takes is however long it takes. But your Mac will be 'snappy' while performing the edits, because the proxy file is small and low on CPU during edits.

If your mac is a little faster, and you're happy with standard ProRes quality, then creating optimised media on ingest will slow your mac down a bit, but exporting to standard ProRes will be much quicker, as clips, transitions can be rendered in the background while you fiddle around editing, and when you're ready to export most of the heavy work is already done, so it will be much quicker. But your Mac must be fast enough to edit in standard ProRes quality.

Hope this makes sense.

Chris.

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Answer 6

DJLove Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 12, 2011 9:21 AM in response to DJLove

Thanks Chris, looks like I can get OK render times 3.5x using proxy so poxy it will be for this project 🙂 It's going to SD anyway. I don't normally have 2 hour project but this was an event video. I was getting 7x when I use the standard ProRes so that's just too long. What would be good is if I could at first down res the proxy to 720p and then I'd gain some more speed. Guess I could do that and when I'm do output using 1080p? No sure what that would work with FCP X?

I'm never going to do long events in 1080p again, just too much hp required for my old machine.

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