Proxies and render previews
Smooth playback for long, 4K or effect-heavy sequences: small proxy copies of your videos, and a rendered preview of the whole sequence, both kept on this device.
A long sequence of 4K footage with effects, mattes and nested sequences can be more than a laptop or a phone plays smoothly. Two tools help, and neither changes what you export.
Proxies
Description
The AI trailer in Edit with the bin open. Make proxies under the bin’s Proxies makes a small copy of each of the trailer’s videos on this device, counting up as each finishes; Play with proxies is then on, and the trailer plays from the copies.
A proxy is a small copy of a video (540 px tall, no sound) made on your device and kept in this browser.
- Open the bin and find Proxies. It counts the sequence's videos and how many have a proxy.
- Click Make proxies. Each video is converted in turn; it can take a minute for a long one.
- Play with proxies turns on when they are done. Playback, scrubbing and the source monitor use the copies.
Exports always use the originals: the moment an export starts, every video switches back to its original file, and back to the proxy afterwards. Proxies stay on this device only (they are not synced or shared); Delete proxies frees the space, and they can be made again at any time.
Render previews
Description
A short cut of the AI trailer in Edit. The monitor icon in the timeline header renders the sequence once at 540p, counting up; the preview then plays in its own player, every frame at full speed.
Render preview (the monitor icon in the timeline header, or Enter) renders the whole sequence once at 540p with its sound, then plays it as a video: every frame at full speed, however heavy the sequence. The preview is kept on this device. Opening it again is instant until you change something in the sequence (a clip, a key, an effect, a scene's layers); then it renders again.
Rendering takes about as long as an export at that size, and longer on a device without a fast graphics chip.