Problem with proxies when not using proxy generator

I have a project with a hundred clips approximately of 4k dji drone mp4 video files. I want to convert all of the video to proxies to help with editing.

I put all of the clips in one bin and then highlighted all of the clips, right clicked and selected "generate proxy media".

It asks for a location to put the proxies and I select a drive and folder.

It then takes approximately 3 hours to create all of the proxies.

I check and the proxies are mov files and they are in the location that I chose for them to be.

The problem is that when I select "prefer proxies" on the editing timeline, DR will not replace the 4k mp4 files with the 1080 mov files.

When I select "prefer proxies" everything sort of blinks on the timeline but the proxies are not activated on the timeline.

Any idea what step I am leaving out in this process that is causing me to fail?

Erik

A couple of questions, Erik -

1. If you try this with a single clip (rather than multi-select) does it work as expected?

2. If you look in the media page, list view, do the files claim to have proxy media (there are a couple of columns you will need to add to see this)?

Your procedure sounds correct unless there is some issue with duplicate clip names...

Thank you Steve for your help.

1. (Answer) No single clip doesn't work as expected.

2. (Answer) Yes! All of the files are in the master bin as expected and show up under the "Proxy" heading in the edit index.

But I did discover some odd behavior that makes me think something is broken inside DR.
As I mentioned before my proxy files inside the proxy folder are all 1920x1080 .mov files. That's fine.
However, on the index page the proxy files are listed as 1920x1080 mp4 files. That's weird.

Then if I right click on a proxy file on edit index page and select "open file location" it takes me to the location of the full res file!

Please look at the screen grab of the edit index attached. You will see the name of the file on the far left as an mp4 file. The edit index shows the file as both 4k AND 1920x1080! The path of the media file on the far right shows .mov file. However, again, if you right click and say show file it will take you to the 4k full res file.

Looks like a mess. Not sure how to fix this at all.

That's so weird. Sorry, I don't have any ideas at the moment.

Update:

1. I believe 'Open file location' always takes you to original source location, not proxy.

2. I tried a setup with .mp4 source and generated a proxy into my proxy location - proxy generated from an UHD clip to an HD resolution (just as you described) and it worked just fine.

This was on my Mac, so of course what you are seeing may have something to do with the Windows version.

The other thing to check is in your Preferences > System > Media Storage and make sure you have the 'Use project setting' set so that you have full control of where it looks for proxies. I haven't played with this but my assumption is that Resolve may be looking for a proxy subfolder below your source based on the System setting even though the proxies where generated elsewhere.

I must say that on my Mac, changing this 'Use project setting' option after the proxy was generated doesn't make any difference but I suppose there is room for error. Just spit-balling here. Sorry.

So I really would like for someone at BMD or otherwise to try and solve this problem.

I deleted all of the proxy files and started over.

For now, I have a very simple question to see if someone will can answer.

If I place a 4k file on my timeline and then tell DR to use the "prefer proxy" clip that has been created,

will the file information in the inspector show the 4k file dimensions or the 1080HD dimensions?

When playing back a proxy file on the timeline, how can I simply confirm that the proxy is playing or not?

Erik

I'm not from BMD, obviously, but I can tell you that the file info in the inspector does NOT show proxy file information when the proxy is active.

Honestly, if there isn't much difference between the proxy and the source as perceived in the viewer, I don't know how you can tell if the proxy is active (by looking at the image) but when the proxy is active, there is a badge in the lower-left portion of the clip on the timeline that indicates 'proxy active'. That's the only way I know.

Having said this, in my test with source footage at UHD and proxy at HD, if I zoom-in on the clip in the viewer, I can see a decreased level of detail in the image when I switch to proxy mode.

From the questions you are asking, I guess my question back to you is "how did you determine that the proxies weren't active in your original post?"

"but when the proxy is active, there is a badge in the lower-left portion of the clip on the timeline that indicates 'proxy active'. That's the only way I know."

Well that's obviously the solution! Thanks very much for pointing out that detail to me Steve. Not sure how I didn't notice that before.

The reason I thought I wasn't getting proxy playback was because the playback was still choppy. I have reduced my proxy format to DnXHD quality and hopefully that will help.

With drone clips, you often have to radically change the speed and/or use speed ramps and that too is a factor in getting smooth enough playback for precise editing to music. (Timeline caching is not real dependable in DR especially when dealing with speed ramping)

Again, huge thanks for pointing out the badge.

Erik

Awesome! Glad I could help, Erik.

If you are dealing with speed changes, it may help if you set the retiming for your project to Blend until you figured out your editing to the music. For final export, choose one of the versions of Optical Flow.