Can video file proxies be created as a batch outside of the editor?

dalburger11 wrote on 8/10/2015, 3:29 PM

I recently started using Edit Pro 2015. So far I find it to be a big improvement over Pinnacle 17, but there are a few bottlenecks in building a file. Considering the amount of time it can take to build a proxy for large HD video files, the wait time involved in setting up a project with several large files is long, even for a 6-core processor with 16Gb of memory and Windows 8.1. Is there a method for building them in a batch outside of the editor? Also, can the proxy files be located on a disk drive other than the video source drive?

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 8/10/2015, 5:06 PM

AFAIK the answers to both questions are no.

The proxy files get unique filenames, which are created by MEP, which are saved in the project file.

MEP expects the proxies to be in the same folder as the original video - I think this is hard coded in the program - I have not seen any setting in the ini files which control this.

. . . . .Considering the amount of time it can take to build a proxy for large HD video files . . . . .

Cutting the long files into smaller segments may help a little depending on your workflow. However if your workflow includes dragging them all on to the timeline first then editing etc this will not save you any time - in fact it will increase it due to the time spent cutting up the big file.

HTH

John EB

dalburger11 wrote on 8/15/2015, 2:51 PM

I realized that there is a way to accomplish what I want (though not exactly what I asked). I can't set the proxies on a different drive (which would make the proxy process run faster by reducing seeks per disk), but I CAN batch them.

Some background. I am editing several large multi-camera theater projects. For each, I have 3 cameras which are combined for a finished whole. Each camera creates up to 3 files per act, the largest of which are 4 gigabytes.

On my first project, each time I added a file I had to wait while the program created the proxy. I couldn't even add another file until each proxy was complete. As a result, it took me 1.5+ hours just to get the files added, and I had to sit there and wait for each one.

On the next project the first thing I did was go into Settings, Movie and uncheck "Automatically Create Proxy Files." As a result, each file took less than a minute to add the file and create the graphics, allowing me to add and adjust all of the files in about 10 minutes. Then I saved the project, went back into settings, re-checked "Automatically Create Proxy Files" and walked away to work on something else. When I came back a couple of hours later, the proxies were complete and the project was ready for editing.

Dave

Recycler wrote on 8/19/2015, 2:53 PM

Hello Dave:

I have considerable sympathy with your observations! I also use MEP 2015 (Plus) for similar work - up to five 1080P cameras recording concerts in a single take - 2 hours including the interval. When re-muxed off the cameras into the master source files they can well be 16 GB each.

To cut to the chase, I found that making proxies didn't particularly help on my kit (and certainly wasn't worth the wait), and in the end I now work straight from the 1080p AVCHD transport streams. It's not perfect, but it does enable me to use all four multi-cam channels at a time. (MEP doesn't seem able to use much of the available RAM for buffering, so as well as all the number-crunching there's a lot of disc I/O going on) Sometimes I can even get away with monitoring at full resolution, but usually I reduce both the frame rate and resolution.

So I suggest if you haven't yet done any comparative testing to prove the point, don't automatically assume that proxies will be better & should be used!

Regards - Mike -