Apple ProRes proxies still get yellow render preview bar in timeline

[martinc1656642]

From an H264 file, I created Apple ProRes proxies (size and all other settings same as original except for codec) for a smoother editing.
With the proxy toggled ON (so the Prores proxy is active) I still get yellow in the "render preview" bar of the timeline. Why? The proxy is Apple ProRes. 
As the attached screenshot shows, if I import the actual proxy file, as a regular file, into the project and place it in the same timeline as the H264 one (this one with the proxy ON), I get no color in the "render preview" bar for the importded proxy file BUT I still get yellow on "render preview" for the original clip. - again, this one with proxy ON.
Why, based on the render preview bar, does it appear that the imported proxy file should have better playback than the original clip with proxies ON? 

Thank you, 

[Phillip Harvey]

I don't know this definitively, but this is what my brain is telling me:

When you render the timeline it's going to be rendering the source file. In the case of your proxy-attached file, that's your H264 clip.

I would also add that if you are making proxies and attaching them via Premiere, you don't need to keep the resolution the same as the original. You should still get the benefits of an intraframe codec, but the bitrate is going to scale with the frame size, so the bitrate of your high res proxies is a lot higher than you need it to be.

[martinc1656642]

Phillip, thanks for your response.
Based on my understanding of this article I found (link) it seems the "render bar" in the timeline is mainly an indicator for rendering previews for playback. Nonetheless, like you said, I understand I can also use those previews to encode/export if I want.

The reason I create the "highest quality" proxies I can create is because we'll be doing some "pixel peeping" in editing by keying, using masks, etc... BUT we don't want the computer to struggle. 
With that said, we'll delete the proxies and keep the originals for archiving purposes. 

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Martin,

Sorry about that. Can you test the performance with the Dropped Frames Indicator? Are you getting any dropped frames even though you have a Yellow Bar? 

Thanks,
Kevin

[martinc1656642]

Kevin,
No need to aplogize as I don't know if the yellow bar is the expected behavior for Premiere when ProRes proxies are ON.
The Dropped Frames Indicator shows green at regular forward/backward playback regardless if the proxies are ON or OFF. 
I only have one clip in this project currenlty so I understand the computer may not be choking with either ProRes or H264. My concern is in the future when this project becomes large. 
Seeing the yellow bar with the ProRes proxies OFF or ON and then seeing no colors on the bar when a ProRes file is brought into the same timeline is what triggered my concern. 
Thank you Kevin,