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CC268
CC268
Inspiring
September 23, 2018
Question

Transcode or Proxies?

  • September 23, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 6395 views

Hey guys,

I am a hobbyist who enjoys shooting some drone footage and family video (vacations, etc) - so please keep in mind I don't do this for a living.

I've been trying to determine the best workflow for me and whether or not I should transcode my raw footage to Cineform/DNxHD or just use a Proxy workflow. The problem with transcoding all my raw footage is that the file sizes are massive. I transcoded 63GB of 2K/4K footage to Cineform from my Hawaii family vacation and it was 690GB! That is massive.

It seems to me that for a hobbyist, the proxy workflow might be much more reasonable and certainly more archivable as I am paying for my own external storage and I don't have a customer to simply charge for an external drive for all that footage. My thoughts are that archiving the final render and the raw compressed video (h.264/h.265) is so much more practical than storing 690GB of transcoded footage.

What are your guys' thoughts?

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Kevin J. Monahan Jr.
    Community Manager
    Kevin J. Monahan Jr.Community Manager
    Community Manager
    June 21, 2019

    HI,

    I've been trying to determine the best workflow for me and whether or not I should transcode my raw footage to Cineform/DNxHD or just use a Proxy workflow.

    SInce you are keeping the cost down for the drives you're planning on installing, the Proxy workflow will work just fine.

    That said, you can instead use a hybrid "smart rendering" workflow by changing Sequence Settings' Preview File format for playing back clips with effects better and getting faster exports. In this workflow, you don't need proxies, you just are rendering more files to create files intermediate codecs. Of course, the preview files take time to render and take up a lot of room too!

    Here's a video that explains that hybrid smart rendering workflow I was talking about:

    Let us know if you have any questions.

    Thanks,
    Kevin

    Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
    E
    excited_Genie16B8
    Legend
    September 23, 2018

    I find the Proxy workflow to be ideal for tough to edit footage.  You get easier to edit footage at more manageable sizes.

    Just be sure to use Cineform proxies, not H.264 proxies.

      ardengrier
      ardengrier
      Participant
      June 20, 2019

      Can I ask why cineform instead of h.264 proxies?

      Kevin J. Monahan Jr.
      Community Manager
      Kevin J. Monahan Jr.Community Manager
      Community Manager
      June 21, 2019

      This is so helpful, thank you!

      You're saying you ideally have proxies and transcodes meaning proxies of your transcodes? Or Transcodes in cineform in addition to proxies of your raw files?


      You're saying you ideally have proxies and transcodes meaning proxies of your transcodes? Or Transcodes in cineform in addition to proxies of your raw files?

      Hey, great question.

      I would probably strike the proxies from the transcodes as they would be conformed from the non-standard original files. This is especially the case with frame rates, which can often be variable in Long GOP originals. Color sampling differences would likely take longer for encoding the proxies than if you used the transcodes, as well.

      You might note that you cannot create both transcodes and proxies as a single process in Premiere Pro. It will take 2 passes through Media Encoder. Although, that would be a sweet feature request.

      Thanks,
      Kevin

      Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
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