Proxies, and Why Your Timeline Stutters
Answers what are proxies in video editing
A stuttering timeline gets blamed on the computer, and a new computer is the most expensive possible answer. Four things cause it, and the expensive one is last for a reason.
One: the codec
Modern cameras record compressed long-GOP codecs, which are small on the card and hard to decode. Every frame depends on several others, so scrubbing means decoding a run of frames to show you one.
An editing codec is the opposite: every frame stands alone, and the file is several times bigger. If you are cutting long-GOP footage natively and it stutters, that is not a hardware problem. It is a format mismatch.
Two: the resolution mismatch
Editing 6K footage for a 1080p delivery is four times the work for no visible gain. Set the sequence to the delivery resolution rather than the source resolution.
This costs nothing and fixes more complaints than any upgrade. It is also the fix people skip, because it feels like it should not matter.
Three: the drive
One drive reading the video, writing the cache and running the application is three jobs on one device. The order of priority:
- footage on a fast external or a second internal drive
- cache on a separate fast drive, even a small one
- the application on the system drive
A single spinning drive doing all three is the classic cause of a timeline that stutters and a fan that never stops.
Four: the machine
Genuinely last. If the three above are right and it still stutters, the machine is the answer, and by then you will know exactly what needs to change: usually the drive and the graphics card for decode, rather than the processor.
What proxies actually are
A proxy is a smaller, editing-friendly copy of each clip. Same length, same timecode, lower resolution, an edit codec. The application plays the proxy and uses the original for the export.
Create them for: anything above 4K, long-GOP footage, jobs with several hundred clips, or a machine that is otherwise fine and just cannot keep up.
Do not bother for: a short job in a good codec on a fast drive. Generating proxies is a real wait and it is worth it only when playback is the bottleneck.
Attach them properly. The application must know which proxy belongs to which original. Every editor does this differently and getting it wrong means exporting a proxy, which looks fine on your screen and is 720p in the delivery.
The four-minute checklist before any upgrade
- sequence resolution matches delivery
- cache on a different drive from the footage
- footage on a drive that is not the system drive
- proxies on for anything above 4K
Do those and the stutter usually goes. If it does not, the machine is genuinely the problem and you now know which part.
What this means for a quote
Proxy workflows cost time and the time is real: generating proxies on a large job is a few hours, and those hours are on the invoice or they are absorbed. It is worth knowing whichever side you are on, which is why the handover checklist asks about the frame rate and the codec rather than just the volume.