Too Many Proxies

[Tyler Strasser]

Hey guys

I am thankful for being able to post here and receive real help that I was able to use right away. Thank you guys.

My latest and greatest issue is we have 100 days of footage. This footage comes from Epic, Scarlet, and Dragon. Most is 5k Ana with a few exceptions.

Editing is taking place in Adobe on a hackintosh (haha)

I need to encode proxies here. 100 days of A,B, and C cams for 10hr days. I got this hackintosh encoding day and night - H.264 thru Media Encoder. Problem is, it is taking too long. I’ve tried searching for things like external devices to encode... I’m just now thinking maybe it’s worth upgrading some specs in the pc?

How can I get this moving as fast as possible???

Thank you.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Dont do Media encoder. Dont do H.246

H.246 is not a good editing codec as it´s goop.

Use RCXP or Reoslve. Create prores proxy proxies. And important, dont do full debayer do 1/2 debayer or even if you are in a hurry do 1/4 debayer to 1920 width or such.

And if your footage is not on a raid or such you got a bottle neck reading it from the drives.

If your source drives are slow make sure you read from them only and write to a "proxy source drive" which is faster than your source drive. Then that does not cause any more slowdowns.


also Multiple computers is not a bad thing for such task. Put your laptops or any other kind of computer you have to help fluff those files.

100 days x 10 hours is a lot.

 

[Antony Newman]

Expanding on what (the far more experienced) Bjorn answered:

+) GOP is type of CODEC that is very efficiently (ie highly) compressed - that takes a lot of CPU to decompress.
Not ideal to edit with as the computer uses a lot of its resources just trying to decompress.
https://blog.frame.io/2017/02/15/choose-the-right-codec/

RESOLVE

+) In (Free) Resolve - you can start editing immediately - and get the system to use a lower quality DEBAYER (ie don't use every single RAW pixel) when editing - and in the delivery page (ie to create the final output) - use the default (which is to use the highest level of DEBAYER).

+) You can also Click on PERFORMANCE MODE (which will render and cache the timeline where needed / and improve the playback speed using a lower resolution during playback so you can see whats going on)

+) And you can even choose PROXY mode (OFF / half resolution / Quarter resolution).

The upshot of this is that even with a low powered Laptop - you should be able to edit the footage IMMEDIATELY - and let RESOLVE render footage as you put it in your timeline.

Other options include : You when you are actively editing in the TIMELINE, and have a bin of clips you think you are going to be using - you can SELECT swathes of clips when you have not yet used -> Right click on the and select 'create optimised media'. (although on my system - I would rather just go into PROXY mode at 1/4 the resolution - and later on - turn PROXY mode off allowing RESOLVE to cache the TIMELINE again).

In my current system - I set the Cache FORMAT to be 'Pro-res LT' - and get RESOLVE to cache clips to a 1 TB - FAST SSD.
On my system - that allow a very large amount of of compressed cached clips - and is speedy enough for real time editing.

AJ

 

[Tyler Strasser]

Dont do Media encoder. Dont do H.246

H.246 is not a good editing codec as it´s goop.

Use RCXP or Reoslve. Create prores proxy proxies. And important, dont do full debayer do 1/2 debayer or even if you are in a hurry do 1/4 debayer to 1920 width or such.

And if your footage is not on a raid or such you got a bottle neck reading it from the drives.

If your source drives are slow make sure you read from them only and write to a "proxy source drive" which is faster than your source drive. Then that does not cause any more slowdowns.


also Multiple computers is not a bad thing for such task. Put your laptops or any other kind of computer you have to help fluff those files.

100 days x 10 hours is a lot.

Thank you for this.

Only problem is the prores proxy codec is still too large. I can’t find a way to reduce size. I tried going DNxHD but apparently it’s limited to only square pixel aspect ratio.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Misha Engel]

Thank you for this.

Only problem is the prores proxy codec is still too large. I can’t find a way to reduce size. I tried going DNxHD but apparently it’s limited to only square pixel aspect ratio.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Buy some extra harddrives (with a USB/TB dockingstation) Seagate Ironwolf 8 TB will set you back around $ 250 each.
For the rest what Björn said.

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

Thank you for this.

Only problem is the prores proxy codec is still too large. I can’t find a way to reduce size. I tried going DNxHD but apparently it’s limited to only square pixel aspect ratio.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

ProRes Proxy is still too large? Might not have budgeted enough ahead of time, also making these after everything is shot is tougher than making them as you go along. That said...maybe switching your proxies to 720p at ProRes Proxy will end up being what you need. 300hrs at 720p ProRes Proxy should be about 9tb of storage...which isn't bad considering....300hrs! I'm just guessing that you shot around that much if you shot for 100 days, 3hrs rolling/day (which is high).

 

[Geran Simpson]

There's a great lesson to be learned here. Really shows the importance of having even a simple DIT on-set to transcode dailies for editing as you offload footage, and to back-up the raw. A little invested early can save you a lot down the line. I'd bite the bullet and pay out of pocket for the storage space, then do a PR proxy or DNX transcode...and just start chip chip chipppin away.

 

[paulcurtis]

If you are using PPro proxies then you can create your own ingest and encoding presets using media encoder.

There's no reason you cannot create 540p pro res proxy versions of all your files. Then with PPro you can add a button to the program window to toggle between source and proxy. It's dead easy and works really well. If not prores then DNxHD or something.

The advice about not debayering full res is good but it's more difficult to globally set that. I'd read that it's possible to select a range of shots and change the master details en-mass but i have't looked myself yet.

The proxy system in PPro these days is actually pretty good

cheers
Paul

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Agree with the note that if ProResLT is still too large, you don't have enough storage space for the project. I also join the chorus in advising against H.264 for editorial.

Cheers - #19