How to Edit 4K Videos using Proxies in Low End PCs [in Premiere Pro] ?
Published on 26 September 2024
Introduction
There is a problem if you have a low end PC and need to edit 4K videos. But there is a way out.
Video editing using proxies solves this problem to a great extent. Now what are these ‘proxies’?
Proxies are simply the clones or copies of the original video clips or files at a lower resolution of quality. But why they are needed?
Suppose, you have an entry level or mid level edit terminal and you got the original rushes at 4K which is way higher in size than the Full Frame High Definition i.e. 1920X1080. Would you turn down the assignment ?
Certainly not. You have to resize the files for editing on your editing system with a relatively modest specification. Now before we approach to editing 4k videos, let just go through the sizes of the videos in the range of HD, 2K and 4K.
I have compiled this for your using some external resource viz. Wiki. Just explore a bit more further if you want to have a thorough understanding of all the video sizes.
But for our purpose learning how to edit 4k videos using proxies in a low end PC or edit system, we’ll narrow down to the range of HD (High Definition) to 4K when it come to using the video footage or clips for this article.
When you get the rushes after shooting, it’s important to generate proxies by converting them into lower resolution files, perform your video editing using those proxies and then export master to the desired video resolution.
It’s particularly important to learn how to use proxies when you have the task of hi res video editing in entry level computer. So let’s get straight into the business.
We shall Referring to Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2022 and DaVinci Resolve 19 for the purpose of this article.
Table of Contents
Editing 4K Videos using Proxies in Premiere Pro
Recently I have made an Industrial film where we had to extensively shoot inside the plant and its periphery. We had to use drone to capture the plant from higher up. While the footage we took using a DSLR was 1080p, the footage captured through the Drone was 4K. Here are a few glimpses.
What is the need of editing 4K videos using proxies?
In a low end or entry level PC, 4K footage doesn’t play seamlessly at their original resolution. They strobe or pause frequently. Why does this happen. Because a low end PC usually has a weak CPU that fails to transfer video data at an adequate pace to make the playback smooth.
This results in a jittered or interrupted play back of the video. There comes the need of using proxies or copies of the original rushes or footage downsized at a lower resolution. These newly converted, downsized and low res copies are knows as proxies.
Proxies run smoothly means there is a smooth playback during editing 4K Videos. The idea is to edit 4K videos using proxies all through the post-production and when the final cut is finished, you export at the original resolution detaching the proxies.
It’s simple and easy involving only a few steps. So let’s dive in.
1. Get your 4K footage into the Project Panel and Test a Play Back
You create a Bin for each item separately like Clips or Rushes in HD or 4K, Graphics, Images sequences, Audio etc. I usually do this way. In this particular project, we had our B-rolls in HD, 1080p in 50 FPS, while the Drone shots were in 4K and 59.94 FPS.
Even If you have an advanced system set up, you can use this methods for an optimal usage of system resources without having deployed its potential to the maximum possible extent.
Thing is, if you test a play back with these 4K clips at with their original resolution or quality, you’ll see the hardware mostly fails to produce a seamless play back.
This holds for all the PCs with entry or mid level configuration. I have a Core i5 9th Gen Processor with Base frequency @ 2.9 GHz and Turbo Speed up to 4.1 GHz, an NVIDIA 1050 Ti 4GB GPU and 48 Gigs RAM.
Pretty basic, right! For editing 4K Videos? That’s where use of proxies becomes obvious. So let’s do what next, creating Proxies for playing back and editing as well as playing them back without any problem.
2. Create Proxies for editing 4K Videos in Premiere Pro – You Need Media Encoder Installed
As we have already discussed that the proxies are nothing but the low resolution clones or copies of the High Res clips or footage. The idea is to edit the 4K videos using proxies or the low res copies and then once the editing is over, you get the master or export the final output using the original or full quality resolution files.
But before creating the proxies, there is another thing we must be aware of. You must have Adobe Media Encoder Installed in your PC along with the Premiere Pro for creating proxies.
2.1 Install Adobe Media Encoder – Find the version compatible with the Installed Premiere Pro
If you don’t have Media Encoder or ME installed in your system, just go and search online to get the installer of the version compatible with your Premiere Pro. You could visit Adobe for downloading a trial version. Now, why this program is needed ?
Creating proxies is a process when high res or original 4K clips are converted into the lower clones. During this process, which we’re about see shortly, Premiere instantly calls Media Encoder, through something called ‘Dynamic Link’ for batch rendering. If you don’t have the program or ME installed, the process will be aborted. Premiere Pro doesn’t do this batch rendering itself.
Media Encoder is nothing but a render engine developed by the Adobe that you can use for rendering from a host software like Premiere Pro or After Effects.
So now that you have your ME installed, we’re now about to go and create the proxies.
2.2 Select the clips in Premiere Pro & Create Proxies
Get to your Bin containing the clips in 4K. Press Shift and select all the clips in the Bin and Right Click.
Proxy > Create Proxies
2.3 Select the Format and Preset for Proxy Setting Inside Premiere Pro & the Destination
There are two different option for proxy format, h.264 and QuickTime. I prefer QuickTime while I have selected Cineform Low Resolution Proxy as the Preset. You can play around with different settings.
The idea is to strike a break even of quality and Proxy file size. The quality must not by so poor that it poses display issues while playing back and forth. Also going higher on quality may significantly eat up your hard drive space.
You can choose your destination as you wish. Since Premiere Pro accesses its media files through linking and not converting, keeping the proxies along side with the original rushes will make it fetch the media files faster. So I chose ‘Next to Original Media, in Proxy Folder’.
It will pop up a dialogue box showing that the ‘Creating Proxy Jobs’ in progress as below.
Once this process of queuing is finished, Media Encoder will immediately launch for Batch Rendering.
2.4 Media Encoder Launches – Batch Rendering to Create Proxies for editing 4K Videos
This process of Batch Rendering in Media Encoder is at the core of editing 4K videos using proxies.
if you closely watch, the proxies created do have File Names like xxx_xx_proxy.mov inside the proxy folder. If you go the media folder containing the original rushes, you’ll see the proxy folder.
The proxies made in this case do have much lower resolutions like 1024 X 540 requiring hardly any GPU resource for their play back. Once the batch rendering is over, you may quit Media Encoder.
The movie thumbnails shown are original files while the ‘Proxies’ folder contains the proxy files. Now the question is two different types of media at our disposal how do we make Premiere Pro lets us select Proxy or the Originals as we wish!
That’s the thing we’ll see in the next section.
2.5 How to select and use the Proxies while editing 4K video in Premiere Pro?
Under the Program Monitor for viewing the Time line or Sequence, there are a few buttons for different operation. Here you have to add one button to call the proxies as and when necessary.
- Click on the Button Editor in the bottom right area of the Program Monitor.
- Get the ‘Toggle Proxies’ button from the Button Editor fly out as shown in the above image by hovering the mouse.
- Drag the icon to somewhere at the bottom of the Program Monitor.
This button for ‘Toggle Proxies’ lets you select and deselect the proxy files while editing 4k video in Premiere Pro. There is no reason why shouldn’t keep this button selected until the editing is over.
You may test playing back the 4K files and their proxies by toggling on and off to check how seamless a playback is when you switch to the proxies.
Once the editing is over and you’re set to export the file for your client, just toggle off the button for ‘Toggle Proxies’ to reconnect with the original or full quality files.
2.6 Export or Delivery or Output
Now you’re at the final stage. You just need to toggle off the button that we assigned brought in to our program monitor from the Button Editor Menu. Just Turn off the Toggle Proxies Button and you’re set to export at the full quality.
Yes, it’s that simple and this is all about how to edit 4K videos using proxies in Premiere Pro.
Pro Tip: Drag over the Clips to check if all the proxies generated are at Work!
You could drag and place all the clips on timeline. Move the play head back and forth along the timeline. See if all the clips are playing back and forth fast. If yes, all the proxies are at work. If not, then somewhere the original files are linked. Premiere Pro usully pops us message to link in such cases.
Just locate and link the proxy files from the folder and you’re done.
Conclusion
Although this piece tells you how to edit 4K videos using proxies, you can even consider applying these techniques on a laptop for editing HD videos, in case the system falls short of rising up to a fast HD editing online.
Video editors all over the world still prefer edit terminals, either Mac or PCs, for their work, irrespective of whether they’re working on a Big shot production house or wearing shorts in an apartment corner.
Laptops are still seen lagging behind when it comes to the full fledged video editing let along 4K videos. This is partly due to the fact that in a laptop you don’t have much options to add high end GPUs and other add-ons, while on the other hand, video editing generates significant amount of heat that requires fast dissipation.
This dissipation of heat can me attained much more efficiently on an edit terminal or workstation than a laptop.
So in a nutshell, you can use these techniques to do video editing even when you’re traveling. Using proxies lets you have the opportunities to become Digital Nomad.
In the continuing part of this piece, I shall write on editing 4k videos in DaVinci Resolve using proxies which can be done on a low end PC or a laptop.
Stay tuned and please don’t forget to share this article if you find this useful.