Davinci Resolve – Working with Proxies – New Way available in version 17 and 18Beta

These days I tried to optimize my work flow so I decided to learn a new way of creating and handling proxies. As far as I know this method was introduced in Davinci Resolve 17 and still exists in the new beta version 18.

I am currently using mostly this method because it’s a lot easier than the previous one, which I have been using for a while – conforming bins, locking files, digging between folders on my storage devices, all this is in the past. Everything happens in the program itself. You don’t need to get outside of it, which is a huge advantage on my opinion. And the other reason is because it gives more proxy codec options in comparison to the newly “proxy generator” introduced in DR 18.

Fortunately all these “finger gymnastics” are in the past because most of these processes are automatically generated and linked trough the AI of DR 17/18.

As usual I am going to put minimalistic explanations and images of the process.

First, Open a project into Davinci Resolve. For the sake of this tutorial I am just using an Untitled Project.

Select the COG icon in the right bottom part of the interface. This icon leads to the project settings.

In the Project Settings go to Master Settings and look for the sub menu called Working Folders. This is important step because it’s good to define new folder where DR is going to generate the proxy files. You can always use the default. The files of my operational system are located in “C” partition, so I prefer to save the proxies in another section. In my case it’s called “I”.

The next step is to look the sub section called Optimized Media and Render Cache. On the image you can see my preferable proxy settings which I’ve found are best for my working station.

After that you can go to the Media window of the DR Panel, drag your video file into the Media Pool – my video file is in this place right now. You can choose to generate proxy media with right click on the desirable file. This can happen only if you have dragged your video file into the Media Pool.

When the generation of the proxy is done, you can go and check (this is optional) your proxy folder on your hard drive for the new proxy file.

Or you can go to the edit page and start working on your video. If you see the icon encircled with the green mark, than this is a certain indication that you are using the proxy and not your original file right now.

This icon also appears when you are on the edit page and you are selecting or dragging your files to the timeline.

You can alternate between your proxies and your original video files by selecting Proxy Handling -> Prefer Proxies or Prefer Camera Originals. These menu’s are located under the main menu called Playback.

The next step is optional but as always you can go to Timeline Proxy Resolution (also under the main menu Playback) and use one of the following options in case you want to run even smoother the video in your timeline. I am usually choose the Half version while I am doing the video editing.

Finally when you are done with any kind of edits, you can go to export, pick your desirable export codec and push the render button. DR automatically is switching to render your final video file using the original video instead of your proxy.

That’s for today’s tutorial. I hope it can be useful for you.

Have a nice day.