Conditional Proxies

Suggestion
1

I am using Shotcut Version 25.01.25 and I have the Option “Use Proxy” enabled.

I have Source Videos Files that differ in Size and Length. Some only 2 GB in Size but other 160 GB in Size.

But Shotcut would creates proxies for both of these cases, even if the smaller Video File is perfectly usable for me without having a Proxy. Shotcut even creates Proxies for Images no matter the Size.

Would it be possible to implement a basic conditional filter for the File-Size to specifiy for which Files a Proxy should be created?

2

I think conditional proxies have been mentioned recently. What is the use case for a conditional proxy due to file size? Proxy is generally used due to the type of media rather than size, i.e. 4k video causing too many skipped frames

3

I can’t see any Options to restrict Proxies to File Types like you said in the current Shotcut Version.

The Usecase would be that Shotcut would not need any rendering on small Source/Input Files which can be easily edited. So no unnessecary Render-Time, no Files clocking up Space on my Drive and Video-Files directly usable after Import and no Project-Reload due to the Proxies need to replace the Video Files in Timeline.

But that doesn’t mean that if I can edit a 2 GB File easily in Shotcut due to my Setup that everyone can use them directly without a Proxy being rendered beforehand. So we would need an Option-Switch for the Proxies and no general Implementation of a Size-Boundary.

And I mean if I can setup the Proxies to be only rendered by some options (not only File Size) why not.

4

I never said the current version (or any other version) had proxy file type restrictions.

Someone had previously mentioned proxy-on-a-per-videofile selectable option (which would possibly cover all use-cases as well as yours)

Okay on your use case. I still don’t understand why file size impacts no-proxy editing but like you say, you feel you would benefit from that, then maybe the devs will implement it.

5

No-Proxy Editing on File Size matters because Shotcut need to load the Bytes from File/Disk. So if the File is bigger (more bytes) Shotcut needs longer to search for the respective bytes.

But if the File is small enough then one would not need a proxy becaus eShotcut is fast enough to handle the original source file.

6

I’m more inclined to think that video editing is more to do with the amount of data that can be processed by CPU/GPU pipeplines than any relevance to file size.

For example, a 10 hour 720p video will probably be bigger file size (say 10-40GB) than a 10 second 8k video (say 100-500MB), yet the 8k video will probably require proxies more so than the 720p video.

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7

I’m not sure this logic holds up. HEVC makes a smaller file than H.264. Complex math is why the HEVC file is smaller, and why the HEVC file will stutter in preview, and why the smaller HEVC file is the one that needs a proxy. The larger H.264 file will likely play back fine without a proxy due to simpler decompression math.

If anything, I could understand conditional proxies by codec of the source video, but even that is insufficient. H.264 with GOP 1 is very different than GOP 200, so it’s still safer to simply proxy everything.

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8

Hm okay. That made sense, thanks guys.

For me it was like that a Proxy creates a smaller and compressed file optimized for Shotcut.

Then this was (half) true. Hm, then I would just go by the option to use the Proxy.

Thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

To avoid making a proxy for a specific file you must first open it in the Source player instead of Playlist or Timeline. Then, in Properties disable proxy before adding it to Playlist or Timeline. As for conditions there are some builtin based on resolution relative to preview scaling or 540 height of preview scaling is not turned on. This is in the docs.

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