Hello awesome community. I’m trying to understand how shotcut recognizes there is already a proxy made for a file, as I seem to be making multiple proxies per converted clip the way I’m doing it (which is wrong most likely!).
Help me do it the right way?
Because of the time it takes to convert clips, I decided to convert clips the day before I’m ready to edit without saving a .mlt file. I set the proxy storage folder to a subfolder named ‘proxies’ within my project folder. Then I drag source clips into playlist and let it generate converted files and proxies at the same time. I thought I could then start an .mlt file, drag in the converted clips and shotcut would find the already generated proxies. That doesn’t seem to be the case, it wants to generate new proxies. Even though I made sure before dragging in clips that the proxy folder was still set as above.
Help me understand why in this scenario shotcut doesn’t recognize there are already proxy files made and how to do this better? I prefer having proxies pre-made so I don’t have to wait while editing, as otherwise I have to edit a stuttering file while the proxy generates.
Thanks to developers for this awesome software and community members willing to help out a newbie.
Based on a hash of a binary subset of the file. See Properties > Proxy > Copy Hash Code. Then, it looks in a proper project folder or app data (or custom folder) for a folder named proxies with a file named based on the hash code.
I set the proxy storage folder to a subfolder named ‘proxies’ within my project folder.
That’s not necessarily the best way. A proper project folder is created using New Project > Start. If you created a proper project folder, all you should do is Settings > Proxy > Storage > Use Project Folder. Otherwise, if you start a new project without doing something special it will start generating proxies in your old project folder. The checkbox makes it track the project folder automatically. Your way does not.
A converted clip does not track its source; it is a new source. It has different bytes and a different hash code. It gets it own proxy. Basically for your workflow, you need to convert before making proxies. You can do that by turning off proxy initially to convert many. Then, turn on proxy. Upon doing so, it will prompt you to generate proxies for them. Admittedly, the combination of conversion and proxy is not great.
Or maybe you do not actually need to convert files and can simplify this.