Vegas Pro 12.0 Question about Proxy files

[Tom Roper]

One of the features of 12.0 is smart proxy editing, described as "Automatically and dynamically replace clips on the timeline with high quality, edit friendly proxies."

Do I have to do anything on my part to make this happen?

[Kim Olsson]

Hi Tom.

In your "Project Media" tab, right click the media file/files you want to create video proxy with and then choose "Create Video Proxy".

Now Vegas Pro 12 will scale down the video and decrease the bitrate and turn it to a more editable format.
I dont exactly what Vegas does under the hood, but this is a guess....
This take a little while depending how many/big files you need to create to proxies...

Vegas will only use this proxy files you have created for editing.. When you are going to render, Vegas will use the original file so you dont have to worry about the quality of your video...

[Tom Roper]

Pretty sweet. Thanks Kim!

[Phil Lee]

Hi

Originally Posted by Kim Olsson

Hi Tom.

In your "Project Media" tab, right click the media file/files you want to create video proxy with and then choose "Create Video Proxy".

Now Vegas Pro 12 will scale down the video and decrease the bitrate and turn it to a more editable format.
I dont exactly what Vegas does under the hood, but this is a guess....
This take a little while depending how many/big files you need to create to proxies...

Vegas will only use this proxy files you have created for editing.. When you are going to render, Vegas will use the original file so you dont have to worry about the quality of your video...

When I tried it proxy editing on 12 it wasn't implemented very well at all. Typical Vegas maybe by version 15!

When you use proxy files in Vegas the file is decompressed to an uncompressed format, I think Sony YUV codec is used, so you get very large files. There is no auto switch back to the originals.

Also when I tried it the proxy files become 24P from a 50P source even though project settings were 50P, so useless, although that might have been a setting mistake somewhere.

Typically what you should get is a proxy file that is easier to edit with lower resolution and/or more severe compression using an easier to compress/decompress codec (i.e. MPEG2 intra frame only), so everything about the proxy is smaller and easier to edit, then on render and seamlessly to the user the original files are used. This is how the likes of even the lowest budget Corel VideoStudio has worked with proxy files for many a year.

The Sony solution is really just half baked and not finished.

Regards

Phil

[Tom Roper]

Nice catch. Where does it save the large uncompressed proxy? In the prerendered files folder? Couldn't you just delete the file if you wanted to not edit by proxy? Weird also about the 24p issue. I didn't look for the proxy or verify the frame rate outside of matching the project properties to the first clip upon inserting it on the timeline. Preview playback seemed nice.

[Kim Olsson]

When Vegas Pro 12 creates the proxy file/files, the files is being put in the folder where you have your original clips in...

I did a test now to create a proxy file, of a file which are 502mb large.. its a 1920x1080p .mov from a canon 60D. The proxy file did become 329mb large... so its getting smaller right..
The proxy file which have been created is like I said, put in the same folder as your original in a container named .sfvp0...
so my media "MVI_1408.mov" created a proxy file named "MVI_1408.MOV.sfvp0"

By the way, my 502mb .mov clip did take 22 sec to create...

[Kim Olsson]

And of course... If you want to delete the proxy, just locate the file/files ".sfvp0" in your folders to erase it...

And Phil Lee, I dont know why it doesnt working for you. I do think the corporation sonymediasoftware does what it does with great results...

I dont really know how sony proxy editing works under the hood exactly.. but according to this site: "http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/software/377686/sony-vegas-pro-12-edit", it says:


"Version 12 introduces a proxy editing mode, which generates 720p MPEG-2 copies of 1080p AVC footage to improve preview performance,
automatically reverting to the original files on export.
The performance boost when running the preview window at 1080p was fairly small; it managed five AVCHD streams without proxies,
and six streams with. However, halving the preview resolution to 960 x 540 gave a more dramatic boost, up from seven to 12 streams on our Core i7-870 PC.

Strangely, 1080p projects can’t be set to use 720p for the preview despite the fact that this is the resolution of the proxy files.
Still, 960 x 540 is fine for most editing tasks, and Vegas Pro is back in pole position for preview performance."



I guess Vegas 12 dont wanna lower on the quality to much just becasuse not to hinder the editing workflow.. I guess..

[Tom Roper]

Thanks Kim.

I do have my preview window set for 960x540, and performance is satisfactory. I do intend to check the file properties of the proxies on the timeline to see if the frame rate is different than what is set in the project properties as Phil noted.

[Kim Olsson]

Glad I could share some useful i formation...

And by the way Phil Lee. About the uncompressed format for editing is what I have read the fastest way to edit in. When using a format which is coded, you end up in alot of decoding for your cpu... But with a uncompressed format you computer dont need to decode and work like a maniac everytime you working with the clip. Its just easier to render for you workflow while working.

I havent tested proxy editing really yet. My cpu is a i7 3770k 4.5Ghz, so I have to wait until I get longer projects before I really need to fully test it fully...

[Marco Ba]

Vegas Pro proxys are not uncompressed, them are 1280x720 MPEG-2 compressed similar to a 35 Mbit/s compression. And them are not just 24p but they always will match exactly the framerate of the source footage.

You can't take the .sfvp0 files to analyse the frame rate. This doesn't work because of the certain properties of the proxy file structure (actually the .sfvp0 files don't have any useful frame rate information because they take it from the source files). You should not use the .sfvp0 files at all. The only use which makes sense is what Vegas automatically does by the given proxy workflow.

[Kim Olsson]

I know the proxy files being created arent compressed. But just to make a point about uncompressed in phils comment. I did refer to an article in my answer from pcpro that its an mpeg-2 stream downscaled to 720p

[Marco Ba]

Sorry, I referred to this:
"When you use proxy files in Vegas the file is decompressed to an uncompressed format, I think Sony YUV codec is used, so you get very large files. There is no auto switch back to the originals."

Both isn't correct. It's not uncompressed and actually there is an easy-to-use auto-switch by just using different preview options.

I find the Vegas Pro proxy workflow is well done and it works pretty fine for me. The only improvement I'd suggest is to make it clearer which clips are already converted and used as proxys.

[Kim Olsson]

Aha ok. Yeah you are right. Should be more clearer which clips have been converted. Some kind of visual sign that the clip has a converted proxy to it... And you should be able to delete the proxy from within vegas and not only from browsing to all your source folders from the explorer..

[Phil Lee]

Hi

Originally Posted by Marco Ba

Sorry, I referred to this:
"When you use proxy files in Vegas the file is decompressed to an uncompressed format, I think Sony YUV codec is used, so you get very large files. There is no auto switch back to the originals."

Both isn't correct. It's not uncompressed and actually there is an easy-to-use auto-switch by just using different preview options.

I find the Vegas Pro proxy workflow is well done and it works pretty fine for me. The only improvement I'd suggest is to make it clearer which clips are already converted and used as proxys.

I would need to try it again to check what is happening, as my first attempt gave me huge proxy files, but then Vegas does do some funny things sometimes. I'm still on 10 for day to day use and can see no compelling reason to upgrade to 12 at the moment, it was also unstable on 12 although there is a new build out so perhaps that has fixed some things.

Ironically proxy files I do not need anymore as AVCHD at 1080/50P works well on my newer machine now, could have done with them before so just did my own.

Regards

Phil