Blackmagic Proxy Generator and DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Proxy Generator

Blackmagic Proxy Generator is a new application bundled with DaVinci Resolve. The new proxy generator app allows you to automatically create proxy files with very little upfront set up.

When the Blackmagic Proxy Generator is running it will watch selected folders for new videos to be added, when new videos are added to a watch folder the app will automatically process the footage into proxy files and place the proxy files in a proxy folder with the camera original files.

When you start the app it will ask for a location for the first watch folder. you can add more watch folders by hitting the add button at the bottom of the app.

The remove and show buttons at the bottom of the app will do what you expect them to do  for the selected watch folder in the list.

Windows and Mac have different proxy formats available. If you are using the free version of DaVinci Resolve  the application will be called the Blackmagic Proxy Generator light,  this version of the app has fewer available proxy formats.

Once you’re done adding the watch folders to the list you will want to make sure to hit the start button at the top of the app this will begin monitoring the different watch folders for new  videos. When new videos are found within the watch folders list the proxy generator automatically starts processing those files into proxies.

Currently the proxy generator looks in the watch folders every 10-20 seconds.

The extract proxies button is an easy way  to make a copy of the proxy files that have already been created in a selected watch folder this will allow you to pick a new location to have copies of the proxies sent to, this is great for sending a remote editor just the proxy files.

The delete proxy button does pretty much what you think it would do but there are some protections  integrated into this button. When you hit the delete proxies button it will delete all proxies that have the camera originals still present in the watch folder. If any of the camera originals are not still located in the watch folder Blackmagic Proxy Generator will not delete the proxy files as they might be the only thing left if someone accidentally deleted the camera originals.

DaVinci Resolve Proxy Workflow

If you use the proxy generator you will notice that  it create a folder called proxy and inside that folder the proxy files exist this is the folder structure DaVinci Resolve is going to look for when you import clips into DaVinci Resolve.

When adding media into DaVinci Resolve and this proxy folder is present DaVinci Resolve will look inside that folder for proxy files with the same exact name if they exist they will be imported into DaVinci Resolve as proxy connected to the camera originals that you brought into DaVinci Resolve. This workflow makes it super simple since DaVinci Resolve is automatically linking the camera originals with the proxies all we have to do is just bring in the camera originals.

It’s now easy to tell if a video on the timeline or in the media pool has a proxy connected to it by the new icon.

When you’re working on a project that has proxies associated with media you can tell DaVinci Resolve the playback the proxies or the camera originals by these men use the menus are slightly different if you’re on the end of page or the cut page