**The Power of Proxy Media in Final Cut Pro**

When working with high-resolution footage on a machine like the MacBook with a Core M processor, it can be challenging to navigate and edit video smoothly. This is where proxy media comes in – a technique that allows you to work with lower-resolution versions of your footage, making editing and playback much faster.

To start using proxy media in Final Cut Pro, you first need to ensure that the transcoding option for importing new media is set to include "Create Proxy Media". This setting will automatically generate lower-resolution versions of your footage, which will be used as proxies during the editing process. By doing so, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to navigate and edit your video.

For example, let's say you're working with 4K footage on your MacBook. If you were to import this footage directly into Final Cut Pro without creating proxy media, you would be limited by the Core M processor's capabilities. This would result in choppy playback and slower editing performance. However, by creating proxy media for your 4K footage, you can effectively work with half-resolution versions of these files, which will allow you to navigate and edit your video much more smoothly.

To create proxy media, simply select the footage you want to use as a proxy, go to the "File" menu, and click on "Import Settings". Then, in the "Import Settings" window, make sure that the "Transcoding" option is selected, and choose "Create Proxy Media" from the dropdown menu. You can also manually create proxy media by right-clicking on your footage and selecting "Create Proxy Media" from the context menu.

Another benefit of using proxy media is that it will reduce the amount of disk space required for your project. When you import original high-resolution footage, Final Cut Pro needs to store this data on your hard drive or SSD. By creating lower-resolution proxies, you can free up disk space and work with a more manageable file size.

However, there are some downsides to using proxy media. One of the main drawbacks is that it will require processing power to create these lower-resolution versions of your footage. This can be particularly noticeable when working on long projects or with large amounts of footage. As you can see in the video provided, creating proxy media requires significant CPU resources, which may slow down your MacBook's performance.

Despite this limitation, using proxy media is still an effective way to improve editing and playback performance on machines like the MacBook. To get the most out of proxy media, make sure to export your final project as a high-resolution file, rather than attempting to export it while in proxy view. This will ensure that you capture all the details and nuances of your footage, without sacrificing quality.

In conclusion, proxy media is a powerful tool for improving editing and playback performance on machines like the MacBook. By creating lower-resolution versions of your footage, you can reduce the time it takes to navigate and edit your video, as well as free up disk space. While there are some limitations to using proxy media, including the requirement for processing power, it remains an effective technique for working with high-resolution footage on a less powerful machine.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enusing proxy media to edit 4k video on the MacBook I love my macbook it's one of my favorite Apple products in a very long time but there's no denying that it has some challenges when handling processor intensive tasks like video editing for instance now with exporting it's perfectly fine because exporting uses own chip hardware encoding whereas everything else with regard to editing video browsing through out the timeline etc can be a little stressful to the core M processor so I'm going to show you how to use proxy media to make editing browsing throughout the timeline adding effects make that all a lot smoother so the first thing I want to do here is make sure I have create proxy media checked under the transcoding option on the import panel and then I'm going to create a new event and I'll just call it u ero to alright and instead of importing all of the files I'm actually just going to limit this to two files so these two initial video files will have proxy media created upon import alright so I'm going to just click import select it all right and those are importing right now now I'm going to select the other three files and I'm going to uncheck create proxy media so when these import proxy media will not be created just the original files will be imported there so one of the disadvantages of using proxy media is that it takes time to transcode the original files into proxy and what proxy files are basically are the original video files down simple they're basically half resolution files so that it works much smoother in the timeline you're not trying to work with full 4k or 1080p files and just remember that these new proxy files are taking up space on your hard drive as well so you're basically not doubling the amount of space taken up but there is additional space required because you're creating brand-new files now I have inserted all four or all five of the video files the original media video files that means these are full 4k files into the timeline and you can see how choppy it is like for instance when you move the playhead you to see it kind of jerk and when you're trying to scrub through the timeline it's just not smooth and it's it feels like it's way down under the the limitations of that core M processor in the MacBook it's just not smooth at all not anything like working on an iMac or some other more powerful machine that is much better at handling video and editing video but that's where proxy media comes into play so if we select that file that first file click info under the inspector you'll see that there is proxy media available for that file and for this one because we selected them to create proxy media upon import now the other three files do not have proxy media you can of course create them after the fact by right-clicking selecting transcode media selecting create proxy media and then clicking ok or you can just click generate proxy media within the info tab of the inspector as well now here's another downside of creating proxy media like I said it does use system resources so it will require processing power because you are creating brand-new files and you can see right now it's kind of loading here creating that new file using the CPU taxing your machine a little bit and also it's going to use more space because it's creating new files now if we click the View button and then select proxy under media it's going to force the timeline it's going to force the viewer to display proxy media only so you can see those three media files the little red where it says missing proxy that's saying that because there's no proxy media available just yet but now watch what happens when I convert that eventually it's going to display because it's been converted that original file has been converted to a proxy file and we're going to do the same thing for those last two files here so it's no longer going to say missing proxy once I create proxy media for those last two files so I can just click here in the browser select that file and then under the info tab of the inspector click generate proxy for both files and it's going to create those proxy files now I've sped this up a little bit so it's not exactly one-to-one how long it's going to take for you obviously it depends on your source media how big that source media is as to how long it's going to take to transcode and create those new proxy files but as you can see here we have the entire timeline now contains proxy media and just observe how much quicker it is to go through the timeline move our playhead media starts playing instantly because it's half resolution so not nearly as taxing as those full 4k files now make sure that you do not try to export media while in proxy view because it's going to produce an inferior file so you want to go back to the view button go back to optimize original under media and go back to original media before exporting think of it like this original media is for exporting and proxy media is for the actual editing process because it's much easier to edit with lesser resolution files a while on a lesser machine than it is to work with the original media so can you edit 4k video and Final Cut Pro tin on a machine like the MacBook yes you can if you harness the power of proxy mediausing proxy media to edit 4k video on the MacBook I love my macbook it's one of my favorite Apple products in a very long time but there's no denying that it has some challenges when handling processor intensive tasks like video editing for instance now with exporting it's perfectly fine because exporting uses own chip hardware encoding whereas everything else with regard to editing video browsing through out the timeline etc can be a little stressful to the core M processor so I'm going to show you how to use proxy media to make editing browsing throughout the timeline adding effects make that all a lot smoother so the first thing I want to do here is make sure I have create proxy media checked under the transcoding option on the import panel and then I'm going to create a new event and I'll just call it u ero to alright and instead of importing all of the files I'm actually just going to limit this to two files so these two initial video files will have proxy media created upon import alright so I'm going to just click import select it all right and those are importing right now now I'm going to select the other three files and I'm going to uncheck create proxy media so when these import proxy media will not be created just the original files will be imported there so one of the disadvantages of using proxy media is that it takes time to transcode the original files into proxy and what proxy files are basically are the original video files down simple they're basically half resolution files so that it works much smoother in the timeline you're not trying to work with full 4k or 1080p files and just remember that these new proxy files are taking up space on your hard drive as well so you're basically not doubling the amount of space taken up but there is additional space required because you're creating brand-new files now I have inserted all four or all five of the video files the original media video files that means these are full 4k files into the timeline and you can see how choppy it is like for instance when you move the playhead you to see it kind of jerk and when you're trying to scrub through the timeline it's just not smooth and it's it feels like it's way down under the the limitations of that core M processor in the MacBook it's just not smooth at all not anything like working on an iMac or some other more powerful machine that is much better at handling video and editing video but that's where proxy media comes into play so if we select that file that first file click info under the inspector you'll see that there is proxy media available for that file and for this one because we selected them to create proxy media upon import now the other three files do not have proxy media you can of course create them after the fact by right-clicking selecting transcode media selecting create proxy media and then clicking ok or you can just click generate proxy media within the info tab of the inspector as well now here's another downside of creating proxy media like I said it does use system resources so it will require processing power because you are creating brand-new files and you can see right now it's kind of loading here creating that new file using the CPU taxing your machine a little bit and also it's going to use more space because it's creating new files now if we click the View button and then select proxy under media it's going to force the timeline it's going to force the viewer to display proxy media only so you can see those three media files the little red where it says missing proxy that's saying that because there's no proxy media available just yet but now watch what happens when I convert that eventually it's going to display because it's been converted that original file has been converted to a proxy file and we're going to do the same thing for those last two files here so it's no longer going to say missing proxy once I create proxy media for those last two files so I can just click here in the browser select that file and then under the info tab of the inspector click generate proxy for both files and it's going to create those proxy files now I've sped this up a little bit so it's not exactly one-to-one how long it's going to take for you obviously it depends on your source media how big that source media is as to how long it's going to take to transcode and create those new proxy files but as you can see here we have the entire timeline now contains proxy media and just observe how much quicker it is to go through the timeline move our playhead media starts playing instantly because it's half resolution so not nearly as taxing as those full 4k files now make sure that you do not try to export media while in proxy view because it's going to produce an inferior file so you want to go back to the view button go back to optimize original under media and go back to original media before exporting think of it like this original media is for exporting and proxy media is for the actual editing process because it's much easier to edit with lesser resolution files a while on a lesser machine than it is to work with the original media so can you edit 4k video and Final Cut Pro tin on a machine like the MacBook yes you can if you harness the power of proxy media\n"