Edit Video FAST on a SLOW Computer! - Codecs, Transcoding, and Proxies

Do you have a older, slower computer? Or maybe a brand-new laptop that is a bit lacking in the CPU/GPU department? This video is here to help.

In this video we start by discussing the reason that most DSLR, mirrorless, drone, and smartphone footage is so hard to edit: the codec. These devices (for the most part) all shoot in the H.264 or H.265 codec, which is really good for creating small files that fit nicely onto a memory card, but really bad at being edited.

The reason is that in order to edit the footage, all of the frames need to be rendered and with the H.264 or H.265 codecs only a small fraction of the frames are pre-rendered in the file. You CPU or GPU needs to take up the slack. Even on my very well equipped editing desktop, I still can't get smooth playback on my 4K 60FPS H.264 drone footage.

So, how do we fix it? Two solutions. One is to transcode all of the footage from H.264/265 into something more edit-friendly like Apple ProRes, or DNxHR. Both of these codecs have much larger file sizes, but require much less rendering from the computer. If you want to transcode all of your footage into one of these more friendly codecs, it makes editing easy, but keep in mind that the file size of your transcoded clips will be 3x-5x that of the original.

Another solution is to use proxies. Proxies are smaller, more edit-friendly versions of your clips. As an example, you can create a Apple ProRes 1280x720p version of your original 4K H.264 clip that will be used when you are editing in premiere and will result in much smoother playback. For most people, this is the preferred option and it's also the option we are going to discuss in-depth in this video.

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Gear Used for this video:

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[forestchaput]

Transcoding all of your footage, or creating proxies. Which do you prefer?

[joelsunny]

The best video on YouTube on this topic imo. Thank you

[stellarstella]

The most helpful, comprehensive and clear-explaining tutorial ever. Looking for this knowledge for the whole afternoon yet still confused and now I finally get it.

[sg-hu]

Wow! Best video ever about codecs & proxies! Was wondering about how it all worked and how to do it for a very long time. This makes it crystal clear!

[mickeyoern]

Needed a solution to painfully slow H.264 4k 60 fps editing. Searched on Youtube. Found Rocky Mountain School of Photography.
Listened to the eloquent solution presented to solve the problem. And subscribed with an appreciation for the good communication.

[Mickspad]

Thank you for this, before this video I actually was transcoding all of my media to ProRes Proxies instead of using Proxies because I didn't know how it worked so I wasn't reducing video quality at all, and still just used up hundreds of gigabytes for like an hour of footage

[imAgentR]

This is the video I didn't ask for, but the one I desperately needed. A solid Like from me. The QoL for my editing has just improved over 9000! Thanks for sharing this information; such a game changer!

[slimyelow]

Wow, I wish I had known ALL THAT a few weeks ago when struggling and getting really irritated with Premiere. Thanks a lot for this - keep up the great work!

[nmbopes]

Awesome. Thanks for the help. Knownledge is everything 💪

[marykirmo]

I am so glad I found this video. I was riding that struggle bus and a good thorough walk through like this. THANKS! SO MUCH!!

[FroZenLQud]

Fantastic video! I got a 3090 recently and started recording in 4k 60fps and was shocked to see how laggy editing became in comparison to previous 2k footage. Had no idea what codecs really were about, let alone proxies, but you explained everything so clearly even for a hobbyist editor, got me really hyped up to keep editing!

[jaybillups]

Thanks, very helpful. I was using h.264 for my proxies and not getting the most benefits. I just changed my presets and adjusted my workflow thanks to your info.

[sbday]

Most excellent video and great explanation. You are now my favourite Youtuber. Just the facts. A couple questions if you would be so kind. About transcoding from the dreaded H.264 and .265 to pro res. 1. If I shoot 4K or 5.4K at 23.976 or 29.97 HLG or D-Log on my DJI Air 2S what flavour of Pro Res would you transcode to to preserve quality? ie. HQ, LT etc. 2. Second, some of my Drone footage is 23.98 and some 29.97 and some 59.97(60fps) Playback stutters depending on settings of timeline ie 23.976 stutters on a 29.97 timeline and vide versa. "Interpret footage" works kind of OK but a real pain. Can I do it just in the timeline ? What do you do here? In Avid I might just Transcode my final sequence footage to save space only but I haven't found out how to do that in Premiere yet. Again thanks . Note I have the M1 Mac Studio and H.264 and .265 still stinks at 4K and 5.4K but more tolerable than my older iMac. Also SSD drives. Does Rocky Mountain School of Photography have a football team?

[paulrobinson]

This video was very helpful. Thank you so much! Keep up the good work.

[justim]

good video. exactly what i was looking for.

[sonyazh]

Thank you so much! Very clearly explained, got it straight away! x ( little note: it would be nice to see how the proxy folder looks like as U`ve mentioned it but didn't show) Still super grateful for this video, very helpful! :)

[marcusmars]

Bro thank you very much, this helped a lot. God Bless ☮🙏🏼

[alexandrepiche]

Amazing information! I'm new to video editing and this will serve me well! Thanks a lot.

[Rahman]

thanks for the video! This was exactly what I'm looking for!

[MabawaVocal]

THE BEST TEACHER EVER, I NEVER HAD TO REWIND TO UNDERSTAND, YOU EXPLAIN THINGS STRAIGHT FORWARD, IM A SUBSCRIBER, NEXT CAN YOU SHOW HOW TO SOFTEN SKING IN MUSIC VIDEOS OR IN ANY VIDEO? THANKS