Speed Up Editing and Reduce Lag with Proxy Editing in Shotcut

I’m just a normal person with no video editing background who wanted to start making YouTube

videos and maybe add semi-fancy effects.

I don’t really plan on making major motion pictures or commercials, so I was looking

for a free, easy-to-learn video editing software.

Luckily, I stumbled on Shotcut, a free, open-source video editing program that has

the potential to replicate similar effects that an Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve

can, but with a simpler, leaner interface.

It just takes imagination.

So let’s learn together.

So first and foremost, before I even show you any tips, I want to show you my settings.

Because a lot of times, all you have to do is set these settings to the correct

position and it will dramatically speed up your edits.

Now I’m not saying that these are the ideal settings to speed up your editing.

All I’m saying is these are my settings.

So I want to show you what I have configured.

So first and foremost, when you look down, I have real-time frame dropping checked.

I have progressive checked.

Typically, when I’m editing, I usually set the preview scaling to 360p.

I have my deinterlacer set to one field fast.

My interpolation is nearest neighbor fast.

Let me see.

My display method, I just have it at automatic.

And I think that’s it.

And a lot of times, if you change it to those settings,

it can dramatically speed up your edit.

Hope that helps.

OK, so let’s talk about what I believe is the biggest game changer in terms of

speeding up your edit in the newest version of Shotcut, which is Shotcut

version 20.06.28.

So if you don’t have this version, go to shotcut.org.

Download the newest version and make sure you have it installed.

And so with this newest version, it now allows you the functionality of using proxy files.

And I know a lot of us at the forums, we’ve been waiting for this for years,

we’ve been requesting it, and now it’s finally here.

And for the individuals who don’t know what a proxy file is, it’s basically this.

So say you’ve added a bunch of 4K files in your playlist.

And typically, when you drag those on the timeline, depending on how fast your

computer is, you’ll experience a certain degree of stuttering.

Only because the files are so huge, and it takes a lot of processing

power for your computer to process those large files.

Aside from that, you start stacking different things like transitions and filters.

It just takes a lot for your computer to be able to render all of those things.

And so what a proxy file does is it creates replacements.

And basically proxies, it creates a smaller version of the 4K file.

So for example, it switches your, it creates a version of one 4K file and

turns it into a 360p file.

And so essentially what you’re gonna end up doing is you’re gonna do your

edits on a 360p version of your 4K files.

And once you’re done doing all your edits and transitions and sound

tracks and everything, you then click something and it automatically switches

all the proxy files into their original 4K versions.

And I can tell you, having used proxy files for a long time,

editing proxy files are a lot faster and it’s just buttery smooth

compared to editing 4K files.

And that’s typically, if you’ve ever used Adobe Premiere,

if you’ve used all the other advanced software,

that’s typically what they do is they do their edits on a proxy file.

And then once they’re ready to export, they then switch it back to the original.

And so on and so forth.

And so with this version, I’m just going to show you how to

edit using proxy file, at least how to activate or how to utilize proxy files to

dramatically, I’m not just saying speed up your edits.

I’m talking about dramatically speeding up your edit.

It’s gonna be buttery smooth.

So in this new version, if you go to settings,

you’re gonna notice there is a new choice called proxy.

And there’s a checkbox there that says use proxy or F4.

And I think that’s pretty cool.

First and foremost, before you even check that checkbox,

what I would suggest is you go into the storage part of it and

set the project folder, otherwise it uses this default folder.

And for the life of me sometimes, I can’t find where the proxy folder is.

So what I’m gonna do this time around is I’m gonna set the folder so

that this is basically where it saves all the proxy files.

And I’m just going to create a new folder here on my desktop and

I’m gonna call it proxy.

And I’m gonna use that as my proxy folder so

that when I’m done with my edit and when I’m finished with this job,

all I need to do is delete all the proxy files.

Cuz even though they’re small, it still takes up space in your computer.

And so once I’ve set the proxy folder,

I’m now gonna go into proxy again.

And I’m gonna check the use proxy checkbox or F4.

So you’re gonna get this prompt initially and it’s gonna ask you,

do you wanna create missing proxies for every file in this project?

You must reopen your project after all proxy jobs are finished.

So just click yes.

All of a sudden the job interface is going to open up here.

Let me get rid of some of these old jobs here so that it doesn’t confuse you.

So this is a previous run that I did.

So as you notice, all of a sudden in the job section, it’s processing.

And what it’s doing is it’s creating proxy versions of each of

the individual files that I’ve already preloaded in my playlist.

So these are actually 2.7K files.

And so here the first one is GH010024MP4.

If you go into jobs, 10024MP4.

But what it’s doing is it’s making a proxy for it.

And so instead of you waiting, it’s probably gonna take a little bit.

I’m gonna speed up this job here so you don’t have to watch this whole thing.

Okay, so it just finished processing the five jobs

that I have here.

And I’m gonna tell you right now, it is not a quick process.

So mine, with just these five files, took about five minutes.

But once it’s done, all of a sudden it’s rendered a bunch of proxy files.

And you don’t have to do anything else.

And so now that it’s created proxy files, you don’t really need to do anything.

You don’t need to exchange anything.

You can just proceed as if you’re editing the original file.

So it didn’t change anything to the file names.

It didn’t do anything like that.

So again, here’s the playlist.

It’s the same files.

First and foremost, before you get started, what I like about the new Shotcut

is it kind of presents you with a belt and suspenders kind of process.

Which, so you’re already using proxy files.

But if you want to further speed up your process, what you can do is you can set

your preview scaling because it usually defaults to none.

What you could do is you set it to 360.

And that’s usually what I do, which is the smallest.

So not only are you working with small files, the preview on your screen

also get shrunken down.

And so now you have the optimal environment to be able to make quick edits.

So I’m going to drag this over here and I’m going to show you what this thing looks like.

So even though it looks like I’m using the original files,

when you look at the timeline, it’s going to say that it’s a proxy file.

And so when you start running it, you’re going to notice that it’s going to be running

buttery smooth.

You can even do, you can even speed it up.

You can slow it down.

And so once you get to this point, just go ahead and start making your edits.

Just start dragging files and doing transitions and adding your filters.

And I guarantee you that if you were using Shotcut before with original files,

this is the fastest that you’ll ever see your edit come through.

So everything is going to be running buttery smooth though.

Because you’re using proxy files, it’s going to be a little bit more pixelated

and you’re not going to be able to see any of the minute details.

And so what I would suggest is make all your edits except for the color grading.

So anything would color because you can’t really see anything.

And so aside from that, because you’re using proxy files and shrunken files

and you’re also using the 360p preview scaling,

you’re not really going to get an accurate reading on your video vector

scope or your video waveform scope.

So let’s pretend that this is my final edit.

And I’ve done everything I can here.

All you have to do when you go to export is, let’s go to export 1920 by 1080.

I usually choose maybe a minimum of about 75%.

And all you have to do is run the export.

Let’s call this export.mp4 save.

You know, look at the jobs, it’s going to export.

Now, notice I didn’t really do anything.

I didn’t change it back to the original 2.7K file

because you don’t need to.

When you go into your export interface,

there’s usually a checkbox here that says use preview scaling.

And that’s if you just want to run a quick test.

And when you have this one clicked,

that means that you’re going to export this job using the proxy file.

But if you uncheck that,

Shotcut is going to assume that you want to export it with the full size file.

And so once again, I’m going to let this export run.

I’m going to speed it up a little bit so you don’t have to watch the whole thing.

And then right after this, I’ll show you the video quality after the export.

Okay, so my export just finished.

And as you remember, I didn’t do anything to switch back the original proxy file to the 2.7K file.

And so after it’s exported, here’s the new file.

And I’m going to play it.

And again, it’s at its original 2.7K quality.

I’ll even zoom in to the original size so you can see.

Yeah, perfectly fine.

And so that’s it.

That’s how you use the new proxy functionality of Shotcut.

So if you haven’t had a chance yet, please don’t forget to subscribe,

like this video, and add a comment.

If you have any comments or you just want to correct me,

or you want some other videos that you wanted me to make,

I like making this and it’s really not that hard to make.

I just record my screen and show you certain things.

So if you want me to show you something else, just let me know.

Add it on the comment section and I’ll talk to you next time.

Bye-bye.