Do proxies need to be generated in Media Composer or is it possible to create on set as the High Res are being recoreded and then drop them into the relevant "Avid MediaFiles\Proxy\COMPUTERNAME.1" folder? 

Seemingly MC makes two flavors: DNxHR LB and H264.  Would both need to be created for Media Composer to recognize them or could it just be one?

Are DNxHR LB and H264 the only recognized proxy formats? 

Cheers, Rory 

Hello Rory, Here's a quick KB I wrote on this workflow: https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/How-to-configure-a-proxy-workflow-in-Media-Composer

Proxy files created by Media Composer are appended with a custom .pmxf extension. I do not believe there is a way to create these proxies in a third-party application and scan them in. Even if this were possible, you would need to rename every mediafile's extension to .pmxf

There is no way to configure/choose your own proxy format. 

Media Composer creates both H.264 and DNxHR LB proxy files. From my article:

3. Toggle between H.264 and DNxHR LB Proxies

• When the Timeline Video Quality is set to Full Quality (8-bit or greater), the H.264 proxies will be displayed.
• If Draft Quality or Best Performance is selected, the DNxHD LB proxies will be displayed. 

Hey Philip! Ah ok, that's kinda what I thought but good to confirm.  Thank you for the link.

Hi Phillip, does this new proxy workflow allow for a mixed timeline playback, whereby individual sources could be set to play back at a proxy level, while other sources are left set at full resolution (non-proxy) playback?  How is a mix of low and high res timeline playback handled? Any known limiations regarding Create Group and Mult-Group playback?

Hi Telegram, This is not possible. 

I understand that this feature is there to make offline>online workflows as easy as possible, adding different codecs and the ability to selectivley mix and match proxy and non proxy material during playback will add a level of complexity. If these are features you require, there is always the regular offline>online workflow with the relink (conform) step. 

When a clip in the sequence doesn’t have proxy media attached and playback is set to play proxies only, Media Composer will play that non-proxy clip in its native resolution. I have attached a gif of this behaviour, with the sequence set to show source clip colours. Notice when I toggle proxy playback, the clip with a .pmxf (proxy) clip attached does change colour in the sequence, but the other non proxy clips do not. 

If you create proxies for a group clip or multigroup, proxy .pmxf clips will be created for each angle within the group. Groups and multigroups behave just like masterclips in the proxy workflow world.  

The reason high-resolution proxy files are encoded in H.264 is that this workflow was originally designed for Nexis Edge remote environments, where bandwidth efficiency was a key concern. 

A limitation of this workflow is that it is not supported in MediaCentral | Production Management environments. However, Production Management offers the Dynamic Relink workflow, which shares similarities with the proxy workflow. Notably, the absence of the conform process.

We do also have the copy media function which was introduced alongside this proxy feature in Nexis edge. Here's another KB I wrote describing this: https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Knowledge/copy-bins-and-Avid-MediaFiles-using-Copy-Media-feature

Thanks Phillip for the clear explanation, the link and the Gif to demonstrate it in use.