The proxy workflow is dying

Why fewer editors need to transcode before they cut

How we got here

The proxy workflow became standard practice for a sensible reason. A decade ago, most editing hardware could not handle 4K or higher-resolution footage in real time. Consumer and prosumer machines lacked the processing power, the GPU acceleration, and the storage throughput to scrub through dense codecs at full resolution without dropping frames. The solution was elegant in principle: transcode your camera originals down to a lighter format, typically ProRes Proxy or DNxHR LB at a fraction of the original resolution. Edit with the lightweight copies. When the cut is locked, relink to the full-resolution originals for colour grading and final output.

This workflow served the industry well through the transition from HD to 4K and the proliferation of compressed acquisition codecs like H.264 and HEVC from mirrorless cameras. Editors built entire systems around it. Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve all developed dedicated proxy management tools. Tutorials on setting up proxy workflows remain some of the most-viewed editing content online. For many editors, generating proxies became as automatic as backing up footage.

But the conditions that made proxies essential have been shifting. Hardware has caught up. Software decoding has improved. And the way footage reaches the editor is changing in ways that make the entire concept of a local proxy file less relevant.

The real cost of proxies

Before examining what is replacing them, it is worth being specific about what proxies cost. The time investment is the most visible expense. Transcoding a day's worth of 4K footage can take anywhere from one to six hours, depending on the source codec, the target format, your hardware, and the volume of material. For a documentary shoot producing several hundred gigabytes per day, proxy generation can run overnight. That is time you cannot start cutting. On deadline-driven projects, those hours matter.

Storage is the second cost. Proxies are smaller than originals, but they are not free. A proxy workflow roughly doubles the number of media files associated with a project. If you are already struggling with SSD space, and most editors working from laptops are, adding a parallel set of proxy files compounds the storage pressure.

The third cost is complexity. Relinking from proxies to full-resolution originals is supposed to be seamless, but experienced editors know that it frequently is not. Renamed files, moved folders, mismatched timecodes, or slight differences in frame counts between the proxy and the original can all cause relinking failures. Debugging a relinking problem at the end of a project, when you are tired and the deadline is close, is among the most stressful tasks in post-production.

Then there is the organisational overhead. You now have two parallel media hierarchies to keep synchronised. Every time you add new footage mid-project, you need to generate new proxies. Every time you reorganise your media, you need to ensure the proxy paths still resolve. It works, but it is maintenance, and maintenance scales with project size.

What changed

Three developments have converged to weaken the case for proxies.

The first is hardware. Apple Silicon chips, particularly the M1 Pro and later, made real-time 4K and even 8K playback feasible on laptop hardware. The media engines in these chips decode ProRes and H.265 natively, without taxing the CPU. On the Windows and Linux side, modern GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD provide hardware-accelerated decoding for most common codecs. A mid-range editing workstation built in 2024 or later can handle footage that would have brought a high-end machine to its knees five years ago.

The second is software. NLE developers have invested heavily in playback performance. DaVinci Resolve's optimised media pipeline, Premiere Pro's hardware-accelerated decoding, and Final Cut Pro's background rendering all reduce the scenarios where an editor needs lighter-weight media to work comfortably. Smart rendering and partial decode strategies mean that even if your machine cannot play back full-resolution footage at full frame rate, it can often manage a smooth-enough experience for rough-cut editing.

The third, and most relevant to how editing workflows are evolving, is the rise of cloud-native media platforms. When footage lives in the cloud and streams on demand, the concept of a proxy file becomes structurally redundant. You are no longer choosing between "full-res file on my drive" and "proxy file on my drive." You are streaming the footage you need at the moment you need it, at whatever resolution your connection and your hardware can sustain. The transcode step disappears because there is nothing to transcode to. Your local drive holds only what is in active use.

Cloud-native media and the end of the transcode step

Fabric's cloud drive is built around this principle. Video files are stored in the cloud and streamed on demand. You can browse, scrub, and preview footage at full resolution without downloading it to your local drive. When you are ready to edit, you pull the specific clips you need. Your SSD stays free for cache, renders, and application data.

This matters for the proxy question because it removes the primary reason proxies exist: the assumption that all your footage must be stored locally. When a terabyte of 4K media does not have to compete for space on your 512 GB SSD, the motivation to create a lighter copy of it evaporates. When your NLE can stream the original file directly, there is no need for an intermediary format.

Fabric functions as a media asset management (MAM) platform, a category of tool that has existed in enterprise post-production for decades. Broadcast facilities and large post houses have long used MAM systems to manage vast libraries of footage across shared storage, with editors accessing media over high-speed networks. The difference now is that cloud infrastructure and consumer internet speeds have made this model viable for individual editors and small studios, without the six-figure investment in SAN hardware and dedicated IT staff.

Where proxies still make sense

Intellectual honesty requires acknowledging that proxy workflows are not going away entirely, at least not yet. Several common scenarios still warrant them.

Multicam productions with many simultaneous angles remain demanding. If you are cutting a live event with eight or more camera angles, synced and playing back simultaneously, even powerful hardware can struggle with full-resolution streams. Proxies reduce the load to something manageable during the multicam edit phase, with the full-res relink happening only after you have selected your angles and built the rough cut.

Offline editing in locations without reliable internet is another clear case. Documentary editors working in remote field locations, editors on aeroplanes, and anyone whose internet connection is intermittent cannot depend on cloud streaming for their primary workflow. A set of local proxy files is insurance against connectivity gaps. Fabric does not currently offer offline support, so editors who regularly work without internet access will want to plan accordingly.

Extremely high-resolution formats present a third scenario. Editors working with 8K RED or ARRI footage, or with uncompressed image sequences for VFX work, may find that even modern hardware needs help. The sheer data rate of these formats can exceed what current hardware decodes in real time, making a lighter editing format practical.

Colour-critical workflows sometimes benefit from proxies as well. Some colourists prefer to work in a specific intermediate format that preserves colour metadata in a particular way. In these cases, the proxy is less about performance and more about colour pipeline management.

The workflows where proxies are already unnecessary

For a growing segment of editors, proxies are already overhead without benefit. Consider a freelance video editor cutting corporate video, branded content, or social media deliverables. The source footage is typically 4K from a mirrorless camera, recorded in H.264 or H.265. Modern hardware decodes these codecs efficiently. The edit is often relatively simple in terms of layer count: a primary angle, some B-roll, graphics, and titles. There is no multicam, no VFX, no image sequences.

For this editor, generating proxies before starting the cut adds one to three hours of wait time and doubles the storage footprint. If they are working from a cloud-native platform like Fabric, the storage question is moot entirely. They can start cutting as soon as the footage is uploaded, which can happen in the background while they are reviewing other material or setting up their project.

Wedding and event videographers face a similar calculation. The volume of footage is high, but the edit style does not usually require simultaneous multi-angle playback after the initial selects. Music video editors, short-form content creators, and podcast editors with video components are all in this category. The common thread is work that involves substantial amounts of footage but does not push playback demands beyond what current hardware and cloud streaming can handle.

Organisation without the extra files

One of the less discussed benefits of dropping proxies is the simplification of your media management. With a single set of files rather than two parallel hierarchies, finding and organising footage becomes simpler. Fabric's smart organisation features and semantic search work with your original media directly. You can search by meaning, describing the content of a clip rather than remembering its file name, and the results point to the actual files rather than to a proxy derivative.

Annotations add timestamped comments to video and audio files, and drawing tools allow visual notes on individual frames. All of this feedback lives with the original file. In a proxy workflow, annotations and notes sometimes end up attached to the proxy rather than the original, creating confusion during relinking. A single-file workflow avoids this entirely.

Review and delivery

The review cycle in post-production has its own proxy problem. Editors frequently export compressed review copies for clients and collaborators, which are, in effect, another form of proxy: a lighter version of the work created for a specific consumption context. Each review export takes up local storage, and the feedback it generates often lives in a separate tool, disconnected from the timeline.

Fabric's publish feature addresses this by letting you share work directly from the platform, with link analytics to track when clients have viewed the material. Reviewers can add timestamped feedback through the annotation tools without downloading the file. The review step no longer requires generating yet another derivative file.

The broader shift

The decline of the proxy workflow is part of a larger pattern in creative tools: the movement from local-first to cloud-native architectures. Photo editors went through a version of this shift when Lightroom moved to a cloud-synced catalogue model. Illustrators and designers saw it with Figma's browser-based approach. Music production is earlier in the curve but heading in the same direction.

Video has been slower to make this transition because the files are larger and the real-time performance requirements are more demanding. But the infrastructure has reached a point where cloud-native video workflows are practical for a significant number of use cases. The editors who are adopting these workflows are not bleeding-edge experimenters. They are pragmatic professionals who noticed that the transcode step was costing them time without providing proportional value.

Fabric brings together the cloud drive, search, organisation, annotations, and delivery into a single platform that treats cloud-hosted media as the primary asset, rather than as a backup of local files. For editors whose work fits this model, the proxy workflow becomes an artefact of an earlier set of constraints.

Frequently asked questions

What is a proxy workflow in video editing?

A proxy workflow involves transcoding your original high-resolution footage into lower-resolution, lighter-weight copies for editing. You cut with the proxies and then relink to the original files for colour grading and final export. It reduces the performance demands on your hardware during the editing phase.

Why have editors used proxy workflows for so long?

Older hardware and storage systems could not handle real-time playback of high-resolution footage, particularly 4K and above. Proxies made editing feasible on machines that would otherwise drop frames or stutter during playback. The workflow became deeply embedded in professional practice and education.

Can modern computers handle 4K editing without proxies?

Many modern machines can. Apple Silicon Macs with M1 Pro chips or later, and Windows workstations with recent NVIDIA or AMD GPUs, provide hardware-accelerated decoding for most common codecs. For typical editing work with one or two video layers, full-resolution playback is often smooth enough to work comfortably.

What is a cloud-native media asset management platform?

A MAM platform manages media files, metadata, and workflows in a centralised system. A cloud-native MAM like Fabric stores media in the cloud and streams it on demand, rather than requiring local copies. This eliminates the need for large local storage arrays and simplifies collaboration between editors and other team members.

Does Fabric work offline?

Fabric does not currently offer offline support. You need a stable internet connection to stream and access media from the cloud drive. Editors who regularly work in locations without connectivity should plan accordingly and may want to keep local copies of critical footage for those sessions.

How fast does my internet need to be for cloud-native video editing?

A stable 50 Mbps connection works well for most 4K workflows. Higher bitrate codecs and multi-stream timelines benefit from faster connections. For compressed formats like H.264, even 25 Mbps is typically sufficient for smooth scrubbing and playback.

Will dropping proxies save me time?

For most workflows, yes. Proxy generation typically takes one to six hours depending on footage volume and codec. Eliminating that step means you can start editing sooner. You also save the time spent managing two parallel sets of media files and debugging relinking issues at the end of a project.

Can I still use proxies alongside a cloud-native workflow?

Yes. Fabric does not prevent you from using proxies if your specific project demands them. For multicam productions, offline situations, or extremely high-resolution formats, you can still generate and use proxies as needed. The point is that for many common workflows, the proxy step is no longer necessary.

What codecs does Fabric support?

Fabric supports standard professional video codecs including ProRes, DNxHR, H.264, H.265, RED R3D, and Blackmagic RAW. Common image sequences and audio formats are also supported. Files are streamed in their native format without transcoding.

How does Fabric's semantic search help with video editing?

Semantic search lets you find clips by describing their content rather than remembering file names. You can search for concepts like "exterior drone shot" or "product demo on white background" and Fabric will surface relevant results from across your media library, regardless of how the files were named on the camera.

Related pages

• Fabric Cloud Drive

• Semantic Search

• Smart Organisation

• Annotations

• Publish and Share

• Connections

• AI Assistant

• Fabric for Video Editors

• Fabric for Videographers

• Digital Asset Management