Blackmagic Cloud Store User Manual Proxy Generator

Proxy Generator is an application that automatically generates proxy files for source files located in watch folders. A watch folder can be any folder on your cloud store or disk connected to your computer. All you need to do is tell Proxy Generator where the watch folders are, click ‘start’, then the application runs in the background while you work.

Set your watch folder and proxy format and when new files are added to the watch folder, proxy files will be automatically generated

The Blackmagic Proxy Generator is included with DaVinci Resolve Studio, but there is a lite version that’s included with the cloud store products. The difference is the Blackmagic Proxy Generator included with DaVinci Resolve Studio includes all the camera codecs that DaVinci Resolve Studio supports.

However due to licensing limitations, the Blackmagic Proxy Generator Lite included with the Blackmagic Cloud Store products uses the codecs built into your computer’s operating system. This means on Windows, ProRes proxies are disabled. Plus other formats could be disabled unless the HEVC video extensions download is purchased from Microsoft.

Adding Watch Folders

A watch folder is constantly monitored by the application and when new files are added to that folder, proxy files are created and saved in a subfolder named ‘proxy’.

Proxy files will be saved in a ‘proxy’ subfolder automatically created in your watch folder

You can add as many watch folders as you want, but it is important there is enough free storage space to store both the original media files and the new proxy files.

When launching Proxy Generator for the first time, the application will automatically prompt you to add a watch folder.

1. Locate an existing folder and click ‘open’, or create a new one by clicking ‘new folder’.

2. After the folder has been selected or created, it will appear in the ‘watch folders’ pane.

3. Add additional watch folders by clicking the ‘add’ button. You can also drag and drop folders into the watch folders pane. To remove a watch folder, select the folder in the list and click on the ‘remove’ button.

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TIP Click the ‘show’ button to open the watch folder in your computer’s file browser.

You can observe the status of all your watch folders and change their order of priority by dragging and dropping them into different positions. The information beneath your watch folders list displays how much storage space is required to store the proxy files.

Setting the Format

Set the proxy file codec and format you want to use by clicking on the appropriate radio button. You can choose H264, H265 and Apple ProRes codecs.

All you need to do now is click the ‘start’ button in the processing pane. If you want to stop the process at any time, just click the ‘stop’ button.

Managing Proxy Files

There are two options available to help manage your proxy files once processing has been stopped.

Delete Proxies

This option deletes all proxy files and the proxy folder from the selected watch folders.

Extract Proxies

This option copies all proxy files from the selected watch folders to a new destination. The following instructions show how to extract proxy files.

1. In the watch folders pane, click on the folder that contains the proxy files that you want to extract and then click ‘extract proxies’.

2. Select a location to copy your proxy files to and click ‘open’. A progress bar displays the extraction process.