DaVinci Resolve proxy workflow

DaVinci Resolve can build proxies itself, but the encode runs on your own CPU and GPU. You select the clips in the Media Pool, right-click and choose Generate Proxy Media, and a progress window ties up the machine. A batch over four hours of 6K can mean hours of fans and heat while grading stays sluggish. Resolve also splits this into two overlapping features, Generate Proxy Media and Generate Optimized Media, plus the render cache, and the proxy location is buried in Preferences under Media Storage, or in Project Settings depending on your build, so it is easy to fill the wrong disk. Either way the proxies land on the same SSD as the originals, so the drive still fills up.

Sanbila takes the encode off your machine. The proxy is generated on the Sanbila cloud in ProRes Proxy or DNxHR LB at the resolution you choose, so your GPU stays free to grade. Your originals upload to cloud storage on import, with a redundant backup copy, and only the light proxy sits in a Virtual Folder that Resolve reads as ordinary local media. Turn proxy playback on with Playback, then Proxy Handling, then Prefer Proxies, and switch back with the same menu before you finish the grade.

For the finish, Resolve does not keep a native proxy attach the way Premiere does, so Sanbila uses Smart Relink. You export an FCPXML, AAF or EDL from your timeline, point Smart Relink at it, and it switches the clips used in the timeline back to the full resolution originals, streamed on demand from the cloud via a local mount. Resolve sees them as local files, so the debayer and your grade run on the real sensor data, and you render at full quality. The SSD only ever holds the proxies you are cutting with, not the whole camera card.