Proxies handling

Principle of proxies, attached to your video files

Artisan allows to store all kind of video files, using different formats and codecs. Some could be played directly by your browser, like MP4/h.264 or WebM/VP8 files, for example. But other files like Apple Quicktime/ProRes files cannot be decoded by your browser.

In order for these videos to be played smoothly, the bit rate used must be as low as possible, requiring file optimization. Artisan allows you to play your videos in streaming, without having to download them first. But for that, when uploading a file on the platform, you will be asked to define the number of proxies to generate.

A proxy is a lighter version of your video file. It is notably more compressed than your original video, but can also be of different dimensions. When transferring a video file to Artisan, an analysis of the file will be done before sending it, in particular to detect the number of pixels in height. The proxies whose vertical size is lower than this value will be proposed in a popup window, at the time of transfer.

The following definitions can be found, at most:

• 360p
• 480p
• 720p
• 1080p

The "P" here stands for "Progressive", as opposed to the "interlaced" mode used by some videos.

It is possible to deinterlace the proxies at encoding time and choose which definitions should be made available.

For more information on the proxy generation, please refer to the dedicated section.

Choosing your proxy during playback

Depending on you connection and the number of generated proxies, the menu on the right allows you to change the curently used proxy. Artisan optimizes proxies as much as possible in order to facilitate fast forward or reverse and frame by frame playback. But depending on the bandwidth and the performance of your device, switching to a smaller proxy can greatly improve performance.

Also, if you are working with the smaller display mode, a 1080p proxy will not be visually very different from a 480p one.

How to know if a video file already has proxies

When a video file has at least one proxy, its icon in the file explorer changes from a simple file to a movie clapper. Only then the video can be played in the player.

Download your proxies

The last button at the bottom allows you to download the proxy currently used on your storage, in order to view it without being connected to the Internet, in the player of your choice.