Choosing a preset
A preset is a tested recipe for one delivery target. Forty-six ship with the product, across seven categories.
Presets are how you say what you are making. Picking the right one matters more than any other decision in the submit flow, because it determines the codec, the container, the colour handling and the settings that make output acceptable to whoever receives it.
What a preset is#
Each preset carries a complete FFmpeg argument list, an output container, and a set of expectations about its input. It is a finished recipe, not a starting point — the settings are anchored to an external specification rather than invented.
Every preset records the document its settings come from. The YouTube presets follow YouTube's published recommendations, the ProRes presets follow Apple's profile numbers, and broadcast-h264-1080i follows the AS-11 broadcast spec. When you need to justify a delivery to someone, that reference is the answer.
Presets are loaded into the master's database on startup. You do not install them and there is nothing to download — the library is present the first time you open the console.
The library#
| Category | Count | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
social | 8 | Platform delivery — YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, TikTok. Sized and capped to each platform's requirements. |
delivery | 6 | Broadcast and web masters, streaming HEVC, low-bitrate proxies, and lossless FFV1 archival. |
mezzanine | 10 | Intermediates you cut and grade from — ProRes 422 HQ and 4444, ProRes 4444 XQ, DNxHR HQX and 444, DPX sequences, HEVC Main10 and Main12, AV1 with film grain synthesis. |
proxy | 7 | Editing proxies matched to a specific NLE — Avid, Final Cut, Premiere, Resolve. |
camera | 6 | Ingest tuned to specific camera originals rather than to a generic input. |
vfx | 8 | OpenEXR sequences in six compression schemes, plus reference encodes for review. |
audio | 1 | Audio-only extraction for podcast delivery. |
Three ways to choose#
The preset step of the submit flow offers three modes. They differ only in who picks.
| Mode | You provide | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Manual | The exact preset | You know the delivery target. This is the right default for anything going to a client or a platform. |
| Guided | A category | You know the kind of thing you want — a proxy, a mezzanine — but not which one fits this source. |
| Auto | Nothing | Bulk work where the sources vary and no single preset suits all of them. |
In guided and auto modes the selector inspects the source and chooses for you. The preset it picked is recorded on the job, so you can always see what was used. For a delivery someone is paying for, choose manually — a selector cannot know what a client agreed to.
Source rules, and the warning you should read#
Presets declare what they expect of their input. A preset built for 4K delivery records that it wants at least a certain height; one that muxes audio records that audio must be present.
When the master probes your source and the result does not satisfy those expectations, the review screen shows each mismatch. Submission is still allowed, because there are legitimate reasons to override — but the warning is the difference between a file that is technically valid and one that is actually deliverable.
Handing a 1080p source to a 4K preset produces a genuine 4K file. It does not produce 4K detail. It will pass verification, because the output is exactly what the preset asked for. The source-rule warning is the only thing standing between that and a delivery.
Camera presets#
Six presets target specific camera originals rather than a generic input: Blackmagic Pocket 6K and 6K Pro G2, URSA Mini 12K, Canon C300 Mark III, Sony VENICE, and Z CAM E2-F8.
These exist because camera originals are not interchangeable. Sensor readout, native colour space and the manufacturer's log curve differ per body, and a preset that knows which camera it is receiving can handle the transform correctly instead of guessing from metadata that may be absent or wrong.
If your camera is not in the list, use a mezzanine preset and confirm the colour handling on a test clip before committing a shoot to it.
Proxy presets#
Seven presets produce editing proxies, and they are named for the editor that will open them — Avid DNxHD 36 and DNxHR LB in MXF, Final Cut ProRes Proxy, Premiere in both H.264 and ProRes, and two for Resolve.
The distinction matters. A proxy an NLE cannot relink to the original is not a proxy, it is a second copy of the footage. These carry the naming and metadata each application expects so that reconnecting to the originals works.
resolve-proxy-h264-reattach is built for the reattach workflow specifically. If you are proxying for Resolve and intend to relink later, prefer it over the generic H.264 proxy.
VFX and EXR#
Six presets write OpenEXR sequences, one per compression scheme — DWAA, DWAB, PIZ, RLE, ZIP and ZIPS. Two more produce reference encodes for review rather than for work: a ProRes VFX reference and an H.264 edit reference.
Choosing between the EXR compressions is a storage-against-fidelity decision. The lossy schemes are much smaller and appropriate for comps in progress; the lossless ones are what you archive. If you are unsure, ZIP is the conventional safe choice.
The EXR paths need image and colour tooling that ships in the master bundle. Confirm it resolves before relying on it — see probe-v-deps.
Custom presets#
The console includes a preset editor for cases the library does not cover. Two things are worth knowing before you use it.
- A custom preset is yours to validate. The shipped presets are anchored to published specifications and tested; a preset you write has neither property until you give it them.
- Presets must not carry their own progress reporting flags. The worker adds progress instrumentation when it runs the encode, and a preset that also specifies it will conflict.
Start by copying the closest shipped preset rather than from an empty one. It carries the container, colour and source-rule scaffolding you would otherwise have to reconstruct.