{"course":{"slug":"ai-video","title":"Video with AI","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video","level":"intermediate","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"editing-without-a-good-machine","title":"The whole pipeline on a phone or an old laptop","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/editing-without-a-good-machine","position":58,"of":66,"minutes":9,"answer":"Every step of post-production has a version that runs on modest hardware, and the constraint that actually bites is playback performance rather than capability, which proxies solve for free.","keyIdea":"Every step of post-production has a version that runs on modest hardware, and the constraint that actually bites is playback performance rather than capability, which proxies solve for free."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## The honest situation\n\nDaVinci Resolve is free and it is heavy. It wants a reasonable GPU and 16GB of RAM, and on a machine with integrated graphics and 8GB it will install, open, and then stutter through playback in a way that makes editing unpleasant.\n\nThat is a real barrier and talking around it does not help anybody. So here is what actually works on what.\n\n## The tool ladder\n\n**Resolve free tier**, if the machine can run it. A professional editor, colourist and audio suite in one, free permanently, no watermark. Real limits in the free version: some effects and the full noise reduction are withheld, and there are restrictions around certain high-resolution and codec outputs.\n\n**Kdenlive** and **Shotcut**, open source, much lighter, happy on older Windows and Linux machines that Resolve refuses. For cuts, titles, audio and basic colour they are not worse. For colour work they are clearly behind: no shot match, weaker scopes, no tracked secondaries.\n\n**Olive** and **Avidemux** for very constrained machines, where Avidemux is a trimmer rather than an editor.\n\n**CapCut** on a phone. The whole assembly is achievable: multiple tracks, audio, titles, subtitles, filters, speed. For vertical short-form it is often faster than a desktop. Its free tier and watermarking on certain templates have moved around over time, so check before delivering something commercial.\n\n**FFmpeg** on anything at all, including a phone through Termux. Not an editor, and it does conform, trim, concatenate, retime, denoise, scale, mix audio and export. Every operation in the preceding lessons except the creative choices has an FFmpeg equivalent.\n\n## Proxies, which change everything\n\nThe single most effective intervention on a slow machine. Edit with low-resolution copies, swap in the originals at export.\n\n```bash\nmkdir -p proxy\nfor f in footage/*.mp4; do\n  ffmpeg -i \"$f\" -vf scale=640:-2 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 28 \\\n    -c:a aac \"proxy/$(basename \"$f\")\"\ndone\n```\n\nResolve and Kdenlive both support proxy workflows natively, where the editor manages the swap. Doing it manually works too: edit the proxies, then relink to the originals before export.\n\nA 640-pixel proxy plays smoothly on almost anything, and every editing decision except colour and fine detail can be made on it.\n\n## Working in stages\n\nIf the machine cannot hold a whole project, do not make it. Split the work:\n\n1. Conform and trim every clip with FFmpeg first, so the editor receives clean, matched material.\n2. Edit picture only, with proxies, no effects.\n3. Export that cut, then do the grade as a second pass on the flattened export.\n4. Do sound as a third pass in Audacity against the exported picture, then mux the finished audio back in.\n\n```bash\nffmpeg -i picture.mp4 -i final_mix.wav -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 320k -shortest out.mp4\n```\n\nThis is how editing worked before machines could play everything at once, and it still works. It is slower and it removes the memory pressure entirely.\n\n## What actually needs a good machine\n\nHonestly, three things:\n\n- **Real-time playback of many layers.** Solved by proxies and by flattening between stages.\n- **Noise reduction and heavy effects.** FFmpeg's denoisers cover most of the need at the cost of a render wait.\n- **Generating the video in the first place.** This is the real constraint, and it is why hosted tools and free GPU sessions exist. Editing is not the expensive part.\n\nNotice that none of them is the editing itself. A sequence of cuts, a grade, titles and a sound mix are not computationally demanding tasks; they became demanding because editors render everything live.\n\n## The phone-only workflow, stated as a real option\n\nGenerate through a browser on a hosted free tier or a Hugging Face Space. Repair stills in Photopea in a mobile browser or Snapseed. Assemble in CapCut. Record voice and ambience on the phone's own microphone. Clean audio in a mobile audio editor, or accept the phone recording as it is. Add subtitles with the editor's own transcription. Export and publish.\n\nThat is a complete pipeline. It is not a lesser version of the work with a caveat attached: short-form vertical video made this way is the dominant format on the internet, and the constraints of the phone match the constraints of the format.\n\n---\n\nToday: make proxies for your current project with the loop above and edit the proxies. Time how much less you wait."},"check":{"question":"An editor on an 8GB laptop finds playback unusable in a free professional editor. What single change most improves the situation without changing tools?","options":[{"text":"Edit with low-resolution proxy copies and relink to the originals before export, so playback decodes small files instead of full-resolution ones.","correct":true},{"text":"Reduce the timeline resolution to half in the project settings, which lowers the decoding load for playback while preserving full quality at export.","correct":false,"tempting":"Helps somewhat and still decodes the full-resolution source files, which is where most of the load actually is."},{"text":"Convert all footage to an intra-frame codec so each frame decodes independently, removing the cost of reconstructing frames from a group of pictures.","correct":false,"tempting":"Genuinely eases decoding and produces very large files that then strain disk throughput on a modest machine."},{"text":"Render effects to disk as they are added rather than previewing them live.","correct":false,"tempting":"Background rendering helps with effects and leaves raw playback of untouched clips just as heavy."}]},"prev":{"slug":"export-codecs-and-delivery","title":"The last render, and what the platform does to it","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/export-codecs-and-delivery"},"next":{"slug":"cost-per-usable-second","title":"An afternoon of curiosity can cost more than a day of work","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/cost-per-usable-second"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'The whole pipeline on a phone or an old laptop', in Video with AI. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/editing-without-a-good-machine (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"The whole pipeline on a phone or an old laptop","courseTitle":"Video with AI","module":{"index":6,"slug":"the-edit","title":"From generations to a finished piece"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"Every step of post-production has a version that runs on modest hardware, and the constraint that actually bites is playback performance rather than capability, which proxies solve for free.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"the-honest-situation","runs":[{"text":"The honest situation"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"DaVinci Resolve is free and it is heavy. It wants a reasonable GPU and 16GB of RAM, and on a machine with integrated graphics and 8GB it will install, open, and then stutter through playback in a way that makes editing unpleasant."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That is a real barrier and talking around it does not help anybody. So here is what actually works on what."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-tool-ladder","runs":[{"text":"The tool ladder"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Resolve free tier","b":true},{"text":", if the machine can run it. A professional editor, colourist and audio suite in one, free permanently, no watermark. Real limits in the free version: some effects and the full noise reduction are withheld, and there are restrictions around certain high-resolution and codec outputs."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Kdenlive","b":true},{"text":" and "},{"text":"Shotcut","b":true},{"text":", open source, much lighter, happy on older Windows and Linux machines that Resolve refuses. For cuts, titles, audio and basic colour they are not worse. For colour work they are clearly behind: no shot match, weaker scopes, no tracked secondaries."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Olive","b":true},{"text":" and "},{"text":"Avidemux","b":true},{"text":" for very constrained machines, where Avidemux is a trimmer rather than an editor."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"CapCut","b":true},{"text":" on a phone. The whole assembly is achievable: multiple tracks, audio, titles, subtitles, filters, speed. For vertical short-form it is often faster than a desktop. Its free tier and watermarking on certain templates have moved around over time, so check before delivering something commercial."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"FFmpeg","b":true},{"text":" on anything at all, including a phone through Termux. Not an editor, and it does conform, trim, concatenate, retime, denoise, scale, mix audio and export. Every operation in the preceding lessons except the creative choices has an FFmpeg equivalent."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"proxies-which-change-everything","runs":[{"text":"Proxies, which change everything"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The single most effective intervention on a slow machine. Edit with low-resolution copies, swap in the originals at export."}]},{"t":"code","lang":"bash","label":"Bash","text":"mkdir -p proxy\nfor f in footage/*.mp4; do\n  ffmpeg -i \"$f\" -vf scale=640:-2 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 28 \\\n    -c:a aac \"proxy/$(basename \"$f\")\"\ndone"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Resolve and Kdenlive both support proxy workflows natively, where the editor manages the swap. Doing it manually works too: edit the proxies, then relink to the originals before export."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"A 640-pixel proxy plays smoothly on almost anything, and every editing decision except colour and fine detail can be made on it."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"working-in-stages","runs":[{"text":"Working in stages"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If the machine cannot hold a whole project, do not make it. Split the work:"}]},{"t":"ol","start":1,"items":[[{"text":"Conform and trim every clip with FFmpeg first, so the editor receives clean, matched material."}],[{"text":"Edit picture only, with proxies, no effects."}],[{"text":"Export that cut, then do the grade as a second pass on the flattened export."}],[{"text":"Do sound as a third pass in Audacity against the exported picture, then mux the finished audio back in."}]]},{"t":"code","lang":"bash","label":"Bash","text":"ffmpeg -i picture.mp4 -i final_mix.wav -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 320k -shortest out.mp4"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"This is how editing worked before machines could play everything at once, and it still works. It is slower and it removes the memory pressure entirely."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"what-actually-needs-a-good-machine","runs":[{"text":"What actually needs a good machine"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Honestly, three things:"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Real-time playback of many layers.","b":true},{"text":" Solved by proxies and by flattening between stages."}],[{"text":"Noise reduction and heavy effects.","b":true},{"text":" FFmpeg’s denoisers cover most of the need at the cost of a render wait."}],[{"text":"Generating the video in the first place.","b":true},{"text":" This is the real constraint, and it is why hosted tools and free GPU sessions exist. Editing is not the expensive part."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Notice that none of them is the editing itself. A sequence of cuts, a grade, titles and a sound mix are not computationally demanding tasks; they became demanding because editors render everything live."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-phone-only-workflow-stated-as-a-real-option","runs":[{"text":"The phone-only workflow, stated as a real option"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Generate through a browser on a hosted free tier or a Hugging Face Space. Repair stills in Photopea in a mobile browser or Snapseed. Assemble in CapCut. Record voice and ambience on the phone’s own microphone. Clean audio in a mobile audio editor, or accept the phone recording as it is. Add subtitles with the editor’s own transcription. Export and publish."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That is a complete pipeline. It is not a lesser version of the work with a caveat attached: short-form vertical video made this way is the dominant format on the internet, and the constraints of the phone match the constraints of the format."}]},{"t":"rule"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Today: make proxies for your current project with the loop above and edit the proxies. Time how much less you wait."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"An editor on an 8GB laptop finds playback unusable in a free professional editor. What single change most improves the situation without changing tools?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"Edit with low-resolution proxy copies and relink to the originals before export, so playback decodes small files instead of full-resolution ones."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null},{"text":[{"text":"Reduce the timeline resolution to half in the project settings, which lowers the decoding load for playback while preserving full quality at export."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Helps somewhat and still decodes the full-resolution source files, which is where most of the load actually is."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Convert all footage to an intra-frame codec so each frame decodes independently, removing the cost of reconstructing frames from a group of pictures."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Genuinely eases decoding and produces very large files that then strain disk throughput on a modest machine."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Render effects to disk as they are added rather than previewing them live."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Background rendering helps with effects and leaves raw playback of untouched clips just as heavy."}]}],"order":[3,0,2,1],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"export-codecs-and-delivery","title":"The last render, and what the platform does to it","minutes":9},"next":{"slug":"cost-per-usable-second","title":"An afternoon of curiosity can cost more than a day of work","minutes":9}}}