A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to dynamically determine and utilize an image resolution. An audio/video clip comprising two or more frames (with each frame comprising a source image having a source image resolution) is obtained. Proxy image(s) associated with each source image are computed. Each proxy image is a scaled version of the source image wherein the source image resolution has been scaled based on a proxy scale to obtain a proxy image resolution. A media player determines display capabilities for a display device and processes the clip. The player then dynamically determines the proxy scale for each frame in the clip, performs image processing for/on a respective proxy image, and displays the respective proxy image.