A device for caching a scalable original file having a first structure which has a header and a plurality of information packets for different information levels has a cache memory configured to cache a proxy file and/or information packets of the proxy file and a proxy file generator configured to generate a proxy file such that the latter is transferable into or directly has a second structure, which corresponds to the first structure of the original file. The proxy file generator further is configured to read out a first information packet of a basic information level from the original file and insert it into the proxy file at a position specified by the second structure and to output the proxy file in the second structure, so that in the second structure, at least one of the information packets of a non-basic information level is replaced with an empty information packet.